As a founder and the CEO of Vari, Jason McCann’s mission is to help companies create environments that elevate people. A lifelong entrepreneur, Jason has more than 20 years of experience building and running successful companies. He learned the importance of putting the customer first early-on while working in his mother’s hair salons as a child.
Jason co-founded VariDesk in 2013, and the brand quickly became synonymous with sit-stand desks. Under his leadership, the company grew at an incredible pace and expanded its product and service offerings significantly, calling for it’s new, more inclusive name – Vari.
Today, Jason oversees all aspects of Vari from design, to sales, to customer service and distribution. The company has grown into a workspace innovation company that provides everything high-growth businesses need to unlock the potential of their workforce – from a full suite of office furniture to the workspaces themselves, offering space-as-a-service with VariSpace. A multi-tenant campus designed to elevate the way businesses approach office, VariSpace offers first-class amenities, fully outfitted offices, and flexible lease terms to enterprise-level clients.
About Vari (formerly VariDesk):
A workspace innovation company, Vari helps growing organizations unlock the potential of their space and their people. From a collection of office furniture to workspaces offering space-as-a-service, the company makes it easy for high-growth businesses to scale and flex their office space. Organizations all over the world — including over 98% of the Fortune 500 — use Vari products, which are tested and certified to the highest industry standards.
Discussion
- Rebranding from VariDesk to Vari in early 2020
- Vari Headquarters transformation to prepare for the return to the office
- What can companies do today to start planning for the return to the office?
- VariSpace offices spaces.
- The seamless offices of the future.
Links
Transcript
Blake Miller 0:00
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Future of Living podcast. I’m your host Blake Miller. Today we’ve got Jason McCann, from Vari, maker of those standup desks that everybody loves. You know, Jason and I talked about the future of work. I really think you’re gonna enjoy it. Check it out. Jason, how are you man? Welcome to the Future of Living podcast.
Jason McCann 0:23
Awesome, Blake. It’s so good to see you. Thanks for inviting me today. Look forward to the conversation.
Blake Miller 0:27
Oh, me too, man. I love love your guys’s desk. I’m sitting on one myself right now. I’m sitting though.
Jason McCann 0:33
Hopefully gonna be standing here in a few minutes.
Blake Miller 0:35
Yeah, absolutely. Why don’t you give everybody kind of introduce yourself. Let everybody know what you guys are doing. And I mean, you guys are building the future of living?
Jason McCann 0:44
Yeah. So Jason, I’m the co founder and CEO of Vari, we were formerly known as Varidesk. So we created that crazy sit stand phenomenon that’s out there. We’ve got over 3 million fans, and 135 now different countries that use that original product that we created. And now we create a full line of office space and really are thinking about the future of workspace is it’s continuing to transition. And in fact, we’ve even bought a couple buildings now called VariSpace where we lease out fully furnished offices.
Blake Miller 1:13
That’s very cool. Well, it’s great to meet you. I think it’s gonna be really awesome conversation. Talk to me about that rebrand from Varidesk into Vari. And you know, what’s what what happened there?
Jason McCann 1:24
Yeah, you think back, you know, we were addressing Dan’s back pain. And he’s standing at the cardboard box. And we dream up our first product. And we, what are you going to call it and we “Oh, it’s a variable height desk, and we’ll call it Varidesk.” Well, suddenly, fast forward a few years later, and we’ve now transformed our headquarters, and we did walls that move and added LED lights and soft seating and height at full height adjustable electric deaths. And everybody walked in and said, “why is it varidesk like you’re so much more.” And so we went through a process we work with the same firm that helped Federal Express for those of you that remember Federal Express transformed their brand of FedEx. And we said what could we do? And how could we do it? And they said, Well, you’ve got so much brand built up, you know the value of it with Vari, what about Vari and it just all clicked our fans resonated with it. Future fans, they said, you can be a technology company, it could be workspace innovation, you could be much bigger. So we went for it. And it was an incredible 18 month process. The fans have now resonated. It’s been incredible.
Blake Miller 2:28
It’s so cool. I mean, you guys do how you have fans, right? And I think that’s something that’s been very, very cool. When I saw it. I was like, you know, that’s like the Sean Parker moment, like, “drop the The.” You should just “drop the The off of Facebook” but, you know, it’s really interesting to me that you guys are a product company, you’re a tech company, or you’re changing the office and how we’re living like, talk to me what it’s like to have like fans of that, right. Like, you mentioned that it’s just that it. You guys have a cult.
