Icehouse Capital LLC

Fam, we need your help!! Turns out recruiting is HARD.... and recruiters are $$$$. We're looking for a founding engineer! We're a lean team bringing LIFE back to the office. We've made dozens of matches across 3 major metros, and are looking for help building: ?? >> A matching algorithm to turn our scrappy Google-sheets/Hubspot/morning-standup routine into an automated process ??♂? >> An AI leasing agent to cut a 20-hour/100-email-per-deal highly manual servicing process in half ?? >> A multi-party tour optimization tool that helps Hosts and Seekers coordinate office tours and next steps Low-ego, open-minded go-getters... we want you! More on Tandem and what we're looking for here: https://lnkd.in/gFc2TdFZ cc Brendan Suh, Kristen Gallogly and our wonderful advisors Nick Bloom, Elie Weiss, Barry Finegold, Andrew Genova, Tom Burne, Mark Cook, Thaisan Tonthat Albert P. Lee, Joe Walters, Willem van den Bosch, Jason Finkelstein, Payton Rockwood, Lucas Pino, Stephen Murdock, Marina Kemper, Daniel Sun, Rachel Krausz, David Holtz, Parsa Rezvani, Sean Wheeler, Jessica Bixby, Sonia Kastner, Julian Unger Zach Gibson Natan Landman Kayne Burk

WeWork made one dumb -- near fatal -- move (taking out long term leases). Investors came down hard, Neumann took a pie to the face, and yet still walked away with a $billion+ in Softbank cash before the dam truly burst... And now? With Chapter 11 in progress and a pretty substantive downsizing... he's back?! This guy knows how to play a real hand!

In 2024, twice as many office leases will come up for renewal as 2023. ? The "wait and see" game is running out... and this year, more companies will have to make a decision. What do we do about our office? ? Unfortunately, the only real options suck, hence the delay: ? 1?? Renew the lease - and continue paying for space that now sits empty more than half the time. ? 2?? Downsize - and accept a space that won't be big enough to fit everyone at once. The options suck because office real estate is an inflexible asset. If you want space that can hold everyone at the same time, you have to pay for it full time. Hoping this hybrid thing might be just a moment, many corporate real estate leaders have delayed. ?? ?? The growing flex category has emerged to solve this by finally enabling fractionalization & sharing of space. Flex space by definition is space that can be used by different parties at the different times. ? But flex remains a relatively niche category. It's growing fast, but given the hybrid trend, should be growing even faster. What's holding it back? ? (1) Capital intensivity -- while few flex operators today take out leases (what caused WeWork to fail), they enable flex by renovating floorplates, creating new floorplans with a mix of private and communal areas. The cost to build a single floor of flex space can range from $500k-$1m. And that doesn't include the operating costs, which are significantly higher than traditional leases. ? (2) Concerns about sharing -- most companies are still apprehensive about the idea of sharing space. Co-working to many is still a hippy movement for artists and freelancers. In particular, two concerns remain unsolved by today's flex operators: (1) concerns about confidentiality, and (2) the want to maintain a space that feels to a company like its own -- that builds culture and brand-identification among employees. ? Tandem is creating a new category of flex -- the Airbnb to WeWork's Marriott -- intended to solve these issues. ? By matching companies with each-other, we can turn existing space into flex space without a dollar of capital improvements. ? And, with only two or three companies in a space, we can solve the concerns about sharing. ? Companies get to know each-other, agree to mutual confidentiality, privacy, and access standards, and can co-brand the space so both parties feel like it's theirs. Michael Abrams -- as always, curious to get your thoughts.