When it comes to tech occupier trends, you don’t get much more influential than the San Fran start-ups. So what do they really want out of their office space and interior styles? And what are their plans for overseas expansion? Emily Wright dropped in on six up-and-coming firms to find out
GITHUB
275 Brannan Street
github.com
Social coding company
Launched April 2008
Chief executive Tom Preston-Werner
Users in September 2011 1m Users in September 2013 3m
Venture capital revenue raised since launch $100m
Value $750m
Employees 220
HQ style A 55,000 sq ft converted 108-year-old fruit packing warehouse in San Francisco’s up-and-coming SoMa (South of Market) district.
Coolest interior features A reception area built as an exact replica of the Oval Office; meditation room; third-floor gym; eight light-free cushioned “coder caves”; and indoor park with faux grass and picnic tables.
What the occupier wants “The main thing is a move away from individual offices,” explains GitHub’s head of PR Liz Clinkenbeard. “But what that means is that people want small, private rooms with doors where they can be alone to make personal phone calls or take some time out. That’s important to remember as offices get more open.
“We also want more and more building intelligence. We use a heat map of the building which works using sensors linked to the lights. A hacker analyses the data so that we can see where the biggest concentrations of people are, and which offices and spaces are used the most over six-month periods.
“We then assess the hottest and coldest areas to address potential problems with consistently underused space. Maybe the chairs are uncomfortable? Or is it too loud? “The heat map helps us to make the best use of the space we have.”
Expansion plans Watch this space. Overseas growth is one of chief executive Tom Preston-Werner’s key focusses this year and next.
STUMBLEUPON
301 Brannan Street
stumbleupon.com
Discovery engine
Launched 2002
Chief executive Mark Bartels
Users More than 30 million
Profit projection $40m by the end of 2013 – a 33% increase on the same period last year
Employees 70
HQ style Old school industrial. Brick walls, high ceilings but small, heavily blinded windows as developers have black screens and prefer to work in a darker environment.
Coolest interior features Massage room (with, of course, an in-house masseuse); ping pong tables; living room-style meeting rooms named after explorers.
What the occupier wants “Start-ups will seek major anchors when they are looking for office space,” says chief executive Mark Bartels. “It happened with us in New York – we looked at the city centre and then said ‘where’s Google?’
“We went near that giant anchor tenant because we knew that’s what everyone else would do and we would, by default, be in the heart of a new tech hub.
“And we want to be by transport links. That’s really key – being near stations. It’s a great recruitment tool for us.”
Expansion plans “If we were to look at Europe again, which we have done in the past, we would probably start with a sales and marketing office,” says Bartels. “We have looked at Paris but probably wouldn’t do so again. Having a common language is a huge advantage. Being in London would be great as there is such a high proportion of talent there.”
OPTIMIZELY
631 Howard Street
optimizely.com
Software company
Launched January 2010
Chief executive Dan Siroker
Venture capital revenue raised since launch Nearly $30m
Revenue growth rate between March 2012 and March 2013 400%
HQ style Modern take on a vast, open-plan industrial warehouse space in the financial district.
Coolest interior features Desks that double as treadmills, and a subterranean ping pong hall.
What the occupier wants “Space, space, space,” says Optimizely operations manager Lauren Puff. “And specifically space where people can work without feeling hierarchical, which is why we use these rows of desks and benches so that no one is elevated and no one is segregated. The chief executive works along the same line of desks as everyone else, though you can see if he is in or not pretty quickly as he always wears a pair of neon trainers which are easy to spot.”
Expansion plans Plenty but none in London for now. Optimizely is expanding within its current building in San Francisco to create more room for staff and services in its US HQ.
The company has opted for Amsterdam as the location for its European hub where the group is on track to open a 16,000sq ft office by February 2014.
ROCKETSPACE
180 Sansome Street
rocket-space.com
Co-working hub for tech start-ups
Launched January 2011
Chief executive Duncan Logan
Desks hired in 2011 30
Desks hired in November 2013 600
Charge per desk $800 a month
Venture capital raised by start-ups using RocketSpace in the past 30 months $2bn
Notable alumni Spotify, Uber
HQ style Bright, buzzy but simple space in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district.
Coolest interior features Free Friday beer kegs and a space-themed reception. What the occupier wants “It’s all about transport,” says chief executive and RocketSpace founder Duncan Logan. “We moved from SoMa, where so many start-ups are, to the financial district because it is near an underground station.”
Expansion plans “We are looking extremely seriously at London,” says Logan. “I hope to be there by the end of the year – we already have UK firms contacting us wanting to get on the waiting list for space early. We are sticking to our rule of being near transport so we are looking central rather than east. At the moment we are interested in King’s Cross.
“We want quite a big space – around 100,000 sq ft – which is harder to find than I thought. But we will keep looking because we need that much as part of a plan to become the nucleus of London’s tech cluster in the same way that we are here in the Bay Area.”
RUNWAY
1355 Market Street
runway.is/
Start-up incubator space
Launched 2012
By Allan Young
Home to More than 70 start-ups, four of which have already been acquired.
HQ Style Vast floor of 30,000 sq ft of rough-and-ready start-up space in the same building as companies including Twitter, Yammer and One King’s Lane in San Francisco’s SoMa district. Nearby is one of the city’s most infamous areas – known for drug use, homelessness and prostitution.
Coolest interior features An igloo meeting area and coffee stand courtesy of Bloom – another start-up run by two 20-something ex-Googlers – providing locally blended coffee and tea to San Francisco offices via a subscription service (bloomready.com). Runway founder Allan Young sits on reception (a fold-down picnic table) himself to welcome staff and guests.
What the occupier wants “Start-up costs have plummeted so we want to do the same for real estate to really help start-up founders,” explains Young. “We came up with a way to give these companies the amenities they need to run a fledgling business so they don’t have to spend a boatload of money just to get started. More than 50% of our space is open-plan, breakout space. And less than 50% is actually work space. This means a higher level of organic collaboration. And that’s when a co-working space will work.”
Expansion plans Nothing concrete yet but Young says that start-up hubs and co-working incubators in general will expand exponentially all around the world in the future.
COTAP
55 New Montgomery Street
cotap.com
Developer of workplace mobile messaging app “What’s app for work”
Launched May 2013
Chief executive Jim Patterson, formerly chief product officer of Yammer
Employees 14
Venture capital revenue raised since launch $5.5m
HQ style Early stage space to facilitate fledgling company launch after moving from co-working space in September.
Coolest interior features Giant bouncy balls instead of chairs in the break-out area and stand-up desks.
What the occupier wants “A good agent and someone who can move fast is crucial,” says chief executive Jim Patterson. “We need to work with people who will help us stay nimble, whether it’s in San Francisco or anywhere else. Space goes fast – particularly when you are up against other tech firms which move incredibly quickly.”
Expansion plans “Our lease here is 18 months and I would be surprised if we stay here beyond that,” says Patterson. “We will most likely need somewhere bigger soon. And in terms of wider expansion I can see us opening a European office within two years. “We would look seriously at London but also at Amsterdam because London is just so expensive. If we do consider London then it feels like Shoreditch is maybe a bit too out of the way. King’s Cross might be better.”
