Ask YC: Office space - cheap or creative? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Office space - cheap or creative?

20 pointsmchang1632 comments

I am in the process of looking for an office space to move my business so that I can hire some employees. I've looked at a number of spaces, and it seems that the ones that I like (the creative, interesting spaces) are expensive. The boring, plain and uninteresting spaces are more in my budget.

My issue is that I want to get one of the creative interesting spaces, and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the extra cash. My company is currently making $ but it's all in consulting fees that could evaporate at any time. I still have cash from an angel investment,and I'm hoping to start making money from my core business in a few months. (Hoping)

Any advice?

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Every space (office or home) has an impact on those who occupy it. The top things to consider when choosing a space for a small starting company: collaboration, privacy, lighting, noise.

collaboration - depending on your type of business, choose a space that either promotes or discourages collaboration.

privacy - choose a space that lets your employees have a sense of privacy. Its not fun having the boss being able to see you all day long.

lighting - beware of bad lighting, from overpowering flourecents to blinding sunlight.

noise - internal (ie, deafening air conditioning) to external (ie, youre located next to a railroad crossing)

re: privacy - I've often wondered what the happy medium is between desks with no walls at all (cheap!), cubicle farms, and private offices (expensive)

and also which one fosters more creativity.

Probably more important: the location. Pick something in a nice urban environment close to public transit

Not to be too critical, but if you are asking this question this is a possibility you are feeling pressured to get an office because "that's what professional people do" and not because it actually provides much tangible value. Get an office if you NEED one but make sure you absolutely have no other option (find contract/telecommuters/etc)... An office can seriously affect you burn rate which is usually bad news unless you have a clear path to profitability.

Great question, but no. I have been doing the non-office thing for almost a year. I have 35 contractors working from me off-site. But my business has hit a point where I need to hire two full-time people (to keep it running) and my partner is soon going to be joining me....so we need a space.

We've got 2 full-time people working together on a development project. One (me) is in London, the other in Kansas.

Office space is overrated. Just give everyone an allowance to buy a big desk and a decent ADSL connection.

Daniel

There are no "creative spaces" only creative people. Reminds me of the Mac vs. PC creative work argument. Find good people and they won't care if they work in a cool trendy "loft" in San Fran or a boring grey cubicle in a converted strip mall in Idaho. My workspace is exactly the size of two 19" LCD monitors.

There is statistical evidence that suggests ceiling height influences thinking patterns. Higher ceilings encourage creative thinking and lower ceilings encourage detail-oriented thinking. [1] Obviously both patterns are critically important to hackers and businessmen.

Likely there are a whole suite of variables associated with a physical space that have an effect on thinking.

Yay for good architecture and design!

[1] http://www.csom.umn.edu/assets/71190.pdf

Is it in the realm of possibilities that you can buy a bigger house with more bedrooms and then convert them into office space? That's what lots of folks do... There are many, many advantages of doing so.

You mentioned you needed to bring clients and investors to the office. As someone said, investors often like to see the bootstrapper be creative so you'll get bonus points. Some clients will be put off; others will think it's great - only you know. Sorry if this takes you off the track of your question.

To answer your question: you know what the best thing to do is. Asking for advice here is futile since, as you can see, you get so many different types of answers. Trust your instincts; no one knows the business better than you.

Be careful about zoning laws, though. Many houses are zoned solely for residential use and cannot be used for commercial offices. I am not a fan of zoning laws, but as a company executive you should be aware that converting spaces is full of legal pitfalls.

As I understand it, UK law is quite good in this regard. Any number of residents can work from home but no-one is supposed to commute to a residential property. This means that a reasonable number of founders can live and work in the same building.

http://www.amanet.org/performance-profits/editorial.cfm?Ed=3... "90 percent of workers believe that better office design leads to better overall performance and gives the company a competitive advantage, and 90 percent of senior executives believed that a better physical working environment would have a positive impact on the bottom line"

http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/poor-wor... "even simple things such as good lighting and having adequate daylight can reduce absenteeism by 15 per cent and increase productivity by between 2.8 per cent and 20 per cent."

http://www.cabe.org.uk/default.aspx?contentitemid=659&fi... "In a 2003 survey by Management Today magazine, virtually all (94 per cent) of those responding said that they regarded their place of work as a symbol of whether or not they were valued by their employer. Yet only 39 per cent thought that their offices had been designed ‘with people in mind’; and in another study no less than a third said that they were too ashamed of their offices to bring back colleagues or clients."

