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

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

#21

Post by theresaklaassen »

some1else wrote: post #14

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.

Thanks for asking! There are definitely a lot of products converging on this space. To address the safety features specifically our clients have found using surveys/spreadsheets don't scale past 15-20 employees coming into office, especially for busy workplace management teams. With regulations like AB 685 the reporting requirement is a 24-hour window, so if you're trying to contact trace hundreds of employees over a couple weeks, or tracking your occupancy data, this could take hours out of someone's day. Not to mention having to constantly remind and send out manual notifications for employees to take their surveys. With our system this is automated and you can have a report in seconds. Longer term we feel the hybrid work features like desk booking and office usage data offer real value. This is hard to accomplish without scheduling tools.

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

#22

Post by markpiper »

easton wrote: post #15
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…

Booking a desk for multiple days is definitely something we've been thinking about, and we built it into the product for the same reasons you're saying.

Our workspaces are pretty personal. If you come into work, the chair is at the wrong height, monitors wrong, and you don't have what you need, it doesn't work.

But if you know you can have the same desk for the next 2 weeks on the days you want to come in, it can work. Losing the reservation or a penalty could be an interesting addition too -- we'll keep it in mind.

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

#24

Post by markpiper »

sokoloff wrote: post #17
molsongolden wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

We've been paying particular attention to California, since minimum workplace contact tracing standards and workplace COVID exposure notification were signed into law with AB-685 and SB-1159.

The other part is getting people to do all the things needed. Mostly that's making it easy to do, which is where this kind of put-it-on autopilot approach to set an office schedule helps, and making it really easy to go into the office for a day.

It's not machine learning and sensors to make sure people are wearing a mask and staying 6 feet apart, but it does meet the bar for most companies.

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

#25

Post by markpiper »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #23

"75% of office employees report that they want a hybrid in-office and remote schedule" massive, massive citation needed here

This was from a survey by The Adecco Group, where they asked 8000 people from eight countries, but we've seen similar stats across several surveys.

Love the user name, BTW. :-)

If you're curious, source is here: https://www.adeccogroup.com/future-of-work/latest-insights/w...

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

#26

Post by grbi »

gundisclosed wrote: post #9
aakhil wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes certainly! A slack bot would certainly help in ease of use among team members.

I'm just finishing at Slack app to reserve his place at the office. It will be available in a few days ;)

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

#27

Post by markpiper »

sokoloff wrote: post #18
aakhil wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thanks we'll definitely take a look. The range of prices on solutions in this space is incredibly wide.

There's simple things for crazy cheap, complicated things with giant price tags, all intertwined in a brand new land-grab to get adoption.

The founder of Superhuman.com recently introduced us to the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter, and recommended we also check out the book 'Monetizing Innovation' -- more to learn!

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

#28

Post by heelix »

There is little worse than hoteling desks. One of the reasons our current facilities is a ghost town is nobody wants to use a hot swapped desk. Sure, we have an aggressive cleaning staff... but nobody wants to reuse a mouse/keyboard right now. There is a distinct lack of private space and storage and most don't want random hands on their space. I doubt we have more than 20 people in a facility that can house thousands right now - all with hot swapped desks. (The few that do show up have offices) We 'optimized' the space in a cattle car open space... and nobody wants it that actually works in that cost effective space. Shocker.

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

#29

Post by theresaklaassen »

heelix wrote: post #28

There is little worse than hoteling desks. One of the reasons our current facilities is a ghost town is nobody wants to use a hot swapped desk. Sure, we have an aggressive cleaning staff... but nobody wants to reuse a mouse/keyboard right now. There is a distinct lack of private space and storage and most don't want random hands on their space. I doubt we have more than 20 people in a facility that can house thousand…

Thanks for that perspective, I know the “ick” factor is at an all-time high right now about shared surfaces, but I’m not sure that will last forever. We’ve seen a variety of models across our client base. For people coming in frequently or with specific desk set ups, hot desking may not be the answer. For those wanting an easy set up 1-2 days a week while they attend in person meetings, it might be. Our software supports both dedicated desk setups and flexible desks for that reason. There is likely not a one-size-fits-all for every organization, role, or individual.

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

#30

Post by theresaklaassen »

heelix wrote: post #28

There is little worse than hoteling desks. One of the reasons our current facilities is a ghost town is nobody wants to use a hot swapped desk. Sure, we have an aggressive cleaning staff... but nobody wants to reuse a mouse/keyboard right now. There is a distinct lack of private space and storage and most don't want random hands on their space. I doubt we have more than 20 people in a facility that can house thousand…

I’m curious - was your office hotelling pre-pandemic or is this a new model?
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