Last year I had a meeting with the chief executive of a startup in a co-working space in south London. We were sitting in a glass-walled meeting room chatting about her plans to launch an initiative when a large white husky silently padded past the meeting room. He stopped, looked around rather majestically and then carried on around the corner. There was no owner around and the slightly dream-like quality of the moment was surreal to say the least.

Co-working spaces, such as We Work and The Office Group, certainly make a refreshing change from most boring offices. Many are dog friendly, have beer on tap, plants, plenty of natural light and also tend to have more of a buzzy atmosphere. Whenever I meet a contact in them, there are usually events taking place, a sense of hustle and bustle, and a general lack of people in suits. More coffee shop than corporate.