In the world of startups, one of the constant pain points is office space. Either you have too much of it because you signed a lease on a great place that you’ll need when you grow, or you don’t have enough because you simply can’t find something for your team’s size. When PivotDesk launched out of the TechStars Boulder program last year to solve this issue, they knew that they’d have to move beyond the Boulder/Denver area. Today, with a launch in San Francisco and New York, it’s time to grow.
After closing $3.5 million in funding last September, the team went into expansion mode. As CEO David Mandell reiterated to me yesterday, PivotDesk’s unique product means that it can’t simply expand into cities at will, but they knew that they had to branch into the two largest startup markets in the US as soon as possible. In order to do that, the team had to find the startups that had too much space, as well as the ones who were looking for a home. It was then that Mandell realized that these aren’t two different customers, but in fact a single customer whose problem changed depending upon where they were in the life of their company.
Mandell tells me that the response in the Denver and Boulder areas has been “incredibly encouraging” so far, and that their customers are happy to use the system every month. But the goal, of course, is to help more startups solve their space problems.
In view of that ultimate goal, the team is also launching an initiative today called Spaced Out Cities. While it’s perhaps simple to figure out what cities make sense for expansion, Mandell tells me that their goal with the initiative is to find the hidden spots where startups are starting to thrive. Areas in the Silicon Prairie of Des Moines and Kansas City, for instance, might be perfect expansion spots for PivotDesk, but it’s difficult to know unless people on the inside can help the company spot growth potential.
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In Boulder and Denver, PivotDesk already has over 200 listings. The company has helped folks like Ben Huh’s Cheezburger Network find more space in New York, and brands like Github have turned to PivotDesk to solve their lack (or excess) of space problems.
So if you’re living in a burgeoning startup hub, and office space is already rearing its painful head, you now have a chance to round up some fellow entrepreneurs and let PivotDesk know. By using a specific month-to-month platform, the promising startup is staying out of the role of a real estate company but still managing to help startups build relationships with each other that alleviate a pain point that is common to every single one of them.
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