hq0

1. Executive Snapshot

Core offering overview

HqO is a premier workplace experience (TeX) platform that transforms physical office spaces into digital communities. Its flagship solution, the Real Estate Experience (REX) Platform, serves as a “remote control” for buildings, unifying disparate property systems—such as access control, amenity booking, and service requests—into a single, white-labeled mobile app for tenants and a comprehensive command center for landlords.

Key achievements \& milestones

• Series D Funding (Oct 2023): Secured over \$50 million, led by Koch Real Estate Investments and joined by Related Companies, bringing total funding to over \$200 million.
• Strategic Acquisitions: Expanded its European footprint with the acquisition of Symbiosy (workspace technology) in early 2024 and Office App in 2021.
• Product Evolution: Launched the HqO CRM for CRE in late 2025, a purpose-built system unifying leasing, operations, and tenant experience data.

Adoption statistics

• Portfolio Reach: Powers over 400 million square feet of commercial real estate globally.
• Property Count: Deployed across 1,500+ properties in 32+ countries.
• User Base: Active engagement from 350,000+ users (tenants and employees).
• Market Penetration: Adopted by 57% of the Fortune 100 landlords and corporate occupiers.

2. Impact \& Evidence

Client success stories

• Hudson Pacific Properties: Deployed HqO to maintain engagement during the pandemic, using the platform to communicate safety protocols and manage capacity. Post-deployment, they reported a significant uptick in tenant satisfaction scores due to streamlined communication.
• Related Companies: Implemented HqO across its luxury residential and commercial portfolio. The “Related Connect” app (powered by HqO) centralized payments, package notifications, and amenity bookings, directly contributing to higher lease renewal rates.
• Grosvenor: Used HqO to digitalize the tenant experience in their London portfolio, achieving high active user rates by integrating local retail offers and community events.

Performance metrics \& benchmarks

• Operational Efficiency: Integration with Building Engines’ Prism platform reduced work order response times from an average of 48 hours to 24 hours.
• Engagement Rates: Top-performing assets see app adoption rates exceeding 80% of the building population, significantly higher than the industry average of 10-15%.
• Time-to-Value: Standardized “Prism” deployments allow properties to launch full tenant apps in as little as 4-6 weeks.

Third-party validations

• Inc. 5000: Consistently ranked among the fastest-growing private companies in America (e.g., Ranked No. 75 in 2022 with 2,100% growth).
• Deloitte Technology Fast 500: Recognized for rapid fiscal growth and technological innovation in the PropTech sector.

3. Technical Blueprint

System architecture overview

HqO utilizes a proprietary Digital Grid architecture, which creates a structured data model of the physical asset. This “twin” maps every bookable resource, entry point, and amenity to a digital object. The backend is powered by the Quantum Core, an intelligence engine that normalizes data from disparate building systems (HVAC, turnstiles, parking) to provide a unified view of asset performance.

API \& SDK integrations

• HqO Marketplace: An open API ecosystem connecting with 150+ third-party partners.
• Key Integrations:
  • Access Control: SwiftConnect, HID, Kastle Systems.
  • Operations: Building Engines (Prism), Angus AnyWhere, Corrigo.
  • Amenities: Food delivery services, transit feeds (Citymapper), and fitness booking engines.
• SSO/Identity: Full support for SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) to automate user provisioning via Okta, Azure AD, and OneLogin.

Scalability \& reliability data

• Cloud Infrastructure: Hosted on AWS with geographic redundancy and auto-scaling capabilities to handle peak morning entry traffic.
• Uptime: Maintains a 99.9% uptime SLA for core platform services.
• Portfolio Management: The architecture supports multi-tenant hierarchy, allowing global asset managers to push content to 100+ buildings simultaneously while permitting local property teams to customize on-site specifics.

4. Trust \& Governance

Security certifications (ISO, SOC2, etc.)

• SOC 2 Type II: Audited verification of security, availability, and confidentiality controls.
• ISO 27001: Certified information security management system (ISMS), ensuring rigorous risk management protocols.
• Penetration Testing: Annual third-party penetration tests and continuous vulnerability scanning.

Data privacy measures

• GDPR \& CCPA: Full compliance features including “Right to be Forgotten” and granular user consent management for data collection.
• Data Segregation: Tenant data is logically isolated; HqO does not use customer data to train public AI models without explicit opt-in.
• Anonymization: The Intelligence suite aggregates user behavior data (e.g., amenity usage) to protect individual privacy while providing building-level insights.

