The new coronavirus is changing business in ways that will last long after COVID-19 is gone, and one Texas entrepreneur’s commercial real estate start-up could solve a lot of problems.
Reda Hicks started Got Spot Inc. to help military spouses like herself find commercial space for their businesses. Because the Pentagon can transfer a servicemember unpredictably, their partners cannot sign commercial leases with confidence.
As a result, spouses end up working from home. But a lawyer, like Hicks, sometimes needs a conference room in which to meet clients. A baker needs a commercial kitchen. A massage therapist needs a quiet place.
Hicks also knew from experience with bankruptcy cases that the most significant financial weight on many small businesses was rent on spaces that are frequently empty. Conference rooms are often empty, and restaurant kitchens are idle in the off-hours.
What if, Hicks wondered, she could connect people who need space by the hour with businesses that could use extra income?
“Lots of businesses don’t need a traditional space anymore, but if they want their businesses to grow, they need access to space they can borrow,” Hicks told me. “Main Street has all this amazing space, but there’s a disconnect between the need for that space and the ability to find it.”
TOMLINSON’S TAKE: Time for some kind bargaining in commercial real estate
At first, Hicks made these connections informally, helping her fellow military spouses on a case-by-case basis. But she discovered the true scale of the problem while working for a logistics and warehousing company when Hurricane Harvey hit.
She and other employees fielded dozens of calls from government officials, relief agencies and business owners asking for space to store supplies or set up operations.
“What I realized was this disconnect between what’s in the built environment and what people need to keep organizations running and keep businesses running. It’s an acute problem as well as an everyday problem, and it needs fixing,” she said.
Using simple software, Hicks built and launched a prototype website in 2018. She recruited small businesses that had space and began connecting them with small-business owners.
“You can imagine the Frankenstein technology that a lawyer with no training builds,” Hicks said of that early effort. But she took the prototype to business plan competitions, and at one, she met a technologist who became Got Spot’s chief technology officer.
Last fall, Hicks was accepted into Presidential Leadership Scholars, a prestigious fellowship that requires a community impact project. She decided to develop a version of Got Spot to help first responders during emergencies like Hurricane Harvey. She dubbed it Rescue Spot and hoped to have it ready May 1.
The new coronavirus pandemic began on March 10.
Organizations began calling her for warehouse space to store and distribute personal protective equipment and commercial kitchens for food preparation.
Rescue Spot is up and running. But as more people work from home, and experts question the future of the offices, the original Got Spot service also has heightened relevance.
My friend Jon Roberts, an economic development consultant, and I have been debating the future of commercial real estate. He thinks companies will shrink their footprint but still keep a permanent office where employees meet intermittently.
TOMLINSON’S TAKE: During COVID-19, landlords need a break, too
But why, I wonder, would a company pay a monthly lease for a conference room that employees only use a few hours a week? Why not rent space by the hour? And rather than pay for an expensive coworking space like WeWork, why not pay a larger firm that is looking for helping pay the rent?
“This is a model that a lot of businesses are going to because they have dispersed teams, or they are nonprofits, and they cannot justify the overhead anymore,” Hicks told me. “The pandemic has accelerated this a little bit by showing to businesses that traditionally rely on face time that they can run efficiently without it.”
Got Spot was just getting started, making hundreds of matches for nonprofits and startups in Houston, when COVID-19 forced most people onto video conferencing software. But eventually, people will want to meet again in person. And a lot of companies will want help with the rent.
“I’ve had a number of different companies in Houston, but also in Austin and San Antonio, reach out to me because they’re realizing their footprint is too big,” Hicks said. They still have their long-term lease, and they are looking for ways to make money from it until they can downsize, she added.
The COVID-19 pandemic has damaged many “sharing economy” businesses like Uber or Airbnb. But when it comes to office space, Got Spot may hold the solution for many different companies.
Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.
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chris.tomlinson@chron.com
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