Our Story
From a crowded library to a global building solution.
Occuspace began with two engineering students, one impossible-to-find seat, and a simple wish. This is the story of how a campus side project became the easiest, most affordable, privacy-safe way for organizations to understand their buildings.
Founded 2017 · UC San Diego
100+ organizations
40+ Million square feet
Twenty minutes. Zero open seats.
Nic Halverson — Co-founder & CEO
It started in 2017 with a problem every student knows. Nic Halverson, an engineering student at UC San Diego, walked into the eight-story Geisel Library and spent twenty minutes hunting for a single open seat. He found nothing.
“
“I wish I knew how busy it was before I walked all the way over here.”
— Nic Halverson, to his friend and fellow engineer Linus Grasel
That simple wish became the spark for Occuspace. What began as a “let’s see if we can fix this” idea quickly took on a life of its own.
Two rules that changed everything.
When Nic and Linus pitched the idea to the university, campus leaders were interested — under two non-negotiable conditions.
Rule One
No personal data. Ever.
The solution could not collect any personally identifiable information. Not names, not faces, not individual devices.
Rule Two
No construction.
It couldn't require complex infrastructure changes to deploy. No wiring, no cabling, no IT projects.
Most founders would call those limitations. They became the product's DNA.
A year of work. One small device.
Linus Grasel — Co-founder, with the sensor that started it all
Challenge accepted. After a year of development, Nic and Linus had created something quite revolutionary: a simple plug-in sensor that measures how busy a space is — anonymously — from ambient Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals.
3,000
square feet measured by a single sensor
95%+
accuracy, with zero personal data
1
standard wall outlet — that's the whole install
One Facebook post. Ten thousand downloads.
They wrapped the live data in a free student app called Waitz, made a single Facebook post, and waited. The results were stunning.
10,000
downloads in the first week
1 in 3
of the entire student body using the app
Two weeks later, the Vice Chancellor called
“How do you have this data for my buildings? I'm spending over a billion dollars on construction and have no real idea how our spaces are being used. Can you deploy this across our entire four-million-square-foot portfolio?”
The call that turned a student app into a company. UC San Diego became customer number one.
The physical world was flying blind.
At that moment, Nic and Linus realized their solution could transform how modern day buildings are managed.
What began as a search for one open seat revealed a much bigger insight: organizations everywhere were making consequential decisions about physical space based largely on assumptions and anecdotes.
Occuspace was created to change that.
Our Mission
Make space data simple.
Unlocking the potential of our physical world shouldn't be complex. We make it simple for organizations to understand how building spaces are used so they can move from guesswork to confidence.
Our Vision
Space that works for people and the planet.
We envision a world where every space works better — for the organizations that operate it, the people who use it, and the planet we share.
By helping organizations understand how their space is used, we enable more efficient buildings, lower operating costs, reduced environmental impact, better experiences and smarter investment in the physical world.
No longer a campus project.
Today, more than 100 leading organizations across North America and Europe — including Google, Deloitte, and UCLA — trust Occuspace to understand and optimize their spaces. Deployed across millions of square feet, we are the recognized leader for easy, scalable, cost-effective space utilization data.
And the campus where a student once couldn't find a seat? UC San Diego is still a customer.
Be part of the story.
Join the movement to build smarter, more efficient spaces. Discover what data-driven confidence can do for your organization.
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