Broker Spotlight: Jay Lee of WorkSnap

In this edition of our Broker Spotlight, we’re excited to feature Jay Lee, Founder of WorkSnap, an innovative platform that connects users with flexible workspace options. With decades of experience in real estate and a passion for simplifying workspace access, Jay shares his professional journey, the inspiration behind WorkSnap, and how its contributing to the evolving flexible office landscape. Learn more about Jay’s vision and how WorkSnap is enhancing the way professionals find and utilize workspace solutions in this inspiring interview.

Hi Jay! Can you tell us a little about yourself and your journey in the real estate industry?

Certainly! Born in Seoul, South Korea as an expat child, our family have travelled the world during my younger years. We were relocated to Amsterdam in the late ‘70s. After spending my teen years in the Rotterdam region and graduation from the TU Delft, I have been working in the Real Estate industry ever since. Now for almost 30 years, mainly in RE development (both commercial as well as residential) and asset management.

A few years ago I started Redwood Capital as an incubator for RE related innovations. WorkSnap is the first service that has been launched earlier this year.

What inspired you to start WorkSnap, and what is your long-term vision for the platform?

WorkSnap’s core is an idea I had when I left Fortis (now ASR) Real Estate in the mid 2000’s. Corporate buildings have a lot of unused space (incl. parking) throughout the day as employees are often outside the office. I had this idea to connect all the unused office spaces and amenities together in a platform.

My idea of WorkSnap was to make well equipped and fully serviced private day offices and meeting rooms available for anyone with a last-minute need. Without all the searching, legal hassle and costly price tags. Hence our motto is to ‘democratize the office space’. The customer could be anyone from a small business owner (ZZP) to a corporate employee traveling the country now having meetings with multiple clients at highway restaurants where privacy is non-existent. Obviously, the solution needs to be dead simple to use. Besides that, what really makes us unique in the real estate business is both types of spaces in all our locations over the country come with the same fixed rate.

Working on a country wide coverage of locations, often in city centres, we encourage customers to leave the car at home and come by bicycle or public transport. This way, we also aim to help reduce the carbon footprint.

So that’s what WorkSnap is: use it when and where you need, and without looking for the best price because WorkSnap has the best price! With WorkSnap we want to help our customers to be more productive in a fully serviced and professional work environment without the stress. Our ambition is to grow into a global solution for anyone with an instant need for office space for a (part of a) day.

What do you enjoy most about your role and the flexible workplace sector?

Entrepreneurship and looking for new revenue possibilities with companies both in and outside the RE industry has been very rewarding so far. Connecting the dots between the needs of customers and the solutions, together with our partners, has been a very exciting and humbling experience.

I really enjoy collaborating with companies of all sizes. Tribes was one of the first operators we talked to and joined us right away. Some flexible workspace operators are initially hesitant about the idea. They fear WorkSnap will cannibalize their sales. But it’s quite the opposite. It’s a win-win-win situation. WorkSnap will add to their existing revenue model (aka Revenue Stacking), generate new traffic that would otherwise never have used their spaces and our customers might end up leasing office space long term. More collaborations with operators are on its way.

Besides collaboration with flexible office operators, we have reached out and collaborated with other companies that will enrich the service to our customers. The first company we reached out to was the mobility company Q-Park. If there’s a Q-Park garage in the proximity of our location, our customers can book a parking place with a discount on the same page of the location you’re booking.

How has the rise of hybrid work and freelancing influenced demand and user expectations for flexible workspaces and digital booking solutions?

Hybrid working as we know now became widely accepted with the pandemic. Yet this is limited to partly working from home and partly at the corporate office. What we are also offering with WorkSnap is a third alternative between working from home and at the office. There could be numerous reasons you can’t work from home or at the office today. Anything from avoiding the heat at your home office spot on the hottest days during the summer to optimizing your travel when meeting with different clients away from the office, or even just the pleasure of a quiet private office for a day away from the noisy open space desk at the corporate office.

The pandemic and the acceptance of hybrid working being just so recent, most people aren’t aware that a third alternative, a private day office or meeting space away from the corporate office, is here. Renting a private office room for a day never even comes to mind as this is considered not even possible...

A very overlooked subject in working in open space offices is that this type of office generates a lot of stimuli of senses. It would be of great help for highly sensitive corporate employees if employers would offer them a way to retreat when needed to work in a low stimuli working environment. If this isn’t possible at the corporate office, WorkSnap might be able to help with a private day office as our locations are situated anywhere from near home or near the corporate office.

How do you see technology and digital tools evolving to better support the needs of users in the flexible workspace industry?

Today’s technology allows us to have access to digital solutions anytime, anywhere. However, working or meeting is still a people business. The first moment of greetings at the reception desk, having an enjoyable meeting or productive day to enjoying a nice cup of coffee together with your client. It’s about the connection with people with the same mindset.

Thank you again for the invitation to the Tribes Broker Spotlight!