After over a year of planning and waiting, it's almost here !
As anyone who has been following our company knows, we’re in the middle of a major move to a new building. The backstory on this move is an interesting one. We’ve been growing at 60% year over year and we had completely outgrown our old space last year. People are doubled up in small offices and making due. As teams grew that needed to work together, they were unfortunately separated out of necessity, causing some communications breakdowns. It has been tough, but the staff have been troopers and totally understanding.
Our current lease was due to expire in June 2012, so we sucked it up and toughed it out. Even I, the CEO, was not immune .. bunking together with a member of our senior sales staff. One of our latest moves was to turf the boardroom in favour of more workspaces. I think we’ll look back fondly (some of us anyways) on our last few years here on Hunt Club Road. We were definitely due for a change.
Our search for a new office began in the Summer of 2011. The management team and I had something very specific in mind and so we started early. Jonathon led the charge and sifted through numerous options, only bringing the management team in on the most interesting ones. I won’t bore you with the details of the search (which was lengthy and included numerous duds), but we were looking for a space that had good transit options, preferably free parking, polished concrete floors, open ceilings, some offices but mostly open area and lots of room for growth. The space we are moving into this month met all of our criteria, and although we are more than doubling our usable space, our monthly rent expenditure is only going up by 60%, so a great win all around.
We’re right in the middle of renovations, opening up some of the closed offices that the previous tenant had constructed. The demolition is just about done now and so I thought I would share some pictures.
The new space will be setup in pods of 4 stations, for small teams that need to work together. Larger teams will occupy multiple adjacent pods. We plan on having less-formal areas setup throughout the office .. for example – coffee table and chairs here, foosball table over there. Finally our different teams will be able to collaborate easily and effectively. I for one can’t wait to get into the new space, and will probably be spending much of the coming month at the new location as decisions are made on fit and finish. Check out our Pinterest page if you’re interested in seeing more of our renovation pictures.
