Why we started Tandem

We've figured out how to work from home -- now it's time how to figure out how to work together

So we did a thing! 6 months in to the Tandem journey with my incredible co-founders Kristen and Brendan

Almost three and a half years ago, I felt like my entire world had been flipped upside down.

It was the summer of 2020, and I was spiraling into an existential crisis.

Three months prior, the onset of the pandemic had rocked our world. Those early months were pure survival.

Working at home was hard, sure. The energy and joy of being on a team, creating something together, sapped. The fulfillment of a colleague’s smile — telling you you mattered, YOU were needed. Gone, traded for corporate reassurances and pitiful Zoom happy hours.

But, we were the lucky ones.

Wake up, watch the news, put on a mask, walk around the block, and think just how awesome it is to be alive. Indeed, with all that was going on in the world, the privilege to be able to work from home was remarkable.

By the summer, the shock had begun to wear off, the gratefulness fading. The dreadfulness of being stuck at home collided with the realization that maybe this wouldn’t be over so soon. And then, the acceptance that this work from home thing is kinda, sorta, working.

At that point, in the mid summer of 2020, most of my friends said fuck it.

If the transition home meant that work no longer offered the personal meaning it once did, why let work occupy the same space in your life?

Why not take advantage of this moment of flexibility to finally invest in all the other things you’ve wanted to do?

My friends sought new adventures — new hobbies (remember the sourdough craze?), sports (apparently it was okay to play golf at 2pm on a Tuesday), and trips galore (2021 having been one of the busiest ski seasons on record).

I, myself, decided to move in with my grandmother. I quit my job, started a new one, and lived a year of my dreams. The two of us had dinner together every night — real dinner, home cooked, with real plates and forks and knives. I worked out for an hour and a half every day. I learned to play tennis. And the sunsets! Oh, the sunsets we enjoyed together.

COVID life with my grandmother, Ada. What a delicious year.

But despite all the new interests, work still remained a majority of my waking hours. And while I loved my job, it was execution. Make lists, get shit done, repeat.

As 2021 wore on, I came to see that (1) this WFH thing wasn’t going away anytime soon, and (2) I wasn’t the only one feeling the way I felt. Americans, especially my age, were changing jobs in unprecedented numbers. Contract and freelance work ballooned as #QuietQuitting stormed the algorithms.

The subtle longing for something more at work, tucked so neatly away by the unexpected perks of this new era, erupted into existential crisis within me. What is work meant to be? A means to an end, or something greater?

The trouble was, before this whole thing started, it was something greater. It was my source of belonging and integrity, the rock that gave my ambition structure.

And so, I struggled. While so many of my peers took this moment to draw a square box around their jobs, I just couldn’t do it. Work, the place I would spend 2/3 of my life, most of my waking hours — how could I not strive for better?

Yes, work from home got marginally better. People slowly came to understand the criticality of strong workplace relationships, and the challenge of establishing them behind a computer screen. We invested more. But truthfully, the results have been meager.

3 years after that existential summer, for so many work still lacks the depth of meaning and fulfillment it once offered.

At this point in the story, Jamie Dimon would say - well then, let’s get everyone back. Let’s recreate what we used to have.

Those who follow that argument are living in the past. The cat is out of the bag — we are never going to be back working 5 days a week in the office.

And for good reason. Sure, the 2pm golf session might not be totally necessary, but many of those pandemic silver linings are actually — in my view — good things. It is a good thing to spend quality time with family. It is a good thing to have hobbies outside of work And it is a good thing to not let your entire identity be defined by your job.

The question is - must we give up on all the good that work can bring in exchange for that? Can workplaces once again be sources of inspiration and connection — AND can we also maintain the new parts of life discovered?

If you ask the media, the answer is no. This is a battle between two sides: those who believe in work-from-home and those who do not:

I say there’s another way.

Hybrid work can offer the best of both worlds: all the good that being together in person provides, without sacrificing all the flexibility that work-from-home offers.

And hybrid is happening. With offices half as full as they were in 2019, and most companies no longer fully remote, it’s pretty clear that hybrid will outlast the RTO headlines.

The problem?

Not all hybrid is the same.

Splitting your days between home and the office does not in any way guarantee the best of both worlds.

To given an example, my mom’s work requires she be in office 2.5 days a week (apparently a half day can be measured).

She picks days to go in when she doesn’t have early calls, drives the 45 minutes to the office, swipes her badge, takes a meeting or two, and drives right back.

Why?

Nobody she’s meeting with is there. The office is half dead, she sits in a stuffy Zoom booth and wonders what the point of this is.

“The best part of going in is the drive home,” she told me. “I haven’t heard so many podcasts in so long.”

Think about that: the best part about going into the office is the time not spent in the office, the time that used to be the worst part about going into the office.

Companies are solving this with free lunch, highly amenitized spaces, fancy views. None of it is working.

And that’s because everything uniquely good about the office is social.

To achieve social, you need people to come in at the same time or all the benefits disappear.

But that's hard to do, and it’s hard because office space has traditionally been a highly illiquid asset. Renting an office is more like buying a second home than renting an Airbnb for the weekend.

And so, not wanting to further waste money on an expensive, half-used asset, most companies are left with one shitty option: downsize your space and peanut butter spread your people on different days of the week. At which point your people are better off not coming in at all!

I started Tandem, with my two incredible partners Kristen and Brendan, to make hybrid — the right kind of hybrid, the social kind — work.

Some early press on our concept! (Read the full piece here).

How do we do that?

It’s all about sharing.

If teams only go into the office half as often, we either have to:

1. Make spaces smaller — usually involving subdivision with new walls going up

2. Find a way for companies (or, for very large organizations, teams) to share

We believe sharing is a better option because it preserves the benefits of what coming into the office is all about. Shared space, when done right, is energizing. Social vibrancy and psychological safety allow people to create and build together in ways they simply could not across Zoom.

And when two non-competitive companies with synergies share, the outcomes can be even better: shared learnings and idea cross-pollination.

Except for co-working — which is really suited for freelancers — there hasn’t yet been an easy way for companies to share.

Brokers may help you sublease, but even that usually involves a wall going up to subdivide the space. If two companies want to physically share space — whether that be a kitchen and common area, conference rooms, or even desks — the only real way to do it today is on your own. Post to LinkedIn, hope you find a match. Figure out the sharing norms, prepare legal docs, manage rent splitting.

An original sharing concept we ideated on about a year ago. In reality most of our sharing arrangements today allow for full time desk access, with shared rooms and amenities.

Tandem seeks to make sharing easy. Whether you have space you want to share, or are looking for new shared space, we’ll find you a match you love and take care of the legal process. Over time, we plan to support with everything from rent collection to room intermediation to WiFi.

We believe social energy is the source of all that’s worth leaving home for. The office should not be a mere duplicate place to work, but a place that offers value that can’t be had working alone anywhere else.

Our model is up against an old world industry that’s not used to change. Commercial real estate — office space in particular — has, until now, largely been a commodity good. The market sets the price, and the buyer accepts it.

That’s all changing. The office is now a tool, a tool that offers differential outcomes when used in different ways.

And so, while we know this won’t be easy, ultimately the outcome will be worth it. We’ll continue to appreciate the flexibility of home life, while rediscovering our old ambitions and the fulfillment that work can provide.

If you’re interested in this space and want to follow along the Tandem journey, shoot me a note — let’s connect.