How a 90+ person tech company solved office space with flexible membership

The Challenge: You’re a tech company with 90+ employees spread across Europe. Your London team needs professional workspace, but committing to a full office that sits empty half the week makes no financial sense.

The Solution: 32 team members sharing 60 day passes per month through flexible membership.

The Result: Professional space when needed, zero waste, and costs that scale with actual usage.

This is the story of how one rapidly growing tech company ditched the traditional office model and found a solution that actually matches how modern distributed teams work.

The problem: traditional offices don’t fit distributed teams

Konversational is a tech company with 90+ employees across Dublin (headquarters), London, Paris, Zurich, and Lausanne. Like many modern tech companies, they’re distributed by design, not by accident.

Their London team faced a common dilemma:

What they needed:

• Professional space for client meetings
• Collaboration areas for team days
• Quiet focus environment when working from home wasn’t ideal
• Flexibility for team members who work different patterns

What traditional offices offered:

• 3-5 year lease commitments
• Fixed number of desks (too many = wasted money, too few = no room to grow)
• Full-time rent for part-time usage
• Expensive fit-out costs and ongoing facilities management

The maths didn’t work. Why pay £40,000+ monthly for 30+ desks when only 10-12 people would be in office on any given day?

Before Work.Life, they tried another well-known workspace provider. But even flexible coworking spaces designed for startups didn’t quite solve the problem – they still didn’t have enough space when everyone needed to be together, and the structure wasn’t flexible enough for their distributed team’s reality.

The solution: flex membership that actually flexes

Here’s what they implemented instead:

The setup:

• 32 team members with access to Work.Life spaces
• 60 day passes per month shared across the team
• Multiple London locations (Holborn, Borough, Liverpool Street, Soho, Shoreditch) so everyone can choose convenient spots
• Meeting rooms available for team sessions and client meetings
• No fixed desks, no wasted space – pay only for what’s actually used

How it works in practice:

“Work.Life’s Flex membership has been a game changer for how our team works,” explains Yuliya, Head of Talent & Operations. “Our London team needed somewhere professional and welcoming, but we didn’t want to commit to a full office that sat empty half the week.”

Different people, different patterns:

• ~10 team members attend office regularly (2-3 times per week)
• Rest come occasionally for specific purposes
• New hires use it intensively during onboarding
• International colleagues use passes when visiting London
• Everyone can book ahead or drop in spontaneously

“With Work.Life’s Flex Membership, we have 60 day passes each month shared between 32 team members – it’s the ideal setup. Everyone can come in as often as they need, whether that’s for client meetings, collaboration days, or just a quiet space to focus.”

Why it works: flexibility that matches reality

The flex membership model solves problems that traditional offices create:

1. Pay for usage, not capacity

Traditional office:

• 30 desks × £800/month = £24,000
• Used by 10-12 people daily = 33-40% utilisation
• Empty 60%+ of the time
• Annual cost: £288,000

Flex membership:

• 60 day passes × £30-35 = £1,800-2,100
• Used by whoever needs them = 100% utilisation
• No empty desks, no wasted money
• Annual cost: £21,600-25,200
• Annual saving: £260,000+

2. Scale without renegotiation

Growing fast? Need more passes next month? Just buy them.

Quieter period? Use fewer passes.

No lease amendments, no penalties, no complicated negotiations.

“We’re also growing the team, so new people will be joining as we go,” their Head of Talent noted. With flex membership, growth doesn’t create office space crises.

3. Geographic flexibility for distributed teams

With team members living across London, having access to multiple locations matters:

• Borough location for South London team
• Liverpool Street for East London
• Holborn for those coming from North/West

Rather than forcing everyone to commute to one fixed office, people choose locations convenient to them on any given day.

4. Professional environment without overhead

Tech companies need credible spaces for:

• Client meetings and demos
• Investor conversations
• Team collaboration sessions
• Partner meetings
• Recruitment interviews

Coffee shops don’t cut it. But maintaining a full office for occasional professional meetings is overkill.

Flex membership provides professional meeting rooms available by the hour, alongside workspace for the team.

5. Community without isolation

One unexpected benefit:

“At Work.Life, there’s always room for our team, the process is seamless, and the community feel makes such a difference.”

Unlike a private office where you only interact with your own team, coworking brings you into contact with other companies, creating unexpected connections and conversations.

