Breather Hires CTO Amid West Coast Expansion, Hiring Spree

Flexible workspace company Breather has added another executive to its growing C-suite, with Phillippe Bouffaut coming on as chief technology officer.

Most recently vice president of products and engineering at media intelligence company Cision, Bouffaut will focus on further improving Breather's digital booking system and office management capabilities. That will include implementing an app to assist office managers with various time-consuming tasks, such as ordering groceries.

"We’re really excited to make a unified platform, sort of a smart concierge, that helps these employees be more efficient and streamline their tasks," Bouffaut said. "We’re laser-focused on serving our customers, both on the tenant side as well as the landlord side, and we’re really excited to continue creating products and technologies that delight both demographics."

This summer in particular has been a busy one for Breather, which provides private office space on a month to month or short-term basis. The seven-year-old Canadian company hired a new chief financial officer, chief sales officer and head of research in June and has also built a West Coast footprint of 40K SF between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In July, it leased 12K SF across three floors in San Francisco's 565 Commercial St., a historic building in the city's Financial District, in the company's largest San Francisco space. 

In January, former eBay executive Bryan Murphy was brought on as CEO. The company has since rapidly expanded the flexible, month-to-month workspace portion of its business, serving companies looking for offices in multiple cities. Its flexible office business accounts for 50% of its business now compared to 30% at the beginning of the year, according to the company. 

"Our long-term strategy was always to make it easier for companies to grow," Murphy told Bisnow. "What we’re doing is simply diversifying our product offerings to make the most out of the spaces we lease."

Breather provides private office space from month to month or on shorter terms across its selection of over 500 private spaces in 10 markets, including New York, London and San Francisco. The company reached $122.5M in total funding after scoring $45M in its Series C round, which closed last year.