E10: Chase Garbarino, Co-Founder and CEO of HQO

In this episode, #10, Dave's guest is Chase Garbarino,
Co-Founder and CEO of HQO (www.hqo.co), a Boston-based operating
system and tenant experience platform for commercial office
buildings.  


Like every other sector of the global innovation economy,
commercial real estate is also facing disruption by digital
technology, elevated customer expectations and entrepreneurs with
startups that create new opportunities. Today, tenant
experience technology plays a bigger role than ever before,
helping transform properties from a physical space into
communities that offer real value to the workforce.


HQO is building technology to create real-world experiences and
more meaningful human connections. Within the built environment,
the company focuses on the places where people work, within a
belief that economic success and opportunity are core drivers of
the successful “live, work, play” value proposition that many
communities strive for. When communities work well and prosper
economically, people usually live and play far better.


HQO recently closed a major Series C funding round of $60m, not
long after closing their $35m Series B for a total $107m - all
raised around a global pandemic. And shortly after recording, HQO
announced that it acquired Office App (www.getofficeapp.com), the
leading European tenant and employee engagement platform, valuing
HQO at over $500m and making it one of the most significant
proptech companies in the world. 


Chase has been a leader of Boston's Innovation Economy for
the past 10+ years - first leading the creation
of AmericanInno, a digital media and events business
targeted at helping bolster the innovation economies of American
cities. Bostinno (www.bostinno.com), a new media
organization that chronicled Boston's exploding startup and VC
scene in a way that legacy media couldn't. After selling to
Advanced Publications in 2015, he started on a new adventure,
with a company that has pivoted through multiple incarnations to
become HQO. With a strong interest in how technology
connects people back to the real world around them, the HQO team
launched HqO in 2018 and began developing technology that
connects people back to their local community and the people
around them in a more impactful way.