Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Granas
Hi Ben, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The idea for Olida first came about in 2019 as I was helping my wife set up her own psychology private practice. We needed in-person office space for her to see clients but kept running into the same issues as we toured potential sites. Firstly, the spaces available all looked like they had been furnished in the 1980’s and not updated since. Secondly, each office only had piecemeal availability which made it nearly impossible to create a consistent weekly schedule. And finally, any option my wife chose would have meant practicing alone with no community of like-minded therapists to consult with. After seeing so many potential offices we felt hopeless that we would be able to find a nice space for her to start a premium private practice. That’s when we came up with the idea to build our own space and rent out the extra rooms to create a community of providers.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Well, we signed the lease on our first location in January of 2020 which tells you all you need to know about how the first few months went. We could not have chosen a worse possible time to start an in-person, brick and mortar business. We opened our doors in June 2020 with no paying members and a 5-figure monthly rent bill that we had to pay out of our own savings. The first year was a very trying time for us as we struggled to get anyone in the door to help generate some money – we even resorted to opening up the offices for things like a music video shoot, film students recording video for a project, and even swim suit model casting! Eventually we were able to start bringing in therapists as the first therapy sessions came back in-person in 2021, and we’ve seen a lot of growth since then.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Olida Therapy Suites?
Olida is a network of co-practicing office spaces for mental health therapists (kind of like a WeWork for therapy). We offer mental health practitioners modern, professionally-designed office space to see their clients and a community of like-minded therapists to build their network. Olida makes it super easy for therapists to start and build their own private practices.
We have 450 members across 6 locations in Los Angeles, with offices in the Bay Area, NYC, and Washington DC opening soon.
Any big plans?
We will be opening up offices in the Bay Area and Washington DC this winter, with NYC and other cities coming next year. As we expand out of LA we’re looking forward to creating the largest network of therapy offices across the US. Our goal is to have 100 offices and 10,000 members by 2030, while making it easier than ever for therapists to get their practices up and running so they can focus on their clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://olida.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olidatherapy/
