Brad Krauskopf grew up surrounded by hospitality, watching his parents run some of Melbourne’s most loved heritage hotels. Instead of stepping into the family business, he took those lessons about service, detail, and experience and built Hub Australia—now one of the country’s leading flexible workspace providers.
Fifteen years in, Brad has scaled Hub into a national business, become the first carbon-neutral flexible workspace provider in the world, and achieved B-Corp certification. In this Q&A with Balance the Grind, Brad shares the daily routines that keep him focused, the habits that protect his energy, and why hospitality isn’t just part of his story—it’s the key to the future of work.
You grew up immersed in the hotel world. What lessons from your family’s hospitality business have stayed with you as a founder and leader?
Hospitality has been a core part of my life since my childhood. My parents, Ricardo and Suzanne Krauskopf were in the hotel business owning a string of heritage hotels in Melbourne, including the Alto Hotel. Instead of taking on the family hotel business, I made a bold decision to go out on my own and start Hub Australia. Now here I am—15 years into building a national business that, at its heart, is about hospitality.
The biggest lesson I took from my family’s hotel was the power of experience. Their attention to detail, focus on sustainability, and pride in customer care really stuck with me. It helped me understand that a truly great service business isn’t just about the physical product—it’s about how people feel when they engage with it. That’s the ethos we’ve brought into Hub Australia.
Building Hub Australia from the ground up must’ve been a huge undertaking, how do you structure your day to stay productive, energised, and focused?
Building Hub Australia has come with its challenges, so I rely on a solid routine to stay focused. My morning is key – I start with exercise, meditation, and reading to set myself up for the day. I also batch my work by day: Monday is work-from-home for deep focus, Tuesday is internal meetings, Wednesday and Thursday are for external meetings, and Friday is for catching up.
This year, I’ve added two productivity habits: writing my to-do list at the end of the day to clear my mind and removing email from my phone to avoid distractions. Both have made a big difference in my focus and energy.
Work-life balance can be tricky when you’re scaling a national business, how do you personally manage stress, recovery, and making space for life outside of work?
Balancing the growth of a national business with personal life isn’t always easy, but I have a few clear strategies that work for me. One that’s really important is never finishing a holiday without having the next one booked. That way, I always have something to look forward to, which helps keep me motivated and grounded.
I also make sure to take at least one full day on the weekend completely off work. No emails, no calls — just time to recharge. And I’m intentional about scheduling specific quality time with my daughter, Suki, and my wife. It’s not that I’m too busy to just “fit it in,” but I want those moments to be the priority. So, I put those times in the calendar first, and then I move work and other commitments around them. That’s how I manage to keep a healthy balance, reduce stress, and make space for life outside of work, even while running and scaling a national company.
You brought a five-star hospitality mindset into the coworking space. What does that look like in practice, and why does it matter for the future of work?
When we opened Hub Southern Cross back in 2016, it was a bit radical to have a café, a fitness space, and even a podcast studio built into a coworking space. But we weren’t just creating offices—we were creating experiences.
To us, workspace hospitality means that every single detail, from the design of the space to how you’re greeted at the front desk, contributes to someone having a great day at work. It’s about understanding that people don’t just come to work for a desk and Wi-Fi. They come for connection, learning, and to do their best work in an environment that supports them. That philosophy is now core to what we do. We talk a lot about “earning the commute” if someone’s going to come into a workspace, it better be worth it.
From being the biggest in the country to becoming a Certified B-Corp, Hub has come a long way. What’s been the most rewarding part of that journey?
Honestly, it’s the moments when we’ve stayed true to our values—even when it was hard. We bet the house on Hub Southern Cross at a time when the flex space industry was still finding its feet. But we did it because we believed in creating workspaces that helped businesses attract and retain great people. Becoming a certified B Corp and the first carbon-neutral flexible workspace provider in the world was another milestone that reminded us that business can be a force for good. But the most rewarding part? It’s seeing our customers thrive in our spaces, and knowing we played a small role in that.
What advice would you give to someone looking to build a values-driven business without compromising on ambition or experience?
Don’t see values and ambition as opposites – they’re actually powerful allies. Some of the best decisions we’ve made came from anchoring ourselves in purpose. It’s what gave us the conviction to keep going when things got tough, and what’s helped us attract the right people, both staff and customers.
