A Santa Clara, CA startup wants to ease the pain of other startups when it comes to outfitting their offices. Swivelfly is launching an online subscription furnishings service today which promises to make furnishing a new office, expanding or contracting space, and changing styles simple and flexible.
The company calls its model “furniture-as-a-service” or “FaaS” – a spin on traditional rental services that offers more flexibility, better budget matching, more choice and quicker turnaround times. The service is aimed at fast-growing tech companies whose needs may change with the month but have little time to spend choosing colors, styles, coverings and all the rest that is involved in outfitting new offices in the traditional manner.
“The FaaS model removes the guess work and specifically calculates a company’s needs based on headcount and workspace size”
Swivelfly founder Bruce Paul says that traditional model is akin to using a tailor to make your clothes. Busy management teams at fast-growing companies have no time for it.
“We saw many pain points in the legacy models that were causing frustration and anxiety for the customer,” said Paul. “The three big pain points were high upfront costs, too much time to execute, and too many choices leading to a lack of flexibility. The legacy model is like going to a tailor for your clothing and choosing colors, fabrics, buttons, collar styles, cuts and everything else that goes into custom tailoring. That is not how people want to get things done today.”
Instead of swatches and showrooms, Swivelfly offers simple per-seat packages with 12 to 72 month subscription terms. As headcounts grow and shrink, companies simply adjust the monthly package size of their color- and style-coordinated office ensembles.
“The FaaS model removes the guess work and specifically calculates a company’s needs based on headcount and workspace size,” said Paul. “Because fees are charged as a monthly expense, companies can plan better and stretch their dollar further.”
Today’s launch of the company’s “Swivelbot” online space designing app marks Swivelfly’s official entry into San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Denver and Austin.
To serve tech founders who may not have the time but want the trendy look of today’s tech offices, the company works with about 15 vendors. “Our focus is to have a trending line of options that changes often, so customers can be confident that their offices are not cookie cutter,” Paul adds. “We are also very focused on our target audience – companies with 15 – 75 employees who are close to scaling mode.”
The subscription rental model can also offer certainty of cost per employee and some tax advantages to startups seeking to simply their growth budgeting. “The FaaS model removes the guess work and specifically calculates a company’s needs based on headcount and workspace size,” says Paul. “Because fees are charged as a monthly expense, companies can plan better and stretch their dollar further.”
