Daybase
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Daybase was a US-based flexible workspace startup founded in 2021 by former WeWork executives Joel Steinhaus and Doug Chambers. It operated on-demand work spots close to where people live, pitched as a middle ground between a centralized corporate office or traditional coworking space and working from home. The company targeted affluent suburbs, where hybrid workers wanted a professional space without a long commute, and raised $9.6 million in venture funding.
02 / Daybase FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
Commercial Observer (2 May 2023) quotes Daybase CEO Joel Steinhaus that the location closings were a function of capital markets shifting dramatically and quickly; after rates rose, unlimited capital to build enterprise-grade neighborhood flex space became prohibitive, and he said sustainable coworking buildout requires partnership with asset owners.
Steinhaus said the closings were a function of capital markets having shifted really dramatically really quickly.
The article states that after interest rates rocketed higher starting last spring, unlimited capital to make the Daybase idea happen became prohibitive.
Steinhaus said the capital intensity of building out physical coworking space requires partnership with asset owners to be sustainable.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
Hoboken Girl (7 Dec 2022): member email said Daybase Hoboken last day of operations Friday 9 Dec 2022. Commercial Observer: Harrison NY also closed in December; Westfield never opened.
- Operations ended
Commercial Observer (2 May 2023) calls Daybase a market casualty and states as of 1 May there were zero Daybase locations.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Daybase was announced in May 2021 by former WeWork executives Joel Steinhaus and Doug Chambers, pitching on-demand work spots in the suburbs for hybrid workers avoiding long commutes.
- 02
In January 2022, Steinhaus said the first location on Washington Street in Hoboken, New Jersey was days from opening, with two more planned in Harrison, New York and Westfield, New Jersey.
- 03
The Westfield location never opened. The Hoboken location shuttered in December 2022, and the Harrison location opened and then closed in the same month.
- 04
Steinhaus attributed the closures to the capital markets having shifted dramatically and quickly, making the cost of executing the suburban-workspace model prohibitive.
- 05
The company wound down in 2023 after its locations closed; no bankruptcy filing was reported. No reliable loss figure was disclosed, so no loss amount is recorded.