Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourselves and your service!
Shareyourspace: Who are we? Shareyourspace is an enterprise of experienced players in the real estate industry and digital experts, founded in 2019 by:
- Dr. Tobias Wagner, CEO: Business administration and general management at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, doctorate in psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, leading positions in technology and real estate companies, serial founder, battlefield real estate, software, internet
- Christian Ehl, CTO: University of Georgia, Wake Forest University, electrical engineering at the Technical University of Munich, entrepreneur, battlefield digitization projects for major corporations, tech ventures, artificial intelligence
- Commerz Real AG, Asset Manager of the Commerzbank Group
Our service? The platform www.shareyourspace.com. It transports the Airbnb concept to the office world. Sharing space and rooms makes the office and work world more flexible. It also flips the most effective conceivable switch for more sustainability in the real estate industry.
What problem is being addressed? The office market is defined by inflexible, long-term rental agreements. However, modern working — project teams, startups, New Work, dynamic businesses — requires cost efficient workspace that is flexible in terms of time and space.
The solution? Offices are unused up to 70 percent of the time: Factors such as vacancy, part time work, out of office days and excess space add up to half a billion square meters in Germany alone. Shareyourspace is the platform for everyone who would like to offer or book these temporarily unoccupied spaces. Workspace as a Service, pay per use.
Who is the service for? For everyone with office, meeting or conference space. For owners and tenants. For companies and private individuals. For administration, hotels or providers of coworking spaces. And for anyone looking for office space, a work station or meeting space. For freelancers, project teams or multinational corporates.
What benefits are offered? Maximum flexibility for tenants and landlords. Reduced costs for space. Higher yield through improved usage of space without additional investments. Option of coworking. New Work. Sustainability at its best.
Shareyourspace wants to “make space useable in all areas, at all locations, in all configurations and in all sizes”
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Shareyourspace: It is. There are real estate portals that offer offices with long term rental contracts. The offers are predominantly posted by real estate agents. The addresses are only available through those real estate agents. The business model involves fee based advertisements. They merely establish contact and the rental or lease process is not completed on the portal. And there are coworking providers, who, as is the nature of the business, are limited to specific locations and standardized space products that they have to sell at a relatively high price. Our Office-as-a-Service idea is much more comprehensive: We want to make space available in all areas, at all locations, in all configurations and in all sizes. Moreover: The better existing offices are used, the bigger the boost for sustainability.
Munich Startup: What has been your biggest challenge so far?
Shareyourspace: Becoming widely known.
“Munich has the largest amount of office space in Germany”
Munich Startup: Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: How is business going?
Shareyourspace: We’ve been live since late 2019. Developments have shown we’re on the right path.
Munich Startup: What does Munich mean to you?
Shareyourspace: Munich has the most office space in Germany with just under 25 million square meters, its conventional offer consists of scarce and expensive space, dynamic businesses and a major traffic problem. That means office as a service is necessary. We’re also a Munich company with an international team, which means we’re in just the right place in the ‘cosmopolitan city with a heart.’
Munich Startup: How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we be seeing you at an Epic Fail Night soon?
Shareyourspace: With compassion, brains, hard work and good customer service. It’s not about a high company valuation for us. We want to make one of the biggest industries more sustainable with our service. Protecting the environment is our social responsibility. Attaining that in collaboration with our customers and doing some good is a driving force for us.
Munich Startup: Isar River or English Garden?
Shareyourspace: Zugspitze, of course. Skiing, views, shouting with glee. Way up top.