How to rent office space as a startup

You just closed your seed round. You’re tired of Zoom, your living room smells like takeout, and you want the team in one room to move faster.

We know what this feels like. We went through it ourselves.

My co-founders and I went through Y Combinator’s S24 batch as part of building Tandem. In the years since then, we’ve helped 500+ startups, and hundreds of Y Combinator founders, get their first office.

It’s not like renting an apartment. It’s a slow, expensive, and non-transparent game of chess.

We’re here to make it simple.

Here is the "missing manual" for navigating renting office space as a startup.

🔍 Who are the main stakeholders in the office leasing market?

Real estate is infamously opaque.

On-market offices are hidden behind CoStar, a very expensive, private database. As you navigate the market, you’ll encounter the following players:

• The Landlord: the people who own the building.
• The Landlord Rep (the Landlord’s broker): Works for the building. Their job is to get the highest rent and longest term.
• The Tenant Rep (your broker): Works for you. In 95% of cases, the Landlord pays their fee, so having one is essentially a "free" specialized consultant for you. Tandem is like a startup-specific Tenant Rep broker that gives you transparent access to the whole market, but more on that later.

Pro Tip: In a tenant's market (like today), a good broker can often negotiate Rent Abatement (e.g., 3 months free on a 3-year lease) which pays for your moving costs.

🤷‍♂️ What are the incentives of brokers and landlords in office leasing?

The industry is incentivized for you to sign a long, expensive lease.

It wasn’t too long ago that the standard office lease was 7-10+ years. While that’s still the case in some premier buildings - think World Trade Center or Salesforce tower - that has since come down post-COVID to ~3-5 years on average.

Even still, that’s a lifetime to a startup.

Why are office lease terms so long?

• Brokers get paid more if the deal is bigger/longer.
• Landlords want longer commitments so they have predictability in rent revenues.

Shorter term office leases (e.g., 1-2 years) do exist, but they can be hard to find. Sometimes they’re boutique landlords, sometimes they’re unique subleases.

At Tandem, we maintain an active inventory of the whole market. If 12 months is all you can do, we’ll find you an office that fits that timeline. We do for the majority of startups we work with.

Best practice from Y Combinator: If you’re pre-Series A, your startup will likely look very different in 12 months. Do not sign a 5-year lease. A premium on monthly rent is always worth the flexibility of a shorter 12–18 month obligation.

💰 What should I expect to pay when renting office space?

The cost of renting a space isn’t as simple as one flat rent payment.

Beyond utilities, there are often other “hidden costs” that most startups don’t expect. We’ve added a few below, but if you want an overview of what costs are in your city or for a team of your size, just reach out to us.

• Rentable Square Feet (RSF): You pay for Rentable Square Feet. This includes your share of the lobby and hallways. Your "Usable" space is usually 15-20% smaller. This is the big line item. If you see a space is renting at $60 / sf, and the space is 2,000 RSF, then you’re paying ($60)*(2,000), or $120,000 for the year ($10,000 / month).
• The Deposit: If you're a fresh startup, landlords will ask for a heavy Security Deposit (3+ months is standard). Ask your bank about a Letter of Credit (LoC) so you don't tie up all your venture cash in a stagnant escrow account.
• Operating Expenses (OpEx): Check if the lease is FS (Full Service - utilities included) or Triple Net (NNN) (you pay taxes, insurance, and maintenance). Most of the time, startups will be on the hook for taxes, insurance, maintenance, janitorial, and many other line items.
• Wifi: The majority of offices you look at will not come with internet set up. You’ll have to contact an ISP that services the building, get a quote, and have them set up a connection. This can be a few hundred dollars on the low end to well over a thousand dependent on the size of the office and the speed you’re looking for.
• Legal Fees: While this isn’t a recurring cost, many startups are caught off guard when they receive a 60-page document for a 12 month office lease. Many teams seek legal counsel who specialize in commercial lease transactions. One-off engagements with lawyers can range from $2,000-$5,000+, depending on the size of the contract.

Office rent costs are not straightforward.

As a startup founder, your job is to build your company, not worry about office space OpEx. At Tandem, we offer a Concierge service for every team who rents space through our platform. We’ll put together a plan to help you set up everything you need to get your space in working order.

⏰ How long does it take to rent an office?

Most founders come to us looking to move into an office in 30 days.

Most brokers will tell you that the process will take 3-6 months.

Here’s why:

1. Search (1-2 months): Your broker sends you lots of options, you give feedback, you go on lots of tours, and you narrow down what you’re looking for.
2. The LOI (2 weeks): A non-binding "Letter of Intent" on price and terms, which gets negotiated on both sides.
3. Lease Legal (1-2 months): You finally get a lease in hand — woohoo! Think you’re done? Not quite. You’re at the will of the Landlord’s attorney’s timeline. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to well over a month.

At Tandem, we move at startup speed.

We give you access to the whole market, a team of real estate professionals, and transparent pricing data so you know you’re getting a fair deal. Most of our searches take 4-6 weeks.

🎯 This sounds like a lot of work… where should I start?

The office search can feel like a necessary evil of getting the right space for your team.

But, if done right, it can be an exciting, inspiring process that bonds your team together in excitement for the future of your company.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Define what’s important to you in an office: What are you going to use it for? How many people do you need to fit? Where do you want it to be? How long of a term can you sign?
2. Browse office listings to get a sense of the market: Explore office spaces on Tandem to get transparent pricing information and see what is realistic based on your criteria.
3. Schedule tours: When you find spaces you like, it’s time to see them in person. You can schedule tours through Tandem’s platform directly, or schedule a kickoff call to have one of our teammates schedule everything for you AND show you new options you might have missed.

At Tandem, we’re here to project manage your office search, end-to-end.

If you want to get started, you can browse office space for rent in San Francisco, New York City, and Boston. Or, grab time with our team so we can kickoff the process together.