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Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#11

Post by gundisclosed »

aakhil wrote: post #5
gundisclosed wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe a better question might be, how does one arrive at the pricing model for a product like this ?

We looked at traditional workplace management software products like iOffice and SpaceIQ. They tend to be a lot more expensive. We also looked at adjacent services like scheduling software for hourly workers and meeting room booking software. So far we feel good about this pricing. But we're still early and may adapt based on customer feedback.

Ok, but SpaceIQ also provides IOT integrations, way finder and some other features. But I understood the direction. Thank you for the comments and best of luck !

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#12

Post by aakhil »

ignoramous wrote: post #6

Congratulations on the launch! > If you’re one of the 3 of 4 people who wants to work flexibly post-pandemic, or if you manage a workplace, we’d love to hear from you. One of those is Andy Jassy, CEO-elect at Amazon, who is on-record that Amazon is likely to switch to a hybrid model where folks would may be reserve desks when they intend to be in-office but mostly work remotely otherwise. Absolutely a huge market. >…

Thanks for sharing the Andy Jassy video. In most companies with office workers, the hybrid model as a better way of working is becoming the mainstream view. We hope we can help simplify the experience.

The per active employee pricing model was driven by the level of uncertainty from companies on how many employees will use the office on a regular basis. For some of our clients who have opened their offices only 10-20% of their employees are using it. Customers would prefer not to pay for all their desks when only a small fraction are actually being used.

Good points on the cost accounting and predictability of costs. We haven't gotten pushback on that so far. But we'll keep an eye out.

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#13

Post by dang »

DevX101 wrote: post #7
gundisclosed wrote: post #2

Hello, Interesting idea and decent execution, congratulations on the launch (A slack bot would also be an interesting add on). But to be honest, I am flabbergasted by pricing model. My current assumption is that it is mainly just a scheduling software, so does it provide the same value as Gmail enterprise ( considering nearly same pricing ) ?

Congrats OP, you've got your first "I could build this trivial project myself" comment. If history is any guide here, you'll have a $200M valuation in a few months.

I appreciate your wish to counter shallow dismissals, but please don't take HN threads snarkward, even when another comment feels annoying. It only makes things worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#14

Post by some1else »

I was looking at the recent crop of products like the Comfy app, and Envoy's addition of safety features. How big of an issue is this for companies, really? What's your size, rate of growth at this stage? I've seen the basic requirements for legal compliance effectively solved with regular surveys & spreadsheets.

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#15

Post by easton »

ignoramous wrote: post #6

Congratulations on the launch! > If you’re one of the 3 of 4 people who wants to work flexibly post-pandemic, or if you manage a workplace, we’d love to hear from you. One of those is Andy Jassy, CEO-elect at Amazon, who is on-record that Amazon is likely to switch to a hybrid model where folks would may be reserve desks when they intend to be in-office but mostly work remotely otherwise. Absolutely a huge market. >…

I wonder how having to hotdesk affects people wanting to work in an office. I prefer going in to working at home, but having to worry about whether there is a desk for me there and having to bring my desk toys (or important things, like mice) in every day might become grating after a while. If I could book a desk for multiple days and get penalized if I didn't use it, that would probably work fine. (Or even lose the reservation if I don't sit down by 9 am or something)

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#16

Post by ahstilde »

I feel like so many companies are moving to the hybrid or fully-remote model. If companies can have a successful remote-first culture (transparency, documentation, no secret water-cooler chats in person, pseudo water-cooler chats over chat + video), the the hybrid model is a no brainer.

I feel like I've heard about Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Salesforce embracing remote work. And Stripe, Gitlab, Automattic, and many others had already embraced remote work.

Worksphere is definitely on the upswing of a sea change.

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#17

Post by sokoloff »

molsongolden wrote: post #10
gundisclosed wrote: post #2

Hello, Interesting idea and decent execution, congratulations on the launch (A slack bot would also be an interesting add on). But to be honest, I am flabbergasted by pricing model. My current assumption is that it is mainly just a scheduling software, so does it provide the same value as Gmail enterprise ( considering nearly same pricing ) ?

Different use cases. If Worksphere has researched the regulations and guidance around returning to in-office work then this could be a great value. Half of the value might be "if you use this solution then you are compliant" with the other half coming from the actual tooling to orchestrate "you can work in office today but you can't because you came in yesterday and other people need to have meetings". I'm not famili…

If they can promise compliance, this is worth $200/desk/month easy.

I don’t think they can realistically promise that, though...

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#18

Post by sokoloff »

aakhil wrote: post #4
gundisclosed wrote: post #2

Hello, Interesting idea and decent execution, congratulations on the launch (A slack bot would also be an interesting add on). But to be honest, I am flabbergasted by pricing model. My current assumption is that it is mainly just a scheduling software, so does it provide the same value as Gmail enterprise ( considering nearly same pricing ) ?

Great idea on the slack bot. Would you prefer using a slack bot instead of an app for scheduling? We only charge for active employees who are scheduled in office (excludes remote employees). Customers have responded positively to this pricing model so far. But we are still learning.

The audience for this tool is used to paying bills with commas in them without flinching. It’s not an office catering case where people have a firm anchor to some high-single digit price that includes the food. The office drinks bill might have a comma in it, but the water and electric bills almost surely do.

My gut is people are responding positively because they see it as so insanely underpriced as to be not worth worrying about.

For one thing, no one who sees $6 of value won’t see $10 of value, so you could raise prices 67% right there. (Maybe there’s an odd person who sees $5 and is willing to pay $6.) You might even find more takers at $100-200/desk/month than $6/user/mo. It’s easy for them to budget; it solves a problem they have; you might look more credible or easier for the office manager/harried HR person who doesn’t care if they pay $120/mo for 20 users or $400/mo for 4 desks. Those numbers are “the same” for office managers.

Look up patio11’s general advice (tl;dr: charge more) and take it to heart. Best.

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#19

Post by theresaklaassen »

ahstilde wrote: post #16

I feel like so many companies are moving to the hybrid or fully-remote model. If companies can have a successful remote-first culture (transparency, documentation, no secret water-cooler chats in person, pseudo water-cooler chats over chat + video), the the hybrid model is a no brainer. I feel like I've heard about Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Salesforce embracing remote work. And Stripe, Gitlab, Automattic, and man…

Thanks! We agree, there's upsides for both companies and employees to adopting hybrid and remote models. Remote is great for some, but we know it doesn't work for every company/culture or role. Transparency and being intentional about this shift absolutely needs to be a part of the conversation to avoid any downside.

Re: Launch HN: Worksphere (YC W21) – Manage flexible in-office or remote workspaces

#20

Post by sokoloff »

ahstilde wrote: post #16

I feel like so many companies are moving to the hybrid or fully-remote model. If companies can have a successful remote-first culture (transparency, documentation, no secret water-cooler chats in person, pseudo water-cooler chats over chat + video), the the hybrid model is a no brainer. I feel like I've heard about Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Salesforce embracing remote work. And Stripe, Gitlab, Automattic, and man…

I think the minute you have hybrid, the water-cooler chats return. You can call them “secret” or you can call them “casual and opportunistic”, but they’re going to happen and they’re sometimes going to spawn a good idea.

Then you might force people to memorialize that idea in some form, but you can’t/shouldn’t/can’t stop people from chatting in the break areas and, especially at the start of hybrid, it’s going to be very fertile ground that your company should encourage and foster (and maybe channel) rather than taking steps to discourage. “Sorry Pat, you know the rules; we’re not allowed to speak except on slack.”

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