Why We Acquired PivotDesk

SquareFoot has some exciting news to share today — our first ever acquisition! I wanted to take a minute to explain why, and how this positions SquareFoot to better serve growing businesses for years to come.

What is PivotDesk?

PivotDesk is a marketplace that connects people who need office space with those that have extra space. PivotDesk allows growing businesses that leased larger space than they immediately need to offset some of the cost of that otherwise unused space (we were a PivotDesk host for years), and is hugely popular among small teams that needed something flexible and cost-effective before settling into a more permanent setup.

For Many Businesses, Traditional Commercial Real Estate Leasing is a Broken Process

The Commercial Real Estate industry has long failed to deliver on what growing businesses truly need — flexibility. Planning your team’s headcount 5-10 years in advance in order to secure an office lease is an unreasonable ask.

This is where SquareFoot comes in — our listing data and recommendation engine make discovery and comparison easy, our brokers guide people through the messy details, and our tools and software streamline every step of the process. Our products (now including PivotDesk) let people break out of the constraints of a traditional long-term lease, while still having access to the entire market.

SquareFoot x PivotDesk Enables:

1. SquareFoot to be the one-stop shop for all your office space needs — from your first desk to corporate HQ, our proprietary technology and team of brokers has you covered.
2. Tenants to make money on space they don’t yet need — the ability to grow into a larger space minimizes the headache of continuously finding and moving into new offices. In addition to the marketplace platform, PivotDesk spaces can be shown to SquareFoot’s brokerage clients, meaning your available desks can get filled even faster.
3. Businesses to choose from a variety of flexible office space options — this is also why we recently launched FLEX by SquareFoot, a product that lets businesses lease any space in NYC for 2-3 years instead of the traditional 5-10.

What Comes Next

PivotDesk is going to operate as a stand-alone business, but it’s a work in progress. We’re looking to hire a GM (here’s the job description) — if you or someone in your network seems like a great fit, I’d love to talk to them. In the meantime, if you need help with your office space search, give us a shout at contact@squarefoot.com

Best,

Jonathan

• Read the full press release