Graduate start-ups require a new kind of office
The City’s future as an economic powerhouse is being driven by a new kind of graduate.
In years gone by, the Square Mile’s leading financial services, tech and consulting firms have hoovered up university leavers from the moment they don their graduation gowns, funnelling them from campus to office.
The next chapter in Canada is being led by a new generation of founders who are far from newcomers. They are older, more hungry and searching for a different kind of working environment.
“We are seeing a real shift in who is coming through our doors,” says Jonathan Kingshott, chief executive of Halkin, which operates nine flexible workspaces across London and Watford.
He said: “These are founders who have worked in exceptional environments and they want to replicate that from day one. They understand that the office is not just a cost — it is a statement about who they are and how they want to operate.”
Five years ago, the idea of a 26-year-old leaving a job at a major tech company to launch their own startup and immediately sign an office lease would have seemed ambitious to the point of being reckless. Today, it is almost routine.
‘Real shift’ in firms requiring office space
Backed by seed funding, armed with a network built inside some of London’s most successful businesses and hungry to build something of their own, a wave of young founders is arriving in the capital’s flexible workspace market — and they are arriving with high expectations.
This is the graduate startup generation. Many have spent years inside fast-growing companies, watching how high- performing teams operate, absorbing the culture of ambition and learning how a great workplace looks and feels.
When they leave to start their own businesses, they know exactly what they want. And a serviced office with strip lighting and a shared kitchen is far from it.
London remains the number one city in Europe for venture capital investment, with billions flowing into early stage companies every year. Pre-seed and seed rounds that once took months to close are now moving faster, meaning founders are thinking seriously about where they base their teams much earlier in the journey.
Founders ‘looking for more than a desk’
A flexible workspace in a prime London location costs a fraction of a traditional lease and carries none of the long term commitment, many of these founders are realising. And it comes with something a bare office never could: a ready-made community of like-minded businesses, regular events, hotel-style amenities and a front-of-house experience that makes an impression on clients from the moment they walk through the door.
For an early stage company, every client meeting is a pitch. The environment in which that meeting takes place sends a signal before a word has been spoken.
“The founders we work with are not looking for a desk,” says Kingshott. “They are looking for an environment that helps them attract talent, impress clients and build a culture worth belonging to. That is what we are here to provide,” he added.
Kingshot said Halkin has built its model around exactly this insight. Across locations from Mayfair to Monument, Euston to South Bank, the company has invested heavily in design, hospitality and community — creating workspaces that feel closer to a members club than a traditional office provider.
For growing businesses at the pre-seed to Series B stage, Halkin offers a home that can grow with them, without locking them into a commitment they cannot afford to keep.
Contact Halkin to find your first London home.