For distributed teams where people don’t see colleagues daily, this community element reduces isolation without the commitment of full-time office.

The operational reality: how it actually runs

Booking process:
Team members book passes through Work.Life’s platform. Simple, straightforward, no complicated approval processes.

Usage tracking:
Company can see usage patterns – who’s coming in, which locations are popular, whether 60 passes is right amount or needs adjustment.

Billing:
One centralized monthly bill. No surprise property costs, utilities, or facilities charges.

Meeting rooms:
Book by the hour when needed for team sessions, client meetings, or all-hands gatherings.

Flexibility:
Need more passes some months? Less others? Adjust based on actual patterns rather than committing to fixed capacity.

“It’s flexible, simple, and works perfectly for how we actually operate,” the team explains.

Is this right for your tech company?

Flex membership works particularly well for:

Distributed tech companies (like Konversational) with:

• 20-100+ employees
• Multiple office locations or fully distributed
• Subset of team in any one city
• Variable office attendance patterns
• Growth trajectory requiring scalability

Teams who need:

• Professional space without full-time commitment
• Flexibility for different working patterns
• Geographic options for distributed team
• Meeting space for collaboration and clients
• Cost structure that matches actual usage

It might not be right if:

• Entire team in office 5 days/week (dedicated office more economical)
• Need highly specialised or customised space
• Require 24/7 access to equipment or facilities
• Want heavily branded private environment

The numbers: when flex membership makes financial sense

Break-even calculation:

If you’re considering flexible office London solutions, here’s rough maths:

Flex membership costs:

• Day pass: £25-35
• Dedicated desk (for regular users): £350-500/month
• Meeting room: £40-60/hour

When it’s cheaper than traditional office:

• If less than 50% of team uses office regularly
• If different people use office different days
• If team is growing/changing rapidly
• If you’re currently spending on coffee shop meetings + no professional space

For Konversational’s setup:

• 60 passes/month = £1,800-2,100
• Traditional 30-person office = £24,000-35,000/month
• Saving: £22,000-33,000 monthly (£264,000-396,000 annually)

Even if usage doubled to 120 passes monthly, they’d still save £20,000+ per month compared to traditional office.

Getting started with flex membership

If you’re managing office space for startups or tech companies with distributed teams, here’s how to explore whether flex membership solves your challenge:

1. Map your actual usage

• How many people would use office space weekly?
• How many occasionally (monthly or less)?
• What do they need it for? (Focus work, collaboration, client meetings?)
• Where are team members located geographically?

2. Calculate your scenario

• Regular users (3+ days/week): Consider dedicated desks
• Occasional users: Calculate day pass needs
• Meeting room requirements
• Compare to current office costs (or lack of professional space)

3. Trial for a month

• Start with estimated day passes
• Try different locations to see what works
• Track actual usage vs. estimate
• Gather team feedback

4. Adjust based on reality

• Increase/decrease passes based on patterns
• Convert regular users to dedicated desks if economical
• Establish booking process that works for team
• Scale as team grows

What this means for distributed tech teams

The traditional office model assumes everyone works in the same place, at the same time, five days a week.

That’s not how modern tech companies operate.

Distributed teams, hybrid working, flexible schedules, and rapid growth all demand workspace solutions that can adapt.

Flex membership for coworking membership provides exactly that: professional space that scales with your team’s actual needs rather than forcing your team to conform to rigid office structures.

Konversational found this after trying traditional offices and other coworking providers. With 32 team members sharing 60 day passes monthly:

• They have professional space when it matters
• They’re not paying for empty desks
• They can scale as the team grows
• Everyone has access to multiple convenient locations
• It works for how they actually operate

“Work.Life’s Flex membership has been a game changer for how our team works… It’s flexible, simple, and works perfectly for how we actually operate.”

Try flex membership for your tech team

If you’re managing distributed team in London and traditional offices don’t fit your reality, flexible office London solutions through flex membership might be exactly what you need.

Ready to explore whether flex membership works for your team?

Book a tour to discuss your team’s specific needs, calculate your usage scenario, and see our spaces across London.

Or email us at memberships@work.life with:

• Your team size and location
• Approximate monthly office usage
• Current office situation (if any)

We’ll create a custom proposal showing exactly how flex membership would work for your team and what it would cost.