Jason McCann 2:56
It didn’t dawn on me, you know john skagen, who’s now Chief Revenue Officer joined me as Director of Marketing five years ago did a word cloud, you know, kind of that first? What do you do? He took all the reviews that were out there. And the number one word in the reviews was love. I love my Varidesk. And that at that moment, I said, we don’t have customers, we have fans. And if we can build a lifelong career long relationship with our fan base, they will start to talk about the product, they will help us build this momentum and be that word of mouth spread, or and finding that small group of people that loved it created a ripple phenomenon that so many people around the world could like it. And so it’s been tremendous. And so that’s one of our core values is, you know, creating lifelong fans. And it’s everything we think about so it’s no longer customer service, it’s customer experience. So look at it great companies like Zappos were like, how do we even do better customer experience than Zappos. And so, it’s been fun to look at all these other great organizations and raise the bar and try to create what we think is the next next level of a relationship with our fans.
Blake Miller 4:00
That’s really cool. You mentioned Zappos. I’m a big fan of that. I’ve known Tony for a very long time. What do you guys do to take that even to the next step? I mean, that Delivering Happiness book was something that I was just like, yep, that’s exactly what we should be doing. You What do you guys do to take it to the next step?
Jason McCann 4:16
Yeah, that was sort of the start. What I didn’t have any employees. My first customer experience person Taylor. I said, All right, read this book. And we want to be better than this. Like, if this is the bar, like, Is there anything we could do better? And now that my team’s elevated, we almost think of space-as-a-service model now and how do we take workspaces and we have walls that move and space of moves, and so on? I’ve said, how do you take the experience the way Disney even pushes it even further. So when you walk into our workspace, there are scent machines, my culture team greets you, you’ve got a coffee bar that’s integrated with the lobby experience, like whether you’re hiring, or they’re recruiting talent or we’re doing business ourselves, like all these little energy pockets go throughout a space and so I think every touchpoint that you can have with a fan, with your employees with future fans with suppliers that you’re working with, that those touch points create positive energy in an organization. That’s where I think you’re continuing to see the evolution of what the customer experience. The fan experience can be in an organization.
Blake Miller 5:18
Jason, you’re giving me goosebumps, dude. Can I come work for you?
Jason McCann 5:21
Come on, we’re hiring. I know in the middle of the storm we’re hiring. Join me.
Blake Miller 5:27
I got a sell it to Homebase first. No, no, I mean, this is really cool. So we’re in the middle of a pandemic. We’re all we’re a lot of people are working from home. People are talking about, you know, offices going away all of these things like, What are you guys doing? Talk to me about this. We’ve got a lot of real estate developers, a lot of property owners and managers that listen to us of all different types of properties. Like, talk to me about what is happening, what’s going on and what you’re seeing.
Jason McCann 5:56
Yeah, so we had the COVID shock hit us just like everybody, so we initially said, Oh, what are we going to do? And over, you know, in a four hour period, all 300 plus of my employees were working remote. And then there was 10 of us here that were kind of showing up or considered an essential business, our work from home business, shot through the roof. Because everybody started sitting at home on the kitchen table for about two weeks and suddenly said, okay, I need an electric desk, I need to work space, the dogs are barking, can I buy like a marker board and put it next to me and create the illusion of a space? And so I said, well, why don’t we redesign the entire headquarters while everybody’s gone? So I reached out to my teams in Asia, and they were about 10 weeks ahead of us. So I said what are the restaurants and where the hotels doing? What are the high rises doing? And I just started getting all this information, translating that into English learning thing. Okay, temperature checks. We started that alcohol. Cleaning sanitizer started that we moved all of our space to six foot distancing between everybody so I because our furniture is totally flexible. I literally redesigned the headquarters while everybody was out. I started with manual temperature checks. And then I went to look at what the Taipei 101 was doing, because they have thousands of people that roll through there. They use eizo. So they’re checking all they’re checking hundreds of people at a time. So I bought one of those 15,000 bucks. So everything about getting the health and wellness of the employee so that we can figure out what is the workspace of the future gonna be like, and I think it’s all around flexibility. So it’s going to be an interesting chapter for all of us but we’ve got it we got to figure find ways to get through the storm.
