The ‘uberisation’ of the office space: The rise and rise of office sharing

Peter Ames Head of Strategy – OfficeGenie.co.uk

‘Uberisation’

• Transforming ‘things’ into ‘services’ – the ‘sharing economy’

• Could be worth £9 billion to the global economy by

2025 (PWC)

•  More than one million ‘drive partners’ in 351 cities (2015)

•  $51 billion (US) valuation (2015)

•  The most valuable tech startup in the world

•  2,000,000 properties

•  34,000 cities

•  60,000,000 ‘stays’ •  $26 billion (US) valuation (2015)

•  Formerly DeskspaceGenie.co.uk

•  UK’s first marketplace for spare deskspace*

•  Now offers thousands of offices across the country

•  £10 million+ worth of office space deals annually •  Cambridge-based

•  A Genie Ventures brand along with BroadbandGenie.co.uk and Genie Goals *probably

Back in time… Cambridge, 2009

We did something about it

At the same time… Global recession

More than 12 million UK jobs lost (ERC 2015)

•  More than 5 million from companies going out of business

•  More than 7 million from larger companies making redundancies

Simultaneously…

At least 2 million business ‘births’ in the UK from 2009-2015

•  Most successful seven-year period ever

“The funny thing about recessions is they produce a change in

behaviour that doesn’t go back… Once people have a taste of flexibility

they don’t want to go back to inflexibility.”

Cash is king

“Because the stuff works, they don’t have to worry about infrastructure.”

Fibre broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017 (UK Government)

Google searches - ‘Desk space’

Google searches - ‘Office sharing’

Google searches - ‘Co-working’

Where next?

‘Northern Powerhouse’: Growing faster than London

‘Free’ spaces

Wellingborough Hatchery

Introducing Bryan

“It feels more like a community that I'm still a part of.

Feels like the best of both worlds.”

‘Don’t go there, live there’ – Airbnb 2016

“The stuff you normally do.”

“Somewhere that others are working is better than trying

to work from home, where there are distractions.”

“Social aspect, as I was new to the local area. You can

imagine going for a pint with everyone at Genie.”

“But they are obviously all focused on work as

well which makes a good office environment.”

“Marta [office manager] is always helpful when I need anything.”

“The stuff you normally do.”