The team looking after our community and coworking spaces in Valencia
Cristina is the founder and CEO of Vortex Coworking, she works backstage with the team so that the daily work routine becomes a positive, inspiring, enriching and fun experience for the members of the Vortex Community. When she´s not working with the team analyzing ideas, proposals or reports with every workspace manager, Cristina checks every corner of the spaces, talks with the community or entertains herself thinking and brainstorming about the next Vortex. In each workspace, we have some personal items from her, such as the surfboard in Vortex Playa or the piano in Vortex Centro. In addition, she is the cornerstone of the Vortex Team, with her energy, determination and passion she inspires us every day and motivates the team to bring out the best in each of us.
With a background in Engineering, before starting Vortex Coworking business and network of workspaces, Cristina worked in corporate in the renewable energy industry and lived in several countries. Before leaving that career, and returning to Valencia to start her career as an entrepreneur with Vortex, Cristina dedicated a year to exploring the coworking sector, traveling and living the coworker experience in workspaces around the world.
And outside of Vortex? Cristina has a weakness for adventure, backpacker travels, outdoor sports – especially diving, surfing and hiking – pasta carbonara and eggs Benedict. When someone in the community needs a recommendation, her foodie radar is our best ally to find the best restaurants in Valencia.
Andrea is our Events and Workspace Manager. As head of Events, Andrea creates, plans and streamlines the monthly calendar of activities – from professional workshops to sports activities and fun get togethers – with the aim of consolidating and strengthening the Vortex community. In addition to coordinating the monthly breakfasts, meetups, workshops and afterworks, Andrea also leads corporate events and is responsible for seeking, analyzing and closing strategic collaborations for Vortex, such as suppliers for our Market Pop Ups and other services of interest to our community (accommodation, consultancy services, etc.). Anything else? Yes, Andrea is the creator of our Vortex Newsletter, in which we share the top news #madein Vortex AND the most interesting stuff happening in our beloved Valencia.
As Workspace Manager – today Vortex Centro – Andrea manages the coworking space, from the onboarding process, reservations, resolution incidents of the physical space, as well as contracts, billing and income statement of the space; she is also the community Host and the contact person for the space members; she is the one who knows each and every member, and who can best guess potential synergies and matches in the community.
And outside of Vortex? Sports may not be her thing, but Andrea is always involved in a (Netflix, HBO or alike) marathon where she can calm her addition with the seventh art. She is a lover of the geek and the sweet, and of course of any combination of both worlds like the Mochis. Fancy a “merienda”? For her, the best plan! She beats us in being the funniest and nicest of the team, and she has a hard time saying no to a servesita after work. Her so-called sentence at the end of the day is, shall we have a quick beer? that she always ends up in impromptu afterwork.
Sandra is our Marketing and Workspace Manager. As head of Marketing, Sandra develops the annual marketing strategy, prepares and analyzes monthly marketing reports for follow-up, proposes and implements SEO and SEM strategies, updates and maintains our website and blog, and proposes improvement actions. Anything else? Sandra also leads our Social Media, planning and generating content on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
As Workspace Manager – today Vortex Playa – Sandra manages the coworking space, from the onboarding process, reservations, resolution incidents of the physical space, as well as contracts, billing and income statement of the space; she is also the host of the community and the contact person for the members of the space; she is the one who knows each and every member, and who can best guess potential synergies and matches in the community. And she is without a doubt the best friend of our VIP Guests,our beloved furry members, especially Coco and Choco.
And outside of Vortex? As a good Valencian, Sandra is our fallera representative in the community. In addition to loving and pampering all of our furry friends (all the pets that members bring to Vortex), she is also passionate about horses and Andalucia, where she plans getaways whenever she can. In addition, Sandra is the most rational of the team, providing a clear vision of things. This coupled with her good taste and creativity explains her gift for photography. The best photos of our Social Media? By Sandra sure.
