Beirut co-working space AltCity is finding its path

Stepping into the spacious offices of AltCity on Beirut’s bustling Hamra Street, the sense of keen minds working away, most likely at something they hope to be great someday, is palpable. It’s been three years now since the co-working space opened its doors; the space’s progression from a few rooms where people could rent desks, to a cafe, event venue, and a second floor due to open in the fall, is impressive.

Lebanon has seen it’s fair share of security concerns since 2011 and for AltCity, despite having to overcome the obstacles that these came with, such as funding being reduced or re-directed, the team has managed to keep the objective of becoming a key player in the Lebanese startup scene firmly at the forefront of their minds. From their beginnings as one of the country’s first co-working spaces, RootSpace, based on the other side of town, they have grown themselves to become a go-to location for anyone at the start of their entrepreneurial career.

Rather than specialize in one sector, the incubator initially accepted all kinds of projects, working on creating platforms for phone companies, gaming competitions, to hosting artists exhibitions, so as to serve the broadest base. “When we started we were more diverse when it came to the projects we took on,” says co-founder and current CEO Munir David Nabti. “This was very helpful for us to mobilize different funding in order to help us survive.” Not having money is of course an incentive to do a lot of things one might not necessarily want to do; AltCity found itself being very open.

Over the course of the last 18 months though, things have started to take shape and the team is finally at a point where they can be more selective. “We’ve been moving towards being more focused on startup training and startup development,” says Nabti. “We’ve been lucky in that as we’ve become more experienced and have created a stronger network, we’ve been able to focus more.”

Beirut co-working space AltCity is finding its path