Associate Director, Knotel

Knotel operates in the space and has grown strongly in recent years by tweaking the flexible office model. Rather than targeting the kinds of startups and small businesses on which WeWork built its coworking business, Knotel serves enterprise clients, to whom it effectively subleases entire offices

Rather than provide long-term office leases that lock tenants in to a set amount of space over a prolonged period (sometimes 10 years or longer), Knotel offers space to corporate enterprise clients on much shorter terms, usually six months to five years. That allows its clients to add or reduce their footprint as their needs grow

These business models are yet to be tested in an economic downturn (e.g. when the wider economy removes jobs and needs less office space), so this will be the real test for Knotel