Hotels and Cafés Repurposed as a Remote Work Network

01 /The Concept

Swurf looks like an odd idea at first glance – but there's a real logic to it. The app helps entrepreneurs and remote workers find places to work outside the house on any given day.

The app catalogs hotels, cafés, and other public venues that are genuinely welcoming to people who want to set up with a laptop for hours at a time. Since those visitors order food and drinks, they generate additional revenue for the venue – particularly during slow hours. Those low-traffic windows are what Swurf highlights in the app as ideal visit times.

Swurf launched in 2020, when the pandemic made remote work mainstream overnight and workers everywhere found themselves scrambling to find somewhere to be productive outside their apartments. A wave of similar apps appeared around the same time, and Swurf was one of them.

Surprisingly, this Scottish startup has survived. It now has 11,000 registered users and a catalog of more than 300 venues.

And not only has it survived – it's actively raising £1M (approximately $1.34M) in new funding by end of year, with £95K already closed.

So what's the plan, and why now?

02 /Why It Matters

Swurf is changing its target audience. Originally built to help people fight the isolation of working from home, the company is now pivoting toward digital nomads and business travelers: same core service, different question – "where can I work comfortably in a city I don't know?"

To make this work, the startup needs to add venue partnerships across major travel destinations – which is what the new capital will fund.

Before year end, Swurf also plans to launch a new service it says will "increase user engagement and generate additional revenue for the venues it partners with." The details are under wraps, but the founder's LinkedIn posts hint at the direction.

A few months ago, Swurf started running events it calls "Founder Fridays" – meetups held in private rooms at hotel venues and restaurant spaces, requiring paid tickets, with revenue split between Swurf and the host venue.

As the founder writes: "Entrepreneurship is an exhilarating journey, but it can be lonely. When you're just starting out, you often work alone, without the energy you'd get from people around you in an office. So we decided to create a space where founders can fight that isolation by meeting other founders – to talk, share stories, and find support. Not traditional startup pitching events where founders compete to impress each other or investors – just casual conversation among peers."

Whether the product is ticketed events or simply a place to work alongside other founders, the underlying need is the same.

In 2023, the US Surgeon General released a report titled "Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation" – describing the current state of social connection in exactly those terms, attributing much of the problem to the pervasive influence of the internet.

Gen Z has been hit especially hard. They grew up with connected smartphones in hand, and what felt fine in adolescence has become a problem in adulthood: a persistent deficit of real human interaction that text messages and social media can't replace.

In response, a wave of startups has emerged in the last couple of years focused on bringing younger people back into physical space to form real relationships.

POSH ([covered here](/review/pojdjom-potusuemsja)) raised $31M for a platform to "find life offline" – discover interesting local events or organize your own.

Pie ([covered here](/review/uber-dlja-druzhby)) raised $24M for a similar app, with the tagline "Find better friends" – suggesting that offline friendships tend to be more durable than online ones. Notably, Pie was founded by the former founder of clothing brand Bonobos, which he sold to Walmart in 2017 for $310M.

Plots ([covered here](/review/prostoj-lozung-nabirajushhego-silu-trenda)), the most recent example, raised $2.5M in new funding earlier this year, bringing its total to $3.5M.

The catch is that all these apps are built primarily for the party crowd – the majority of listed events are club nights, concerts, comedy shows, and other entertainment.

But the biggest driver for people aged 18–35 to attend offline events is finding others who share their passions and interests.

Which raises a pointed question: where do founders and entrepreneurs go when most events in these apps are parties for people who like parties?

Founders go out and party too, of course. But trying to find entrepreneurially-minded people at a concert is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

03 /Opportunities

The obvious gap: an app like these, but purpose-built for founders and entrepreneurs – a place to find events attended by people who share the same interests and obsessions.

And why limit it to organized events? Why not also surface places where these people already tend to work – so you can show up, get something done, and maybe have an interesting conversation?

That's essentially what Swurf could become. The venue search is already there. The events are already starting. What's missing is the ability to see who's planning to be where and when – and a way for third-party organizers to host their own events at Swurf's partner venues. Add those and the whole thing clicks into place.

Another startup pointing in this direction is River ([covered here](/review/ideja-s-javnymi-priznakami-uspeha)), which raised $1.7M for a platform that brings the offline communities of public figures and podcasts together. The platform is already being used by entrepreneurship-focused creators – Tim Ferriss, the All-In podcast, and other startup communities. That gives it exactly the right audience – one that could readily be offered more ways to meet offline.

The conclusion is simple: people want to get offline to build real relationships, not accumulate virtual connections. But most apps designed to help them do that are aimed at people who want to party – not build companies.

The direction: apps that help founders and entrepreneurs find each other in the physical world.

The important thing is not to reduce this to startup pitching nights. And not to formalize it too heavily either – most founders aren't party animals. Though occasional social events should still happen, because they add variety and a bit of fun to an otherwise solitary path.

The desire to work and connect in a good environment, surrounded by people who get it, is very real among founders. As the Swurf founder said: "Entrepreneurship is a lonely road" But who says it has to stay that way?