The value of matching your office environment to company growth?

Once you have stablized the first phase of your startup, you will need to look for a proper office. Our resident contributor, Der Shing draws his experience about moving the company office from place to place and shares his thoughts about the value of matching office environment to company growth.

When I started out, two of us worked out of my room. I felt no compulsion to wake up on time and probably worked about 4 hours a day. Fortunately, this phase lasted only 6 months and I knew we had to go to a proper office. So home office is not something that works for me.

Next office was in Golden Mile Complex. For those in the know, this is one of the crappiest place with red light district downstairs and regular robberies and murders. We lasted 1 year there and increased from 2-man show to 6-man show. But secretly, we were amazed whenever a new person joined us as we cannot conceive why a young degree/dip grad would want to join us. Maybe we were very persuasive 🙂 Anyway, during this phase of startup, we had DIY PCs and hand-me-down furnishing too.

Personally, I was extremely motivated and the less-than-ideal surroundings made me feel even more determined to crawl out of it. However for staff, it was a tough place to be. No one likes to say they work in an old buiiding with prostitutes downstairs.

Next office was at phase z.ro tech park, a bright yellow colour container place. We thought it was heaven. We stayed 5 years and it saw us grow from 6-man team to 18-man team, taking more office space as we grew. Still a very scrappy environment. Miles ahead of golden mile but still not a proper office in most sense of the word. Clients and interviewees would joke that we work in containers, so we took to saying it first.

My people were happier here though none were from the golden mile days. Personally, i still felt very “startup” and the lack of facilities and leaky roof and floor made us feel more determined to do well.

Last month, we moved to Science park. We now have 21 staff and intend to grow past 40 staff here. Finally a normal office with recept area. And guess what, I noticed that my colleagues seem happier here and it is more professional feeling. So a nicer office does make a difference! But for me, I feel as though more things are expected of us now. The scrappy feeling is diminished and we now actually have our own meeting room and storage rooms. Feeling more corporate and more part of the scene.

Next step? If we grow past our 40 staff and hence $5M mark, then I think a even larger office is in order. What next? A city office with a view? What will we be doing then? Probably more HR, Strategy, Finance stuff. No more feeling like an underdog. I wonder…