Sesh Coworking founder Maggie Segrich (Photo by Madison Avery Studio)
When Maggie Segrich moved to Houston in 2018, she wasn’t planning to launch a coworking space. She was looking for one.
“I couldn’t find a place that had the creative vibe with other people around me where I could ask questions and feel as though I belonged,” she recalls. “That’s how I ended up building a coworking space in Houston. I couldn’t find it, I didn’t feel like it existed, and I wanted it.”
The instinct to build what doesn’t yet exist has defined Segrich’s career. From surviving the 2008 financial crisis (“My first day in finance was the day Lehman Brothers closed”) to running her family’s Midwest farm, she has repeatedly stepped into rooms where she was told she didn’t belong.
“When people tell me I can’t, I’m kind of like, ‘Oh yeah? Hold my coffee and watch this,’” she says.
Today, as the founder of Sesh Coworking in Midtown, Segrich has created more than just an office space. She has built a safe and inclusive environment for women, LGBTQ professionals, and BIPOC entrepreneurs. Sesh is an intentional alternative to today’s corporate coworking culture.
For Segrich, safety begins with the physical. “I look at it from a very physical, materialistic point of view: having the most advanced locking system, having cameras, making people sign in, making sure that clients are a good cultural fit,” she explains. But it also means rejecting environments that signal exclusivity.
To that end, Sesh is filled with plants that she personally cares for, art from local creators, and books donated by community members. “I want you to know that this is what the community has read, and they’re sharing it with you,” she says. “Everything at Sesh has an authentic and quirky kind of feeling, and it works.”
Yet the weight of leadership is real. “I feel so responsible,” Segrich admits regarding the challenge of protecting her team and community members in an increasingly volatile climate. “It’s really scary.”
That ethos has made Sesh an anchor for Houston’s LGBTQ community. Though not queer herself, Segrich is deeply involved with the Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce—a partnership she calls “mind-blowingly amazing.”
That relationship began during the uncertainty of early 2020, when a clause in Sesh’s lease threatened to derail the business. “I called Tammi Wallace at the Chamber and said, ‘Tammi, here’s the situation,’” she remembers. With the Chamber’s help, Segrich navigated the crisis and the partnership grew organically from there.
When she later learned the Chamber didn’t have an office, she responded simply: “I said, ‘Well, I can solve that.’”
Through Sesh and its nonprofit arm, Segrich now provides a space for community organizations to gather and grow. “Sesh is kind of like the springboard,” she says. “When those community organizations come in and we build a partnership with them, their ability to support the community goes further. And it’s so cool.”
With many queer Texans still questioning whether they are safe in this state, the impact of an LGBTQ gathering space is tangible. “It has not been safe to be out in Texas,” she says candidly about the state’s current political situation and recent legislative cycles. Having a consistent, affirming physical space matters not just for business meetings, but also for life’s most personal milestones.
“We don’t want to be there just for the business and work life. We want to be there for the whole human who shows up day after day,” she says, referring to clients hosting events like baby showers in the space. “Just because I go into the office doesn’t mean I’m not still a mom, a wife, a daughter, or the caregiver to a parent.”
Segrich has also wrestled with what allyship looks like in practice. “How do I show up as a straight white woman and not be a Karen? And how do I gain the trust of communities that innately don’t trust me? And I understand why they don’t trust me,” she says with tangible grace and empathy.
Her answer is to use her voice. “Personally, as a white straight lady, it’s using my privilege,” she explains. “That includes having awkward conversations with people, to let them know, ‘Actually, you’re wrong. We don’t act that way here.’”
Watching Sesh members thrive is what makes her most proud. “When people come in our doors and start with a coworking membership, first they’re at a dedicated desk, then a small office, and then a bigger office. That’s what makes me proud,” she beams. “The best metric of Sesh’s success is the success of the people who have been with us for years.”
And as for what’s next?
“Thriving!” she emphatically responds. “I am so tired of being resilient. I am so tired of just surviving.”
Instead, she envisions Sesh as “this beam of light that’s coming up from deep in the heart of Texas and that is signaling, ‘No, no, look over here. There are good humans here who are fighting for what’s right.’”
And, in Houston, that beacon is already shining brightly in Midtown.
For more info, visit seshcoworking.com.