Building a Niche Community of 200+ Members with Grindhaus
Learn how Jason from Grindhaus grew a niche coworking + recording studio community to over 200 engaged members
Grindhaus
Creative coworking space
Flex
Flex recording studio
Flex space
Grindhaus is a recording studio and creative coworking space helping musicians and artists get their creative projects off the ground. By finding the right business model and committing themselves to their community, they’ve found incredible success in an emerging niche market, with plans of continued expansion.
Grindhaus is a creative coworking space serving musical artists, songwriters, and producers located in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Equipped with state of the art recording studios and in-house professional audio engineers, it was created as a place where people can work, collaborate, and get inspired to execute their creative vision.
Jason Jet is the founder and visionary behind Grindhaus. As an artist and producer himself, he saw the need for a better alternative to the sterile recording studios most artists had grown accustomed to.
Along with his superstar community manager Nia Zhane, Jason has successfully fostered a safe space for musicians, all while building a passionate community of hungry, self-starters. Here’s how Jason cultivated a community in a niche market with the help of Optix.
“Our mission is to give artists the tools and access they need to be able to scale what they do in an economical way. We want to help artists execute and finish projects and build community at the same time.”
A piecemeal solution
When Jason first opened the doors to Grindhaus in January 2021, he opted to use Squarespace to help him manage his space. Although not a dedicated coworking software, it was a low cost solution that allowed Jason to sell products and services through his website.
As is often the case with non-designated coworking management platforms, the tool proved extremely limiting and restrictive. It was laborious, lacked automation, and was not able to support his membership-based business model, forcing him to switch to an on-demand offering.
When Jason switched Grindhaus to a book-by-the-hour model, the business suffered.
That’s when he went back to the drawing board to figure out once and for all what a successful business model would look like and what kind of platform he needed to enable it.
“A good friend of mine sat down with me and strategized. He showed me why the business model didn't work before, and I was like, okay, well, let me try this new way. And then we found Optix and it all went up from there.”
Seeking a better fit
Jason looked at several platforms when evaluating coworking management software. What stood out to him about Optix was how easy it was to get into the platform and get started.
Because he built the whole backend system on Squarespace, Jason knew exactly how he wanted to set things up in Optix. Being able to access the platform quickly, try it out for himself for a couple weeks, and get immediate value was huge for him in the decision making process.
The simplicity of access, ease of use, and potential to scale with his business was what ultimately led Jason to select Optix as his platform of choice.
“At Grindhaus, we like to make it really easy for people to have immediate results. Just getting in and using Optix set the tone for us to really explore it, whereas with some of the other platforms, it was like pulling teeth just to get a demo.”
Growing with Optix
Since launching Optix, Jason and Nia have added over 200 members to their app and built a passionate community full of aspiring and established artists, all while enriching the music scene in their city of Charlotte. Here’s how Optix is helping to enable their space and their success.
Building community with Announcements and the Community Feed
Given the importance of community to Jason, the community building features in Optix have been greatly beneficial in engaging their members.
Nia is able to use the Announcement feature to notify members of upcoming events, market their referral program, and send reminders of space policies easily via the admin dashboard in Optix.
Grindhaus members are using the Community Feed to network and get help with specific projects. If a member is looking for an engineer to help with song mixing, they’ll post on the Community Feed and get immediate replies from the community. This has been great in helping members connect with one another, while building their networks and advancing their careers.
The community is also using the direct Messaging features in Optix to network and connect with others in the space. This vibrant community has sent over 2,500 messages in the app in just six months!
“Even though they might not be on payroll, our members are part of the team too. They get energized and excited and pump each other up for different events that we have going on, and they have ideas. So we have a really unique community.”
Streamlining operations with Bookings
The previous booking experience at Grindhaus lacked the ability for automation, which proved challenging for a small team to manage.
Now, members are able to book and pay for any offering autonomously on their mobile device. With this shift in process, Grindhaus members have been able to make over 1,500 bookings through the Grindhaus app over the last six months, a huge feat for a budding space.
Optimizing decision making with Analytics
The Optix admin dashboard provides visibility into how a coworking space is performing, from space utilization to revenue generated.
Jason and the Grindhaus team frequently use the data and analytics in Optix to guide and optimize their decision making. They reference it in their weekly meetings to see how they’ve grown, project future growth, and align on where they want to go.
What’s next for Grindhaus?
Jason and Nia are on a mission to change the age old industry problem of tired, uninspiring recording studios.
They plan to continue to expand their members from just artists and musicians to podcasters, content creators, and anyone else in need of professional audio equipment and a supportive community.
At the end of the day, what really makes Jason proud is the impact Grindhaus is having on the people around him.
“I want to be known as someone that helped people create what they wanted to create in life, whatever it is, even if it’s not music, I want to inspire people to be creative and innovative. The whole goal is to help artists and creatives realize the visions and dreams that they’ve already had,” says Jason.
