In our webinar “Coworking Success Stories: From Startups to Giants,” we hosted three industry leaders who shared how they scale coworking spaces. Sarah Travers, CEO of Workbar, and Chris Smith, CRO of Thrive Coworking, joined us to discuss their experiences and strategies for growth.
Scaling a coworking business means growing from one or a few locations to many while keeping the member experience, brand, and unit economics consistent across every site.
They were joined by our Samantha Kenney, CMO, OfficeRnD who moderated the session.
Chris Smith, Chief Revenue Officer at Thrive Coworking, and Sarah Travers, CEO of Workbar, both bring extensive experience and unique perspectives to the table.
Chris, with a background in technology and workforce performance, joined Thrive Coworking to help scale the business from three locations in 2020 to 15 locations today.
Sarah has spent most of her career in coworking, starting with IWG before moving to Workbar, where she has led the brand’s expansion across Massachusetts. Workbar now runs a network of Greater Boston locations, with its 12th, in Harvard Square, announced in March 2026.
Samantha Kenney is an experienced B2B SaaS executive with years of experience building teams that provide tangible results.
The discussion began with both panelists making the same point: get the foundation right before you scale. Here are the strategies they shared.
Chris Smith stressed the importance of aligning people, processes, and technology to keep operations smooth and the member experience consistent across locations.
Thrive Coworking focuses on building a strong organizational culture and using technology to simplify processes and improve the member experience. He noted:
We really spend a lot of time on finding who we are as a brand and who we want to be.
Both Chris and Sarah made the case for defining and holding a clear brand identity as you scale. Thrive Coworking spends significant time making sure every location delivers a consistent experience that matches the brand.
Workbar has expanded to many locations while keeping its core design and brand elements, so members get a familiar, high-quality experience wherever they go.
Sarah mentioned, “Our space changes with every location we open, but the brand elements and the physical layout have stayed relatively the same.”
Sarah Travers shared Workbar’s move from a homegrown tech stack to OfficeRnD Flex. The switch let the team focus on the core business while using specialized software to run the spaces.
Chris also described the mix of technologies at Thrive, including AI for financial management and sales, to cut costs and run leaner. Thrive uses OfficeRnD Flex as its coworking management software.
As Chris noted:
We used OfficeRnD Flex to make it really easy for us to replicate the onboarding of our new locations.
OfficeRnD Flex is a coworking management platform that gives operators one system for member lifecycle, billing, bookings, and reporting across every location. For teams facing the lead-timing problem both panelists know well, its AI Hub adds an AI Sales Agent that responds to inbound inquiries 24/7 across website forms and a shared inbox, then qualifies and hands them off.
Both panelists want a lean, effective team structure. Sarah favors a flat organization, which she says makes communication and decisions faster.
Chris talked about giving community managers the tools and support they need to serve members well.
“We want people to be problem solvers with us and serve our people,” Chris stated.
Scaling brings operational and infrastructure challenges. Our panelists shared how they manage them.
Chris described building a culture of measuring everything. “We obsess over process and project management, ensuring everyone is tied into that workflow,” he said.
That discipline lets Thrive Coworking track performance metrics and make decisions from the data rather than gut feel.
Both Chris and Sarah pushed for hiring skilled subject matter experts. Chris shared Thrive’s experience outsourcing construction management, which led to delays.
“We had to hire someone in-house to be our construction manager,” he revealed, making the point that complex projects need specialized knowledge on the team.
To handle multiple locations, both Thrive and Workbar lean on technology. Chris again pointed to AI for financial management and sales, which reduces the need for extra staff.
Leadership and team development changed as these coworking businesses grew.
Sarah favors a flat structure to stay nimble and respond to the market. As she explained:
I like to be close to our members and our team. We don’t have an HQ; we co-work with our members.
That keeps leadership close to daily operations and the member experience.
Chris made the case for empowering community managers to make decisions and solve problems.
As he explained:
Our community managers are the face of our business, and we want to make sure they have everything they need to delight our members.
That ownership shows up in better member experiences and higher retention.
Both panelists tied success to member retention and satisfaction. Regular surveys and feedback loops tell them where members are happy and where they can do better.
“We want our members to be bragging about us,” Chris said, on the value of delivering service worth talking about.
Scaling means growing from one or a few sites to many while keeping the member experience, brand, and unit economics consistent. Both panelists said the work starts before you open location two: define the brand, standardize the process, and pick technology that replicates onboarding across sites.
Both Workbar and Thrive Coworking run OfficeRnD Flex, which gives operators one system to manage member lifecycle, billing, bookings, and reporting across every location. Chris Smith said Thrive used it to replicate the onboarding of each new location.
Sarah Travers said Workbar’s physical layout and brand elements stay largely the same as each new space opens, even as the site itself changes. Thrive spends significant time defining who it is as a brand so every location delivers the same experience.
Chris described a culture of measuring everything, tying the whole team into one workflow so decisions come from data. For a breakdown of the metrics operators track, see our guide to coworking KPIs.
“Coworking Success Stories: From Startups to Giants” covered the strategies and challenges of scaling coworking spaces in depth.
Sarah Travers and Chris Smith* both came back to the same themes: a strong foundation, the right technology, a consistent brand, and a relentless focus on member experience. Anyone growing a coworking business can put these to work.
They shared much more, including the coworking KPIs they use to measure success. What are they, and why do they matter? You’ll also learn the result of a poll we ran live during the session.
Click here to watch the on-demand webinar at your own pace.
Thanks to everyone who joined us. We’ll keep bringing you insights and success stories. Follow us on social media for updates and future events.
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