The work behind the work: Valerie Jaffee, VP Network Growth & Strategy, on a decade with Industrious

Part of “The Work Behind the Work,” a new series celebrating the people who make Industrious what it is today. 

Before Industrious had hundreds of locations, international partners, or a seat at the table with CBRE, it had people like Valerie Jaffee: one of its earliest hires, now VP of Network Growth & Strategy. 

Jaffee’s 10-year journey, from greeting members at a front desk in Raleigh to shaping where and how Industrious grows next, is more than a career milestone. It’s a story about growth led by people who know the business from the inside out.

Early days at Industrious

Before coworking, Jaffee worked in environmental nonprofit advocacy in California. Her graduate research focused on the social dynamics of workspaces, like what made them inclusive or isolating, empowering or exclusive. When someone told her about Industrious opening a new location in Raleigh in 2015, she was interested, even though she hadn’t planned on joining a startup. 

“The company was so small then, with fewer than five locations,” she says. “Everyone I met was kind, smart and curious. That’s what made me say yes. It’s also why I’ve stayed.”

She started as a Community Manager at Industrious at Charter Square in 2015, responsible for building a local business community from scratch. There was no roadmap. “I distinctly remember the training manual,” says Jaffee. “it was two pages long. For my role, it was one paragraph: Go into the world and find businesses that want office space and sell it to them. I taught myself how to do everything. That mentality, figuring it out as you go, has stuck with me.”

In those early years, Industrious was still defining itself. Each new location was a test of what hospitality in the workplace could mean. Jaffee helped set that tone: relationships first, transactions second. The lessons she learned on the ground, like listening to members, troubleshooting building issues, and nurturing community, still inform how she thinks about growth today.

“Our network strategy isn’t devised in a boardroom,” she says. “It’s shaped by people who’ve actually welcomed members at the front desk, solved landlord problems, and built teams from scratch. That perspective is what keeps our growth human.”

Individual growth alongside industry growth

As Jaffee’s career path evolved, so did Industrious. 

After Raleigh, she became Regional Director for the Southeast, overseeing operations across multiple cities. Then came Head of People and Chief of Staff, a role that placed her at the heart of the company’s leadership engine. She led the People team, steered cross-functional initiatives, and helped architect new business lines like on-demand workspaces and virtual memberships.

When the pandemic hit, Industrious had to pivot quickly. “Those were high-pressure years,” she recalls. “We had to think differently about what work would look like—like what companies and landlords needed next.”

That thinking eventually brought her to the supply side of the business, where she now leads network growth and strategy. Her team oversees site selection, real estate, design, and construction. It’s essentially how Industrious decides where to expand and what to open next.

It’s a massive responsibility: by 2026, Industrious expects to open roughly 80 new locations, accelerating growth in partnership with its new parent company, CBRE.

“We’ve evolved from a few scrappy coworking spaces to a global platform that redefines what flexible work looks like,” Jaffee says. “Every chapter of my career has reflected that transformation.”

Hospitality first

In an industry obsessed with occupancy rates and square footage, Industrious stands apart for building its growth model around hospitality. It’s not just a service philosophy; it’s a strategy.

“When landlords decide to work with us, it’s not just an economic decision,” says Jaffee. “They want their buildings to feel alive, connected and human. We make that happen.”

Industrious has moved away from traditional lease models to partnership-based agreements where we share both costs and returns with landlords. The result is greater alignment and long-term trust.

“Landlords make decisions based on relationships,” says Jaffee. “They want partners who are transparent, who follow through, who are on the ground with them when a problem comes up. We’re not just delivering beautiful workspaces, we’re delivering partnership.”

That human-centered approach extends to the spaces themselves. The company’s guiding question isn’t how many offices it can open, but what kind of experience each one delivers.

“What needs to be true for someone to walk into an Industrious and feel welcomed, empowered, delighted to be there?” says Jaffee. “That’s the bar. And it’s the same for landlords. They need to feel the value of having us in their buildings.”

Building a people-first culture for internal and external strides

Jaffee’s longevity is rare in a fast-moving category. She attributes it to two things at Industrious: the people and the problems.

“I get asked a lot why I’ve stayed so long,” she says. “For everyone who’s been here a while, the answer is consistent. We stay because of the people we work with, and the kinds of problems we get to solve.”

Those problems are never the same two days in a row, whether it’s optimizing a pipeline, designing a building layout or helping a landlord rethink their amenity strategy. “We hire people who are kind, curious, and team-oriented,” Jaffee says. “They want to solve hard problems, but they do it with humility.”

That team-first mentality shows up across Industrious: through its employee resource groups, offsite experiences, and the small intentional rituals that make a distributed company feel connected.

“When the pressure is high, you have to prioritize being human with each other,” Jaffee says. “Build trust before you need it. Then when it’s 10 p.m. and something goes wrong, you already know you can pick up the phone and solve it together.”

A decade of evolution, and what’s next

Today, Industrious operates more than 200 locations worldwide and has become a key player in the future-of-work conversation. With CBRE’s acquisition earlier this year, the company has new opportunities to scale its hospitality-driven model across global portfolios.

Jaffee sees this next chapter as both a challenge and a chance to keep learning. “We’re asking a million questions about international expansion, new products, new ways of working together internally,” she says. “The most exciting part is getting to learn something new every time.”

From nonprofit advocacy to network strategy, her through line is clear: the conviction that work should feel human.

“We want to deliver workplaces people want to come to,” she says. “Spaces that feel warm, empowering, and seamless, where people feel better walking out than they did walking in.”

This story is a part of “The Work Behind the Work,” a new series celebrating the people who make Industrious what it is today. Check back for more stories in the months ahead.