Alum Creates Innovative Co-Working Space for Remote-Working Parents
Anna-Maria Karnes (PhD ’19) bridges education expertise with entrepreneurial spirit at Beanstalk HQ
When Anna-Maria Karnes and her husband welcomed their first baby during the COVID-19 pandemic, they encountered a struggle faced by many parents: juggling childcare and remote work.
Traditional daycare models weren’t designed for the new reality of flexible work arrangements, leaving parents to piece together childcare like a puzzle.
“We both started working remote during Covid, and there was just so little in terms of structured play for children,” Karnes said.
Now, Karnes has turned that challenge into an innovative business solution.
With three other business partners, she opened Beanstalk HQ in the northern Pittsburgh suburb of Wexford in February 2025. The co-working space is designed for remote-working parents who need a productive workspace while their children engage in supervised play and learning activities.
“Our model is geared towards the modern parent who is juggling remote/hybrid work and looking for different childcare options,” Karnes said.
From Education Policy to Family-Centered Innovation
Karnes’s journey to entrepreneurship is rooted in her academic background at the University of Pittsburgh.
After earning her PhD in Social and Comparative Analysis of Education from the School of Education in 2019, she continued working as Assistant Director for Academic Affairs at Pitt’s Center for African Studies, where she has been since 2013. Karnes’ dissertation research and experience with education policy, grant writing, and community engagement directly informed her vision for Beanstalk HQ.
“Everything is education,” Karnes says. “I looked at education policy and young children, thinking about how we’re helping to address those needs as our culture changes. We’re still trying to figure out how to bring that sense of community back.”
Karnes, who was born in Cameroon and did her PhD research in Ethiopia, said that her world travels influenced her family centered approach at Beanstalk HQ.
During her PhD studies in the School of Education, Karnes learned how neighborhood schools create community connections.
“We really focused on how schools bring a sense of community to an area. That’s something we wanted here at Beanstalk—to be that community hub as well.”
More Than Just Co-Working
What started as a supervised play space has evolved into a comprehensive family center.
Beanstalk HQ has begun partnering with local nonprofits and educational organizations to offer kindergarten readiness programs, tutoring, and support groups for new mothers. The space hosts free monthly events, including parenting workshops and sessions with child development specialists.
“Our goal really is to be a center to help parents,” Karnes says. “We’ve had these beautiful families come in for parenting strategy sessions, and the kids are playing while parents can really engage with each other, talk about struggles, and share what works.”
The response to the business has been overwhelmingly positive. According to Karnes’s husband and co-founder, Pankaj Chaudhary, their measure of success is ironically through tears. “Kids start crying because they don’t want to leave,” Chaudhary said. “That means they’ll come back.”
Parents appreciate having a workspace where they can be productive without guilt.
“You can see them get a breath,” Karnes said.
Large television monitors of the play space flank the co-working spaces, and parents can rest easy knowing their child is always a brief hallway walk away.
“They feel like they got some work done, and the kids are happy too,” Karnes said.
Building Community Connections
True to her Pitt roots, Karnes hopes to bring Pitt School of Education students to Beanstalk HQ as interns.
The space currently employs a director with more than 20 years of childcare experience who emphasizes social and developmental milestones.
“She makes kids look her in the eyes, shake her hand when they come in,” Karnes said. “She does activities to really get them to learn how to play with each other.”
Several Pitt faculty members already use the space, according to Karnes, taking advantage of the drop-in model that accommodates the academic lifestyle of research, grading, and flexible schedules.
As Beanstalk HQ approaches its first anniversary in February 2026, Karnes is expanding programming to include summer camps.
The skills Karnes developed during her studies at Pitt Education—research methods, focus groups, surveys, grant writing—have proven invaluable in launching and growing the business.
“A lot of those skills I picked up during my PhD, I use here for sure,” she says.
Balancing her full-time position at Pitt with running a startup has been challenging but rewarding.
“It’s been such a learning experience,” she reflects. “But it’s a joy to serve families and children, to feel like you’re really meeting a need and doing something different.”
Beanstalk HQ is located at 12300 Perry Hwy, Suite 200, in Wexford, Pa., and offers drop-in and membership options for families. For more information, visit their website.