I'd err on the cheap side, but avoid space that will impede productivity.

Your employees are costing you $50+ per hour (with burden and benefits) - if you have a more expensive space that'll result in 15 more minutes of productive work per employee per day (due to privacy, quiet, whatever)... Well, it's easy to do the math.

Creative spaces are good. Everyone loves a clubhouse, and that'll help with loyalty retention. But you can do a lot by getting a crappy space and then giving each employee $1000 to decorate their space how they will (including paint!).

Will you be bringing clients to your office regularly? Or is it primarily a workspace?

Either way I would say go for the cheaper space initially. I think aesthetics do matter, but only to a certain extent.

Yes, clients and potential investors.

Investors might even like a bootstrapping startup. They know their money burns well...

I highly recommend reading the book Peopleware by DeMarco and Lister. It devotes a chapter to the programmer's environment and speaks passionately about how important it is to get it right. They get into details about offices. They also say that if you can't get the environment right, you might as well stop there. Of course, "environment" also includes things like frivolous interruptions, etc. Anyway, it's an excellent read:

http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-S...

Joel Spolsky (another big fan of Peopleware) wrote on this when he had his office designed:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html

"cheap or creative?"

Both.

Take the cheaper space and make it creative cheaply. There's lots of ways to do this (beyond my expertise). Home Depot and Ikea are your friends.

A friend rented the office of a furniture warehouse. It was cheap, creative and he was never short of chairs.

Reminds me of the authentic loft space I visited once - it was really really cold (Winter). Not like the faux lofts that have central heating+air

If you are still doing consulting, do you need your clients to come to your office? If so, will a 'cooler' office space impress them more, get you more business? If the answer is no, then save your money and go for a different space.

Do you even need a space at all? Do you need employees in the same office or could you all work from home (we ditched out office and work in this way and meet up once a week).

The final suggestion is to look for an apartment or house that you can rent or purchase and use that.

Joel wrote this about moveable walls and cool offices.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/04/13.html

Aesthetics are pretty important to me but I think I'd be more impressed with a startup making creative use of a boring space than one working out of, say, a generically hip loft.

If you are not hiring programmers, then go for the cheap office space, but spend money on the furniture to make it look really nice. The location is important though - it should be in a lively area. Also, make sure you don't have to look at someone the whole day long, i.e, people are reasonably separate.

One can turn almost any space into a nice looking room. You just need an appropriate amount of inspiration and some outside help.

Are you crazy. Save your money to make sure the company succeeds!

I heard this quote somewhere: Run your startup like a one story whorehouse.

It was mentioned by a VC who has seen many startups come and go. Not to say they are the final word, but I think its very true.

Creativity cannot exist in a vaccuum, without some contraints put on it, it explodes in a million directions like so much debris.

So I second those who say you should take the opportunity to be creative with the dull space and make it your own :-)

Stick to the budget. Never rely on hope when it comes to paying current bills.

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions and tips! I appreciate all the helpful advice!

i think, you can make creative use out of boring office spaces with "creative interior decor."

Maybe concentrate more on "interior designer" on a "boring office space" for a change.

When in startups better to be frugal and creative.

Sine when do "frugal" and "interior designer" go together?

The answer is neither one.

You are on automatic pilot.

"I am in the process of looking for an office space to move my business so that I can hire some employees."

It is 2008. Hire your employees. Where they work is not your problem any more.

I think you need to answer not what appeals to what you want, but what you need; and I come to that conclusion based on your very word choice "plain", "boring", "uninteresting". If you need the space, find out what your budget will allow and what meets the accommodations of your team.

Solve your problems first, and the rest will follow. 37Signals has been preaching it, and so will I because it works

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