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Another way of understanding work is possible. It has to be. This was the almost obsessive thought—which I now prefer to call intuition—that has guided us over the last seven years, and a question that became the closing refrain in most decisions shaping Soluble and its purpose through brand management: "Making people happier at work".

It's not exactly singular. Is working this way the only option? Isn't another way possible? Those are questions we've all asked ourselves at some point. I'm sure you have too.

What's more striking is where these questions take us. Many times they've led me to frustration, other times to small steps in what I consider the right direction. Adding up those latter moments is what's allowed me to keep moving forward. And that's precisely what these posts are about—what I learn on this journey of discovery about other ways of understanding work and working.

A few weeks ago I shared the case of Quaderno and the time its team dedicates to work. Because time is gold and, hand in hand with it, there's always another fundamental coordinate: space.

Until just a few years ago, the widespread norm that nobody questioned was that going to work also meant going to a specific, physical, and defined space. With the pandemic, these absolute truths became unfit when hundreds of thousands of people shifted, from one day to the next, to working from their homes.

At Soluble, doing our work without sharing an office in Barcelona was a change that meant a cultural transformation difficult to launch and maintain. Physical presence determined our way of working and thinking. And when the shared physical space disappeared, our processes, dynamics, and customs had to change. But it was possible. And three years later we work in full remote without ceasing to actively encourage people to meet whenever they want or need to. Not out of obligation, but out of conviction. And now, instead of doing it only in Barcelona, they can also do it in A Coruña, in Lanzarote, in León, in Elche, in Oviedo, in Vic, or in Madrid.

Madrid and Barcelona, the two big cities. "The place to be". The places where everything happens. Everything? I've spent over a decade surrounded by entrepreneurs with courage and initiative in spades. And yet, it's not uncommon to hear people who break the status quo say that for things to happen, to access innovation, for a venture to succeed… "you have to be in a major city".

Being from Extremadura myself, today I want to share some cases that inspire me and make me question those claims.

We start with a veteran. Cuervá is a family company that has been operating in the energy sector for over 80 years. But beyond that, innovation has always been at its core. Decades ago it was with a donkey, but in recent years its projects, actions, and learnings stand out in the European energy ecosystem. And where is all this happening? Always from Granada.

For what happened with Mi tienda de arte, now Craftelier didn't need to be anywhere other than a city of 150,000 inhabitants. From León, their ecommerce invoiced above 22 million euros in 2022 and ranked in the top 500 fastest-growing Spanish companies. They remain in the same place from where they made their first sale and millions of orders later that prove it's possible, I hear a conversation with my friend Pepe from Minimalism, in which Víctor says: "They've made us feel inferior, telling us that you can't evolve from small places, you have to go to Madrid… that mindset is there. There were investors who, even for rural projects, demanded that teams relocate to Barcelona or Madrid".

Against the stigma, more realities. Declarando captures Visma's attention with its freelancer management proposal from Castellón. Quaderno —which has also just been acquired by this European software leader— is a reference not only in business model, but also in a work model that attracts American talent; and they do it from the Canary Islands.

And the last one for today, with somewhat less track record behind it and a future full of success ahead. Mentiness revolutionizes mental health by combining psychology and analytics from Vilagarcía de Arousa.

Learning about these cases helps me confirm that there's another way of working and that we need to know them to have all the options that allow our work to adapt more to how—and, of course, where—we want to live our lives.