I am beginning to bring on part-time help and needed an office space so we could collaborate. Plus the business needed to feel more "real"—this is a hard concept to explain but what happens in your house can sometimes feel more like a hobby.
Ah - got it. Just curious, but are you basically getting most of your part time help from locals to Pittsburg? Any particular reason why you're not sticking to virtual? Also, did you consider a co-working facility (not even sure if they have any in Pittsburg, but they sure are cropping up everywhere)
I considered a co-working facility—I would have loved the collaboration, but this was a great deal for some private space.
Working at home makes you treat things differently than waking up and going to a space 100% dedicated to work. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like the right time after 12 months.
Of course you get the best hardware - this article was meant to show that even a non VC backed company could get an office up and running. Were the other tips helpful?
Fair enough – the intent was to say as the founder you should splurge on yourself a little – not to say you're providing others with inferior stuff. I was able to find great chairs at an affordable price. When I can afford Aeron chairs for everyone, I would do that!
I removed that part because it takes away from the point of the article.
I think that first sentence is profoundly wrongheaded. It's not just unpleasant, it's also penny-wise and pound-foolish. It is very hard to keep employees happy over the long term. Turnover is extremely expensive, and expensive in insidious ways. Employees already think that the founder is getting all sorts of perks that they aren't getting. Making that clearly apparent to everyone by giving yourself better digs is a terrible business move.
I just tracked you down on LinkedIn (we're only 3 hops away!). This is your first company. I'm not on my first company. Let me spare you a lesson I am still gradually learning the hard way: whatever day-to-day pains and frustrations your team is dealing with, you should be sharing.
Take the extra money for the Aeron chair and buy a couple of six packs for the office. I may have just saved you several tens of thousands of dollars with that bit of advice.
"Let me spare you a lesson I am still gradually learning the hard way: whatever day-to-day pains and frustrations your team is dealing with, you should be sharing."
This is a great lesson. People only fix problems when it affects them directly. If you are sitting in a better chair and a developer says that his chair doesn't suit him, you will take it as whining. After all, there is nothing wrong with your chair.
However if you are sitting in the same chairs, you will experience what it is like. After a few weeks, you may realise that these chairs are horrible for your back.
I lived in Kenya before where the roads are terrible and full of potholes. To avoid this problem, the President had special shock absorbers installed on his limousine. After all, he is President. He must deserve it and splurge on himself. Now when he goes anywhere he doesn't experience the same things others do. Since there is now no problem for him, there is no incentive for him to fix the roads.
Don't be a leader who only solves his own problems.
See my comment above about the employee perks. I forgot to mention the fridge is already stocked with drinks and snacks. I am indeed learning and appreciate your feedback.
Employees in this office will have plenty of perks – including $100 travel reimbursement per month, plus free lunch every day. I would not want to hire someone bogged down into such minute details of chairs when the entire space is obviously meant to make it as comfortable for them as possible.
are you kidding me? After the PC/Laptop/screen the type of chair is very very important.
Any developer that is worth something, knows that they will have to sit down for long period of time, it better be a good chair.
If not, then it shows a lot about the employer.
You risk looking like a company that buys cheap desktops, and and small screens to save money, but don't realise they are loosing tons in the way of lost productivity.
At home I have an $200 Ikea chair, and it is really nice. Not bank breaking for sure, but I expect my employer buy something similar in comfort level. Doesn't have to be a top of the line, but something that I can sit for few hours at a time without breaking my back.
I learned it the hard way, but I will never work in a place that cheaps out on chairs.
If you can't afford a $200 chair per employee, then you shouldn't be hiring. You need founders, and they can bring their own chair.
I think not hiring because you can't afford $200 chairs is silly-I can either hire you now or wait until I can afford 600 chairs. There are part time employees out there too! I was specifically referring to the fact that as an employer I am doing the best I can to get good chairs within a budget. These chairs are extremely comfortable and happened to be affordable.
I went to IKEA looking for chairs—and hated all of them. To me, these chairs are very comfortable.
I would much rather have a comfortable chair than free lunch everyday. Free lunch would save me some money but a good chair will save health problems down the road and make me feel better while working.
Why don't you trade the free lunch for better chairs?
I recently went ergonomic chair shopping and find it extremely hard to believe you can get a decent chair for $60-80. The price range was 10x that where I looked.
Agreed 100%. Again, we are talking about startups in incubator programs. A team with three MBAs is a recipe for disaster in that scenario—or at least lesser odds of success.
Yeah, I understand and ultimately agree with you with respect to startup programs.
My rant stems from a general theme that seems to come across in comments on this site that business people and managers are idiots, and programmers are gods. I know that is not the point you were intending to make.
I think the key point is nothing happens in the beginning with our great technical people. You will always need great business people in the end to drive the business (Google). But we're talking about startup programs where there is little capital and little time.
You definitely have partners in the room as well—but I would say the closer the VC's office are to the Demo Day location, the more likely you will have a partner present. The further, the more likely it will be an associate. Agreed?
