— About Ship26 —
Ship26 is a co-building ecosystem in Zürich, in a building on the Limmat in the old town. A group of entrepreneurs, founders and independents, all connected to make magic happen. One room, one table, deliberately mixed.
We call it a co-building ecosystem because what happens here goes past co-working. We co-create, we build alongside each other, we exchange, and we help each other succeed.
Imagination to spark, original work to ship.
In practice that means the most useful conversation of your week is one nobody scheduled: a lunch that turns into a legal question answered, a presentation that turns into a strategy session. We keep the mix curated, and on Wednesday evenings the whole room sits down for a talk to get inspired and see the world through a different perspective.
Two people, building the room they wanted to work in.
Co-founder
Started Ship26 in January 2026, after the workspace that finally made working for himself feel less solitary closed overnight. Spent a hard autumn discovering no room in Zürich was built for independents, so he built the one he wanted to work in.
Co-founder
Hands-on, social, a filmmaker by craft. Turns what happens in the room into story — the posts, the films, the Two Cents podcast. The one who makes sure the room’s best moments inspire the rest of the world.
Told from the perspective of Chris Allard Griessmann.
I built a company and I worked alone in it. Friends are friends, and you don't want to talk about work with them all the time. Customers are good relationships, but they're a different kind. My team was remote. Independence was everything I thought I wanted, right up until I noticed how much I missed having people around to think with.
For a long time I did nothing about it. I was bootstrapped, I didn't want to spend money on a desk, and I travelled enough that it didn't matter. Then I stopped travelling and worked from the flat every single day. My girlfriend was the one who pushed me out of it. She wanted the place to herself some of the time, and she knows me well enough to know I'm better around people. I'm glad she pushed.
In April 2025 I found a space in Zürich run by a design agency, renting its spare second floor to small companies and independents. There was a chef cooking Monday to Thursday and a coffee machine worth walking to. For the first time since I started my company, I had people to exchange with. Five months later the agency closed, and it was gone.
I tried to save it, with the company and with the landlords. It didn't work. So I went and looked at everything else in downtown Zürich. The spaces were good. One of them gave me a beautiful office with a view over the Limmat to the main station, and I sat in it by myself all day and spoke to nobody.
That's when I understood what these places are built for: companies with teams, who bring their culture in the door with them. Boxes inside bigger boxes. Every one of them advertised a community. I kept looking around for where it was.
So I wrote a business plan for a building far too big to be my first bet. The landlords said no, and they were right. I went home and told myself to drop it, focus on the business and the masters. A week later I was restless enough to try once more, and that try found this building on the Limmat. I met the owner, told him I'd take it, and we came to terms.
Xaver Walser joined as the first member. We'd met on that second floor, back when the design agency still ran it. Very quickly he decided he'd rather build than just use it, came in as co-founder and invested alongside.
People who are open minded, value the exchange with others, are excited about building their future and prefer to have others celebrating with them. Entrepreneurs, Solopreneurs, Founders, independents, people between one thing and the next and building the next one. It works because we all turn up: the crew here comes in person, eats at the same table, asks the room for help, and answers when the room asks them.
We keep it curated on purpose. Growth is slow and mostly by word of mouth, because the mix is the product. Builders rather than broadcasters, and we say who we think fits.
If what you want is a door that closes and a quiet floor for eight hours, Zürich has very good buildings for that, and we'll happily point you at one.