A Case Study In Innovation: How Convene Reinvented The Commercial Real Estate Industry

I recently interviewed Ryan Simonetti co-founder and CEO of Convene. What I loved about the Convene model is that it displays the core element to transformation – taking one industry model and transplanting it into a related but different industry … in this case incorporating hotel concierge services into commercial real estate.

Convene has quickly grown from 2009 start-up to 600 people in 27 locations, to become a new industry standard including winning many awards like Fortune Magazine Most Promising Companies, and Inc. Magazine Best Workplace. Ryan has been cited as “Top Entrepreneur” by Crain’s New York, and a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year® New York Awards.

Ryan Simonetti and Robert Reiss

Robert Reiss: Describe the void missing in business that led to the founding of Convene

Ryan Simonetti: At Convene our mission is to create places and experiences that spark human potential.  We do this by partnering with Class A landlords to create a network of premium places to meet, work, and host inspiring events.

When my partner Chris Kelly and I founded Convene in 2009, we recognized that office buildings were no longer built to support the evolving needs of today’s increasingly mobile and collaborative workforce.  The changing nature of work had forced companies to rethink their entire workplace strategy and begin offering the flexibility, choice, and experience required to attract and retain today’s top talent.

Signing long-term leases and delivering a highly amenitized meeting or workplace experience for employees no longer make sense for companies to do on their own.  At Convene, we saw white space in the market to offer an outsourced real estate solution for companies that needs full-service, turnkey meeting and work spaces, and for landlords looking to amenitize their office buildings. We believe that the future of real estate will be consumed on-demand, per user (per hour, day, or year), with the workplace management and services outsourced to companies like Convene.

Reiss: What were the greatest challenges in building the company and what did you learn?

Simonetti: We knew from the beginning that the lines between work and life were blurring and companies needed more flexibility to support their increasingly mobile workforce. Unfortunately, like many companies with new, category-defining business models, Convene was probably a few years too early for the market. What I learned from that experience is that timing is really important and sometimes the best ideas come to market before customers and key stakeholders are ready to adopt.  Thankfully our team had the grit, perseverance, and support of our partners, customers, and shareholders to fight the good fight while we waited for the industry to evolve – and it now feels great to have the wind at our backs!

Reiss: Share insights on creating a great culture.

Simonetti: The dictionary definition of culture is a set of shared attitudes, values, beliefs, goals, and practices that characterizes an organization. Creating a great culture starts with having a clear, non-negotiable, core set of beliefs. These beliefs drive your core values and must align with the broader mission you’ve created for your organization.

At Convene, everything we do starts and ends with our core values of GRIT (an acronym for genuine, relentless, integrity, teamwork) and our philosophy of being 1% better each day.  This has allowed us to create an award-winning culture based on both gratitude and empathy, as well as performance and accountability. Every decision we make, every candidate we hire, and every partner we work with must be 100% aligned with our core values of GRIT. To reinforce our culture and values, we’ve created a number of rituals over the years that support and celebrate our people, including weekly hand-written thank you notes, ongoing recognition programs, and annual awards. The most important takeaway for leaders looking to create a great culture is that it’s not about what you say or what you do, it’s about the behaviors you tolerate and those you celebrate.

Reiss: What innovation of Convene’s are your proudest of?

Simonetti: As a disruptive platform within the real estate industry I’m most proud of the business model that we have created at Convene. Similar to Airbnb and OpenTable who have defined their core stakeholder as the homeowner or restauranteur, at Convene we’ve defined our key stakeholder as the Class A building owner. Unlike our competitors, our win-win landlord partnership approach has allowed us to scale our business model in a way that is much more defensible, capital efficient, and differentiated in the increasingly crowded flexible workplace landscape.

Reiss: Talk about the Convene customer experience.

Simonetti: At Convene, we believe there is a fundamental difference between service and hospitality. Hospitality is the emotional, human-to-human delivery of a service experience. If you think about your favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or hotel, the reasons why you probably love it goes well beyond the design of the physical “place” – it’s the entire experience, the warmth, and anticipated service you feel from the staff when you’re there.

At Convene, we embody this form of authentic, personalized hospitality and encourage all of our team members to build genuine relationships with our customers. While design and technology are certainly important, everything at Convene starts and ends with the human interactions between our team members and our clients that allows us to create a true sense of place – that’s our secret sauce!

Reiss: How will digital change the real estate and hotel business in the future?

Simonetti: New business model innovation and emerging technologies will continue to disrupt the industry by fundamentally altering the way real estate is designed & built, sold & marketed, and serviced & operated.  Our innate human desires for flexibility and personalized experiences are quickly changing the places in which we live, work, and play. In the future, the human-centric application of technology, space design, and hospitality will be integrated to create places that inspire and foster a true sense of community.  The most valuable companies over the next 25 years will be the companies that seamlessly integrate physical and digital worlds to create incredible experiences for their customers.

Reiss: What advise do you have on building a business when you have no models to follow because you created a business model that didn’t exist?

Simonetti: Stay true to your vision, don’t waver on your beliefs, and always follow your intuition. Creating anything new takes time and winning the hearts and minds of your customers and key stakeholders doesn’t happen overnight. It’s an arduous journey that often takes many years. As a founder you must fall in love with the process (and get your team too as well). Brick by brick, day by day, mistake by mistake, small win after small win. No shortcuts. Stay ruthless with focusing on execution and the rest will take care of itself.