Alex Fisher | Sherpa
Jassen Johnson has taken Onyx DCI’s consulting sector and made it personal; offering “turn-key” packages that are so distinctive and meticulous, the employees don’t want to leave.
When Alex Fisher cofounded Sherpa with partner David Smith, she knew what she wanted the headquarters to evoke for clients as well as employees. “Our product promotes empathy and connection; we wanted our building to do the same,” states Fisher. Both Fisher and Smith believe that senior living should be sold in an efficient and personal way, considering the severity of this decision for prospects and their families alike. While Sherpa and Onyx DCI are two entirely different companies, they share one crucial value: building relationships.
Jassen Johnson, founder of Onyx DCI, specializes in making the relationship with the client the most important aspect of his design. Onyx DCI offers a “turnkey” package with its clients, taking the stress out of the decision making. They choose the neighborhood, the building, financing, incentives; every detail “down to the coffee machine,” says Johnson. Sherpa’s headquarters were no exception.
Launched in 2014, Sherpa moved its offices from University City to Midtown. As a well-established developer of the Midtown neighborhood, Jassen mastered the ability to design Sherpa’s dream space without losing the integrity of the building’s own history. “We love the old and new, the high tech and the mechanism of the old elevator,” says Alex. When it came to consulting with Alex Fisher, Johnson infused her Argentinian heritage into the accents of the designed space. There is cow-print flooring throughout the office, drawing Alex back to her days spent on a ranch, bringing traces of home to her workspace. There are also some of Alex’s own art pieces in the space, “I hung them all while she was in a meeting so she couldn’t argue with me,” laughed Jassen, “She just needed to see it hanging in the space to know that I was right.”
Jassen’s collaboration with Fisher found a way to blur the lines between work and home; in tune with her company’s vision that her employees find it hard to leave. The mobile workstations within the space were “designed around collaboration,” says Johnson. They can roll together for a more collaborative purpose, rotate to block the sun, or can stay divided as individual semi-private office spaces. Sherpa’s building includes outdoor spaces where employees can meet, lounge, and have meetings, a rock-climbing wall, even a Zen room where employees have joined each other for a group yoga program. “Where you work should matter, it’s a third of your life,” states Alex, “Why not have fun?”
ALEX FISHER
Alex Fisher sits on the Board and serves as a strategic advisor to the organization. Shebrings her decades of hands-on experience in seniors housing sales and technology tothe team and is a tireless advocate for improving the lives ofolder adults.Alex’s experiences working with older adults led her to co-found Sherpa CRM, the seniorliving industry’s first CRM and sales enablement platform whose design and functionalspecifications promote connection in senior housing sales relationships. She ismotivated by helping senior living sales professionals understandwhytheir work is soimportant to the cultural and financial health of their organizations.
