Thoughts in Time

So I wrote about why I wanted an office and why I believe an open office makes sense for a startup.  In addition to wanting a good space, I didn’t want to waste a lot of time looking for a space - it’s more important that I’m working on getting the business of the ground than touring buildings around London.  So, with agreement from Johannes on a general price range and location (cheap, but easy commute for Per, Araz, and me), I started my search.  As we wanted to find space that we could get on a short term lease, and didn’t want the hassles of getting telecom, broadband, etc we decided to find a serviced office.  I visited a number of sites last night (starting around 10pm). Easy Offices, Instant Offices, Regus…etc..  I found a couple places that seemed pretty well suited - right price range, good central location.  I filled out the online contact forms, hit submit, and went to sleep.

Luckily I didn’t sleep in. At 8:30 AM I received the first call from a rep from one of the services asking for further details (start date, # of people, type of biz). They sent more options and I picked a couple that I thought would work to arrange viewings. One in particular caught my eye - the wonderfully named “utopia village”.  I emailed the agent to see if I could see it today. 2pm - Met araz at Chalk Farm tube stop - closest to the utopia.   We walked around the area.  Shops, pubs,  couple blocks from the park - Nice!   We met Ben - the manager for the property and he gave us a quick tour and showed us what was available.  Great light, right sized space - perfect for our operation…Short negotiation and an hour later we had a deal on an office. We move in Feb 1.  Now I can focus on everything else to get done .

With my arrival in London and Per’s starting January 20th, we’ll have our key three people in London (Araz has been here all along!). Araz was ok working from home, but now that we’ve got a team, I wanted us to have a shared 1st life office space. As a startup, I think there are a number of things to look for in a physical office environment. I’m a big believer that the physical space one occupies affects one greatly - from how one’s home life is to how productive one is at work. I think that small startups are best setup with open plan workspaces. When I say open plan, I mean desks without cubes… This can be distracting as the company grows, but headphones are a great way to create a “personal space.” There are a number of reasons I think it works well:

• It promotes collaboration - with 3 people in a small space -there’s no choice!
• It creates a culture of open communication - There are no secrets with open space.  You’ll know what people are up to and vice versa.  If you have to have a compensation discussion you can do it in a dedicated meeting space.
• It makes it easy to quickly problem solve (and there will be problems) - if I don’t know the answer, I can ask someone without knocking on an office door or worry if I’m bothering them - I can see if I would be right away!
• It creates the right culture of “Us” vs. the world - We’re in it together - we can easily see that!
• It makes for easy knowledge transfer - A whiteboard is essential for keeping top priorities in an easy to view format
• It’s cheap - hey - you’re a startup - unless you got that Aeron chair at a yardsale, don’t waste $ on your office or your furniture. Desks are easy to get cheap, or make… cubes… not so much, and separate offices - not even close.