Alumni Profile: Repurposing Coworking
Siri Chakka, MBA ’17, and Silva Gentchev, MBA ’17, founded a company that helps travelers and freelancers work away from home
Siri Chakka and Silva Gentchev were getting frustrated.
Both women were working remotely, and they were tired of the isolation of their home offices. So over dinner one day, they decided to make some changes to help others in the same predicament.
Together, they founded Reset, a company that turns restaurants closed during the day into workspaces for freelancers, startup founders, and remote workers. Reset opened its doors last August, and now has three working locations in Austin.
More than 250 clients have tried out the workspaces, and many of them have stayed as paying members. The company operates on a revenue-sharing model with the restaurant spaces they use and offers three pricing models to customers — a day pass, a 10-day pass, and a flat monthly fee that offers unlimited daytime use of the space.
“We’ve tried to make it a place where people who work from home or work from coffee shops can get a more consistent work experience, but they also have a place to go when they’re feeling socially isolated,” Gentchev says. “That’s something Siri and I both struggled with when we were working from home.”
Outside of Reset, Gentchev works as a project manager for Dell and Chakka is a private equity consultant.
They met at McCombs when they were placed in the same MBA study team. They sat next to each other for months, became friends, and kept in touch after graduating. Both women say networking and support from McCombs have been instrumental to Reset’s success.
“Our classmates have been our strongest support system from the beginning,” Chakka says. “They spread the word. They come to our events. They help us with referrals and let us bounce ideas off of them. So, that’s been huge.”
Reset is currently only operating in Austin, but Gentchev says she and Chakka are considering expanding to other cities, including Nashville and Denver.
—London Gibson
This article appeared in the spring 2019 issue of McCombs magazine. Click on the link to see the full issue.
