Startups need to be scrappy, frugal, and sensible about their choice of office space. Shoot too high and everyone questions why you're wasting money on high-falutin office rent. Shoot too low and people will wonder whether or not you're a day away from shuttering the business. Anyway, choose wisely…here's our story of finding office space in downtown Boulder.
In April we sold the assets of our last business, Zuzingo, to Lifepics in Boulder. After the sale, Paul Berberian, Steve Tomsic and I decided to stay together to start our next gig – this prompted a relocation to a new space in Boulder.
The office search turned out really well for us – we spent a day combing Boulder looking for the best "home boy" deal we could find. Our search consisted of walking into any building we thought we'd want as an office. Half of the places we found weren't officially for rent, but after talking to the tenants we found that we could jack ourselves into the space.
All of the offices we looked at were named so we could quickly discuss the pros/cons of each. The "Boardroom" was a very nice windowless conference room in One Boulder Plaza in Class A space. A nice room, but who wants to be in a snazzy boardroom that has no character and the rent is way too high? We were after a smoking deal in a place that had character. Class A space was overkiil.
The "Old Google Digs" on Pearl near Starbucks was another space we considered. We approached the landlord and said we only wanted a few offices and would vacate as soon as he was able to lease the place to real tenants. The Old Google Digs were in a great location on Pearl, had some character and felt like it could be a great home boy deal since the place was a semi-mess post Google move out. The deal ended up going south though when the landlord got snooty and said he didn't need or want temporary squatters.
Next up was the "Glass Office" on Walnut – the location was okay and still in downtown Boulder, but a bit out of the way. Rent here was a smoking deal, but the downside was it was a street level office corner with a huge amount of glass which and didn't provide a lot of privacy. The "Glass Office" ended up being our backup space and we've since recommended it to several Techstars companies and a few others.
The "Green Spot" on 1200 Pearl ended up being the space we settled on renting. The "Green Spot" was in a smoking location right on Pearl/Broadway near Powell's Candy Shop and across from Paradise Bakery. The place used to be a deli called the Green Spot that was closed down when the owners were arrested for dealing drugs out of the deli (we're still looking for any hidden stash the cops may have overlooked). The business was truly an interesting entrepreneurial gig geared to the Boulder community. I mean who wouldn't want to eat a sandwich and smoke a bone, right? Anyway, the upsides to the Green Spot is that it was huge, ridiculously cheap because virtually no retail client wants to rent it, and had the right type of scrappy feel you need to have when starting a business. It had lots of free folding tables for desks, a drink cooler, sandwich making equipment, and a cool green color scheme. Visually the space has the effect of making most people chuckle when they visit – upon entering most folks smile and immediately ask what's the story is behind our office.
So stop by and say hello if you're in our neck of the woods on Pearl – we'll give you a tour of the digs, make you a sandwich, and then get down to talking business.
Sandwich making area...
Makeshift Conference Room & Drink Cooler...
Desks...
Back stretcher that doubles as a bed for Paul...
Front Entrance...
