Amol Sarva has a way of saying things that can make you think: Did I just hear that right?
In early 2017, when barely anyone knew of his flexible office startup, Knotel, he told The Real Deal, in the casual tone of someone commenting on the weather, that he intends to “build a vast global enterprise.” A little more than a year later, he elaborated that he envisions a future in which “Knotel sprawls across virtually every block in every city.”
“It’s not possible to overstate our ambition for New York,” Sarva said in an interview last month. “We’re north of 40 properties now in New York, and there will be hundreds and hundreds.”
And don’t get him started on the competition.
He’s accused WeWork employees of corporate espionage and occasionally parks a bus outside that company’s headquarters painted with Knotel’s logo and the words “graduate from coworking.” He recently described that move as a message to “the bros hanging out doing keg stands at WeWork.”