You may have found out by now that running a business is not all fun and games. There are serious jobs that need to get done and sometimes you don’t have time to focus on the peripheral operational tasks jobs. Managed by Q (AKA ‘Q’) understands this and wants to help you out. With Q you focus on your business and let the cleaning, supplies and maintenance take care of themselves. Helping companies in 4 cities, and ready to expand, Q is making sure hundreds of companies are being managed responsibly so that you can focus on the important aspects of your Startup.
Speaking with communication head, Jacqueline Kurdziel, we spoke about their recent round of funding and how Managed by Q is doing wonders for the startup world with 5-star service.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Our recent funding was a $25 million series B from the following new investors: GV, formerly Google Ventures, and Kapor Capital.
Tell us about your product or service.
Managed by Q—known as Q—is the platform for office management that makes it easy to run your space through technology-powered office cleaning, maintenance, supply management, and on-demand office services.
Q manages all of an office’s core operational tasks and lets companies focus their energy on their business. This is especially critical for small and midsize businesses – managing their physical office space is often a dreaded afterthought – but with Q, we make that experience seamless, enjoyable and effective.
Today we have operations in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles and are on track to be in more cities and have thousands of operators by the end of this year.
What inspired you to start the company?
We know that running an office isn’t easy, and companies often get bogged down by the operational aspects of running their space. This includes anything from coordinating with cleaning crews, finding reliable handymen to taking care of ad hoc projects such as plumbing issues or office moves, and ensuring that their office is well-stocked with all the necessities they need to keep their team productive—including office snacks, paper towels, bottled water, and more. The problem that Q solves is managing all of these core operational tasks to help companies focus their energy on their business.
How is it different?
Two key differentiating factors about Q are our technology and our team. We’re building a tech-enabled platform that makes running the office seamless and intelligent. We also fully employ every member of our staff—including the cleaners, handymen, helpers and assistants who are in and out of our clients’ spaces. We’ve built great technology powered by amazing people and that’s been a big differentiator for our business. It’s also enabled us to secure our current market leadership position.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Managed by Q is currently serving hundreds of companies ranging from a dozen employees to hundreds in a single facility in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Q is a great partner for any medium to large size company to handle a wide range of office management needs to make their office operations more efficient, especially as they grow.
What’s your business model?
Our services are offered at flat hourly rates. Most of our customers sign up for our services on an ongoing weekly and monthly basis. We have no contracts so clients can cancel anytime. Clients also have the option to purchase the supplies that Q can track and stock in their space, which are priced as flat-rate subscriptions.
What are your thoughts around the classification of on-demand workers?
As a company we’re committed to fully employing every member of our team. From our perspective, classifying our on-demand team as W-2 employees has been a tremendously positive experience for our clients. Often we hear from our clients that their Operator feels like an extension of their team. Because we’re invested in bringing our Operators on board full -time, it gives us the opportunity to train and mentor them, which shines through in our quality of service. Bottom line is that it’s been a net-positive experience among our client base.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
We’ve seen a strong growth trajectory since our launch only 2 years ago, and we continue to be the market leader in our space, managing millions of commercial square footage nationally. Our past performance, along with our vision of building the operating system for the built world, made for a very compelling opportunity for our investors.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
In the coming months we are making serious investments into our platform technology to make it even easier for our clients to run their spaces, by integrating with incumbent technologies and offering a wider range of goods and services all managed through our platform.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
As a company we’ve always been lean, scrappy and focused on execution. I think being able to stay focused on your biggest priorities, with an eye towards execution is critical—this is important whether or not you’re a company who has recently raised money.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Right now we’re focused on continued expansion in the markets where we currently are operating—this includes Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago—all of which are BIG sprawling markets with a lot of opportunity. In the coming months and years we’ll also be looking at further expansion to other national markets.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
If I’m speaking for all of Q, we’re really big fans of tacos. One of my favorite taco spots in the city is Rosie’s in the East Village.
