Digitizing the Tenant Experience with Lukas Balik of Spaceflow

I have always had a keen eye for great interior design. During my university years, I co-founded an interior design company and as a result, came across different real estate firms and the various challenges they faced.

It was within this context I initially crossed paths with Spaceflow’s future angel investors, who were active within the design & build sector.

Together, we exposed the true nature of un-digitized properties, which quickly became the foundation of Spaceflow’s mission. I was immediately hooked and decided to continue pursuing my entrepreneurial side.

Spaceflow was created to make buildings smarter and more community-oriented. Through our mobile app and community engagement program, we offer a single link connecting building services, amenities, smart building features, and community, all in one place.

Landlords‘ top priority is to minimize vacant space whilst increasing asset value. Spaceflow solves this problem through boosting tenant loyalty with customized programming and enhanced tenant experiences. Effectively that increases tenant satisfaction and retention.

In addition to this, we help our clients manage the value of their space by providing data for more precise decision making, enabling additional revenue from all transactions through providing their building as-a-service for tenants to enjoy.

We are in the seed stage. Last year, Spaceflow raised $1.8 million in a round led by Credo Ventures with participation from Day One Capital and UP21.

Currently, Spaceflow has the biggest number of deployed projects in Europe from all tenant experience companies. Last year, big players such as Allianz and Erste joined our mission, resulting in 3M+ sqm (30M+ sq ft) launched projects throughout.

Our strategy is to roll-out our solution to whole portfolios, rather than to single buildings which is the current market standard.  In 2020 we are zooming in on the residential market where deployment is fast.

It’s really about creating a team that works in tandem with our clients. The launch support, onboarding and training from our community engagement is Spaceflow’s crucial benefit – with every client we are in it together for the long term.

For our users, we combine the right proportion of smart building integrations that simplify daily life, like access systems and timely content from both the property management and our community engagement team.

Tenant experience platforms serve as umbrellas to various technologies. One of our greatest hurdles is integrating building operations and ecosystems within Spaceflow to such an extent they become necessities for everyday efficiency and success for our clients and an everyday tool for our users.

In addition to this, the ongoing pandemic has posed a challenge to all industries, bringing uncertainty to the market but equally so, an opportunity for disruption and differentiation for landlords to really stand out.

At Spaceflow, we focus on the transformation of the market and its offering to tenants. That is a decade-long process, from education to implementation and finally, standard practice.

Proptech is an exceedingly fragmented field and we need to always look at it from the perspective of the whole ecosystem – we do understand now the key to success is fully integrated solution and being as open as possible.

In a very disruptive time like this, it has been interesting to see our company, alongside many others, adapt to new requirements, needs and wants. We are constantly working to ensure we provide a safe experience for our tenants, with contactless access systems, instant announcements and more.

Finally, I relate strongly to what Rebeca Perez voiced in your interview: "It is not only about introducing and providing the technology, but getting customers to learn how to use it, and integrate it as an organic part of their day-to-day lives."

You can find me on LinkedIn or at Spaceflow.io.