Chicago-based coworking firm Workbox is seeking to set itself apart from the competition.
The company, which currently has four locations across Chicago, goes beyond offering collaborative spaces, wellness amenities, phone booths, and other common perks seen in coworking offices.
Workbox emphasizes the importance of building up startups by offering mentoring services and investment leads for members of their spaces.
“I just thought that the sector had no differentiation; everybody was just selling space,” said John Wallace, CEO and cofounder of Workbox. “We started the business to be a toolbox for early and growth-stage companies to be successful.”
Workbox’s Plus membership also features digital marketing classes, bookkeeping services, seminars, exclusive events, and access to capital so startups get a leg up when kickstarting their operations.
“We do a lot of programming to make sure that [members] know how to talk to investors because oftentimes founders don’t have a background in finance,” said Wallace. “They might be brilliant in tech development or in marketing or in sales, but they don’t necessarily know how to tell their story and develop a strategy to raise capital.”
Moving forward, Wallace hopes to expand Workbox’s services outside of the Chicago area and has plans to launch in other large cities by the end of this year.
