Olly Olsen: From Classroom Hustler
to Flex Legend

Before TOG, you and your co-founder Charlie both worked at MWB – how did you end up there?

My uncle John Harrison was one of the three founding partners of MWB Group Plc, and I think in 1998, they bought into a serviced office business that was run by David Alberto, the CEO of MWB at the time. He gave me an opportunity. I started in the sales office and in the same way that I was delivering pizzas for Domino's, which was one of the jobs I had just prior to that, I put everything into it. I was the best pizza guy they ever had.

So, when I joined MWB, I loved answering the phone, booking viewings, I adored speaking to the agents and brokers. And I just put absolutely everything into it. Otherwise, what's the point? Eventually, after nine months of being on the phones and managing virtual offices, they gave me a building. And they gave me I think one of the worst buildings they had- Hayes and Harrow. Low lead flow, low volume, old, tired products. The best salespeople were given the best new buildings, and the ‘new guy’ that never sold an office was given the worst and the most difficult. You’d think it would be the opposite, right? Despite of all this, I managed to fill the buildings.

Charlie was at MWB when I was there. And then when I moved into the head office to look after the corporate business, Charlie and I spent more time together, and we built a friendship.

What you and Charlie have achieved is genuinely well and truly epic. What was your dynamic with Charlie? We heard you met on a beach in Thailand?

Thailand was a long way before MWB. When I was in my early 20s, I spent time in India, Asia, Thailand and Australia. And during that period, I was on a beach and I remember seeing a group of lads with a rugby ball and I recognised a couple of them and knew that one of them was actually Charlie. Five years later, we ended up in the same business, Charlie later left. Whilst I was there, I was in Starbucks on Regent Street with one of the old CEOs of MWB that I had kept in contact with. I gave him my view on what I thought we should be doing with the industry and he said, “I'll back you but you can't do it on your own”, because if I was going to set up a model that's buying buildings then I needed someone who understood real estate. I then mentioned Charlie who at the time was working in Soho doing his own thing.

We finished our coffee and that very moment I went down to Charlie’s office. I hadn't seen him for a while. I saw him through the window, dialled his number, he saw me and saw the phone was ringing. Thankfully, he answered it - It was a big call! I said, “I'm actually outside, I’ve got an idea”. Then we went to Kula Kula (a sushi conveyor-belt eatery) and threw the idea around. At that very moment, we just totally went for it! We bought our first building in Islington (a weenie three and a half thousand square feet, 69 desks) and we started the business together. I'd say that, for a good proportion of the 20 odd years, we knew what each other was thinking so well that we'd be able to finish each other’s sentences. When anyone in the business would come and ask each of us our opinion on something, they would tend to get exactly the same answer every single time.

What was the lightbulb moment that you needed to create TOG?

It was when I called Charlie outside his office, and we went for lunch. We knew exactly what to build. The customer, at that point viewed the sector and product as provisional. Serviced offices were expensive, they were temporary. You had to share with other people that you didn't want. The rooms were too small, and you were embarrassed to have people visit. It was a very small part of the market, and it wasn’t sustainable for the long term. What we wanted to do with the very first building, which I think rings true still today, is to give the customer a sense of value and ownership. This shouldn't be a temporary space when this is your business’s home. You're really proud of your business, right? So, when you take on an office it has to represent you as a brand. Otherwise, you're in someone else's office. The biggest single threat that this sector faces is ‘Work from home’. We need to be the remedy for that.

So, it needs to feel like home. The moment we opened the second building, we said that we can't design this the same as the first. London's a fascinating city. There are probably a dozen different accents just in London alone. And different businesses drive themselves to different parts of London for certain reasons. So, when you open a building in Islington and then another one in Kings Cross (and some 50 more), then you shouldn't be designing them in the same way, that's two different audiences, and, lo and behold, none of them were the same and the price fluctuated as the business evolved.

Did you ever feel scared or overwhelmed as a founder of a business?  

Never scared, not for one minute overwhelmed. We set out ground rules on day one. And I'd say that what blossomed was a relationship that was brotherly. I've got two brothers, and I spent more time with Charlie. Charlie and I were together every day, sharing an office every day. That's what worked for us and not for one minute was there any fear, because even if you hit a tough spot, when you have someone to share those low points, it removes strain, stress, and it removes anxiety. I certainly wouldn't go and hire two different people and make them Co-CEOs. We did it together and we had all the highs and lows that any business does have but it was never a strain ever, because we were partners.

Do you remember who your first ever client was?

Yes. They actually threatened to shoot Charlie! They were gangsters and I knew they weren't right from the get-go. I said to Charlie, ‘these guys aren't right’. But we needed to do a deal. I remember the room, the desks... It was in Islington, Room 202. We didn’t give their deposit back because legally we didn’t have to – they were breaking contract early. They then threatened to shoot Charlie! Thankfully, they didn’t…

Have you had any celebrities in your buildings that you can spill the beans on?

