Can Knotel Become The Next WeWork?

[bctt tweet=”Amol Sarva, CEO of flexible workspace provider Knotel, is seeking to become the next WeWork — minus the tumultuous rollercoaster the coworking giant has endured over the past few months.” username=”allwork_space”]

Knotel has been WeWork’s main rival in New York City for years now, but as WeWork has come crashing down following the postponement of its public offering and the ousting of former CEO Adam Neumann, Knotel is hoping to come out on top.

Currently, Knotel is located across 250 buildings in 15 cities worldwide and recently became a unicorn after a $400 million investment from the Kuwaiti social security fund pushed its valuation to over $1 billion.

Sarva’s company was born once he realized that coworking spaces consisting of tiny offices for small-scale tenants would end up being costly, so he took the model and began catering to larger companies. Knotel offers such firms a short-term lease, outfits the space and manages daily operations at a fraction of the cost of traditional offices.

Although WeWork’s brand revolved around a “cultural revolution,” Knotel is focused on how companies shop for offices, rather than the office itself.

“I think that’s what the coworking people fail to understand. I think what they thought was: let’s just, like, crank out a bunch of little boxes and then companies will just move in because of the vibe or the consciousness or whatever,” said Sarva. “Well, it turns out they do need offices. An office is not just this boring place . . . It’s actually a place that meets a lot of complex requirements.”