Cody’s Market Timing Strategy: Turning the Pandemic’s Disruption into 10X Growth
When most physical workspace businesses were facing existential crisis during the pandemic, Cody was laying the groundwork for exponential growth. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, CEO Christelle Rohaut revealed how they turned market disruption into opportunity by recognizing and capitalizing on fundamental shifts in both customer needs and supplier dynamics.
When Crisis Meets Opportunity
The initial impact of COVID-19 was brutal. “When you operate a physical business, like physical locations, it was rough because shelter in place made us shut down all our locations for a little while,” Christelle recalls. But amid this disruption, they spotted a crucial trend: “We’ve always been about hybrid work, remote work, decentralized work, and more than ever, that was like the frontline topic for all companies and for the whole world discovered remote work.”
Recognizing the Permanent Shift
While many saw the pandemic’s impact on office space as temporary, Cody recognized it as a permanent transformation. “The past two years have been quite a shock for commercial real estate and I don’t think it will ever go back. It’s like a permanent shock,” Christelle explains. “Like companies have permanently decided to go hybrid or go remote or have this new way of working.”
The Power Dynamics Shift
A critical insight came from observing the changing dynamics between tenants and landlords. “The beauty of today is that demand got the power back,” Christelle notes. “If all the demand want a one year term, supply doesn’t have a choice… offering a five year lease is no longer in demand.”
This shift created an opportunity to bridge the gap between what companies wanted and what landlords traditionally offered.
Building for the New Reality
Rather than waiting for things to “return to normal,” Cody built for the emerging reality. They observed that the change wasn’t just about remote work, but about a fundamental shift in how companies approached physical spaces. “It’s really influenced and impacted by every employee’s behavior of how they want to work and where they want to go,” Christelle shares.
Geographic Transformation
The disruption also changed where companies wanted office space. “We’re seeing a shift in geography for demand,” Christelle explains. “There’s higher demand in neighborhoods outside of downtown. There’s still demand for downtown, but there used to be zero demand outside of downtown, and now those neighborhoods actually have a shot at being lively and active during the week.”
The Results: 10X Growth
The strategy paid off. As Christelle notes: “When we pivoted the business towards getting spaces that were commercial, that was back in the fall of 2021, so like a year and a half ago. And since then we grew by Ten X, our customer base.”
Key Lessons in Market Timing
Cody’s experience offers valuable insights for founders navigating market disruptions:
- Look Beyond the Immediate Crisis Don’t just focus on surviving disruption – look for the permanent shifts it creates.
- Watch Power Dynamics Market disruptions often reshape power relationships between stakeholders, creating new opportunities.
- Build for the Future, Not the Past Rather than waiting for “normal” to return, build for emerging behaviors and needs.
- Follow Geographic Shifts Market disruptions can create new opportunities in previously overlooked locations.
The Future Vision
Looking ahead, Cody continues to bet on these market shifts. “Three to five years from today… I want Cody to be in more markets,” Christelle shares. “I’m really bullish about the Timeshare office model where company A gets a space a couple of days a week and company B the other days. And so I would hope that this model would be mainstream and would be our core product.”
For founders navigating their own market disruptions, Cody’s journey offers a crucial lesson: the biggest opportunities often come not from fighting market shifts, but from recognizing them early and positioning your company to capitalize on the new reality they create.