Former WeWork Execs Launch New Venture To Help People Work Closer To Home

Two former WeWork executives, Joel Steinhaus and Doug Chambers, have launched a company they call Daybase, which will operate a network of "on-demand work spots" in various communities nationwide. As yet, the company has announced no locations for its new foray into coworking.

The two characterize Daybase as a hybrid between a centralized workplace where everyone goes all the time and the isolation of working at home all the time. In other words, a place that is neither a company's office space nor home office space but which includes the professional support system of the former and the familiar location of the latter. 

"Historically, companies and employees have been limited to the imperfect choice between working from a centralized corporate office or co-working space, and working from home," Steinhaus, Daybase's CEO, said in a statement. "But the pandemic has created a demand for a seamless hybrid work experience."

As support for the new model, Steinhaus cited a Harvard Business School study that found that 81% of the laptop class aren't ready to go back to the pre-pandemic way of working and a Slack survey that found that more than 70% want a mix of office and remote work.

Steinhaus is WeWork's former head of strategic initiatives, while Chambers, who is chief operating officer of Daybase, used to be WeWork's head of client solutions. Chambers was also founder and CEO of Fieldlens, a proptech company acquired by WeWork in 2017. A number of other former WeWork executives have joined the new company.

Daybase may set up some of its operations in the suburbs, which grew in popularity among white-collar workers during the coronavirus pandemic, but it isn't clear yet whether that popularity will be permanent.

A recent Bank of America Research note, as reported by Business Insider, posits that the pandemic accelerated migration out of cities like New York and San Francisco, but most other cities didn't see a genuine exodus during the health crisis, and in fact, some people will probably return to those two cities in a post-pandemic environment.

"NYC and SF remain premier cities for young renters given their status as economic, financial, and cultural centers, and the pullback in rents over the past year helps affordability," the note says.