Blake Miller 7:30
So you mentioned like the flexibility of some of your, your furniture and what it like talk to me about that not just desk like I see, you know, we’re filming this today to through the magic of video, but, you know, what are all the different things other than just a standing desk, like what is it?
Jason McCann 7:47
Yeah, so from a product standpoint, I’ve got almost 300 different products that we offer. So the biggest thing has been quick flex walls, so it’s literally acrylic and glass walls, panels that we can move throughout a space. So there seven-and-a-half feet tall, we can move them throughout a space, it creates rooms barriers, we started making acrylic panels. I got one here right next to me, but that we started attaching on all the desks. And you see those now in every restaurant and airport. So we started making them ourselves and producing them for ourselves. And then we had fans that we reached out to that we’d already done spaces for and I said, hey, how can I help space plan and redesign your space? So we put barriers between each of our team members, I tripled the number of Purell stations throughout. I took our single coffee bar that was a major collision point culturally, and I said we got to do two coffee bars, we’re going to spread it all out, single serving on everything. And how do you take even conference rooms, I took all the doors off all of our conference rooms and meeting rooms or eliminated every touchpoint I could and then we said okay, how are we going to come back? So I asked reached out to my team we surveyed and then 25% were saying we want to come back now. And so we started with the early adopters and learned.
Blake Miller 8:54
Were we laughing at this before we started this I was like some of my employees were like your that, with the parents, you know they’re like, “you’re not going to you’re not going to close the office or anything?
Jason McCann 9:02
Forever. Are you?
Blake Miller 9:03
Yeah.
Jason McCann 9:04
Yeah. I think we need to, we need to find those those moments. And really, you know, we took the break room, I wasn’t sure. So I put acrylic panels on the break tables, we spread it out. And I did it on half the tables. And as the first people came back, they always sat at the tables with the acrylic panels. So now I put him on all the tables. And we all were we’ve been wearing masks for months now. And so and I’ve been wearing masks when I travel to Asia, if you’re ever under the weather, it’s very normal phenomenon. And so those things culturally, we’ve said, you’re going to smile with your eyes. You’re going to still say hello and you’re going to wave you may not you know shake hands but you’re going to do handover heart or wave and find a way to have a human connection here. While we all figure out what the next normal is going to be.
Wow, you guys really been very, very thoughtful about this. It’s it’s a, there’s a lot of notes here that are gonna have to come on the show notes. We’re gonna keep keep the transcribers busy. So talk to me. You mentioned VariSpace a little bit ago. Talk to me about that. That sounds like you’re basically opening a co working space in the middle of a pandemic, when everyone closing dowing offices.
Yeah, so I think of it as enterprise level space-as-a-service. So what we learned is as clients walked into our headquarters, they said, Well, I want all of this and that really elevated our vision to creating workspaces that elevate people, as opposed to we’re just selling furniture. That’s not what we do. We think about workspace can be a positive transformation of culture. And so how do you leverage it but I think of culture continues to ebb-and-flow as you add amazing members and embody your values. Your business model, ebbs-and-flows is the business needs change your workspace should ebb-and-flow just like that. So thinking about your workspace as a canvas, so we always envision everything can move. And so we’ve done projects even like for Google, where they’re moving thousands of people all the time working on these agile teamwork, you know, working on two week sprints, so we think workspace should mirror that. And so that’s how we’ve always thought about it and working up the food chain. We said, Well, what if we bought a building and learned even more? Until we bought our first building? It’s over 300,000 square feet, it’s now fully leased, all enterprise level clients. Our smallest space for us is 10,000.
Blake Miller 11:13
Where is this by the way?
Jason McCann 11:14
So it’s in it’s in Irving. It’s in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and it’s called Las Colinas. So it’s the former Zales headquarter. So a beautiful building built in the early 80s. And it sat empty for five years. So it kind of felt like a building in the 80s. We got it and we reimagined it. So if you go to VariSpace.com you can get a video tour of it. It’s awesome. Yeah, and so it’s just a cool way to think about, say sort of our largest client is Verizon, so they’ve got 200,000 square feet of space for us. But it’s allowed us to build an on-site cafe, a 10,000 square foot gym, do our hospitality services all for enterprise level. And so we offer three to five year leases. It’s not considered, you know, co-working the way you think of it traditionally with you know, and you and I in a startup and two people and we’re all benching in that it’s literally suites and large spaces all using our furniture. And then we can transform the space if their business changes, hey, we need to set up a prop up a team, my team comes in and can literally transform the furniture. So it’s a it’s a new way to think of space-as-a-service.
