How we chose and furnished an office the Y Combinator way
blog.cloudant.com
blog.cloudant.com
A bit more about the desks, to address some of the comments below. We can move the desks around easier than "L" shaped ikea frames and have tried multiple positions. I prefer to gaze at a brick wall for focus, others like to gaze out the window or into the room. The desks can be moved in the center of the room and "stacked" like a big lab bench for group hacking. They can also be assembled into mega "L" shaped desks if you need to, say, sort through 2 years of receipts. Getting the height right was a big challenge, and we didn't scrimp on chairs. We also have screws in the feet to adjust the height of the desks if needed. Laptop heat is a non-issue so far, and they don't require coasters.
Per the bigger picture, I'm glad to discuss/listen on the relative merits of team building, brand identity/pride, and balancing running a surprisingly large global data service if that's of interest. We did this for many reasons, but a major portion was to have some fun in the (exceptionally rare) off hours. I would say that building something mechanical and getting the chance to do manual labor is all too rare in my life, and something from which I derive deep satisfaction.
Also, I can't say this enough -- we got a huge assist from friends and family of Cloudant.
People tend to forget that the company culture - shared interests and activities being a big part of it - plays a huge part in shaping the quality of the product/service. In addition, it helps build a sense of identity and pride among employees, which is especially important for a fast growing company.
Taking some time off to work on a project like this might actually provide huge returns which are not immediately apparent.
Imagine my surprise when I read the name LJ, and Mike, and Physics @ MIT .. and put two and two together.
-Long Time friend of your neighbors, C&J. :)
Meaning they decided to procrastinate instead of working on their product/service.
> we instead chose to purchase solid core doors from Home Depot (~$40 each)
Meaning they instead chose to spend more on something that wasn't designed to be a desk than an actual desk.
From [1]:
Ergonomically, door desks leave a lot to be desired. Keyboards were usually too high. Typing for hours could be uncomfortable. And those angle brackets have sharp edges; accidentally scrapping exposed flesh against those was a mistake that wouldn't be repeated.
[1] - http://glinden.blogspot.co.uk/2006/01/early-amazon-door-desk...
If they were truly procrastinating, you've got a point. But that's hardly implicit in having spent time and energy on a desk. You can't work productively 24x7. You need downtime.
And those desks, not to minimize the effort they did put into them, don't look like a huge time investment to me.
As to the ergonomics, sure: ideally you want adjustable desk height and some way to get monitors to a comfortable height. But how often have you found those qualities in the sub-$40 desks you'd have them buy?
To put it bluntly: I don't think I've ever seen an adjustable height desk with a raised stand for a monitor in an office environment. Consumer home-office furniture are lousy with those features. But for most office furniture, you're lucky if they buy a $10 wooden monitor stand or if the desk's adjust more than they need to allow for leveling.
You'd have to haunt the clearance company to actually score a good desk and I still doubt you'd be walking away with one for $40.
Problem 1: no link to main Cloudant page from the blog post.
Problem 2: at least 2 broken links to their products at the bottom of the page: (Big Couch, Private Cloud both give 404s)
Slightly sloppy; not that big a deal. But people might see.
This is why they don't read news sites during the work day. Oh wait ...
My point was that all of this takes time, and doesn't sound like something a lean and mean startup would do. Buying doors at $40 doesn't sound lean, the time spent instead of working on the product/service doesn't sound lean. There's an opportunity cost that should be factored in and they could've saved a load of money and time by buying the furniture second hand.
Having said all that, it's their business and not mine, and if taking time out to build these desks won't disrupt their schedules or revenue stream then it's up to them if they want to do it. Personally I'd never allow it anywhere I work, but time's much more important (and billable) in my industry so their mileage may vary.
Of course, they now have something tangible with their time that reminds them of the day they built their own desks. If there's value in that then more power to them.
And it's interesting that you're ignoring the Aeron chairs - or are they worth spending money on?
Update: My bad, they're actually Progrid chairs from Costco, not Aerons.
We offer Aeron chairs if folks want them. I tried the ProGrid (~10 way adjustable) chairs from Costco Business on a whim (I was stocking up on water cooler, fridge, etc). Costco has a great return policy, so no pressure. I've found them very adjustable and comfortable, so far no complaints or requests for an Aeron here. I should note that we got the mid-back version and it's a bit short for our 6' 6" @chewbranca.
Their at work, they're suppose to be working on their work not watching netflix.
I think its a nice setup. My only concern would be my laptop overheating on those wooden desks.
I prefer a corner desk with a rounded, concave cutout. I can imagine with a bit of competitive pricing I could put one together for less than $100. I'd probably go with a birch or maple veneer plywood and stain it to the right color.
To be fair though, I'm a hobbyist woodworker and a lot of people don't have the inclination, patience, or skill to build a desk. There is also little point in DIY if what you can buy can be tax deducted as a business expense.
This is a kneepads v. packing table decision:
we were packing on our hands and knees on a hard concrete floor. I remember, just to show you how stupid I can be -- my only defense is that it was late. We were packing these things, everybody in the company and I had this brainstorm as I said to the person next to me, "This packing is killing me! My back hurts, this is killing my knees on this hard cement floor" and this person said, "Yeah, I know what you mean." And I said, "You know what we need?" my brilliant insight, "We need knee pads!'" I was very serious, and this person looked at me like I was the stupidest person they'd ever seen. I'm working for this person? This is great. "What we need is packing tables." -- Jeff Bezos
The glass IKEA Galant desks do make it really difficult to mount monitor arms (you can't bolt through tempered glass, and pressure clamps are risky on glass), so I ended up putting two oak boards on the top and bottom in the back (1" thick, 8" wide, width of the table + 2"), and clamping stuff to those.
Glass is nice because it's really easy to clean. I believe in keeping the desk basically empty when not in use, with all monitors/etc. supported by arms. I do leave 2 keyboards, a mouse, and a magictrackpad on the desk itself, since I don't have a good way to mount them to anything.
The other nice thing is that Logitech "darkfield" laser mice work fine on even clear glass tables, somehow.
Anyways I am just happy to see something Seattle related.
I'd far prefer to be in Seattle (and love Pioneer Square), but I think I'm stuck down here.
There's a link to blog.cloudent.com but not cloudent.com, which is where I actually wanted to go.
if you add up all the time it took to sand, varish, cut, drill etc it would have costs so much more. time is money man.