How Gradient powers one of America’s largest innovation hubs with Meter

Background

Gradient is one of the largest innovation hubs in the country, located in a beautifully restored 110,000-square-foot OTASCO warehouse in downtown Tulsa. Home to more than 3,700 members across 160 offices, Gradient supports hundreds of businesses—from solo entrepreneurs to growing startups to large established brands—all sharing a single, complex network environment. Over the past five years, Gradient has generated more than $1.4 billion in direct economic impact and created over 3,800 jobs.

The challenge

Building the network for Gradient's $40M downtown hub required enterprise-grade infrastructure capable of supporting thousands of members with diverse connectivity needs. CEO Devon Laney had experienced firsthand the financial and operational burden of traditional networking solutions at previous coworking spaces—six-figure upfront hardware costs plus ongoing licensing fees that strained budgets and limited flexibility.

Gradient needed a network that could securely segment traffic for each member company via dedicated VLANs while still providing seamless access to shared resources like A/V systems and printers. With the network serving as the operational backbone for everything—cameras, access controls, and member devices—reliability and uptime were non-negotiable.

The solution

Meter delivered a turnkey networking solution for Gradient's complex multi-tenant environment. Meter handled everything end-to-end: ISP procurement, wireless surveys, network design, installation, and ongoing 24/7 support. And as with all Meter deployments, the full solution was bundled into predictable monthly pricing with no upfront hardware costs.

Meter collaborated with Gradient to design an ideal member flow: members register via a portal, get provisioned access to the network via 802.1x, and are automatically routed to their company's dedicated VLAN. This integration with Gradient's coworking management platform ensures seamless onboarding and automatic deprovisioning when members leave.

Company value

• Seamless member experience: Over 600 members authenticate into the secure network daily, with automatic VLAN segmentation ensuring both security and access to shared resources.
• Predictable costs: Meter's monthly business model eliminated six-figure upfront hardware investments, with predictable pricing across a 5-year engagement inclusive of hardware upgrades.
• Proactive support: When issues arose, Meter deployed observers onsite, used wireless packet captures to diagnose problems, and collaborated directly with impacted members to resolve root causes.
• Operational backbone: The network reliably powers Gradient's entire operation—cameras, A/V, access controls—with the uptime a 110,000-square-foot innovation hub demands.