Mark Gilbreath, Founder and CEO of LiquidSpace, joins Bold Founder, Caleb Parker, to discuss why he believes we’ve reached peak portfolio.
Mark says “infinite workplace” enables work from anywhere to proliferate, and as a result 80% of enterprise customers in the US will significantly reduce their leased office portfolios.
We learn about the new LiquidSpace Enterprise solution, and hear stories of their early days with enterprise customers, as well as a new big partnership with Comfy, which provides tens of thousands of workspace options to hundreds of thousands of employees.
Mark says landlords need to recognise that flexible use of space must be a principal asset management strategy. Traditional real estate leasing practices do not solve for delivering thousands of workplace options at scale for employees today.
The two also discuss how Workplace Brand is going to become a fundamental part of commercial real estate.
If you have any questions or feedback on this episode, email podcast@workbold.co
Value Bombs
- Real estate will become more liquid going forward
- Mindsets are shifting profoundly in regards to fixed real estate portfolios
- We’re no longer having a binary debate between working from the office or home.
- The challenge for enterprise companies is how to provide tools that enable flexibility and workplace choice while maintaining duty of care and ensuring the overall financial objectives of the company are met.
- Workplace will be a continuum
- Traditional real estate leasing practices do not solve for delivering thousands of workplace options at scale for employees
- We are at Peak Portfolio
- 80%+ of US enterprises will significantly contract their lease office portfolios
- Infinite workplace enables work from anywhere to proliferate
- Digital online and mobile transactions have potential to break the broker commission fee model
- Office landlords must become more liberal in their thinking
- Landlords need to recognise that flexible use of space must be a principal asset management strategy
- The 10 year lease and bond-like structure will not be the only asset strategy
- Flexible asset strategies complement traditional asset strategies
- Flexibility has value - the economic activity of an asset with flexibility can be higher than those just deploying traditional leases
- Occupiers need the ability to easily tap into the thousands of workspace options globally.
- Workplace Brand is going to become a fundamental part of commercial real estate
- Workplace is becoming a consumerized experience, and that will scale as employees come back from the pandemic with workplace choice and autonomy
- We’re going to see people choosing their workplace based on trust, and that’s where brand becomes important
- Brand creates trust in the experience that will be delivered
- Landlords who aren’t conscious of the brand experience delivered across their portfolios will see a lag in their economic performance
About Mark Gilbreath
Mark is the Founder and CEO of LiquidSpace, which he founded in 2010 and has raised $34.5m from investors, including Reid Hoffman of Greylock partners, Mike maples Jr. of gateway Fund, Roth capital partners, Shasta ventures, CBRE, Steelcase, and the GPT group. He holds a BSEE in Computer Architecture from the University of Virginia.
His motto:
More happy people working in fewer buildings, the planet smiles.
LiquidSpace invented real-time real estate and disrupted the traditional office industry. Its digital marketplace enables professionals, companies and real estate leaders to fluidly discover, transact, and manage workplaces on flexible terms and puts the commercial real estate buyer in control.
The platform provides access to real-time office inventory on flexible terms with over 20,000 venue partners around the world.
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