My name's Jacqueline, I am an entrepreneur, an owner of a roofing company and most
importantly, a new mother again to a now 7-week-old baby. The purpose of this letter is to share
my negative experience with Success Space and particularly Tisha White in Flower Mound, and
to perhaps help other new parents who are business owners and who are looking to rent office
space avoid the aggravation, humiliation and discrimination inflicted on myself and by
extension, my business partners.
When my partners and I toured the Flower Mound location, we felt so welcomed by Tori the
office manager. Tori showed us the available private office as well as the rest of the office;
please note that my son was with us during this tour, and it was made clear that the baby and I
would be welcomed. I was even told I could breast feed in the nap room. Pleased with the space,
we signed a lease.
I was excelling again after a fight with postpartum depression. I hit my stride with being a
mother and running a company. A big part of that was finding a space that was flexible with us,
and I could grow again. Everything was great until Wednesday the 18th of September. We rented
the large conference room for our owners' meeting and subsequent meeting with all of our staff. I
took a break about an hour into our meeting to breastfeed my baby in my private office. I was
stunned when I noticed Tisha peering through my office window and then she knocked on the
door. I answered through a cracked door thinking this must be extremely important to have seen
me breast feeding and still knock. She discourteously stated, "people are complaining about the
baby crying". She then stated that they had promised people a "baby free zone" and that the cafe
was a public space and that I should take my son there or "figure it out" then walked away.
To say I was shocked was an understatement. The baby had not cried once since being in my
office. In fact, the only time he had cried was in the cafe prior to signing our lease. I had seen
another child in the office on a previous day. After collecting myself, I rejoined my meeting. I
then found out that before Tisha had come to my office, she had disturbed our company meeting
by opening the door and demanding to know "where is the baby" and "where did she take the
baby?".
The amount of unprofessionalism and disrespect was astounding. I then made an appointment to
meet with her (as she then refused to discuss what had transpired without an appointment) and
talk about the intrusion into my office and our business meeting. In this meeting, Tisha started
the conversation by stating that the baby was not welcome. When I pointed out to her that on our
tour the baby was with us and that we were upfront about the fact that he would be
accompanying us to the office, she then said that this was not their policy and put the blame on
her office manager's poor training. We asked to see the policy and stated that we had read
through the agreement sent to us and nowhere in the agreement did it state that children were not
welcome by Success Space, or that the building was a "child free zone" as she had also stated. I
also made mention that the agreement did not even address noise levels. I then let her know that I
had contacted the San Antonio office inquiring about this policy and that they were very kind
and stated that yes, having our baby there would be fine in our private office and there was no
such policy.
Tisha explained that the "no baby" was her policy and challenged us to "call Ted Laatz" so they
could "change the policy to no babies" because of us. I then realized this was a personal attack
on me as a mother and young entrepreneur and that she was not going to stop until we were
forced out of there. Being forced out, we requested a refund to which her reply was no. She was
unwavering in this even though she was forcing us out.
Becoming aware of the fact that Tisha is one of the first Success Space developers, who will be
helping to grow the brand with new locations, it is a truly scary thought that she is part of the
future of your business right now.
I'm writing this as a mother trying to make a difference. I know the struggle of being a business
owner while having children. Being thrown into this horrible situation has set me back not only
emotionally but physically as we now needed to find new office space. I appreciate your time in
reading this in hopes it helps with the company's growth and development. read more