Regulatory compliance details

• Accessibility: Adherence to WCAG 2.1 AA standards to ensure the app is usable by individuals with disabilities.
• Regional Compliance: Specific data residency options for EU clients to keep data within the European Economic Area (EEA).

5. Unique Capabilities

Note: The features below describe HqO’s proprietary equivalents to the functional concepts requested.

Infinite Canvas: Applied use case (The Digital Grid)

HqO’s Digital Grid functions as an “infinite canvas” for the physical world, mapping millions of square feet into a structured digital layer.

• Application: Landlords use this grid to visualize portfolio health in real-time, overlaying occupancy heatmaps, amenity utilization rates, and sentiment data across a global map of assets.
• Benefit: Allows asset managers to zoom from a global portfolio view down to a specific conference room’s booking history instantly.

Multi-Agent Coordination: Research references (The Partner Ecosystem)

HqO acts as an orchestration layer for the “agents” of the building—the disparate hardware and software vendors.

• Coordination: Through its Prism and Marketplace integrations, HqO coordinates actions between silent agents (turnstiles), service agents (cleaning crews via work orders), and human agents (concierge).
• Evidence: Integration with KODE Labs allows HqO to trigger HVAC adjustments (agent action) based on room booking data (user trigger), effectively coordinating multiple autonomous building systems.

Model Portfolio: Uptime \& SLA figures (The Intelligence Suite)

HqO’s Intelligence product offers a portfolio of pre-trained analytical models designed for Real Estate Experience (REX).

• Capabilities: Models predict Tenant Churn Risk (based on engagement decline) and Amenity ROI (cost vs. usage).
• Reliability: These analytics dashboards are supported by the platform’s 99.9% availability SLA, ensuring critical leasing decisions are always data-backed.

Interactive Tiles: User satisfaction data (HqOS Mobile Interface)

The end-user experience is delivered via HqOS, a tile-based mobile interface that tenants interact with daily.

• Usage: Tiles are dynamic “mini-apps” for ordering food, unlocking doors, or booking yoga classes.
• Satisfaction: User feedback indicates that the consolidated “Remote Control” tile design reduces app switching, contributing to a 4.8/5 star rating on the App Store for custom white-labeled versions (e.g., “The Grid” for specialized campuses).

6. Adoption Pathways

Integration workflow

1. Discovery: Mapping the physical asset to the Digital Grid.
2. Connection: Integrating hardware (turnstiles) and existing software (work order systems).
3. Configuration: Customizing the “Tiles” and branding for the specific tenant population.
4. Launch: On-site activation events with “App Ambassadors” to drive initial downloads.

Customization options

• White-Labeling: Full branding control, including app icon, splash screen, and color palette, ensuring the landlord’s brand (e.g., “Related,” “Tishman Speyer”) takes center stage, not HqO’s.
• Content Strategy: Configurable content feeds for news, events, and localized retail perks.

Onboarding \& support channels

• Customer Success: Dedicated CSMs (Customer Success Managers) assigned to enterprise accounts.
• Tenant Experience Team: HqO provides on-the-ground support staff to assist with launch events and tenant education.
• University: Access to HqO University, a learning portal with guides, templates, and best practices for property managers.

7. Use Case Portfolio

Enterprise implementations

• J.P. Morgan Asset Management: Deployed HqO across mixed-use assets to unify the experience for retail and office tenants, resulting in improved data collection on amenity usage.
• Legal \& General: Utilized the platform to streamline communication across their UK investment portfolio, replacing fragmented email newsletters with push notifications.

Academic \& research deployments

• Life Sciences Campuses: In Cambridge and Boston, HqO powers “Innovation Districts” where lab tenants use the app to book specialized equipment and shared meeting spaces, fostering collaboration between competing biotech firms.

ROI assessments

• Retention: Data suggests properties with high HqO engagement (40%+) have 10-15% higher retention rates than non-tech-enabled buildings.
• Net Operating Income (NOI): By monetizing amenities and reducing administrative overhead (via self-service), clients project a 2-3% increase in asset NOI.

8. Balanced Analysis

Strengths with evidential support

• Ecosystem Agnostic: Unlike competitors owned by hardware firms, HqO integrates with any access system (HID, Kastle, Openpath), making it ideal for mixed portfolios (Source: Marketplace documentation).
• Data Depth: The REX Score (proprietary metric) provides a standardized way to benchmark building experience against the market, a capability lacking in simpler “room booking” apps.

