As to future plans, Breather's director of real estate Jenny Hahn says, “The centrality of real estate to the startup success story is evidenced by the strong demand we're seeing for our flexible workspace solutions that support agile growth, marking a clear path for Breather's continued expansion and investment in larger footprints in major markets like New York, London and San Francisco.”

It distinguishes itself from co-working. Instead of an emphasis on collaborative, shared spaces, the company stresses its online access to a network of private, flexible workspaces that can be rented by the hour, day or month. Although Breather did not provide its total square footage of leased space, the company states it operates 500 private offices and meeting spaces in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec.

A Breather spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com its month-to-month private offices cater to a largely underserved segment of businesses. She emphasizes these clients do not want to work in distracting, crowded co-working spaces. Nor do they want the financial commitment of a traditional long-term lease where there's no flexibility to grow and move. The spokesperson says that Breather's clients typically range from two to 100 employees.

However, larger enterprises like American Express, Tesla and Uber use Breather's short-term meeting spaces for a variety of uses such as for off-sites teams, trainings or satellite office space, according to the spokesperson.

The company also emphasizes workplace experts and behavioral scientists, who consider acoustics, thermal comfort and natural light on productivity and employee wellbeing, work on the design of their spaces.

Breather was founded in 2012 by Julien Smith and Caterina Rizzi. In January 2019, the company appointed Bryan Murphy CEO, and Smith became chairman of the board. Murphy was the founder of mattress startup Tomorrow Sleep, a Serta Simmons company. Before that, he served on eBay's leadership team following the sale of his company, WHI Solutions, an automotive e-commerce business, to eBay in 2012.

In June 2018, Breather raised approximately $45 million in funding led by Menlo Ventures with firms including la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Ascendas-Singbridge and Temasek. 

How much of a splash will Breather make in New York waters?

Hahn tells GlobeSt.com, “Experts predict that at least 30% of all urban office space will be delivered as flexible space within the next five to 10 years. Today just 2% of all space in New York City is currently delivered this way. As more growing companies feel the effects of co-working fatigue, they will drive this shift by looking for new space solutions, like Breather, that balance their needs for privacy and flexibility.”

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