Blake Miller 12:15
That’s really incredible, so like what, I mean it’s probably a lot of different ways, but like, what sort of, like what does that cost? Like, as a as an owner, you know, that’s how do you slot that into, you know, what’s happening, especially with, you know, the changing environment of office space and all this?
Jason McCann 12:31
Yeah, so for us, you know, because it was because I’m not from the furniture industry, I come from consumer products and I’m a human being like the rest of you. And so I think of like, what’s the easiest way to get things done and so we designed the very first Varidesk it was slide out of the box, no tools required. Dan and I always joke that IKEA is like the worst Saturday of your life so
Blake Miller 12:53
Oh my gosh.
Jason McCann 12:54
Could we create a…
Blake Miller 12:55
Like I’ve got so many like calluses just from like small…
Jason McCann 12:59
Allen wrench.
All of our product was initially designed so that you could build it in less than five minutes. So Dan, and I could build it in less than five minutes with David, our head of design, then we thought everybody would build their own. Well, what happened is his client said, no, no, can you build it for us. So what I’ve done is just simply layer it in. So if you’re a larger client for us, we come in and just layer this service. And it’s a very simple way we can come in, we do free space planning and design. We come in, install your furniture for free. And then once a year, we can come in and help you transform the space. And there’s a very simple way to do that listening to our fans. So for the tenants in our in our VariSpace buildings, we provide it for free. Every year we come in and transform their space as they need it. So they just reach out, and it’s just part of our service.
Blake Miller 13:48
How do you guys do all this? This is amazing.
Jason McCann 13:52
Well, I think like you, I mean, we’re entrepreneurs, right? And so I’ve hired and you get great people around you and you listen to your fans. And they pull you on the journey. And so, before we never I didn’t even know what an anti-fatigue mat was years ago and all the fans were emailing say, “hey, do you have anti fatigue mats? I’ve been standing on concrete or wood floors?” Sure. Let’s figure it out, you know, and we created one and then the monitor arms. And do you have “do you have electric desks?” I thought for sure everybody’s they’ve already made electric desks, but we made a better one easy to assemble. And then we started just thinking, Okay, well, we have standing conference tables for us, our meetings are better. Why don’t we sell those two and people came into our space and they said I love your active chair that you have. Okay, well, let’s let’s share it with the world.
Blake Miller 14:39
That by the way is my favorite. That thing is cool.
Jason McCann 14:41
Yeah, so I think listening to your fans and asking all those those those questions about where are they having pain? Can you help monetize that pain, address and get reduce all those friction points, and things like COVID we’ve got it on steroids, all this pressure that’s put on all of us as entrepreneur and business owners. So how do you create a culture that says, okay, I’m afraid to, I’m being vulnerable? I’m trying to get through this. But what are the ways that I can help and serve others? And all of that ultimately works out to building business?
Blake Miller 15:14
Yeah. Wow. I mean, you are, you’re nailing it. Now. So talk to me about everybody’s like getting ready to go back to the office, right. And some of those you talked about some of the things you guys are doing and some of the things you’re enabling like, as if I’m a business, or if I own large apartment buildings, I’m losing some retail and doing some of these things like, What am I thinking about? How do we make how do we how do we manage the office going forward? How do I how do I do leases? How do I do these sorts of things? If I’m trying to, if I’m losing office space to to people?
