In Conversation with Gabriela Hersham CEO of Huckletree Gabriela Hersham is the CEO and founder of Huckletree. Inspired by New York’s coworking scene, in 2014 she founded Huckletree to bring together London’s most innovative startups, entrepreneurs and businesses. Now counting three workspaces in Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, White City, and a fourth in Dublin, Huckletree is one of London and Dublin’s fastest growing coworking communities. Gabriela is passionate about startups, technology and design and was a speaker on the Future of Work at TedXMorganStanley. She actively supports female entrepreneurs both in Huckletree’s community and beyond, and serves on the advisory board of several startups. As Huckletree’s CEO, Gabriela spends the majority of her time recruiting top-level talent to join her team. She believes in the power of creating a strong team culture and takes great pride in seeing her team enjoying their work environment. She lives in London with her husband, Antoine and son, Jack, who is nearly three.
What’s your career background? After graduating from Regent’s University in London, I entered the film industry and spent a few years studying acting and filmmaking over in New York.
Where did the idea for Huckletree come from? Whilst I was working in NYC, I ended up working from a shared office - at the time I didn’t even know it was called ‘coworking’! I was really inspired by how much everyone was learning from and collaborating with each other. I headed back to London, did a lot of market research and in 2014, launched the very first Huckletree. Based in an amazing heritage building in Clerkenwell, it quickly became home to a thriving community of early-stage startups, freelancers and creative
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thinkers… and it all grew swiftly from there.
How do your values show up in your work? The values that probably come across most in my work are a belief in hard work, belief in treating people the way you’d like to be treated yourself, coaching others to keep going when it seems their events may not book out, & supporting other people to achieve their dreams.
What makes Huckletree different from other co-working spaces? We initially curate our members on business fit to make sure we’re building organic, engaged communities of entrepreneurs working in relevant fields. For example, our White City workspace is digital lifestyle
themed, and we’ve curated a really strong community of VR/ AR gaming studios, fashion and lifestyle brands, digital
