A Venezuelan Web Designer Built a Free Coworking for Valencia's Women Freelancers

Every Friday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at one of Sabadell Bank's offices in the centre of Valencia, a free women's coworking session is held for freelancers and entrepreneurs. Up to ten people usually come to the meeting. Participants get to know each other, discuss their projects, exchange contact details, and then work on their own tasks for several hours. The main rule of these meetings is complete focus. Communication is in English: women from different countries come to the coworking.

The idea for these meetings came from Patricia Ordóñez, a web designer from Venezuela and creator of the House of Freelancers community. According to her, the format emerged as an attempt to create a comfortable space in Valencia for women who work for themselves.

Patricia emigrated from Venezuela 11 years ago. Back home, she worked at an environmental NGO: together with her team, she ran classes for schoolchildren on recycling and waste sorting. By the age of 26, she had already become the organisation's executive director.

But before long,g an economic crisis began in the country: the wave of emigration intensified, the project started losing sponsors, and Patricia decided to leave.

First, I moved to Colombia, then to Argentina, then to Poland, and three years ago, I ended up in Spain. My relatives live in Valencia. I hadn't seen them for many years, and I wanted to be close to family again," she says.

During her time in Poland, Patricia decided to change careers and take up web design — a field that had long interested her. She studied independently and, alongside this, did branding work for friends and family. It was during this period that the pandemic began. "I found myself isolated in a foreign country and didn't understand where to go next as a budding entrepreneur," Patricia recalls.

She began looking for answers in Facebook groups for freelancers: how to find clients, how to set prices, how to structure work with clients. There, Patricia met women from different countries — and that was when the idea for a project to support freelancers first came to her.

When Patricia moved to Valencia, the situation repeated itself: she had almost no acquaintances. Working from home only heightened the sense of isolation.

The solution came by chance — at Sabadell bank, she was told that clients have access to free meeting rooms.

I had no team and no clients. But I thought: maybe someone would simply want to work together. I wrote a Facebook post — and people started coming.

Patricia

And so, regular coworking meetings emerged and gradually grew into a local House of Freelancers community in Spain.

At one of these meetings, Patricia met Agustina Fernández, a finance specialist from Argentina who had also recently moved to Valencia. Together, they continued to develop the community. "We talked about how hard it is to work for yourself and figure out every aspect of business alone. We wanted to share experience and help other freelancers without any pushy sales," Patricia says.

This gave rise to the idea of the Freelancer Summit — a large free networking event with talks by experts. The first event was organised last September in just a month: they found a space, sponsors, and gathered around 40 participants. This year, the team has already held its second summit, and the project has begun to scale u gradually.

The event was supported by Framer and Notion — technology companies that sponsor local entrepreneurial initiatives in various countries. The morning began with talks by experts on taxes, working with clients, and developing a personal brand. During the breaks, participants got to know each other, discussed their projects, and exchanged contacts.

This format, according to Patricia, has become part of a long-term strategy: "It's like building up social media, only through in-person meetings. The effect comes later: people start writing to you, clients appear, and trust forms. House of Freelancers is now a community that supports freelancers at the launch and development stages of their business."

The team is now thinking about developing workshops where participants can work on their business right there on the spot. Such formats will most likely be paid for or supported by more sponsors.

"We want to attract funding not only from large companies but also from local businesses in Valencia. Engagement with the city matters to us," Patricia says.

A separate element of the House of Freelancers project has been working with interns through the Erasmus programme. Patricia is currently working with Chiara Chiarenza from Sicily.

The European Union programme allows young professionals to gain experience working with entrepreneurs in another country. The format is set up so that the intern works with Patricia for around 20 hours a week. Part of the time, they develop their own project, and at other times, they help with operational tasks, social media, and organising processes.

Over time, the project developed another idea — to create a physical space in Valencia: a place for women experts where they can work, network, and receive mentorship. For many participants, these meetings become not only work events but also a way out of isolation.

"Freelancing is freedom, but if there's no community around you, the path becomes much harder," Patricia says.