A year or so later, they'd gotten actual offices and had become something of a phenomenon. People were quitting Google to join them. A pretty famous game developer (creator of Day-Z) was in their office working on his next game. It seemed they'd managed to reach their ambitious technical goals, which was really, really strange and unexpected, but it still didn't click with me that they were doing well, and they were among the most rapidly growing companies in London. I liked the people a lot however, and continued to hang around their offices on Friday just to chat, taking very little interest in their technology.
No point to this story, just that spotting a great company can be hard, even when it's right under your nose. Even more so when it doesn't fit your mental image of what a great company should look like (i.e. not in London, not making video games, etc.)