Episode Summary
Executive Summary: Jason interviews Andrew Farah, CEO of Density, about the company’s evolution from counting coffee shop lines to building anonymous sensing products for space utilization, safety, and operational efficiency. They cover multiple hardware pivots, the pandemic-driven surge in demand, the new radar-based “Open Area/Obi-Wan” product, privacy concerns versus cameras, and the broader implications for real estate, cleaning, climate, and urban design.
Main Topics: Density’s origin and product evolution (Priority: 5/5): Farah explains how Density began as a weekend project to measure how busy a favorite coffee shop was, then iterated from MAC-address tracking to infrared to depth sensing and now radar-based open-area measurement. Privacy-first sensing versus cameras (Priority: 5/5): A major theme is why Density avoids cameras: anonymous-at-source measurement reduces privacy risk and makes the product viable in places where people expect privacy, unlike camera-based systems. Pandemic-driven demand and capacity management (Priority: 5/5): COVID dramatically increased demand for knowing how many people are in a space, leading to adoption in warehouses, universities, airports, and offices for safety, capacity limits, and compliance. Open Area / Obi-Wan product demo (Priority: 5/5): Farah demos the newest ceiling-mounted radar sensor that maps open spaces, identifies people and zones in real time, and creates a live floor-plan analytics layer for rooms and objects. Real estate optimization and cost savings (Priority: 5/5): Density helps large organizations measure actual utilization across huge portfolios, enabling lease avoidance, reduced cleaning costs, and better allocation of shared space. Broader societal effects: climate, cities, and remote work (Priority: 4/5): The conversation expands to how better measurement could reduce unnecessary building construction, support urban redesign, and accelerate hybrid/remote work and geographic decentralization. Founding lessons, retention, and diversity (Priority: 4/5): Farah reflects on team retention, culture building, surviving long enough for the market to need you, and the importance of diverse teams and inclusive founder access.
Key Arguments: Human space has historically been unmeasured, and Density’s thesis is that accurate, anonymous sensing can unlock major operational and societal gains. Camera-based people counting is limited by privacy objections, false positives, and intrusive surveillance concerns; anonymous-at-source sensing is more scalable and safer. The pandemic accelerated the need for space intelligence, turning utilization data from a nice-to-have into a safety and compliance necessity. A small amount of utilization data can save organizations millions by avoiding unnecessary leases, cleaning, and underused facilities. If buildings and cities were measured in real time, organizations could redesign space, transportation, and even urban form more efficiently. The best startups survive long enough for the market to catch up; retention and long-term team cohesion are critical to building durable products. Diversity in founding and investing matters because different lived experiences uncover blind spots and produce better products.
Data Points: Company age: 6.5–7 years - Density has been operating since the original Launch Festival pitch roughly six years earlier. Founders: 6 total co-founders - Farah says all six original founders still work at Density. Team size: 62 employees - Farah describes the current team working on the problem. Voluntary retention: 93% - Farah cites strong retention since founding as evidence of healthy culture. Average tenure: Over 3 years - Referenced as proof the team has stayed together through multiple pivots. Customers’ scale: Billions of square feet - Density serves organizations managing massive real estate portfolios. Largest customer footprints: Over 400 million square feet each - Two customers individually manage more than 400 million square feet of space. Typical consultant study cost: $750,000 - Baseline before Density: consultants walking buildings with clipboards for space studies. Space utilization example: 23% average utilization across 2,300 seats - A customer discovered major underuse over a 180-day sample. Peak utilization example: 43% - Same customer’s peak utilization remained far below full capacity. Pre-pandemic growth plan: 350% quarter-over-quarter - Density was on track for major growth before COVID hit. Actual pandemic growth: 490% quarter-over-quarter - Demand surged as safety and capacity became urgent concerns. Safety breaches before SAFE: 10.4–10.5 breaches/day - A logistics customer’s break rooms exceeded capacity repeatedly before deployment. Safety breaches after SAFE: 1.3 breaches/day - Density’s display-based software dramatically reduced policy violations. Pricing: $199/device/year + $399 one-time hardware fee - Public pricing for the newest sensor platform. U.S. office space vacancy/paid-for waste: 41% - Farah cites a large amount of office space as vacant but still being paid for. U.S. office space base: 10.9 billion square feet - Approximate leased or owned occupied office space in the U.S. Annual spend on empty space: About $1 trillion - Farah estimates annual U.S. spending on space with no occupants. National foot traffic drop: 87% week over week - Density helped quantify pandemic impacts, including in airports and hospitality. Airport presence: Around 40 airports - Farah mentions the company’s footprint across U.S. airports. Lease example: $1 million/year on a 3-year term - A customer avoided signing a lease after utilization data showed existing space was underused. Lease savings example: $3 million saved - Density helped the customer walk away from a three-year lease.
Pivotal Quotes: "If you could figure out, if you could remotely know how many people were in a bar without having to be there, could you do that for a cafe or a grocery store?" — Andrew Farah: Explaining the original leap from coffee-shop annoyance to a scalable sensing platform. "The question really isn't one of technology, it's one of distribution. How do you get an intelligent device into every relevant room in the world?" — Andrew Farah: Describing Density’s long-term strategy beyond a single product category. "There is no future in which humans don't eventually figure out how all of this space is used." — Andrew Farah: On the inevitability of measuring building utilization at scale.
Implications: The episode argues that privacy-preserving sensing will reshape real estate, workplace design, cleaning, safety, and even city planning. Density’s approach suggests a future where space is managed with software-like precision instead of guesswork.
About This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis covers startups, tech, markets, media, and all the hottest topics in business and technology. He also interviews the world’s greatest founders, operators, investors, and innovators.