It’s like WeWork, but without the free kombucha or corporate-office drama. Venture X plans to become the next big coworking space in the Triangle, and the first actually located in Research Triangle Park.
“We want to be the high-end, premier, very professional option for office space,” Community Manager Evan Preslopsky said.
Venture X is an international franchise chain with 24 locations currently in North America, and 150 more signed on to be established in the coming years.
Co-owners of the new RTP location, Tyler Evans and Michael Hicks, also plan to open locations in Raleigh and Durham over the next five years, and one near Charlotte as well. There will be three full-time employees at the RTP location—which is in the Frontier building—including Preslopsky.
The space will open Jan. 1 and include communal areas, various sizes of private offices and large team suites.
Membership to this Venture X location gives you access to the other locations across the country as well. Memberships run month-to-month and vary in pricing, depending on how much space you want and the level of privacy needed.
As the location opens and aims to fill up, pricing and membership options will be more flexible, Preslopsky said. There’s even a deal running for the first three months that anyone, member or not, can hold an event at the Venture X space for free.
Companies with lots of employees have the option to rent out an entire wing of the team suite area. Several companies with over 40 employees have shown interest in that option, though none have officially signed yet, Preslopsky said.
Venture X is targeting entrepreneurs and startups who want a more professional setting than other competing coworking spaces offer. Unlike the corporate-owned WeWork spaces in Durham and Raleigh, he said, the fact that Venture X has a local owner allows for things to be handled more transparently.
The team also plans to differentiate themselves by operating like a “boutique-style hotel” with full concierge-level service. Preslopsky himself aims to greet members—or “customers”—by name as soon as they walk through the door.
His customer service background, and the reason this Venture X location is materializing, dates back to high school when Preslopsky began working for Planet Fitness. There, he learned how to interact with customers and the basics of selling memberships. It also put him into contact with Evans and Hicks.
Hicks owned some Planet Fitness locations, where both Evans and Preslopsky worked. Evans worked his way up from general manager of one location to eventually being the director of operations for all of Hicks’ locations.
Later, the locations were sold, and Hicks and Evans were ready to start a new venture. Preslopsky did his research, found Venture X, and pitched it to the pair. They jumped on the idea, and the new franchise location was born.
“There’s this really peak time to step in with a franchise,” Preslopsky said. “[You target] a growing company, a growing field, and then you can ride it all the way up to the peak and have a lot of success doing that.”
