Made In Camden - Ben Bond: When Flexibility Becomes Personal

For Ben Bond, flexibility isn’t a marketing term. It’s something he’s lived through.

Ben works for Apex Mobile Tech, a business that produces high-tech solutions for those working in the property sector. Their standout product is a tool that allows surveyors to produce high-fidelity recreations of 3D spaces and perform complex spatial calculations.

As with all companies, there were periods of growth, followed by contraction. At one stage, the founders relocated to Australia, leaving Ben operating from London while the company recalibrated. “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster,” he admits. “We’ve expanded, we’ve downsized - it’s just the reality of running a small business.”

“WFH can be too much of a good thing”

When the founders moved overseas, Ben initially worked remotely. But he quickly realised that working entirely from home wasn’t sustainable. “You can do it,” he says, “but it’s not always the most effective way to work long term.” Structure matters. Collaboration matters.

“It depends on the work you do of course”, Ben adds. “For some tasks, working from home can be perfect, but I found that - after a while - I was starting to struggle with some of my processes.”

For Ben, working from home started to turn from an empowering experience to an isolating one. Disciplined practises like starting work at his desk began to slip, and he began to miss the social elements of working alongside colleagues.

“For a while it worked great, but over time I started to catch myself being a bit less disciplined with my time”, he says, laughing dryly. “It started as: ‘Oh I’ll just quickly pop the dishwasher on,’ which quickly became: ‘Oh I'll just quickly do my laundry’ - and before you know it you’re just wasting time all over the place!”

“I realised that I had to get out of the house”, Ben says with a shrug. “I needed to start working somewhere where other people were also in that productive working mindset.”

One day, as Ben joined his morning Teams call, the sound of deafening construction work next door drowned out the voices of his colleagues. He began looking for somewhere local - somewhere walkable, somewhere that would anchor his day without adding friction. That’s how he found Camden Gateway.

“More than just a hot desk”

At first, it was practical. “It was close. I could walk there. That made a difference.” But as Ben’s circumstances changed, what mattered more was adaptability. There was no sense that change was an inconvenience. “They just adjusted with to whatever my needs were as they developed,” Ben says. “There was never any drama about it.”

That willingness to adapt became especially important when Ben himself needed to step away from work unexpectedly due to a personal matter. The notice was short. The circumstances weren’t something that could be neatly scheduled or managed.

In many environments, he suspects the response would have been procedural. Forms. Notice periods. Policies. “I know that usually there’s more… process, to pausing a membership,” he says, describing the kind of bureaucratic rigidity that often defines commercial workspace operators.

Instead, when he reached out to explain what was happening, the response was immediate and simple. From that moment onwards, he wasn’t billed. There was no pressure to return keys immediately. No fees. No technicalities.

“They basically said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Just deal with what you need to deal with.’”

“It’s the value of a supportive workspace”

For Ben, that removed an enormous weight. “When you’re handling something personal, the last thing you want is to be worrying about invoices or contracts.” The pause wasn’t treated as a problem to be managed; it was treated as a human situation to be understood.

When he was ready to come back, the process was equally straightforward. His membership resumed from that point onwards. No penalties. No backdating. Just a reset. “It felt like common sense,” he reflects. “But you don’t always get common sense in business.”

That experience reframed how he viewed the space. It wasn’t just flexible in the structural sense - month-to-month terms, scalable desks, adaptable layouts. It was flexible in the human sense. Responsive. Considerate. Personal.

Over time, that sense of reciprocity has shaped how Ben shows up in the building himself.

“Its a big part of why I come; the community”

Because his senior colleagues are based in Australia, he often starts early - sometimes arriving at 7am to align with different time zones. The building is quiet at that hour. Before logging on, he makes a pot of coffee.

Not just for himself, for everyone in the office.

“I don’t know who’s drinking it,” he says, laughing. “But it’s always gone by midday so someone definitely is!” It’s a small gesture - a pot left warming for whoever walks in next - but it speaks to how he sees the space. Shared. Supportive. Collaborative.

“It’s become a bit of a home-away-from-home,” he adds. And in that environment, small acts feel natural. “You don’t get that everywhere,” he says, referring again to more commercial setups where everything feels transactional.

“I can't imagine working anywhere else now”

Ben was initially drawn to Camden Gateway because it was convenient and walkable. He stayed because of the connections he made, the community he found, and - most importantly - the way he was treated when circumstances shifted unexpectedly.

“Flexibility is one thing,” he says. “But feeling like people actually understand your situation… that’s something else.”

For businesses like Apex Mobile Tech, and for individuals navigating both professional change and personal challenge, that difference matters.