The Story of Cody: Building the Future of Flexible Workspace

Sometimes the biggest business opportunities come from seeing familiar problems through fresh eyes. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, Christelle Rohaut shared how her background in urban planning led to creating Cody, a company reshaping how businesses think about office space.

A Cultural Shock Sparks Innovation

Seven years ago, Christelle arrived at UC Berkeley from France for a master’s in city planning. The stark contrast between European and American urban design immediately caught her attention. “Here you have more like small commercially zoned downtown where all the offices are, and then you have very large residentially zoned neighborhoods where everybody lives,” she explains. This separation created massive daily commutes with downtown areas packed during workdays while residential neighborhoods sat empty.

As a fellow at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation studying circular economies, Christelle began exploring how to share resources and spaces more efficiently at the local scale. The inefficiency of American city design sparked an idea: “We can bring workspaces closer to where people live instead of making them commute far, and that would reduce carbon emissions and boost local economies and revitalizes our neighborhoods.”

The Initial Vision

In 2019, Cody launched with an innovative model: turning empty homes into daytime workspaces for remote workers. The idea aligned perfectly with circular economy principles and promised to solve multiple problems simultaneously – reducing commute times, utilizing empty spaces, and revitalizing neighborhoods.

Pandemic Pivot

When COVID-19 hit, Cody’s original business model came to a halt. But while their initial solution wasn’t viable, the pandemic accelerated the trend they had bet on. “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,” Christelle shares.

Rather than forcing their original vision, they adapted. “I was very much in love with residential spaces and utilizing that as a workspace, but there was no product market fit there,” Christelle explains. The company pivoted to partner with commercial landlords who had high vacancy rates, creating a managed marketplace that connected companies seeking flexibility with underutilized office spaces.

Finding Product-Market Fit

The pivot proved successful. Since repositioning the business in fall 2021, Cody has grown their customer base by 10X. Their managed marketplace model now connects companies wanting flexibility and ease with spaces that are underutilized across cities. As Christelle describes it: “We do manage the spaces… it’s kind of like the WeWork model of you come in and you have nothing to figure out. It’s moving ready, it’s managed, you have the cleaning, the coffee, you don’t have to worry about anything.”

The Rise of the Hub Model

One of their most interesting discoveries has been how even remote-first companies approach physical spaces. Christelle shares the example of Airbyte: “They are publicly like a remote first company but they do use a Cody space full time here in San Francisco… we’re seeing that a lot more where companies that hit a certain threshold in terms of employee density, like you have more than ten people somewhere, they start to have a hub.”

The Future Vision

Looking ahead three to five years, Christelle sees Cody expanding well beyond its current markets: “Right now we are focused on the SFB area in New York City and we’re expanding with our clients. But I would assume that in three to five years, we are in multiple countries potentially.”

She’s particularly excited about the timeshare office model: “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.”

This vision represents more than just a business opportunity – it’s a fundamental reimagining of how cities can work more efficiently and sustainably. From an urban planning problem to a transformative business solution, Cody’s journey shows how fresh perspectives can unlock entirely new ways of solving longstanding challenges.