Upflex CEO Christophe Garnier explains how a new strategic partnership with WeWork lays the foundation for an ecosystem where all flexible space stakeholders have something to gain, including space operators of all kinds, brokers, companies, and the workforce.
WeWork is giving its hundreds of thousands of members enhanced flexibility and choice by entering an exclusive, strategic partnership with Upflex. This move isn’t just good news for WeWork’s members — it’s good news industry-wide. With this partnership, WeWork is jumping in on the idea that coworking brands can collaborate and elevate one another — bringing workers up with them.
Here are a few reasons why this collaboration is as a rising tide to lift all boats — one that brings hybrid and remote workers more flexibility and more choice, brokers more to offer companies, and a new audience to independent and boutique space operators.
Good News for the Workforce
Companies who’ve been truly listening to their employees know that the workforce is looking for flexibility and choice. As the Omicron variant fades, and as some regions of the world finally reach a tipping point of sufficient vaccination numbers, these employers are seeking out tools to put their hybrid work strategies into play.
Thousands of companies that rely just on WeWork memberships to help give their employees that flexibility and choice, but even with 700 spaces in 77 cities, some of their member companies weren’t getting the global coverage they needed to make hybrid work truly effective for all employees. By giving members access to Upflex’s 1,500-city-strong network, this partnership is bringing companies with flexible work policies even broader global coverage, and even more variety and choice for remote and hybrid workers. WeWork members will now have more than 5,000 spaces to choose from, in dozens of countries, making it easier for not just some employees — but everyone — to find spaces that suit their needs, close to home.
Meanwhile, Upflex users will have exclusive access to WeWork’s hundreds of high-quality shared workspaces — marking the first time WeWork has given any third-party operator booking access to all its spaces. Companies seeking hybrid work solutions will now have a super-charged set of options to offer their teams.
Thanks to the new exclusive, strategic partnership between Upflex and WeWork, soon, all WeWork’s 700 spaces around the world will be available to book at explore.upflex.com.
Good News for Independent Coworking Space Operators
By creating this exclusive partnership with WeWork, we’re collaborating to build an ecosystem where smaller, boutique and independent workspace brands will now have access to thousands of enterprise-scale clients for the first time.
We were already aggregating demand for operators, but the new audience that comes with WeWork is a big change. We are building the integration now that will surface all the thousands of spaces around the world to WeWork members, and once it launches and WeWork members are encouraged to branch out and see what spaces suit their needs in this vast new world of options, we hope to see it create a boom for our network.
This is a great time for new operators to join the Upflex network, and for those who are already here, this is a great time to make sure you’re equipped to host the new influx of hybrid workers.
Good News for WeWork and Its Members
With this partnership WeWork is embracing an asset-light future, seemingly continuing to shift its business model from a real-estate-heavy (high risk, high cost) approach toward that of an SaaS-based company, relying on Upflex to achieve that transformation.
One thing that WeWork doesn’t want as they make this shift is added complexity. They, like many companies, want to simplify, to consolidate, and to spend their energy wisely: They don’t want to maintain multiple aggregator relationships. They picked one to work with exclusively — and that’s Upflex, because with us, they found industry-leading technology and privacy/security measures, the world’s largest network of workspace on demand, and a vision for a flexible future of work they share.
Now, their hundreds of thousands of users have access to this tremendously expanded network of workspaces, with all the seamless space-booking technology and security that comes with it. We’re pleased to help offer WeWork’s community of user companies and members more variety and choice and to help WeWork take this step.
Soon, all WeWork’s members will be able to book spaces within the Upflex network as part of their WeWork membership. Pictured here, an event at Blender Workspace in NoMad, Manhattan, NYC. Check it out at explore.upflex.com
Good News for the Upflex Community
At Upflex, we believe in collaboration toward a common goal: a more ecologically responsible, happier, truly flexible future of work. We believe a rising tide lifts all boats, and that coworking brands — from single spaces to large global chains, including WeWork, Mindspace, VentureX, Serendipity Labs and others — collaborating and elevating one another rather than fiercely competing is what will drive the generation of better, more future-ready workplaces. To us, this partnership is aligned with this core value, and a win-win-win way to move forward into 2022.
