Around the world, comp>Member Spotlight series shares their unique stories.
The challenge: a successful start-up needed to open new offices worldwide
In November 2018, TripActions – a business travel start-up based in Palo Alto, California – reached a $1 billion valuation.
The company describes itself as a "travel agent in your pocket" for companies and their employees. Their teams are available 24/7 on the TripActions app to solve any problems people may encounter on the road. But in order to truly support those business travellers, no matter where their journeys take them, TripActions needed to have local teams around the world. This meant opening and staffing physical offices in strategic locations.
Before taking the plunge, TripActions had some concerns. Would they be able to bring their unique company culture to life in each new location? And with the business growing so quickly, TripActions had a hard time predicting employee headcount years in advance. “Expanding into other cities beyond Palo Alto was an experiment. We were hesitant to sign a lease on a space that locked us in for several years” says Nina Giovannelli, Vice President of Business Operations at TripActions.
The solution: the ability to grow quickly while maintaining the employee experience
From their Palo Alto headquarters, TripActions saw San Francisco as a strong recruiting location. They moved into a WeWork office suite in San Francisco – a private space on a shared floor, with their own entrance. In just five months, TripActions was able to hire locally and grow their business from this new space.
TripActions saw that the process of opening new offices and expanding their business abroad wasn’t as daunting with a partner like WeWork. Now, the travel platform can quickly grow their global presence – along with their customers. “WeWork has enabled us to recruit great talent that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to” says Tammi Yee, Vice President of Global Talent at TripActions. “Instead of being siloed in our Palo Alto headquarters, we now recruit the very best talent in cities all over the globe”.
From London to Amsterdam, Sydney to New York, TripActions now has more than 400 employees worldwide. “WeWork gives us that flexibility to grow fast, without having to worry that we’re overpaying for space we don’t need” says Rich Liu, TripActions’ Chief Revenue Officer.
The sense of community that grew from one location in Palo Alto to six WeWork locations has remained as strong as ever – along with increased employee productivity. “We actually found that the people who were coming into an office were 46 per cent more productive in terms of hitting their quotas than people working out of home offices” says Liu.
The results: building a global community customers love
TripActions knows that their global ambitions go hand-in-hand with maintaining their unique company culture – and WeWork has helped them reach their ambitious business goals.
“We’ve gone from 40 to 400 people in a year, and it would have been impossible to do that without WeWork. Impossible” says Francis Moran, Vice President of Finance at TripActions. “It’s not just about getting it done, it’s about getting it done right. WeWork has enabled our tenfold growth in a way that still embodies who we are as a company.”
Key highlights:
- TripActions leverages several space solutions, including WeWork office suites, which offers the perfect combination of privacy and location
- Ongoing partnership to continue growing and expanding the business internationally
- Increased ability to attract and retain top talent while scaling globally
- Timely delivery of each new office location
- One consistent global point of contact
WeWork offers companies of all sizes space solutions that help solve their biggest business challenges.