Jason McCann 15:46
Yeah, I think that the number one thing is communication. I think, being totally transparent and authentic. I think if you’re if you’re a building owner, you don’t want the tenant space back. If you’re a restaurant tour, you don’t want to go out of business. The customers want to find food and get it delivered to them. So everybody’s in it together. So how do you think about your business model evolving or changing? What can we all lean in? Where can we be a little more nimble and lean here? By over-communicating and saying, “what is possible? How could we get through this? Could you reduce my rent here and extend my terms? Could you help me adjust my model? Could we rethink some things and ideate and try to find those pockets of opportunity, as opposed to not talking to holding up to sitting in your house or your apartment and not doing anything?” I think number one is communicating. These are the things I’m struggling with, how can we find common ground to get through it and get a group of people in there to help you? Because I think all of us are in this together. And I think finding people that recognize that we have an opportunity to make a difference at this moment. Find ways to serve others figure out ways to help other companies or organizations, all of those things are going to happen. Yes, the the future of workspace is going to look different. It’s going to continue to evolve, but I think it’s going to do Just continue to evolve and change. So you think about, you hear these apartment developers like, wow, I everything’s been, you know, Chip and Joanna Gaines open concept, but maybe we do need a little space for an office or maybe we need to have transformed one of those restaurants into something like a VariSpace or a co-working space so that I can get out of my home and get down and meet with my teams for a little while. So I think they’re gonna be rethinking space and repurposing it. And that’s how the future is going to be is okay. It’s happening really fast. So how do you stay the eye of the storm here and calm while all this craziness is happening around you, and make the best decisions you can?
Blake Miller 17:37
Jason we’re almost out of time but I always end everything every episode with his like lightning round questions. One of my favorite questions to ask is what particular business or service is going to be obsolete in the next 10 years like in other words, who is the next Blockbuster? That doesn’t know it right now?
Jason McCann 17:54
Yeah, I think out. I think the the the editor got to think about that one for just a sec. Yeah. So as you think about businesses that aren’t going to be here, I think the the companies that have too many layers, manufacturers that have dealers, have distributors, have all those layers and aren’t close enough to the fan base are going to be absolutely disrupted. I think you’re watching the furniture industry get disrupted before our eyes, the way that our model is built more like Tesla, and you’re watching that entire industry struggle with what is the future of how do we do business when we don’t have a direct relationship with the fan base. So I think that that’s going to continue to change. I also think there’s gonna be a huge transformation just the way people work and live because, you know, if you read the faster than you think book, you’re like, wow, that the future is going to be so dynamic. I heard from Dr. Wilson yesterday at Denton ISD said something incredible blew my mind. He said, If you pull out this iPhone or your smartphone, and you’re a kindergartener, that’s the least tech not least technology based piece of equipment you’ll ever use in your lifetime like this is…
Blake Miller 19:00
Wow…
Jason McCann 19:01
An aha moment yeah. So this you think back to when I was in kindergarden, yeah, I was back there with my pencil and pen you know if they were sharing the crayon box and to think that they’re there the iPhone is the least advanced piece of technology these kids will ever use in their lifetime. So I think we have to stay optimistic and hopeful during this recognize that there’s going to be a lot of change embrace it, turn it into the next great companies lean in with over-communication and build something fantastic.
Blake Miller 19:33
I love that what a what not Vari device or furniture have you acquired post-COVID that’s a help make your quarantine a little bit better?
Jason McCann 19:43
Yeah, so for for me the first day well, the first non-Vari thing, yeah, I built I built a home office. Yeah, I built like I built I took it by exact office that I work with here and I did it at home so I literally duplicated my setup. So I have a spot in my workspace because my kids all took over all the rooms. So I don’t have an office at home probably like most of you. And so I said, but I need a spot where if I’m going to do a video conference or talk or Zoom or I needed to feel like I’m with my team, like where am I at? So I literally recreated my office at home. And that’s been a great thing for me to say, okay, so I have my Vari coffee mug on the spot. I haven’t I haven’t bought anything, you know, because I’m not I’m not a big consumer out there for for purchasing. As I think actually the thing I bought the most has been more Audible books on on the future. And I think I’ve done way more meditating and things like that to recharge because I think I recognizes CEO I’m under so much pressure, just like all of you are we’re all facing the same pressure. And I recognize if I’m under pressure, my team’s under even more pressure. So how do I make sure that I’m taking time to meditate and recharge when I can, and sharing that with my team, you know, being vulnerable. Those are things that I would say I’ve spent more money on, but I haven’t really I haven’t really bought anything crazy.
Blake Miller 21:10
For that what’s the what’s the best thing you’ve listened to recently on Audible?
