Dijital Life

A Geek’s Guide to Startup Office Space

November 9, 2009 – 11:58 am by coachwei | Category Main Page, Tips, startup |

An interesting benefit for me in starting up Yottaa is to become a semi-expert in unexpected domains such as startup office space in Boston area, banking, HR and administration etc. I’ve learned some tips and thought they might be useful for my fellow entrepreneurs. This post focuses on office space.

1. Stay virtual for as long as you could

When I started Nexaweb in 2000, I rented an office almost immediately - 849 Mass Avenue in Central Square, two rooms, right above Starbucks! It was a fantastic startup office! Starbucks was our conference room and we had so much coffee! The rent was about $2000/month, which really hurt when we had no funding.

In contrast, we deliberately decided to be virtual when we started Yottaa in early 2009. For a long time, Yottaa conference room #1 was my dinning room. Cambridge Center Starbucks served very well as Yottaa conference #2, and BeanTown coffee house in One Kendall Square is conference room #3. I loved these places and am very sure many more conferences yet to be had at these places going forward.

Being virtual is a great experience that I recommend highly for the initial phase of any startup. Zero rent obviously helps. It is cool and fun to be working in coffee shops. More importantly, it helps build the culture by forcing the team to be diligent and creative about team work and collaboration, molding the “lean mentality” into the core DNA (caution: Starbucks coffee cost adds up quickly!). Further, the big deal in my opinion is that it indirectly influences an entrepreneur to be social. Asking someone for a cup of coffee to talk about your idea is natural if you are spending 60% of your time in coffee shops anyway. I’m very grateful that so many people had coffee with me over the last 6 months. These conversations helped transform the idea of Yottaa from my initial “huh?” to something truly exciting.

When does the “virtual phase” apply? You and your co-founders know each other well and know how to work together. If not, “virtual workplace” may not be a good fit. In any case, make sure that you have Skype chat and face-to-face sessions on a weekly basis.

2. Move into a “shared workplace”?

At a certain point of time, “being virtual” loses its appeal, especially if you have new team members or the “virtual phase” has been too long. At this point, you could consider a “shared workplace”. “Shared workplace” fits best for teams whose size is under 3 people. At above 3 people, you should consider option #5 “get a room” or option #4 “get a few desks”.

Here is a good list of shared workplace in Boston area:

1. Beta House (in Central Square): occupies two stores in a house with a balcony and sun roof. Interesting folks to socialize with;


2. Dogpatch Labs: I’ve not been there yet (though it is very close to Yottaa Cambridge office). But I know some very cool people there and would look forward to checking it out;


3. Cambridge Innovation Center’s (Cambridge Co-work Center, C3) - it is more expensive than most other places, but the environment is a notch above most others.

3. Get a few desks from another company (”sublet”)

An alternative to shared workplace is to get a few desks from another company who has some extra space. This is not a bad option and has its own appeal: you have your own desk and you know who comes in and out in the office (which shared workplace does not guarantee so).

This option applies to small teams as well as bigger team. If you are interested in this option and are looking for space for 4 to 10 people, I know a few great choices in Boston and Cambridge. Ping me if you need an intro.

4. Get a room!

There is a list of fully furnished office choices in Boston area that fit very well for lean startups. You can start with one room and grow to a few rooms. The office space is fully furnished and managed - all what you need to bring is your laptop.

The top three options in Cambridge area are:

1. Cambridge Innovation Center: CIC is at Kendall Square area in Cambridge.


2. Interact Business Suites: InteractSuites is located at Cambridge Galleria area, close to Lechmere T station and very accessible.


3. Regus: Regus has an office in Central Square as well as in Charlestown.

Among the three, I highly recommend InteractSuites. It is an obvious choice if this category fits what you are looking for.