As CEO of Workshop17, Paul Keursten has had a front-row seat to the real pressures founders face when building a company from scratch. One of the most overlooked and possibly most damaging is real estate. Startups are collapsing under fixed costs before they\u2019ve even found product-market fit, and long-term office leases are a major culprit. This piece unpacks why conventional commercial property models are out of step with how modern startups operate, and why flexible, scalable workspaces are no longer a nice-to-have. They are essential. It also outlines how space is being rethought at Workshop17, not just as infrastructure but as a strategic lever that can help founders build stronger, leaner, successful businesses.<\/p>\n
The startup graveyard is full of good ideas undone by bad decisions. Most founders obsess over product, funding and hiring. But far too many overlook one of the biggest liabilities on their balance sheet: real estate.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be blunt. Traditional office leases are a serious risk for early-stage companies. Locking into multi-year contracts before finding product-market fit can leave startups exposed to fixed costs they can\u2019t easily adjust when things shift. The result? Burn rates spike, runways shrink, and founders are forced to make tough trade-offs. Cut headcount or carry underused space. Either way, it\u2019s pressure no young company needs.<\/p>\n
Commercial real estate was built for the industrial age, not the entrepreneurial era. Lease terms that span five or ten years might work for banks or law firms, but they\u2019re poison for young businesses still figuring out who they are and where they\u2019re going. Growth isn\u2019t linear, and neither should space usage be. It\u2019s about balancing continuity and flexibility.<\/p>\n
The pandemic exposed the absurdity of this model. Offices sat empty while companies bled cash to keep them. Even now, many founders are repeating the same mistakes, lured by shiny buildings and the illusion of legitimacy that comes with a fixed address. They forget the golden rule of early-stage business: cash is oxygen. Don\u2019t waste it on things that don\u2019t move the needle. That doesn\u2019t mean that offices aren\u2019t important, they are, but in a different way.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s needed is a complete rethink. Space should behave more like cloud computing: elastic, scalable and on-demand. Need a boardroom in Cape Town for three hours? Done. A few hot desks in Sandton for your product sprint next week? Sorted. But it\u2019s not just about drop-in convenience. Growing teams also need secure, fully serviced environments that can flex with their hybrid schedules. Whether it\u2019s 100 people rotating through a space designed for 50, or a company expanding into a new market without the burden of underused square metres, the goal is the same\u2014fit-for-purpose space that adjusts as your business evolves.<\/p>\n
Flexible workspace gives founders freedom. Freedom to grow fast without overheads dragging you down. Freedom to experiment without locking yourself into fixed infrastructure. Freedom to fail, pivot and start again without a landlord breathing down your neck.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also, in fact mainly, about people. Office space isn\u2019t just a cost centre. It\u2019s a signal. It tells your team what you value. Your team wants a great place to work, where they feel alive, valued, and feel inspired. Are you investing in flexibility, trust and autonomy? Or are you trying to recreate a 1990s corporate environment in the hope that it\u2019ll impress investors? Spoiler: it won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Smart founders are already rewriting the rules. They\u2019re ditching rigid leases in favour of flexible workspaces that scale with them. They\u2019re mixing remote work with physical space in a way that makes sense for how people actually work now. Not how they worked ten years ago. And they\u2019re being brutally honest about what office space is for.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, it\u2019s about deep focus. Sometimes, it\u2019s about collaboration. Sometimes, it\u2019s just about having somewhere to go that isn\u2019t your kitchen table. But it\u2019s never about permanence. The old model assumed that a company would grow in one direction, in one city, at one pace. That assumption no longer holds. Neither should the lease.<\/p>\n
At Workshop17, we\u2019ve designed our spaces to reflect this reality. We\u2019re not in the business of renting out square metres. We\u2019re in the business of helping companies work smarter. That means modular solutions, not monolithic ones. Shared infrastructure not duplicated waste. And community. Not in the gimmicky, beanbag sense, but in the real sense of proximity to other people building hard things.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve seen what happens when space becomes a strategic asset, not a sunk cost. Startups can grow faster because they\u2019re not weighed down by liabilities. Teams can focus better because the space fits the work. Founders can sleep better because their burn rate isn\u2019t bloated by empty desks.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t a fringe idea. It\u2019s the future of work. And the startups that survive the next decade will be the ones that treat space as a variable input, not a fixed expense. They\u2019ll build distributed teams. They\u2019ll switch cities as opportunities shift. They\u2019ll scale space up or down based on real need, not hopeful projections.<\/p>\n
Of course, there\u2019ll still be founders who sign a five-year lease and fit out an office with kombucha taps and ping-pong tables. Some of them might even raise another round before the cash runs out. But most won\u2019t. Because a startup is not a sure thing. It\u2019s a bet. And smart founders place that bet carefully.<\/p>\n
So, before you commit to a space, ask yourself: is this helping my business move faster? Or is it just making me feel more like a \u201creal\u201d company? Because real companies don\u2019t win because they look the part. They win because they\u2019re lean, fast and focused.<\/p>\n
The smartest companies don\u2019t let real estate dictate their pace. They use space like they use capital. Precisely, with clear purpose and measurable return. And when they need a place to work, meet or build, they choose partners who understand that flexibility isn\u2019t just convenient. It\u2019s a strategy for long-term resilience and scale.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to stop thinking of office space as a destination. It\u2019s a tool. Use it wisely.<\/p>\n
For more info, visit: www.workshop17.com, email info@workshop17.co.za or call 021 205 9000<\/p>\n
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