How three companies use private offices

These private spaces allow companies to give their employees a customized space for all their needs

The Unearth team at WeWork 500 Yale Ave N in Seattle. Photographs courtesy of the subjects

WeWork offers solutions for individuals and businesses of any size—from a one-person operation to a global team of thousands. And as a company’s space needs change, WeWork has offerings that flex with them. From coworking spaces to private offices and beyond, WeWork offers something for everyone. 

One option for a growing team is a WeWork Private Office. These private workspaces designed for teams of all sizes are fully furnished and move-in ready. Accessed via an employee’s WeWork keycard, these offices may private amenities such as interior offices, meeting rooms, lounges, pantries, and more. The benefits of these offices are innumerable—they offer space for quiet, heads-down work as well as group collaboration. Additionally, members have the option of choosing office add-ons, finishes, and enhancements for a truly customized space

Here are three very different companies that are using private offices to give their employees a private, personalized space of their own.

Space to suit employees, clients, and future hires

Over the past five years, data company Grassroots Analytics has grown from a one-person company founded in 2017 to a 45-plus-person team. Throughout that time, WeWork has been a vital business resource for founder and CEO Dan Hogenkamp. 

As the world started opening up after the height of the pandemic and more staffers began to return to a regular in-person schedule, it became clear that the Grassroots Analytics team had outgrown its 27-person WeWork office at WeWork 700 K Street Northwest. Their space needs had evolved as well: The company needed more professional workspace they could use to meet with clients, host events, and impress talent they wanted to recruit. 

The Grassroots Analytics team at WeWork 700 K Street Northwest in Washington, D.C. Photograph by Shefa Ahsan.

In order to accommodate additional employees and welcome guests and clients in a private setting, Grassroots Analytics expanded from their 27-person space to a 66-person Private Office: a corner space with three internal rooms and views of the historic Carnegie Library. Within the private office, there are seven rooms that can be used as executive offices. Grassroots kept their existing four one-person offices, for a total of 70 desks at WeWork 700 K Street Northwest. With the expansion, the company received an additional 30 monthly conference room credits from WeWork, to help accommodate the growing team. 

Hogenkamp considers the new workspace an all-around win. “[It] definitely increased our brand’s power, especially when people visit,” he says. “The layout is also structured so that teams doing similar work are in similar parts of the office… it helps build a sense of camaraderie when they work closely together.” The space is also attractive to potential hires, he says. “Potential staff take us much more seriously now that they see we have this big, fancy corner office.”

Capturing the magic of collaboration

SaaS startup Unearth attributes its success largely to the collaborative energy of its workforce, a direct result of the company culture. That’s why when the pandemic hit and employees all over the world were forced to work remotely, Unearth jumped in to maintain that strong cultural connection. 

Zoom was OK for a while. But as the world returned to offices, Unearth—a platform that supports infrastructure providers in construction, utilities, oil and gas, and telecom—provided its 27 employees with WeWork All Access passes, which allowed them to visit WeWork spaces as needed—and to continue making that collaborative magic the company prides itself on. 

A WeWork Private Office helped bring the Unearth team together after the pandemic.

Thanks to WeWork All Access, Unearth employees created a weekly meetup schedule to strengthen cross-functional connectivity: congregating in teams, gathering for lunch, and holding work sessions in meeting rooms. But company leaders missed the idea of a permanent home base, so Unearth also leased a 62-person private office at WeWork 500 Yale Ave N in Seattle. 

“Collaboration is key to Unearth’s company culture, and WeWork spaces ensure teams can share ideas openly, innovate, and continue to work well together,” says Brian Saab, Unearth’s cofounder and CEO.

With employees able to work at a WeWork space convenient to them or the de facto HQ, the company culture is alive and well at this SaaS startup. 

“There is an irreplaceable value of in-person connection,” Saab says, “and the little ties you can make just from a few moments of in-person interaction. WeWork has definitely brought the company together again.”

Customizing a central hub for a vibrant brand

In the four years since it was founded, fintech company Zilch has experienced astronomical success thanks to its model, which offers users a card with a personalized credit line, zero interest, and no hidden fees. As it grew from a company of three employees to one of more than 200, it prioritized flexible workspace that could keep pace. 

Zilch wanted to reimagine the workplace experience for its ever-growing team. Topping its list of wants was flexible options for employees that would still allow the business to build and maintain a strong corporate culture. 

The Zilch headquarters at WeWork 123 Buckingham Palace Rd in London.

The company settled on the hub-and-spoke model, giving employees the choice of working from Zilch headquarters at WeWork 123 Buckingham Palace Road in London, or visiting a WeWork location closer to their home. The customized Full Floor Office features Zilch’s bold super-green neon logo, and offers six meeting rooms of different sizes, plus a boardroom, breakout areas, and a pantry.

As planned, the 252-person office is the heart of Zilch and its culture. “We have a young team, and we wanted to give them an environment that made them excited to come to the office, and where visitors, such as investors and potential recruits, can feel the positive energy, come in, and go, ‘Wow, this is nice!’” explains founder and CEO Philip Belamant. “The space is beautiful, the location is phenomenal, and the service has been fantastic.”

Melanie Mannarino is a writer, editor, digital strategist, and author of several books, including The (Almost) Zero Waste Guide.

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