Oh yes loads. I think the proudest moment was when we went met the Queen twice. In fact, I actually gave King Charles a 45-minute tour (although, he wasn't King at the time). King Charles is the freeholder of one of our buildings – Tintagel House, and he was doing a tour of his real estate. On this tour, it was supposed to be myself, Charlie and our ex-chairman, Sir Lloyd Dorfman. It turns out Sir Lloyd had to go abroad the day before and Charlie phoned to tell me he had COVID… So I found myself doing this thing on my own. When I turned up, I thought I was going to be with his advisors and part of the team walking along answering a few questions, and when I said, “Who is going to meet him and who's going to give the tour?” they said, “You're doing it all”. So, I ended up meeting with him in the street and I gave him a full tour of the building. I was under strict instructions: “You absolutely cannot go in the lift with him alone”. Anyway, when I got in the lift, he followed me. I pressed the button, and the doors closed…

How did you come up with ‘The Office Group’ brand and name?

Funnily enough, so the name of the company? Demi, your dad Richard [Smith, CEO of Office Freedom] was actually part of this without realising it. Our initial investor said “We really like The Workstation”. Charlie and I were like, nah – that’s a tacky name for a tacky business. Charlie phoned me one day and said, “I’ve got the name”. He goes “The Office, just The Office”, and I said “mate that’s genius”- not for one minute did I think about the negative connotations the TV show had on office space! Our investor said absolutely not. It is probably a bit like opening a hotel and calling it Faulty Towers. So, we were stuck with ‘The Office’ – it was on our business card. The two F’s in Office were inverted as a desk with a little lamp on it. We were really proud.

But we couldn’t buy The Office URL. We didn’t think it was that important – in 2003 URL’s were viewed differently. So the only URL we could buy was ‘theoffice-group.uk.com’. I was the sales guy for the first few years. And I was sitting in Rivington street, trying to do a deal with Richard and he kept referencing our company as ‘The Office Group’… I'm like “Why are you calling this the Office group?”  He correctly said, ‘well that’s your URL’.  The penny dropped. I suddenly realised that the URL was more dominant. It was genuinely a revelation. Since then, we went with it and the business became The Office Group. Everyone forgot that we were ever called ‘The Office’.

How have you managed to build such a well-recognised and well-sought-after brand?

I think that, firstly, you must differentiate yourself from the rest. We've sort of led the charge in design, which has been a dominant thread throughout the business. We are led by the customer. I would do anything to look after and keep our clients, and I think if that level and that association with hospitality bleeds throughout the business, then you'll be able to retain your clients. You'll prove to be successful, and you'll stand the test of time. Lastly, and this very important within this industry - to recognise that as operators, it’s imperative to have relationships with other landlords. Our reputation within the real estate industry is terribly important to us. And I believe that we have been able to acquire the right buildings based on that reputation.

I must also say that we owe lot to the broker community. The relationship between operator and broker has been volatile but I put the relationship between what was The Office Group, and the broker community as an intrinsic part of our success. We fully embraced that relationship, so much so that for our first four or five years of the business, we had no marketing spend, because we fully relied on the brokers to help fill the buildings. I think 80% of the new business back then was done through brokers. If I went back, I'd replicate that every single time, no question.

What would you say was the driving factor behind the merger between TOG and Fora? Also dropping TOG and rebranding the entire combined portfolio as Fora – it couldn’t of been easy saying goodbye to the TOG name?

I believe the strong strategic and cultural fit between our two businesses and the supportive market dynamics, as more business embrace the workplace as more than a commodity, made this merger an exciting proposition. The combination of our businesses enabled us to meet this growth opportunity, offering existing and future members even greater choice.

The adoption of the Fora brand across our portfolio recognises our ambition in this space and simplifies our offer to the market. As the plural of the word ‘forum’, the Fora name reflects our commitment to creating dynamic workspace experiences and is already well recognised amongst progressive employers, entrepreneurs, creators and innovators, as a promise to embrace each and every workstyle.

You now have over 70 workspaces across London, the UK and Germany – more than 3M square feet. Talk to us about your international expansion. How did you go from City Road to regional then Europe? 

This is a London born company. But at some point, you look for opportunity to continue to grow, and to learn. We thought, in our mission to continue to create beautiful offices, wouldn't it be exciting to see if we could operate in other cities outside of the UK? Just to experience the process of design, education into other cultures, of how to build beautiful offices. We had opportunities in most European countries and the US. We were very close to opening in New York, which was going to be the birth of our US business. However, Germany seemed like an obvious move. While in the UK, where London is the more key city, and in France – where Paris is the dominant city, in Germany, you've got a number of key main cities, all of which could have certain capital elements to it. With Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg etc, it’s given us a huge amount of opportunity for growth there, and it's been a really exciting journey since.

How did you come to meet Sir Lloyd Dorfman? Must have been amazing having such a business icon as a mentor?

Sir Lloyd was an original investor in the original funds that backed us when we started the business. He watched the growth of the business over seven years. Then when it was time for the exit of that initial fund, the opportunity was with Lloyd and others. We're very fortunate and privileged to be able to have worked with Lloyd, the relationship was brilliant, the dynamic worked very, very well. Whilst he was our chair and investor, part of the relationship was almost parental as well. We needed someone like that to steer us in the right direction. And we're always fully appreciative of everything that that Sir Lloyd did for the businesses, it was brilliant.

Blackstone…what a life changing moment – can you describe the feeling?

As the business progressed, it was clear that we needed to take a step forward. The adoption of one of the smartest, largest real estate investors in the world to back our business was definitely a lifetime achievement. It was a really wonderful time for the business and its employees to have the recognition. It was, and still is a very special relationship.