New CEO Bryan Murphy is the founder and former president of Tomorrow Sleep, a direct-to-consumer mattress startup, and was an executive at eBay after his e-commerce company, WHI Solutions, was acquired. The new appointment comes four months after Julien Smith, Breather founder and former CEO, stepped down to make room for an executive with “experience scaling a company through the next level of growth,” according to his statement at the time. (TechCrunch)

Talking point: Murphy said Breather’s growth depends on its ability to expand its locations and partner with landlords globally. The company raised $60 million in June. Breather—which announced a plan in October 2018 that lets companies book for a month or more—is likely to go head-to-head with co-working incumbent WeWork. The latter recently received a scaled-back SoftBank investment of US$2 billion and announced its intention to expand into communal apartments and education. In Canada, Breather has spaces in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa; WeWork counts Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver among its markets. Breather was included in the Impact Centre’s 2019 Narwhal list.