How Industrious Became an $800 Million Brand by Building a Sense of Belonging

In an era where companies wage costly battles to solve the return-to-office puzzle, Industrious has quietly cracked the code. Its secret: It harnesses the power of experience by creating a sense of belonging among its members. 

What began in 2012 as a single location founded by childhood friends Jamie Hodari and Justin Stewart has grown into the world’s largest premium flexible workspace provider, with more than 200 locations across 10 countries. The company’s meteoric rise—culminating in its recent acquisition by its long-term partner, commercial real estate giant CBRE, for approximately $400 million at an implied enterprise valuation of approximately $800 million—offers a master class in transforming a startup into an industry leader. 

The first lesson starts with the company being vigilant and near-obsessive about listening and reacting to the needs of individual members in order to align the product with the people who rely on Industrious flexible offices and spaces to do their best work.  

“I believe everyone deserves to feel like they belong at work,” says Anna Squires Levine, who joined the company in its early days and now serves as president alongside CEO Hodari. This simple yet powerful philosophy has become the cornerstone of Industrious’s success, helping it attract everyone from small businesses and entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies.

Value comes in many shapes and sizes. But how can you take a page from the Industrious playbook and build a strong brand that delivers on its promise? If you’re in business, I believe your primary purpose is to focus on delivering value.

It could be as simple as first identifying a group of people who need a problem solved. Can you come up with an elegant strategy and solution? Can you make a difficult task or process less mundane, safer, faster, or more financially efficient? If so, you’re on your way. But it doesn’t stop there. 

This might sound like common sense, but I can tell you that I’ve seen hundreds of examples via my production company business in which brands start with the product before they identify the audience and confirm that people actually want what they’re making. The order of operations here is critical. 

Get really specific about whom the product is for. Have a muse in mind who is singular and distinct. For example, coconut water is delicious, and there’s a temptation to think that it’s for everyone who’s thirsty. 

But coconut water isn’t for everyone, and that’s the point. It’s probably more of a healthy Gatorade substitute for serious health-conscious athletes, gym-goers, and weekend warriors. Coconut water without sugar additives might also attract the no-sugar segment by their own choice or doctor’s orders.

Then decide what it’s for—not just the solution to the problem but your overall objective. Maybe it’s specific, like “We want to be the (primary) alternative, no-sugar healthy drink for competitive endurance athletes and (secondarily) an option to juice and so-called ‘energy drinks’ to those battling diabetes.” 

If your product, service, or strategy is different from competitors’—and there’s a minimum viable number of clients clamoring for what you offer—you’ve got a good foundation for building a brand. 

In other words, is your product or service “the only” one or in a class by itself? Brands are inherently distinct. And customers are willing to pay a premium for them. The reasons people will pay more vary based on the product, but it’s usually tied to status, quality, or experience. 

Do the optics of driving a Mercedes versus a Honda give you some kind of personal or professional advantage? Compare the taste of a 1945 French Bordeaux wine with something you can get from CVS for $12. For those who know and care, the experience of the ’45 Château Mouton Rothschild is dramatically different and worth every penny of the $100,000 price per bottle. 

By comparison, if you find yourself and your so-called brand among a herd of competitors, all touting “better” features and benefits, you might not actually have a brand, but instead be a commodity. 

Ralph Lauren sells short-sleeved collared shirts that are a commodity. But Lauren has built a brand around a lifestyle that people want to be part of and are willing to pay a premium for. Amazon sells these kinds of shirts for $20 a dozen. But Lauren’s shirts have commanded a steady $70 price for decades for basically the same shirt but with the signature polo player mark.

There are a few examples of brands built on being the low-price leader—Amazon, Costco, and Walmart come to mind. But Amazon and Costco require shoppers to pay a premium via membership fees for the privilege of buying products that are less expensive than those available at most other places. And each of these examples has the element of “onlyness.” Each of these models is also built on the flywheel effect. 

The flywheel effect is the idea that small, consistent efforts build momentum over time, leading to exponential growth. The concept was popularized by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, in which he compares a business’s progress to pushing a heavy flywheel. 

At first, it takes a lot of effort to get the wheel moving, but as you continue pushing in the same direction, the momentum builds, making it easier to maintain speed and drive massive results. The slow and steady work of the Industrious team to build relationships in commercial real estate is also an example of the flywheel effect and resulted in a brand that is now valued at close to a billion dollars. 

In some way, shape, or form, business is always personal, isn’t it? The Industrious story begins with an unusual advantage: Its co-founders, Hodari and Stewart, have known each other since they were 2 years old, their houses next door to each other in suburban Detroit. This lifelong friendship has provided a solid foundation for building the company. While Hodari leads company strategy and growth initiatives as CEO, Stewart oversees the critical real estate partnerships that fuel the company’s expansion. 

While the once-young company and leadership team has grown into a professional force to be reckoned with in this space—weathering storms through the pandemic years—it does not want to lose its playful, creative culture and personality. 

“Justin really leads everything real estate, which in a place-based business founded on an economic model and partnership with landlords is essential,” explains Levine. Unlike traditional lease arrangements, Industrious operates on a hotel management model, convincing landlords to invest in building out spaces and share in the profits. This innovative approach, spearheaded by Stewart, has been crucial to the company’s rapid scaling.