Roman Hatashita – One King North

You may know him as a four-time national judo champion and member of Canada’s Olympic judo team in 1992.

Or maybe you’re more familiar with Hatashita International, a sports equipment distributor he’s run for 20-plus years.

You might know his family, who ran the Hatashita Diamond Centre smack in the heart of uptown Waterloo.

Either way, Roman Hatashita is no stranger in the Waterloo region. And he’s making waves in a new way with One King North, a coworking space and coffee shop he founded in the historic Bank of Toronto building on the corner of King St. and Erb St.

For the uninitiated, coworking is a model that brings independent workers like entrepreneurs and freelancers together into one space. Everyone brings their ideas and knowledge to shared tables, and help build each other up.

“It’s a beautiful business,” Roman says. He first heard about it a few years ago when coworking spaces were starting to pop up and flourish in cities like Toronto, New York and San Francisco. “I like the fact that it’s a community. I like the fact that it’s entrepreneurs getting together.”

When he purchased the building from his parents, it wasn’t the first use he thought of, though.

“I tried to lease it and nobody wanted to lease it. So I had to, like any entrepreneur does, roll with the punches,” says Roman. What else could he do with the space? What would draw people in? What did Waterloo need?

Part of the inspiration came from his first time around as an entrepreneur.

Before One King North, he built Hatashita International into a global operation that supplies sporting equipment to the likes of Cirque du Soleil, the RCMP, the Canadian military, the Pan Am Games and a huge swath of smaller sports clubs. He knows flying solo can suck.

“The dream is, ‘sit in my underwear all day,’ but – ugh – in reality, it’s not that fun. It’s not that great,” he says. “I’ve worked out of my house a lot, and I know that it gets stale, I know it gets… bad. You know, sitting there by yourself.”

Another part came from his days training in the dojo and competing in judo.

“When you’re out on the mat, when you’re out fighting, you’re there by yourself,” he says. “But you train as a team.”

The strength of the team is important – you test out ideas with them, and build strength from each other, he says. “You learn from your other athletes as much as you learn from your sensei.”

The same holds true for being an entrepreneur. “You’re on your own, and it’s kind of tough if you’re doing all the thinking,” he says. Surrounding yourself with people doing the same not only builds a community but can help you get stronger, together.

The final part is just… Roman.

“I’m very optimistic that it’ll work, and I’m gullible enough to try it,” he laughs. “I’m ambitious. I want to try something new.”

And he had the perfect space with the building. “This particular space, I thought it would lend itself to coworking,” he says. It’s big, it’s bright, and it sits at Waterloo’s busiest intersection, nestled among other uptown jewels.

When he finally decided to pull the trigger, he got to work renovating with his son, Michi. A surprising amount was done by the pair. “We were removing asbestos, we were dealing with the code guys, we were dealing with the fire department, dealing with the contractors, we were hanging lights,” Roman says.

What once was a pile of rubble and dust is now where he spends many of his days: sitting at a long table for ten, which rests between two lounge spaces and some smaller tables lining the floor-to-ceiling windows. The fixtures are all new, but you’ll recognize its historic charm in the detailing on the ceiling.

That was just the physical stuff. Then he had to learn about building a service-based business – and how to make a good coffee.

“If you filter the water too much, that’s no good, you end up with flat coffee. If you don’t filter enough you’ve got bad coffee,” he says. He’s even got a coach for it. “How to make coffee is not an easy thing.”

But in the end, he’s up for the challenge – and excited enough that he’s made it his new office.

“The vision is that there’s a community of like-minded entrepreneurs all helping each other to be better,” he says. “Like a dojo, everybody’s there for a reason: to learn and to feed off each other.”