Richmond startup Fringe is opening a new workspace option in Scott’s Addition for the same reason the company itself was formed — to show employees they are valued.
“I think everyone really appreciates being able to work from home, to be available when their kids get off the bus or take their dogs on walks throughout the day,” Fringe CEO and co-founder Jordan Peace said. “At the same, as we continue to work remotely and continue to feel that slow pain of [pandemic] isolation, there’s a desire to get to know the folks we work with on a face-to-face level.”
Fringe is a lifestyle benefits company founded in 2018 from the idea that employees shouldn’t have to be sick, dead, disabled or 65 years old to receive benefits, Peace said.
“We are, to our knowledge, the world’s first lifestyle benefits platform,” he said. “My goal is when someone goes in for a job offering and asks about benefits, they expect to hear not just about health insurance and 401K.”
Peace added, “With Fringe, there’s a benefit you can benefit from every day that really impacts family, gives people time back in their day, reduces stress and sparks joy.”
Since its founding, the platform has grown to about 150 services. Employees using Fringe benefits have individualized accounts loaded with points from their employer. They use those points to choose what benefits fit their needs and lifestyle.
“That’s the magic of it,” he said. “People feel like, ‘I’m being given the choice to choose what’s important to me’ as opposed to being told.”
The company’s lease at Startup Virginia ended in spring 2020. The team has worked remote since then.
The newly leased Scott’s Addition location will be ready for occupancy in mid-December. The 3,400-square-foot office space, formerly occupied by Workpath, is undergoing an estimated $200,000 renovation.
Peace said the renovation will provide the startup with a co-working space vibe that includes a kitchen and bar area, along with private booths for phone calls.
“It indicates our desire to offer something besides a work from home for our folks, to do those things that we used to do together to build that camaraderie,” he said.
The new office is available as an offering for team members to use whenever they want, but no one is required to use the space, Peace said. Fringe currently has 40 employees, up from only six a year ago. He expects to more than triple that number by the end of 2022.
Though more than half the team is Richmond-based, Peace said the plan is to open other coworking spaces across the nation as the company continues to grow. He attributes the growth to new partnerships in the human resources space.
“Through these partnerships, we’re going to be able to have access to thousands of new customers for us over the course of the next 12-to-18 months, so we are simply going to need that many more developers, that many more client success folks,” he said.
Peace said Fringe currently has several hundred employer clients and about 30,000 employees using the benefits through their employer.
Through these new partnerships, however, he expects to gain access to millions of employees across the country.
“We want everyone to wake up excited to go to work every day, and I think the way to do that is to take the employer and employee relationship and focus on improving and enhancing it,” he said. “We go into companies that are already generous toward their people… If you get all those forward-thinking companies on board, everyone else will keep up with the Joneses.”
Peace added, “It happened with health insurance, and it happened with 401K, and it’s going to happen with lifestyle benefits. So that’s the vision.”