Hacker News Reader

Comment by ryanwaggoner | Hacker News Reader

Even in articles like this, there's an assumption that eventually you'll have to get office space. But companies like Automattic and 37signals make me wonder. Especially if you had a strong focus in hiring and developing processes to facilitate virtual teams, could you go indefinitely without having a headquarters?

View on HN

It depends on quite a few things. At Akvo.org (11 people) we have rented office space, very strategically placed at the entrance to one of the meeting spaces/hubs in our sector. Nearly every CEO who works in the sector walks past our massive posters and office in a year.

But we also find that the fast paced environment our partnership people work a lot better when they can sit together and bring in people to see them at a fixed office.

We are sub-letting, but we have a headquarters. However, the majority of our people (6 people) work from home. And anyone can telecommute whenever they want.

I didn't take that from this article. The key question was : “Is getting an office space going to help grow my business?”. Sure seems like David's saying that if you never answer a firm yes, you never need one.

At some point we know that we’ll have to get an office space. You usually reach that point when you need to hire outside your personal network or grow beyond a certain size, the exact size depending on your situation. When it’s time to move it out of your house or the coffee shop, you will know. It’s time to move out only when the the answer to the question “Is getting an office space going to help grow my business?” is a firm, “Yes.”

To me, that reads as an assumption that, at some point, you'll have to get an office. But what I want to know is: can you build a virtual Fortune 500 company?

I believe Automattic and 37signals both have office space. The former in SF and the latter in Chicago.

I think the founders don't work there full time at either, but I'm pretty sure some people do.

iirc 37signals has an office. It's just that everyone has the option to telecommute as much as they want.

They also have almost half their team scattered around the world.

Unrelated to offices, but twice a year they fly everyone in for a weeklong retreat somewhere (not the main office, more like a resort, country house, etc)

Yeah, I think doing stuff like this would be crucial, maybe even more like once a quarter.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com