When he was asked to join the executive board of BUILD Boston, a nonprofit that gives real-life entrepreneurial experiences to high school students, Alexis Miller didn’t have to think twice.
“I want to do my part to help realize the next generation of creators,” says Miller, director of operations for the Northeast and Mid-atlantic regions of WeWork. “They are depending on us, and the world is depending on them.”
A Delaware native, Miller remembers his own experience attending high school in Wilmington, noting that “it was small but had big-city problems.” Even now, a recent USA today analysis reveals that Wilmington leads the country in its rate of shootings among young people under 18.
Miller says that he wishes he had access to a program like BUILD Boston, which helps young people start their own businesses, when he was a teenager.
“It would have expanded my worldview, enhanced my engagement, and accelerated my skill set and confidence,” says Miller. “It took me 10 years after high school to learn many of the skills and lessons that BUILD students learn during their four years in the program.”
BUILD students come up with some innovative business ideas. Miller, who’s been working with the organization for two years, remembers some students who focused their energies on improving a common kitchen item: the potholder. The result, he says, was impressive. Instead of making a better holder for your hand, he says, “they made a holder that fits over the pot handle.”
Miller knows what it takes to get a company off the ground. In 2013 the graduate of New York’s Fordham University founded Inspirado, an e-commerce site featuring posters, pillows, and other items emblazoned with inspirational slogans like, “Live for a cause and not for applause.” He still runs Inspirado in his spare time.
“Starting my company was amazing and really tough at the same time,” he says. “It was the first time that I learned how to do many things outside of my core competencies, and I loved that constant learning and growth.”
He joined WeWork in 2015, starting out as an assistant community manager, and steadily moved up the ranks, leading his own building as community manager and then serving as director of community for the Greater Boston area. Since then he’s helped to open or manage more than 30 WeWork locations from Toronto to Washington, D.C.
A little over a year ago Miller was promoted to director of operations for the region. He is well known in the business community, having been recently nominated as one of Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Top Young Leaders, and was named one of Get Konnected’s 25 Most Influential Millennials of Color in Boston.
Miller’s relationship with BUILD started when the organization moved into WeWork 745 Atlantic Ave in 2017. “It was immediately evident to me how impactful the program is for our public school students,” he says.
Ed Wilson, BUILD Boston’s director of philanthropy, says the “strong partnership” with WeWork has helped his organization make contacts it wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. Miller in particular, he says, has been “a great friend and an invaluable advocate for our work.”
For Miller, the benefits go both ways. “We have created something valuable for the community,” he says. “It’s been an opportunity to help elevate one another.”