How Grocery Delivery Startup Gorillas is Using Occupier to Scale

Last Updated on March 26, 2024 by Morgan Beard

Strategically Approaching Real Estate Decisions

Angeline says the way that Occupier synthesizes, organizes, and surfaces data for other stakeholders frees up room for him to focus on important strategic decisions. “I know when my rent is going to escalate, and I know when I need to notify the landlord that I want to extend my term,” he says. “I don’t need to think about these things; Occupier is thinking about them for me and then proactively prompting me to stay on top of it.” This peace of mind about the small details frees up room so the real estate team can drive more value for the rest of the company.

“It allows me to focus on the strategy piece and really figure out why we need to be in Flushing, why we need to be in Jackson Heights,” Angeline says. “It really gives me more depth and time into (the strategic aspects) and not, ‘Is my rent schedule populating correctly?’” In this way, Angeline says, Occupier allows companies to focus on their business instead of managing the minutiae of real estate.

Adopting Innovative Technology

Gorillas requires advanced technology to organize the supply lines, customer orders, communication with the Riders (folks who make the deliveries), timely deliveries, and more. The company needed a real estate solution that had the technological chops to match.“ That is part of the reason I was very excited about bringing Occupier into our fold,” Angeline says.

“What we are doing as Gorillas, as far as delivering groceries and empowering local businesses, is incredibly impactful and innovative,” Angeline says. “But we can only do it if the way that we’re working is impactful and innovative, too.” According to Angeline, Occupier is an “incredible toolset” that allows him to stay up-to-date, nimble, and effective in an ever-changing real estate market as the company rapidly scales. “There’s no way I can do that with the traditional tools of Excel — and if I could, it’s not efficient,” he says. “It doesn’t allow me to scale as fast as I would want.”

Cross-functional Team Alignment

Angeline says Occupier’s unique interface ensures all stakeholders have access to key information as a single source of truth. “That allows us to work cross-functionally better,” Angeline says. Alignment across departments is key for Gorillas as the company scales. “If real estate is not talking to the commercial and supply chain teams, things drop, and mistakes can be made,” Angeline says. “At the speed at which we’re moving, we can’t afford to have that possibility.”

According to Angeline, Occupier’s intuitive user interface removes some of the frustration he’s experienced using other proptech tools. Folks from other departments can easily access and interpret the information, and they trust the platform to be accurate and efficient. “If I want to share a link with some of my team members, they’re not going to get lost in it,” Angeline says. “This is a big component of cross-functionality. I want my accounting team to go in there and feel empowered to pull data from Occupier and really make decisions around it.”

Streamlined Operational Requirements

Occupier’s efficiencies allow Gorillas to grow quickly without adding strain to the company overall. “I’m one person, and I feel very comfortable scaling our real estate portfolio across the whole country — just myself with Occupier,” Angeline says. “Occupier allows me to scale myself. I don’t have to be stuck in the weeds of pulling PDFs and tracking rent schedules.” Angeline says Occupier replaces the need to hire five or 10 lease administrators. In fact, Angeline says he can use Occupier to accomplish two to three weeks’ worth of work managing a lease in the span of only one or two days, which frees him to spend time on value-adding decisions.

Because Occupier takes care of lease management activities, Angeline can hire for more conceptual, strategic roles instead of administrative roles. “I can hire someone in data science instead of bucketing more administrative tasks” into the commercial real estate arm of the company, Angeline says.

In Closing

Occupier has been a key component of Gorillas’ growth in the U.S. With the Occupier platform, Gorillas can coordinate key lease information across teams and spend more time on strategic decisions. According to Angeline, the Occupier team is just as important to scaling Gorilla’s real estate footprint as the tool itself. “We feel incredibly supported from day one,” Angeline says. “I don’t want to overlook the tools. Fantastic. But you guys are fantastic, as well.” As Gorillas doubles its warehouse footprint throughout 2022, Occupier and our team will be there to help every step of the way.