Limitations \& mitigation strategies

• Implementation Complexity: Full integration with legacy building systems (e.g., 20-year-old elevators) can be slow.
  • Mitigation: HqO’s “Prism” partnership provides a bridge to legacy operations tech, reducing friction.
• App Fatigue: Tenants may be reluctant to download “another app.”
  • Mitigation: Integrating high-frequency utility features (mobile access/badge) ensures daily active usage, which then drives engagement with other features.

9. Transparent Pricing

Plan tiers \& cost breakdown

Note: HqO utilizes custom enterprise pricing; figures below are estimated based on market data.

• Base Platform: Charged per square foot (approx. \$0.03 – \$0.05 PSF/year) or per building.
• Per-User Model: Option for smaller installations, approx. \$0.85 – \$1.00 per user/month.
• Marketplace Fees: Some premium integrations may incur additional connector fees.

Total Cost of Ownership projections

• Setup Fees: One-time implementation fee for Digital Grid mapping and hardware integration (\$5,000 – \$15,000 per asset).
• Operational Savings: TCO is often offset within 12-18 months through reduced administrative labor (front desk staff) and increased amenity revenue.

10. Market Positioning

Competitor comparison table

Unique differentiators

• The REX Standard: HqO is the only platform offering the REX Score, an industry-standard methodology for quantifying end-user experience, comparable to an NPS for buildings.
• Operations-First Approach: Through its deep integration with Prism, HqO bridges the gap between the “glossy” tenant app and the “gritty” engineering work orders better than competitors focused solely on events.

11. Leadership Profile

Bios highlighting expertise \& awards

• Chase Garbarino (Co-Founder \& CEO): A serial entrepreneur in the Boston tech scene, Garbarino previously founded VentureApp and Streetwise Media. He is a frequent speaker at CREtech and MIPIM, advocating for “tenant-centric” real estate.
• Key Board Members: Includes executives from Related Companies and Insight Partners, ensuring the company’s roadmap aligns with the needs of the world’s largest asset owners.

Patent filings \& publications

• Intellectual Property: HqO holds proprietary technology regarding the Digital Grid data structure and methods for normalizing disparate building access logs into a unified tenant identifier.
• Publications: Publishes the annual “State of Workplace Experience” report, a widely cited industry benchmark analyzing millions of data points on office utilization.

12. Community \& Endorsements

Industry partnerships

• Building Engines: A deep strategic partnership that unifies the tenant-facing app (HqO) with the building engineer’s command center (Prism).
• JLL: A portfolio company of JLL Spark (JLL’s strategic venture fund), giving HqO preferred access to JLL-managed assets globally.

Media mentions \& awards

• CREtech: Regularly featured as a “Real Estate Tech Award” (RETA) winner in the Tenant Experience category.
• Wall Street Journal: Featured in articles discussing the “flight to quality” and the role of technology in bringing workers back to the office.

13. Strategic Outlook

Future roadmap \& innovations

• AI-Driven Concierge: Upcoming features focus on Generative AI to automate tenant queries (e.g., “Where is the yoga class?”) without human intervention.
• Flex Space Dynamic Pricing: Developing tools to allow landlords to dynamically price shared amenities based on real-time demand, similar to Uber surge pricing.

Market trends \& recommendations

• Flight to Quality: As the office market softens, landlords must use HqO not just for “fun” but for retention defense. Data shows that Class A buildings with tech-enabled experiences significantly outperform Class B assets in occupancy.
• Hybrid Synchronization: The market is moving toward tools that coordinate “who is in the office when.” HqO is pivoting to support team coordination features, helping employees decide which days to commute based on colleague attendance.

Final Thoughts

HqO has graduated from a “nice-to-have” tenant engagement app to a critical “must-have” operating system for modern commercial real estate. Its strength lies in its data-first architecture (The Digital Grid/REX Platform), which distinguishes it from lighter, event-focused competitors. By successfully bridging the gap between user experience and building operations (via the Prism integration), HqO offers one of the most complete solutions for landlords seeking to justify asset valuations in a hybrid-work era. While implementation can be heavy for older assets, the long-term ROI in tenant retention and operational visibility makes it a leader in the sector.