Lori Fitch never had a doubt: „When I was looking for office space for our startup, I knew from the very beginning: We´ll wind up in a business center.“ The 28-year-old American has founded a company with three friends in the German city of Hamburg, developing software solutions for big warehouses. Today, huge international corporations like Amazon, DHL, Walmart or Kellogg’s are among her clients.
„I love those little stories about startups in unheated garages or sheds with wobbly furniture. But those are often just anecdotes with very little truth. In reality, most startups need nicely designed, functional offices where they can hold presentations in a designated business environment – and the flexibility to get out at any time without the burden of long-term leases. Because with startups, one never knows: things can go dicey, and capital security is not exactly a given,“ explains Ms Fitch, who now resides in a Hamburg Business Center with her co-workers. „Business Centers offer exactly what we need. I have to present software improvements on a constant basis, our market experiences extremely fast changes and global competition is tough. If I invite people from Amazon or DHL to come in for a little show, I want that to happen in place where everyone feels comfortable. We do have these great meeting rooms here, that I can rent by the hour. An investment that’s billable against account. No financial risk there.“
Another extremely important factor for Lori Fitch: flexibility. All offices can be minimized or expanded, depending on demand. „We often have to install software at our clients’ sites, and that means: One of us is gone for weeks, sometimes months. So I don’t need to have that space available. At a business center, I just cancel the space, meaning: I don’t have to pay for it, as long as my colleague is gone. At first, the four of us where sharing one room. Now there are two of us in two separate offices. If necessary, three will now squeeze into one room, saving the cost for the second office. It all works out, we never have a problem with that.“
Recently, demand for her products have increased, so that downsizing is no option – on the contrary, Ms Fitch has expansion on her mind: „I studied the market in my home country, the United States, and was able to secure a presentation at Walmart. They had a lot of stuff cutting corners, and I showed them how they can get that streamlined, saving them tons of money. So we developed a quality program that has been appreciated by others as well. The need for additional help rises quickly. Not a problem in a business center, where more space can be rented on very short notice. That would be unthinkable in the regular commercial real estate market.“
Dr André Held, CEO of Collection Group, understands Ms Fitch’s needs completely: „We hear those aspects from many young startups. All of them are very welcome clients in our business centers.“
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