Outside of coastal tech hubs, there’s a massive, underserved demand for meaningful “third spaces.” Switchyards has tapped into that need with impressive precision, skipping the kombucha-on-tap coworking frills in favor of something more grounded and community-focused. Their model is clearly resonating as new location drops routinely sell out in under five minutes. None of this is accidental. Behind it is a highly intentional team, led by Founder and CEO Michael Tavani, whose vision and discipline have quietly fueled Switchyards’ breakout success. In this conversation, Michael shares what it means to follow conviction, why experience matters in fundraising, and how great products often emerge quietly, one iteration at a time.

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You’ve built Switchyards around a very specific idea of what a local coworking space should be. What made you confident in such a contrarian approach—and why do you think more investors should be paying attention to it now?

One of my board members calls me the most contrarian founder he knows. I don’t think I’m as contrarian as he makes me out to be, but I do have strong conviction around what makes a great consumer product and brand.

That conviction came from the early, anonymous, pre–product-market-fit days of Switchyards — five years of iterating, tweaking, and staying in the game long enough to find the magic. What emerged is Switchyards, creating the neighborhood work club during the largest shift in workplace behavior in nearly a century. We put something into the world that no one was asking for, but needed more than ever.

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What’s one insight you had about how people really want to work or connect — something that the first-gen coworking giants might’ve missed?

The original insight was to create a consumer brand in a category — workspace — that has always been enterprise. That decision led to other cascading insights: combining our favorite parts of a boutique hotel lobby, a college library, and a coffee shop, all tucked conveniently into the residential neighborhoods where we already live.

Switchyards clubs are always open 24/7 and designed for the new way people work — casual, local, and deeply community-driven.

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Fundraising in a real-estate-forward business can be tricky. What’s one thing you’ve learned about pitching a non-software startup to venture investors?

Switchyards is one of those products you have to experience to truly understand. After an initial intro call, the next step is always getting investors into one of our clubs — now 33 across 15 cities. Every institutional investor we’ve partnered with has spent time in the clubs before investing, and that visit sealed the deal.

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What has surprised you most since starting Switchyards — either in terms of customer behavior or how the business has scaled?

‍With true product–market fit, demand takes on a life of its own. I still believe in staying a little paranoid — always “constructively dissatisfied” — but we’ve just kept chugging along, and the growth hasn’t slowed.

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What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

“You waste years by not being able to waste hours.” You can’t do truly great work, in any field, without stepping back and thinking deeply beyond the day-to-day noise.

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Bullpen partners with founders who see the world differently, founders who follow conviction, design for human behavior, and build products that quietly garner customer love long before they make headlines. Michael and the Switchyards team embody that spirit. Bullpen is proud to support their work as they scale the neighborhood work club. Stay tuned for founder spotlights that highlight entrepreneurs shaping the future in unexpected ways in upcoming installments of Founders in the Field.