Jason McCann 21:14
Yeah, I’m idle literally that Faster Than You Think book was great. I had I read the summaries of it. Yeah, so it’s it’s a it’s a great one. And the Audible versions got the extra dialogue with the author. I thought that was a fantastic piece. Alma lollies book on Ford. I finished probably two weeks ago, another incredible book out there. The Infinite Game I went back and re-listened to because I just love the way Simon summarized really like what I want to do with Vari is build a company that can live beyond my lifetime and thinking long term, especially in moments like this about the decisions you make I think are critical.
Blake Miller 21:57
That’s a good book. Such a good one. So if you had to describe kind of the the office of the future, what exactly does that that look like?
Jason McCann 22:08
Yeah, I think you have to think of the word seamless, and how is work going to be done in the future. And so I think we’re gonna, we’re social by nature. And we want moments of collaboration and teamwork, and those collision points that happen. So I think those are going to continue to happen. But I also think there’s going to be moments of focus or most of remote work. And so whether that’s at home or even in a third space, I think those are going to continue to evolve over time. I think the idea that we as as humans and entrepreneurs and business people, when we are together, and we ideate and we create that magic, that’s not going to go away. So that’s going to continue to embrace with technology, I think you’re gonna see AI and all of those things make us better. We’re gonna be a little fearful of it. But I think ultimately it’s going to continue to enhance our lives and continue evolve and it is I think about workspace. I think it’s all built on flexibility. So you want if you’re a business owner, you kind of want shorter term leases, you want space when you need it, I think the idea of the way that cloud has become sort of synonymous with, you know, whether it’s AWS or whatever, it’s like, I’m literally, you know, plugging into the Google Cloud and all my stuff’s up there. Well, that’s kind of I think about space. Like, kind of, that’s why I love about aerospace is you come in, we take care of everything when you need it, and then your your business can ebb and flow over time. And I think that’s those are elements of what we’re going to see in the future and future of learning is going to transform and change from the way schools and universities teach and I think all that’s going to integrate into corporate America, so it’ll be great.
Blake Miller 23:43
Jason, we’ve talked a lot about like how technology is going to change everything in the future what’s something is not going to change, especially as it relates to the office?
Jason McCann 23:52
I think the the desire for human interaction, I think, you know, we I walked in like everybody and you start to see everybody with masks on. And it’s a it’s a little scary at first and then suddenly, you recognize you can smile with your eyes. You can wave hand over heart, like little things and gestures and human contact and having communications. And yeah, you’re six feet away when you talk now. But all of a sudden, you realize we’re all in this together. And so the the idea of human interaction and connection and leading with love and empathy, I don’t think you’re gonna go anywhere. So I think those are going to be the great organizations that, that survive and thrive through this or thrive after this. And the leaders that that emerge out of it, because we’ve all got people in our organizations which are rallying cry is keep rolling until the wind catches our sails. I mean, we recognize this is a challenging moment. And so for my team members, those are things that aren’t going to change. Like we’re all in this journey together. Our goal is, you know, to create memories and to make a positive impact on people’s lives. And I think at the end of your journey and my journey, if those two things can be possible that we’ve made And build things that have a positive, lasting impact beyond our lifetime if we’ve taken a lifetime of memories with us, and we’ve done something great and so I don’t I don’t think those things are gonna change.
Blake Miller 25:10
Journey is the destination. Jason this has been such a great conversation. I’ve so enjoyed it. Let everybody know how they can find you online.
Jason McCann 25:19
Yeah, so it’s a vari.com and if you want to check out VariSpace, it’s varispace.com. And we’re doing tours virtual online. So you can click on there and learn about us and we’d love to love to help you as you’re powering through this storm. with us. We’re on the journey with you so we we’re happy to help in any way we can.
Blake Miller 25:38
That’s so great. And you know, I’m a fan. I’ve got a desk and I love it. It’s the best. My staff wants me to outfit the whole place. We haven’t quite gotten there revenue milestones-wise, we’re getting there soon.
Jason McCann 25:51
Alright, keep rowing the wind is going to catch your sales, Blake. Let’s do this.
Blake Miller 25:58
It definitely is you guys might have a hole VariSpace down here in Kansas City for us.
Jason McCann 26:02
We’d love that though. All right, bud.
Blake Miller 26:03
Jason, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Jason McCann 26:05
My pleasure. Thanks bud.
