Industrious sold to CBRE for $800M; founder Hodari now hunts a successor CEO (interview)
Jamie Hodari told Business Insider he sold Industrious to CBRE for $800M, took charge of 8B sq ft at CBRE, and is now recruiting his own successor.
What was changed
In an interview with Business Insider published in April 2026, Jamie Hodari says he is looking for his replacement as CEO of Industrious, the coworking company he cofounded in 2012, after selling it to CBRE for $800 million the year before. He stayed Industrious CEO through the first year inside CBRE while also running his new division there; the platform has since grown to 240 locations worldwide, and the successor's role will report to him.
The sale moved him from founder-CEO of an underdog to a senior executive at the world's largest commercial real estate services firm: he heads CBRE's building operations and experience division, overseeing more than 8 billion square feet worldwide and about 95,000 employees. He describes adapting to scale — posting on LinkedIn more, making videos, and learning from CBRE CEO Bob Sulentic, whose 'zero patience for promotion, for spin' he contrasts with startup fake-it-till-you-make-it culture — and says having a boss after the loneliness of founder life has felt freeing.
On the succession he says the brief is a CEO who is 'a badass and ultra ambitious' but fits a culture of real warmth, because ego-driven leaders 'end up flaming out'. He also recalls turning down Adam Neumann's offer to buy Industrious along with a threat to crush it — WeWork collapsed while Industrious reached an $800 million exit.
Why it worked
Industrious spent a decade as the disciplined underdog to WeWork; the $800 million sale to CBRE was the exit that model was built for.
CBRE bought the platform to run building operations at scale, so the founder's next job became running the combined machine rather than the startup he knew.
Hodari says a stranger running 'my baby' is daunting, but recruiting a culture-fitting successor beats holding the seat indefinitely.
What can be applied
Plan the succession in the same breath as the exit: a founder who sells should define what the next phase needs and recruit for it while still inside to hand over.
Aftermath
As of the April 2026 interview the successor search is open: Hodari remains in his CBRE role overseeing 8 billion square feet and 95,000 employees, and the new Industrious CEO will report to him. He says he is still calibrating big-company leadership — including where AI-drafted personal touches, like congratulating an employee on a child's championship, stop being authentic.