After founding Pinch, the team was remote and thought they’d never get an office.
But, after raising seed funding, the team decided to make Industrious Evanston their home and hasn’t looked back.
Pinch is a Concierge Med Spa in Chicago that empowers Nurse Practitioners to offer medical spa treatments — such Botox and Chemical Peels — to clients in the comfort of their own homes. This gives clients incredible convenience and creates a path for Nurse Practitioners to build a side job in aesthetics.
Since joining Industrious, the company has grown rapidly and the team credits the Industrious office to serving as a hub for their full-time employees, supply logistics, and perfect event space.
How The Pinch Team Decided They Needed An Office Near Home
Initially, Pinch’s team consisted of a medical doctor, a startup executive, and a healthcare business leader who didn’t want to waste time commuting to an office. Everyone worked from home — and they secretly hoped it would stay that way for all of the reasons that people love remote work.
After raising funding, however, Pinch’s new Head of Engineering suggested that having a consistent place for the team to meet would be helpful. The garage for supplies and coffee shops for meetings just wouldn’t cut it anymore.
Pinch’s Head of Operations explored multiple paths to find a few dedicated desks where the team could sit when they wanted to meet up. The team didn’t anticipate coming to the office often. But, in reality, Pinch’s team has shown up to the office nearly every day since.
Choosing Industrious Over Other Coworking Options in Chicago
When looking for office space, Pinch wanted flexibility as the company grew, affordable rent, and as little time as possible worrying about amenities and office management. The team needed a place where they could invite guests, run small events, and have delivery drivers easily pull up to the office. Pinch’s founder previously had offices with WeWork in many cities across the country but found their environment wasn’t ideal for a healthcare business. Places like Regus were a bit too formal for a technology company and didn’t meet Pinch’s flexible event space requirements.
Industrious met all of Pinch’s needs:
- Well-designed dedicated office space that could grow with the company
- Convenient location with easy parking for employees, guests & delivery drivers
- Professional community, without the distraction of some coworking spaces
- Event space with a homey feel, when inviting Nurse Practitioners for training, events or photo shoots
- Highly welcoming staff that provided snacks, drinks, mail management and more as needed
What is Pinch’s Favorite Industrious Perk?
It might surprise you, but the commute! Pinch’s team loves the convenience of the Evanston location. Many team members live within a 10 to 20-minute commute by car, Metra, or CTA. The office is just steps from two train lines. There is easy parking nearby, free street parking within a short walk, and bicycle parking when folks choose to bike to work. The team loves all of the options they have to get to the office.
Reflections After Renewing With Industrious For Year Two
Pinch first joined Industrious in June 2023. The team recently resigned a lease for a second year in a bigger office space (with plans to scale up further), and hope to stay with Industrious as long as possible.
While Pinch doesn’t have any policies yet about when or where employees work, the team is choosing to come to the office. Most employees choose to be in the office at least three days per week, with many showing up four to five days per week without any mandates on where to work.
In addition to a full-time team, Pinch regularly hosts guests and has delivery drivers pick up shipments at the office nearly every day. They love that the Evanston location has easy places to double park for a pickup.
Pinch also invites Nurse Practitioners to the office for training, social events, and photo shoots. The ability to get space for these events on demand is incredibly helpful. In most offices, Pinch wouldn’t have the extra space for these events or would need to rent way more space than they require daily.
When Nurse Practitioners come for events, they love the professional design and the fact that there are conference rooms, extra offices, and common spaces designed with living room furniture that create the perfect vibe for connecting. Pinch also invites potential employees, partners, and investors to the office, who enjoy the amenities and conference room space.
As Pinch thinks about growth, the team is excited to know Industrious has office options in many of the new markets they plan to expand to as well.
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David Weintraub leads Operations at Pinch and, among other things, was responsible for helping Pinch identify Industrious as the company’s HQ. David previously ran healthcare businesses and worked in finance.