FranShares founder and CEO Kenny Rose says he's sick of being fully remote.
So he's initiated an office search for his startup to give his team of four a permanent office to work out of.
"We're looking to bring three more on within the next month or two, and then it could be another five in the first quarter next year. In a year the team could be up to 15 people," he told Chicago Inno. "I have a coworking spot, but it's more of a mailbox at this point. I need something a little more."
While some of the team may stay remote, he hopes to focus hiring moving forward on the Chicagoland area.
Aimed at making investing in franchises as easy as investing in stocks and mutual funds, FranShares has seen solid growth in the past year, capped off by a $4.1 million seed funding round announced in July. The oversubscribed seed round brings the startup's total capital raised to $5.8 million.
Now the startup that wants to give more investors the opportunity to become franchise owners needs more room to grow.
Rose's two main reasons for wanting a permanent office are for accountability and camaraderie.
"I think this is a worthy expense," he said. "It's hard to hold people accountable when they are not near you."
CEOs rolling back remote work
Rose is hardly the only CEO shifting away from remote work-only models.
The most-recent KPMG CEO Outlook survey shows a dramatic pullback in hybrid and remote work, with 79% of CEOs saying workers who used to be in the office will be back within the next three years. That's a dramatic increase from 34% earlier this year.
Tech giant Amazon.com Inc. is also rolling back on remote work norms established during the pandemic in part to "combat inefficiency" and "cultivate collaboration."
Moreover, a new survey from ResumeBuilder found that 87% of companies that had been fully remote will return to the office by 2025. The report, which surveyed 764 companies that moved to a fully remote model during the pandemic, found 64% of those companies have already returned to the office.
Sign up for the Business Journal’s free daily newsletter to receive the latest business news impacting Chicago