Our beloved Back Up team: supporting the Vortex team we have some amazing people whom we like to call our dear Avatars. They are (real) people who collaborate in the space for a limited period of time, through internships, exchanges between entrepreneurs or “Collabs” agreements. They are the hosts of Vortex in the absence of the team, and also collaborate in the business with their professional skills. If you want to read more about the “Collab” initiative, visit our page ‘Qué significa ser Vortex Collab’.
And now we tell you some curiosities about Vortex so that you can get to know us even better.
Our DNA
Do you want to know the 5 Factsthat best define us?
#1 The word Vortex means… it means vortex in Latin: a point in space that generates movement around it, for example the vortex of a hurricane. And that’s what we want to be, the epicenter, the vortex of energy in our community.
#2 What are we?: a network of coworking spaces in Valencia focused on community. Our mission is to transform the routine of going to work into a positive, inspiring, enriching and fun experience; and we want to achieve this by creating the perfect vibe in our spaces, through design and community. Because more than coworking spaces, we are a community: people with whom to connect, share and collaborate. For this reason, in our workspaces we create opportunities to connect with people so that members with similar interests can expand their network both professionally and personally.
#3 Why? Because we know first-hand the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, freelancers, those who work remotely and those who arrive in a new city. And from our experience we know that surrounding yourself with other professionals helps on this road.
#4 Our key milestones: in January 2018 we opened our doors in Valencia with the first coworking space in Cabanyal, near the sea and the Marina: Vortex Playa. Two years later we opened the doors of our second coworking space in the commercial and financial center of Valencia: Vortex Centro. The following year we expanded services through collaborations including Coliving. And then? Dreams of more, stay tuned!
#5 We are different from other coworking spaces… for three reasons: the size of our workspaces, the premium locations and the unique design of each of our spaces. Far from large business centers and coworking spaces with a more corporate atmosphere, our workspaces accommodate between 50 and 100 professionals each, which facilitates a close and familiar environment, and that the connections between the people arise naturally and spontaneously. Also far from small shared workspaces, where professionals share a space without a dedicated team to manage it, we dedicate staff and resources to the management of spaces and community building so that our members enjoy a professional service without worrying about what happens in the “backstage” of the space.
And last but not the least, some fun facts about the history of Vortex Coworking.
10 Fun Facts about Vortex Coworking
- The portrait of Ada Lovelace (the first programmer) in the Fix Plus room of our coworking in Cabanyal – Vortex Playa Calle Reina 10 – is the result of a community vote among 6 proposed scientists (3 men and 3 women), among whom were Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. Ada won the vote by a landslide.
- In the building where our workspace is located in the center of Valencia – Vortex Centro Calle Sorní 12 – lived the musician and composer Joaquín Rodrigo, known as Maestro Rodrigo, author of the wonderful Aranjuez Concert and one of the great music composers in the History of Spain.
- The most surprising workshop we have hosted:honey tasting, organized by Untamed Honey (Isabel y Felix) the brothers and veteran members of Vortex Centro.
- Most original nationality: Kuwait (and female).
- More magical activity/event we have organized with the community: Autumn Getaway 2020
- The craziest night: our first birthday in January 2019, till sunrise!!
- The reason we have a piano and a surfboard at Vortex: Cristina couldn’t fit them at home, and she brought them to Vortex temporarily before the space opened. And they stayed.
- Cool sales: UberEats hired the coworking space for an internacional ad (yas!! we are famous!).What happened in the ad? UberEats brought food to people while they worked in the “office” (I mean, Vortex!!). Why? Because our workspaces are so cool!
- The strangest request that has come to us: to reserve a room for a mediation session with spirits from beyond the night (we said no, we do not have a license for that activity…).
- We are famous! We have appeared in the newspaper “El País” and on “TVE 1 on Informe Semanal”. They contacted us and our email info@vortexcoworking asking if we would have time to assist them…. And we were so excited!
Now you know about us. And we would love to meet you, so don’t be shy, come and meet us and join the top community in Valencia!