Appear Here

A London-founded online marketplace that lets brands and entrepreneurs book short-term shop and pop-up space.

About Appear Here

Appear Here is an online marketplace for short-term retail space. Brands, entrepreneurs and creative people can find and book shops, pop-up spaces and market stalls for days, weeks or months, instead of signing a traditional multi-year lease. It works with landlords who want to fill empty units, and its founder has said renting a shop should be "as simple as booking a hotel room".

Its mission, in its own words, is "to create a world where anyone with an idea can find space to make it happen." The idea began in 2012 when founder Ross Bailey and a friend made T-shirts for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, were refused permission to sell them in the usual way, and rented an empty London shop for a weekend, selling out. Finding that space was slow and complicated, so he built a platform to make it easy. Appear Here launched in 2013.

The company is based in London, with a Farringdon address listed on a job-culture site, and its own site says it also has teams in Paris, New York and Amsterdam, close to the top retail cities. It says it has a community of more than 200,000 brands and entrepreneurs, and its customers have included big names such as Chanel, Apple and Nike as well as independent businesses in places like Brixton, Hackney, Peckham and Columbia Road. A careers-culture site puts the team at between 21 and 100 people.

Appear Here says it recruits "makers and forward thinkers" and tries to practise what it preaches, having opened its own shop before building the platform. Its story is about turning ideas into real ventures, from small market stalls to international brands. Its founder has said pop-ups let brands connect with a moment, and that he sees the high street as a place for bringing people together. A job-culture profile mentions a weekly team lunch each Friday and stock options. It has appeared in lists such as Wired's 100 Hottest Start-ups and Bloomberg's UK's Most Innovative Companies, according to its own site. These are the company's own descriptions.

Behind a site like this are jobs that mix property and retail: account and customer teams who help brands find spaces, people who work with landlords and shopping centres, marketing and brand, software and product development, and operations. We did not find current vacancies, a headcount that agrees across sources, or formal company values, so check Appear Here's website for up-to-date details.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Rent retail space for days, weeks or months online.', 'title': 'Short-term shop and pop-up booking'}
• {'desc': 'Helps landlords fill empty units with brands.', 'title': 'Landlord partnerships'}
• {'desc': 'Personal help with finding and booking space.', 'title': 'Concierge support'}

Key facts

• Launched 2013 by Ross Bailey after a Jubilee pop-up shop in 2012
• Community of 200,000+ brands and entrepreneurs (company claim)
• Offices: London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam (own site)
• Named in Wired 100 Hottest Start-ups (own site)

Website: www.appearhere.co.uk