Tech giants are busy laying off workers and reducing office space. In the process, they might also be setting in motion the emergence of new entrepreneurs and startupswho will be able to collaborate in suddenly affordable prime commercial real estate.
Angel investor Jason Calacanis predicted on the All-In podcast that the big business winners of 2023 will be laid-off tech workers who choose to take control of their destiny and start companies.
I think laid-off tech workers who get together in groups of two, three, or fourdevelopers, product managers, people who actually build stuffand start companies together are going to become extremely successful, and theyre going to make incredible lemonade from these lemons of these big tech layoffs, he said earlier this month.
Some of those employees-turned-entrepreneurs might come for example from Meta, which recently laid off about 11,000 workers. The Facebook owner is also shedding office space, both to reduce costs and because its embraced remote work. On Friday, it confirmed it will sublease office space in Seattle it no longer needs, according to the Seattle Times. It also recently gave up real estate in New York City.
Subleased office space is typically rented out at a discount, which could allow startups who otherwise couldnt afford it to move in, noted Colliers leasing expert Connor McClain to the Seattle Times.
It isnt just Meta thats both laying off workers and letting go of real estate. Plenty of major tech companies are, among them Microsoft, Salesforce, and Twitter.
Salesforce recently announced layoffsabout 10% of its staffwhile also indicating it will shed real estate. CEO Marc Benioff said in an all-hands meeting.
This is a larger moment for cost restructuring, we want to takesomewhere between $3 to $5 billion out of the business, he said. When we look at how are we going to do that, real estate is going to be a major part of it.
The company is headquartered in San Francisco. A Jan. 7 exchange between PayPal co-founder David Sacks and Tesla CEO Elon Musk highlighted the commercial real estate situation there. Sacks tweeted, Just got offered office space in San Francisco (SOMA) for the same price as 2009. Yikes.
Musk replied, It will go lower.
As it does, entrepreneurs emerging from the tech layoffs could take advantage of the cheaper real estate to house new businesses.
Of course, some startups might choose to save money by not renting commercial real estate and having everyone work from home. But as CEOs at large companies like Disney and Starbucks have recently indicatedwhile insisting remote workers return to the officethere are clear business advantages to collaborating face to face.
As Disney CEO Bob Iger wrote to employees in a recent memo, In a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe, and create with peers that comes from being physically together.
That might be especially true for tech entrepreneurs determined to make lemonade from the lemons of being laid off.
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