Sofia Stolberg’s Post

I'm thrilled to join the Preferred Office Network team next Tuesday for our upcoming live webinar “Revenue Beyond the Office”. As someone deeply involved in the coworking and flex workspace industry, I'm eager to share the insights and challenges we've tackled at PilotoMail and Piloto 151 with all of you. We’ll explore innovative revenue streams that extend beyond traditional office leasing—highlighting everything from Virtual Office benefits to sophisticated mail management solutions. Drawing on firsthand experiences, the goal is to equip you with practical strategies to diversify and maximize your workspace offerings. I encourage you to bring your questions and insights as we delve into these often-overlooked opportunities together. RSVP here: https://buff.ly/44tZJey

Writing this piece for Forbes was so much fun! I got to sit down with 4 coworking brand leaders that I like and admire and 2 industry experts to talk about the hospitality-driven future of work. In this piece, you’ll learn the secrets of how these best-in-class operators are able to craft memorable experiences that keep their members coming back and asking for more: 💜 That special feeling: What do Kiln, Industrious, Shift Workspaces, and Hub Australia have in common? They are all about making their members feel special and cared for. ✨ 💜 Surprise and delight: What does it take to delight customers? 🤔 💜 Lobby culture: What is lobby culture? How do you partner with landlords and asset managers to create unified building experiences? A special shoutout to my friends Arian Lewis, Sibila Lantzy, Grant Barnhill, Jamie Hodari, Brad Krauskopf, Liz Elam, and Caleb Parker. You are all pioneering the brand-led hospitality future of our industry and are sources of true inspiration and motivation. #coworking #hospitality

I'm thrilled to finally share a project we've been developing for the past year: Freedom from Sq Ft Hub! 🎯 In it, we delve into everything we've learned as coworking operators growing our revenue beyond the square footage cap at our spaces. Two and a half years ago, at a time when virtual mailboxes and postal mail services were often seen as ancillary services, we embarked on a journey to share how these products and services can lead to growth beyond your square feet and increase your profitability. We're delighted to see other industry leaders like Jamie Russo emphasizing this growing market segment and the impact it has on your bottom line as a coworking space operator. The Freedom From Sq Ft Hub is meant to inspire, educate, and share best practices on how to tap into new products, service offerings, and opportunities above and beyond occupancy rates measured by square feet that help coworking operators grow sustainably and profitably. Of course, all things Virtual Offices, Virtual Mailboxes, postal mail services, and compliance are a big part of this hub, but so too are other strategies including hospitality, community building, and experience creation. I'm eager to see the positive impact this project will have on our community, and I invite you to explore how these insights can benefit your own business. For PilotoMail clients, The Hub is included with your membership. 💜 Let's keep raising the bar together! #VirtualOffice #Flex #Coworking #Compliance #Hospitality

