MillHouse is run by the MillHouse Foundation, a nonprofit with the goal of helping women flourish through meaningful connections, social and educational activities and access to shared resources, CEO and founder Beth Beck said.
Beck, who previously worked at NASA as an innovation manager, conducted a study on women in the workplace. Beck cites the Kauffman Foundation, which found that women are more innovative when they work with other women.
“Women are really creative together,” Beck said. “We are little social honeybees, so when we innovate, we are leap-froggers, whereas men have more of a linear thinking process. Women, when they get together, have this mesh of ideas, and you never know what’s going to come out of it.”
Beck said she and the other founding members, including her daughter Carol, sister Aimee Woolverton and friend Christine Smith-Atkins, plan to make MillHouse a place where women can make friends, get work done, hold meetings, learn and create.
The space currently features a 4,000-square-foot social networking area called the ConnectBlock, where women have access to several living room-style workstations, a reception area, yoga classes, events and more.
All members will have access to the ConnectBlock as well as to a coffee bar, by-appointment child care, happy hours, business coaching, consultation trainings, brunches, annual professional headshots and more.
“We hope women of all ages will find it a comfortable place to come and work or hang out and be social,” Beck said.
When fully built-out, Beck said, MillHouse will have expanded its three additional studios: ArtBlock, LightBlock and WellBlock. These spaces—access to which will be available for additional membership fees—focus on art, photography and wellness, respectively, and will include classes, equipment, workspace and events specific to each. The basic membership will include limited access to these spaces.
Beck said many other exciting things are in MillHouse’s future, but for now, MillHouse is focused on growing its membership base and providing women in the McKinney area with a place to achieve their goals.
MillHouse
610 Elm St., Ste. 1000, McKinney
www.millhousefoundation.org
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6 p.m.,
Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m., closed Sun.
