Jobber opens a Toronto office that gives them the best of both worlds: the flexibility of coworking with the privacy of a direct lease.

Jobber provides an end-to-end software platform that helps tens of thousands of small home service businesses manage their operations. Headquartered in Edmonton, Canada, Jobber serves customers in more than 40 countries around the world. Businesses using Jobber have served 10 million people, delivering more than $6B, annually, in home services including plumbing, lawn care, HVAC, pest control, and more, to their customers.

Traditionally, home services businesses have operated through manual processes, with owners juggling scheduling, customer acquisition, and payment processing through pen-and-paper and a patchwork of solutions. Jobber’s platform is driving digital transformation in home services that echoes the journey of the e-commerce and restaurant industries. “This market hasn’t crossed the chasm yet and we’re looking forward to opening up the category,” says Shawn Cadeau, Chief Revenue Officer at Jobber.

The company has grown tremendously in the last year to capture the opportunity in the high-growth home services tech market. It increased its headcount by 70 across its Edmonton and Toronto offices, bringing its total to nearly 200 employees. With the need to seek out and hire talent across every job function, the company needed a regional office space that could house a rapidly growing team in Toronto.

Kicking off an office search in the tightest real estate market in Canada

The Toronto-based team started out in a coworking space, but the lack of privacy soon drove them to consider all their options. “We looked into other custom flexible space solutions, but most still felt a lot like a coworking space,” Shawn says. “Even though they offer a dedicated space and buildout, you’re separated by glass walls and can literally see the other people working beside you. We wanted a truly private and flexible office that would scale with us, rather than a fixed-term office solution that also felt like cordoned-off space.”

So, the team left coworking and moved into a sublet, but soon outgrew the space months before the lease was up. “We had employees spilling over into hallways and the kitchen to find a suitable place to work,” he says. “That’s when we knew we needed to find an office space of our own in Toronto.”

Jobber kicked off their search for a regional office in February 2019, enlisting the help of a real estate agent to navigate the Toronto market – the city with the lowest vacancy rates in Canada. Unfortunately, they could only find spaces with five to ten-year lease commitments that were too restrictive. “A traditional lease would have left us with two options,” he says. “Overpay to lease a long-term space that we would [eventually] grow into it, or buy a space and have to deal with the added headache of becoming a landlord once it no longer fit our needs.”

The perfect fit: Flexibility, service, and privacy

After struggling to find a suitable private space on terms that fit into Jobber’s growth plans, Shawn found Breather. He was met with a tech-powered solution that combined the flexibility and services of coworking with the privacy of a direct lease. He was sold. In June 2019, Jobber moved their Toronto team into 425 Adelaide in the Entertainment District. “Breather provided us with a private, turnkey space on flexible terms and a custom build-out with the look and feel we wanted,” he says. “The contracting process was simple and much faster than other options. We even had the ability to pay for the space with a credit card, which is unheard of in a traditional lease.”

“With Breather, we’ve been able to focus on what we do best: support small business owners by providing the powerful operations management software they need to be successful,” Shawn explains.

Betting on smart growth

Jobber is still growing, and Shawn is excited to have found an office space solution that is flexible enough to scale alongside the business. “The ability to have a high-functioning, beautifully designed office space with the added flexibility for that space to expand with us made it the best choice for our team at this stage in our growth,” Shawn says. “On top of that, employees love the new space and location.”

For others in high-growth situations, opening their first HQ or regional office, Shawn advises working with an agent to learn the ins and outs of the market and keeping your growth plans in mind before making any real estate commitments.

“Breather has been a huge help for our business, empowering us to expand into a new location without the risk of traditional or shared office options,” Shawn says.