A bit late to the game on commenting on the proposed plan for Yardi to take a 60% stake in WeWork, but here are my thoughts on this: 👉 Aligned incentives work: It’s no secret that Yardi Kube, Yardi’s coworking management software arm, has been powering WeWork spaces since last year. It makes sense that Yardi wants WeWork to succeed because they already had a big stake in the game. It also makes sense that WeWork finally realized that maintaining software solely for internal purposes is hard, requires a lot of expensive talent that's not directly tied to its core, and the math generally doesn’t work out at scale. 👉 Will “arms-length” management be enough?  Yardi has stated in its public comments to the proposed plan that WeWork will be managed through a separate company at “arm's length” from its core business. That makes sense for a software company that doesn’t operate space per se, but we wonder whether it will be enough. To be sure we expect to see changes in the WeWork key executive team as they emerge from bankruptcy, but it also seems to us that Yardi will be best served by being highly engaged in the short to medium term to safeguard its interests… after all, running a company with over 9,200 employees speaks volumes about their operational capabilities. 👉 Profitable by next year?  David Tolley has filed financial projections that have WeWork turning a profit by next year once they exit bankruptcy. Even with the worst of its leases now rejected, a debt-free slate, more operational efficiency, and Yardi’s capital injection, we still stand by the advice we gave them 9 months ago in our open letter to David Tolley. The Virtual Office opportunity is now more important than ever in reaching a sustainable and profitable operation moving forward. We’re still game to have that conversation whenever you’re ready David. 👉 What about compliance? The compliance game has changed big time. All 178 remaining WeWork locations across 38 US cities have to have all their onsite and office members fill out forms, go through identity validation, and continuously update their compliance documentation. WeWork will have to maintain and update all these records on the USPS Customer Registration Database for thousands of clients or risk not being able to receive postal mail for any of their clients. As far as we know, having an office where you can’t receive mail and packages is not really a thing. We’re also available to have a chat around this, since at PilotoMail, we’ve automated the entire compliance process and know a thing or two about this 😉 For all the naysayers out there, no one in the industry really wanted WeWork to fail because that fallout would have sent ripples across the entire industry and CRE markets. We’re still rooting for them and are happy to see a heavy-weight software company step up to the plate and bat. Great move Yardi!

In our latest article for Forbes, "Freedom from Square Feet: A New Paradigm Shift in Commercial Real Estate", we dive deep into the industry's obsession with square feet and propose a new framework that can lead to sustainable growth and profitability. Despite an impressive 15% annual industry growth, many operators struggle to turn a profit. But why? 🤔 We explore: 👉 The skyrocketing interest in coworking despite it making up a mere 1.8% of US office space via Yardi and CoworkingCafe 👉 How top coworking spaces achieve profitability through community building and innovative strategies via OfficeRnD 👉 The outdated focus on square footage and its impact on property values and business potential via PilotoMail and Freedom from Square Feet This is more than just an article; it's a call to reimagine how we value and use commercial space to meet the needs of today's hybrid and flexible workforce. Warren Hersowitz Miro Miroslavov #CoworkingSpaces #CommercialRealEstate #FutureOfWork #Innovation #SustainableDevelopment #RealEstateTrends

Excited to join in on the news and finally share this amazing book that my dear friend Cat Johnson wrote! The Daily Co dives into the art of community building, offering daily affirmations and strategies that resonate with the challenges and rewards we face every day as coworking operators. It's inspiring to see such a thoughtful resource come to life, get yours here: https://lnkd.in/eik5-6df #coworking #community #newbook!!

My friends and partners Gino A. Villarini and Michelle Colon from AeroNet Wireless Broadband are trail blazers. Today they launched AeroFiber XG - the fastest Internet connectivity in Puerto Rico at 10 gigabytes, for a fraction of what this speed costs in cities like San Francisco. This is game changing for the Island’s entreprenuership ecosystem and we’re proud that all of our Piloto 151 coworking spaces have the best and most reliable providers in the market. Congrats to the entire Aeronet team for this record-breaking milestone! 🎉💪 #Internetpioneers #gofaster #AeroFiberXG

eMerge Americas was awesome! Thank you Melissa Medina, Daniel Herrera and the entire Emerge team for an incredible experience ✨ Jim Ryan loved participating in your podcast - thanks for the invite! And of course the PR delegation was present and paving the way to continue building and supporting our tech and startup ecosystem Cristina S. Tamayo Pérez Alan Taveras, MBA Brian Bourgerie

Excited to be at Emerge Americas today! Great energy and great startups all around. If you happen to be around, we’re in booth SS32 - stop by for a chat! #emergeamericas

Caleb Parker beat me to the punch by sharing my latest Forbes piece and stirring quite the conversation. In my latest article, "Coworking's Not-So-Secret Revenue Problem" I discuss why, despite significant growth and a robust post-pandemic recovery, profits in coworking spaces aren't distributed equally. Why are nearly half of all coworking spaces struggling financially, with a significant chunk actually losing money? #coworking https://lnkd.in/escmmFrT