Entrepreneur Finds a Niche in Tenant-Friendly Commercial Space Listings San Francisco startup 42Floors makes the process of leasing an office for your growing company simple.

For startups, offices are a little like baby clothes: They grow out of them fast. It's a problem Victor Ho, CEO of San Francisco-based FiveStars, was lucky enough to have. His company, which facilitates loyalty card programs for small businesses, moved into and out of three offices in 2012 as his staff ballooned from 15 to 40 to 85.

"I take office space really seriously because I think it's one of the biggest decisions a startup can make," Ho says. But he found that decision-making process complicated by the byzantine ways of the commercial real-estate industry. "If you reach out to a broker, they'll reach out to their set of listings, but they're not incentivized to send you everything," he says. "So we kept seeing things we weren't looking for."

Until recently, the seamless web-search experience enjoyed by residential real-estate browsers has been nonexistent for the commercial market. But Ho found it in the free service offered by fellow San Francisco startup 42Floors.