Knowing when to skimp and when to splurge is an important trait for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs come from different backgrounds, often technology or business, and may be inexperienced in some of the softer skill decisions. Non business, non financing, non technology decisions are the ones that often craft the company’s culture, its mood, its soul. It’s an area I think a lot about and try to test different practices, see how others are attempting it, and now, well, writing about it. Having not written about much during my time at Hyperpublic, I’ll attempt to walk back through some of the things I’ve learned and been exposed to.
Some context: When I was first approached by the founders of Hyperpublic, I was a weary and with some good reason. Though well funded and led by an excellent duo, it was a young company, and like many others, still trying to define it’s product: narrow consumer application, broad consumer service, or developer data platform. After a few phone calls, it seemed reasonable to trek up from DC to meet them in person.
Easy train up the coast, express subway from Penn Station to 14th Street, and a short walk through the beautiful open streets near the Meatpacking district, I was already excited by the possibly of working there. The hallways seemed like they were perpetually under construction (turned out to be true) which inspired that jaunt up the stairs energy that I assume people feel on Christmas. The office is a massive space with 18 foot tall loft style ceilings, rounded pillars scattered throughout the room, and windows!– many large windows in front of each desk. Massively large panels of prints of a map of New York were hung on the walls. Each person had his own large desk facing a window, separate common table for snacks, another for lunch and meetings, and another in a secluded, more relaxed area with a couch and larger comfy chairs. It wasn’t fancy, it wasn’t glitzy, it just had it’s own feeling of simplicity, scale, and serenity.
It was like, woah… these guys must have something going on. At minimum, they have excellent taste. The space could easily fit 15-20 comfortably and 30+ by most NYC square foot per person standards. At the time, I think, they had only 4 people and recently had hired the latest person. The space inspired aspirations and confidence even though I’m not sure the company knew which path to bet on.
It’s a miss match. They could have been working from an apartment, a subleased space shared with another company, in a worse neighborhood, it could have been smaller, etc…
Having a space that people want to come and work in is worth splurging on. Our space was a recruitment tool, a motivator, and our home. Here is a top of mind list of aspects to think about when choosing your next space or maybe sprucing up your current.
Common space: Make a special area that’s outside of day to day work. Is there room for people to relax together, have an impromptu meeting, or host a medium sized group? It doesn’t need to be fancy: we had a donated old couch, a few larger chairs surrounding a low glass table, and what would generously be described as an orange rug.
Lunch space: Eating together is important for all families. For the most part, we ate together and almost always back at the office. We had one large glass table and could easily roll our desk chairs over to create a new space, a lunch space where conversation could flow between personal and company topics. A separate space signaled that this time period was different. Eating at your desk would seem out of place. When we had our tenth guy join and were all seated around the table, it felt good. We had to squeeze but having a dedicated space made it even more special. It gives you a benchmark to measure growth. An auto-reminisce.
Mix use walls: The wall space can be anything. With our tall white walls and large (but light) art, we could quickly switch from office setting to presentation mode for internal meetings or external events. It served as a movie night and XBOX screen as well. We didn’t have a conference room (some negatives here) so quickly firing up the projector, taking down the art pieces can change the room’s mood and the people in it.
Transportation: It goes without saying that being near major subway stops is critical. Half of our team lived in Manhattan and the other in Brooklyn. Being off the ACE and the L removed any commute hesitation from candidates. That’s an easy one. What resonated to me was also that we were not right off the subway line. Maybe I read too much into these things or push my own ideas on to a bland reality, but it felt good to walk a few blocks from the closest stop than just pop up into your building. I sang a different tune on rainy days but that natural energy felt good before work. Walking in NYC also shows you people you don’t interact with during the day. If I entered the the office immediately from the subway, I’d miss seeing the ways most people use technology and interact with the world. Of course, I was also getting a biased view given it’s the Meatpacking district.
Art: Explaining that you do local data aggregation is a little easier and more fun while standing in front of a beautiful print of Manhattan. It gave our work context; like an unspoken mantra behind us.
Light: Some days we never needed to flip the light switch. The office beamed with light, too much in the afternoon sometimes (some engineers shifted their machines to avoid glare). The light gave the office warmth. Don’t cage yourself in.
Color: Having some color, at least for me, speaks that creativity is the norm. We had matching hanging red lights and exposed red painted water pipes. It doesn’t need to be fancy, just get some color. Paint the place together if needed.
Restaurant options: Be able to walk to multiple food options. Eating great food from non chains sparked excitement and can demonstrate what excellence looks like in other areas of life.
Hosting: Open your space to the world. We hosting some SkillShare events, a few small meet ups, and any visiting out-of-towners looking for a desk and internet. It encourages employees to tell their friends about the company and to welcome others.
Private space: Employees should be able to change between public and private setting. We didn’t have a different space for this at Hyperpublic and it caused some friction. We had one open room and no private space which meant personal and some business calls we relegated to the hallways. A small conference or huddle room would have solve this.
I think this kind of detail is important. Together, these aspects create your environment. Companies compete on talent and then need to compete on execution. When you have the opportunity to invest in something that fuels both of these critical advantages, splurge. Check out the pride that Kickstarter has in their office. Peruse officesnapshots.com or the stream of office pictures on Instagram. It doesn’t need to be MTV cribs, but make it reflect your values and presentable.
You want to be able to proudly say, “Come see the office.” As we transition to Groupon’s Palo Alto office (which is awesome in its own way), I’ve gotten a little pre-nostalgic for our office. I’ll miss it.