When looking for office space, a growth mindset can be a huge time suck.
Startup Founders who want to find and secure office space on their own are at a disadvantage. There is a steep learning curve to get up to understand pricing, build relationships and foresee potential pitfalls. Even if you do get significantly up the learning curve, the opportunity to use that knowledge only happens every few years (at best).
Even if you have an expert on staff or a trusted broker, their services rarely apply when you’re opening an office in a new office. We’ve had a number of our portfolio companies open second offices in SF, NYC and London. It’s very rare to find an expert in all three markets.
The best strategy? Focus on finding trusted resources through referrals and get back to building your business.
If you are thinking of opening a new office but looking for advice? You’re in luck! Two of the experts in the USV Network, Alex Miller from Stack Exchange and real estate lawyer Jason Gelman, are taking their knowledge public in an upcoming Skillshare class:
How to Find, Negotiate and Build Out Your Perfect Office
If you haven’t visited Stack Exchange’s new office yet, you should attend this class just to see it. Beautiful space, amazing kitchen and private honeycomb offices for all engineers. Did I mention that they’re hiring?
If you’re looking for a smaller space or co-working space, we’ve started a public list of startup real estate resources in NYC. Additions welcome.
Don’t go it alone when opening a new office. Learn the basics, lean on experts and get back to work.
One of the advantages of a close-knit startup community, whether through an incubators, venture capital firm, geographic community or otherwise, is that you have access to knowledge at scale.
Take office space decisions for example. Most startups don’t think of real estate decisions more than once a year. If you’re lucky, you don’t have to worry about it for a few years. It’s hard to keep a pulse on real estate offerings when it’s a decision you rarely think about it. Having peers who have recently gone through the process can be a huge advantage.
Working with 50+ growing companies through USV and the broader NYC tech community, I know a lot of companies who have recently looked for space or moved office spaces. Since I already have relationships with the startups (the demand side), it’s easier for me to reach out to the suppliers of office space, brokers, subleased spaces and coworking spaces, since I interact with them more frequently.
Being able to share that information quickly with our portfolio companies is an advantage if it gets them into space faster. However, hoarding that information limits the potential upside of additional knowledge. I believe the crowd knows far more than I could learn so hopefully we can work together to update this hackpad of NYC Office Spaces.
The list has a space to list temporary offerings like subleases or spare desks, as well as links to more permanent coworking spaces and contacts for real estate brokers who understand the need of startups.
Know of any good space for a team of 10? Leave a note in the comments or shoot me a tweet, @br_ttany.
photoentropy:transitmaps:
Fantasy Map: Chicago El Overlaid On New York City
A bit of whimsy for you today from Reddit, brought to my attention by Twitter user @GordonWerner. The El has been flipped both horizontally and vertically, then rotated to fit Manhattan’s street grid, but the scaling is totally accurate. It looks like The Loop is placed in the area directly below Central Park. A few things from this: it’s actually kind of scary how well this fits; and it’s astounding just how dense the New York subway’s lines really are (shown here in white).
(Source: Reddit)
When I lived in Lincoln Park in Chicago it was the equivalent of living in East Village and commuting to Midtown.
(via ilovecharts)
Beautifully organized list of restaurant recommendations in NYC
Meryl Pearlstein uncovers some great cocktails + culture spots in her post Travel and Food Notes: Cocktails and Music at NYC Museums. I’m pleasantly surprised that there are two options I haven’t tried yet:
The Rubin Museum: 2 for 1 drinks and free admission on Friday nights
The Morgan Museum: Free on Friday nights + Morgan Cafe open until 8pm
Now who wants to go?
