Story Louisville names new CEO; founder joins UofL
By Haley Cawthon – Reporter, Louisville Business First
Jun 25, 2021, 7:08am EDT
Two and a half years ago, Lauren VanCleave walked into Natalia Bishop's 1,500-square-foot shared office spaces on Market Street in NuLu. It was there where she first heard the vision for a coworking community that would become Story Louisville.
VanCleave immediately believed in what Bishop was trying to create. "I'm all in," she told her.
Now VanCleave, who most recently served as Story's director of operations, is taking over the CEO role from the company's founder through a planned succession. Bishop will become Story's board chair, and has recently started a new role at University of Louisville in the office of the executive vice president of research and innovation.
Bishop told me while she's been the face of Story since its inception, VanCleave has been instrumental in its success and survival through the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's always been a joint effort and a partnership between us," Bishop said. "We've put a lot of effort and work into supporting the founders here, creating critical mass and really shaping what the standard is for the future of work — what it looks like to come to a place where you can belong and really bring your whole self."
Natalia Bishop, founder of Level Up and Story Louisville, poses for a portrait at Story in NuLu.
As a child of entrepreneurs, VanCleave said she has always had a strong work ethic, but didn't really have confidence in her ability to lead. She's been the organizational, logistically-minded, behind-the-scenes kind of person. But Bishop saw something more.
"I have grown into the person that I was meant to be here," VanCleave said. "[Natalia] told me, 'You're not going to trust yourself for a while, so I'll do it for you. When you're ready to step into who you are, I'll be here cheering for you the whole time. But I already believe in you.'
"Now, what an honor it is that I get to do that for the women and men that work for us and the community that trusts us with their journey. We get to say: 'I believe in you and we will continue to be here for you.'"
Both women agreed that now is the right time for the leadership transition, as Story emerges from the pandemic with a clear focus for the future.
As I previously reported, the coworking company expanded to Germantown Mill Lofts in August 2020, only to close that location a few months later. Streamlining operations and focusing solely on its 20,000-square-foot NuLu facility has allowed Story to prioritize its values that ultimately give it a competitive advantage, Bishop said.
"Our goal when we tightened up was to make sure that we have the best, cleanest, most replicable model that we possibly could have and it became easy, should the opportunities present themselves to do this over and over again at scale without the heartache," VanCleave added. "Now that the world is opening up a little bit, we'll lean in to the services and programming piece that we've always wanted to do. When we first started, we were doing too many things, but now we've been able to get really crystal clear about who we want to serve and how we want to do it."
Additionally, Story will look to offer a new business-to-business service, where it will assist other companies in building out and designing spaces that facilitate the community and culture found within its own coworking community. It's a needed resource, VanCleave said, as employers look to bring back its workforce who are used to working in the comfort of their own environments.