Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Josh Freed, CEO of Proximity, located in Montrose, CO, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

BUSINESS:

In what is now a flexible work world, Proximity provides easy-to-use, powerful workspace management technology to improve the way people collaborate and work.

Workplace managers, coworking space operators, and commercial real estate owners choose the industry-leading Proximity platform to manage their workforce, provide easy building door access control via smartphone, reserve meeting rooms and desks, control Wi-Fi, and more.

CUSTOMERS:

  1. Hybrid Workplaces
  • Manage your mix of remote + in-person employees with easy-to-use business management software.
  • Head of remote, people operations, director of operations, director of real estate and workplace, global workplace strategy, director of workplace operations.

2.   Coworking Spaces

  • Make daily operations at your coworking space easier with seamless space management technology.
  • Coworking space owner, operator, and coworking space manager.

3.   Commercial Real Estate Owners

  • Meet the inventory demands of an evolving workforce and turn your real estate assets into a flexible workspace.
  • Landlord, building owner, asset manager, and portfolio manager.

BACKSTORY

When we started Proximity, we did it for one reason - we didn’t like how hard it was to run our coworking spaces. At first, we tried testing different space management software on the market.

  • We found that we had to use multiple software solutions.
  • Then, we spent way too much time trying to sync all the different software.
  • And then we spent even more time training our staff and members to use and learn the over-complicated software.

We ended up going in circles attempting to manage our software instead of letting the software help run our coworking space. Our members were frustrated. We were frustrated. We just didn’t think it should be so hard to operate a coworking space! So, we built our own software to make coworking spaces easier to manage - all packaged up in ONE, easy-to-use platform. Refined by the feedback from hundreds of coworking spaces, Proximity software is simple for operators and members, and it’s backed by our award-winning U.S.-based customer service. Proximity is software that’s purpose-built for coworking by coworking space operators.

Tell us about yourself

Josh Freed has been the CEO of Colorado-based Proximity, a powerful workspace management platform, since 2017. As the leader of the company, Josh provides a diverse background in management, finance, marketing, advertising, and investment strategy.

An established visionary, Josh has spent years helping businesses develop strategic plans that ignite real results. He is proud to be a leading voice in the movement to create a new model of work in which distributed and remote workers are fully connected and empowered through technology.

In addition to his primary job functions, Josh and his wife Christine of 19 years strive to impart an active outdoor lifestyle to their three children - Hannah, Madalyn, and Andersen - including hiking, biking, kayaking, and fishing around Colorado.

Josh was most recently recognized as Most Influential CEO, 2022 - Colorado. The Proximity team is honored to play such a key role in supporting the future of work with innovative solutions - all with a focus on enhancing connectedness between people and spaces.

We believe that connecting people together with technology in meaningful ways will change the world – in small ways, like in personal one-on-one connections, and in big ways, like improving the way people learn, work, communicate, innovate, think and reflect.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment is building a company that everyone in the company is proud to represent publicly. The way you treat people and the way you show up each and every day is rewarded in the stories that come back from the team out in the world, facilitating those daily interactions.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Saying goodbye to teammates and customers. If you do this right, you end up caring deeply for everyone you interact with. The deep layer of caring makes the choices that come along with business immeasurably more painful. At the end of the day, as a leader, you have to make the call and take the pain. It is always worth the value found in relationships, but not without costs.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Build something you care about and that others (lots of others) care about as well. It is so much easier to push passion alongside profit. Find what matters to you and build a group around you that can share in that mission. Then, most importantly, give those people a chance to make the mission their own.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.proximity.space/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/proximityspace
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proximityspace/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProximitySpace
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/proximity-space/


If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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