Episode #61
Arian Lewis: Kiln Coworking, Follow Your Gifts Not Passion, Real Estate, WeWork, Barclays, Oxford
Arian Lewis grew up in Provo watching his single mom turn a 12-kid daycare into a 320-kid childcare center with 50 employees. Today he's the co-founder and CEO of Kiln, the hospitality-driven coworking and flex-office company with 24 locations (37 by end of 2027), 150 team members, and 3,500+ companies working out of its spaces every day, from day-one founders to Mastercard, Intuit and Siemens. He tells John and Tyler the whole road: eight years at Pulte Homes, an Oxford MBA at 32 with three kids in tow, nearly five years at Barclays building fintech coworking spaces in London, New York, Tel Aviv and Cape Town, hosting one of the first Ethereum meetups with Vitalik, then coming home to build "WeWork that works." Arian is blunt about what WeWork actually got wrong (the wrong kind of money, not the founder: "you can't fill a Ferrari full of tequila and then get mad that the kid who likes tequila wrecked it"), why Kiln is really a financing solution, and how patient investors and a lifetime of earned trust carried a flex-office startup through a pandemic. He called every member to cut prices; some refused the discount and kept paying full rate. Plus: why 50% of companies regret their lease within a year, why a cheap office costs 5-10% more in talent, why in-person teams grow 3.5x faster, and his #1 advice: don't just follow your passion, leverage your gifts. (00:00:00) Cold open: build trust your whole life, and "why don't we create a little coworking space?" (00:00:48) Welcome, episode 61 with Arian Lewis of Kiln (00:05:08) Icebreaker: keep it or kill it (open floor plans, office dogs, free lunch) (00:10:46) Growing up with a single mom who built a 320-kid daycare (00:18:31) Late-bloomer MBA: Oxford at 32 with a family in tow (00:21:17) Four years in England: a startup, then Barclays hires him (00:25:03) Hosting one of the first Ethereum meetups with Vitalik (and not buying Bitcoin) (00:26:51) WeWork: "WeWork that works" (00:29:07) Kiln is a financing solution: real estate dollars vs. venture dollars (00:31:42) Adam Neumann: "you can't fill a Ferrari full of tequila..." (00:35:14) Deciding to build Kiln: "deep in my bones" (00:38:32) "Way harder than a software business": raising capital on a lifetime of trust (00:39:50) Proof of concept in Lehi and Salt Lake, then the pandemic hit (00:41:45) Calling every member to cut prices, and the ones who refused the discount (00:45:32) The AI era: 2,000 years of GDP and democratized intelligence (00:51:22) Kiln by the numbers: 24 locations, 37 by 2027, 150 team members (00:53:33) How Kiln works: Mastercard, Intuit, Siemens, and day-one founders (00:54:52) The multi-year lease trap: 50% of companies regret it within a year (00:57:29) Remote vs. in-person: office teams grow 3.5x faster (01:01:36) Memberships: Kiln Access at $49/month, "$11 a day" (01:06:16) The #1 piece of advice: leverage your gifts, not just your passion (01:08:37) Wrap-up: get a free day pass at Kiln Learn more about us: https://startupignition.com/links Apply to be a guest on the pod: https://startup-ignition-podcast.paperform.co/ Follow John & Tyler: https://x.com/trich_ https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrichards/ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StartupIgnition Follow on X: https://x.com/startupignition Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupignition/ Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@startupignition Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/6458758/admin/dashboard/ Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/startupignition/ #StartupIgnition #ArianLewis #Kiln #Coworking #FlexOffice
