In some ways, the pandemic was a short-term disruption to the way people work.
In other cases, its impact is going to last.
Torch Labs, a Bay Area-based tech startup that based its engineering team in Buffalo, is giving up its chic Larkinville office space in favor of something more flexible.
The company is also downsizing its real estate footprint in San Francisco and New York City.
“We are sizing our offices to meet the demands of our employees,” said Scott Mercer, Torch’s CTO who leads a team of 20 in Buffalo. “With our office here, some days there are zero employees and other days there are four or five.”
And other days Torch Labs needs to accommodate dozens of developers convening on Buffalo for training and in-person work.
Torch established a 4,000-square-foot space at 760 Seneca St. a few years ago. The company closed a $25 million round of venture capital last year to support the growth of its corporate coaching platform.
But the pandemic sent workers home for an extended period of time, during which they invested in their home offices and got used to the conveniences of remote work.
The company itself “built up its muscles” on remote work the past few years, from remote meetings to asynchronous communication to documentation, Mercer said.
He also said that while Torch has geographic employee clusters, it has opened up its hiring funnel to remote workers anywhere to find the best talent available.
Mercer said the Buffalo-based team mostly congregates now for networking or teamwide meetings. Otherwise, it’s a handful of employees checking into the office for a change of pace.
The company is moving its Buffalo office to the Hansa coworking facility on Ellicott Street in downtown Buffalo. It’s a space that can scale from four employees to a much larger team – such as when Torch’s entire engineering group is travels to Buffalo.
“We need a dedicated spot with a door that we can lock,” Mercer said, “but there are certain times where we have engineers from all over the country come in, and then we’re going to need a space that can host 40 people for a week.”
