Office Design Inspiration for Hypergrowth Companies

Home / Insights / Office Design Inspiration for Hypergrowth Companies

The term hypergrowth sparks thoughts of the fast-growing unicorn businesses that haul huge sums of investment and attain £1 billion valuations seemingly overnight. While hypergrowth is more typically associated with start-ups and scale-ups, the technical definition of hypergrowth is when a company achieves a compound annual growth rate of 40% or more.

The concept of rapid business growth has become the aspiration for many companies, there are a host of challenges that businesses need to get right during this period. One of those things is their office and their wider working environment.

The term hypergrowth was coined by Alexander V. Izosimov in a 2008 issue of Harvard Business Review. He describes it as “The steep part of the S-curve that most young markets and industries experience at some point, where the winners get sorted from the losers.”

Whether you’re gearing up your own office to prepare for hypergrowth or simply looking for inspiration, these are some examples of how hypergrowth companies have used their offices to help support their growth plans:

Depop

The fashion marketplace and social commerce application underwent a CAGR of 87%, which meant they needed a new workspace to accommodate their growth. Inspired by their own mission of sustainability and upcycling, the office design reflects their brand values, while still delivering the functionality their people needed.

Hypergrowth space doesn’t necessarily mean taking a much larger property and waiting for the business to grow into it. Depop took this office relocation as an opportunity to align their 7,500 sq ft space with their brand to make the office feel like an extension of the brand. As well as improving their staff experience, we designed solutions for the space that would allow Depop to scale at the right time. Their office is bright, lively and sets the backdrop to their lively culture.

Eigen Technologies

Having secured a significant investment from a funding round, Eigen relocated offices in a move that would form part of their growth strategy and futureproof their space as they continue their expansion.

Building an environment that will support exponential growth means focusing on some of the more controllable aspects of an office space – the people using it. This translated into the project by giving the Eigen team transparency about decisions as well as the opportunity to engage and inform the final design based on their experiences in their previous offices. By running engaging design workshops and sharing 3D walkthroughs and models of the interior, the staff had confidence that the space would help them achieve their goals and result in a positive experience.

Photobox

Leading digital consumer service Photobox Group is a fast-growing company who own big brands such as Moonpig and Hofmann. Bringing these brands under one roof requires enough space to support their team as well as provide them with the space to grow in the future.

By shifting them to an agile working model they could continue scaling the business without the office being strained due to increased headcount. Adopting this new way of working meant that they could grow by over 30% without having to relocate their office.

Another big positive of the Photobox office is the role it plays in the business’ attraction and retention strategy. Being able to offer staff a well-designed workplace that is highly functional and visually striking is key to bringing in industry-leading talent. Even in a hybrid working set up, the office is still the core operational hub of a business and growing businesses still need a way of connecting all of their people, even if they are only in 2 or 3 days per week.

Gymshark

Gymshark, the fitness community and apparel brand, has become synonymous with creating a community which is also a big part of their company culture, helping them to scale quickly and constantly attract and retain new talent.

The Gymshark HQ in Solihull embraces the key elements required for hypergrowth, their property strategy and use of smart technology has enabled them to undergo sustained growth for multiple years in a row. This has also made it easy to adapt to hybrid working and maintain regular productivity levels.

Using technologies and operating in smart buildings allows business like Gymshark to collect data about the performance of their space. This in turn provides information about how their space is being used and what can be optimised. Their HQ was the first building in the UK to be fitted with a Human Centric smart lighting system – this is an example of the kind of technology that has allowed Gymshark to adapt their space based on data as they evolve.

Fast-growing companies all have their own workplace requirements and whether you’re aiming for hypergrowth or wanting to scale your business, your office space can help prepare you for the future.

The Guide to Designing Workplaces for Scalability

For more information on designing your office for scalability, download our guide.
download now