Our startup’s journey from a bedroom to class A office space.
It seems like just yesterday our company Designblendz was working out of a small bedroom in a row home in Philadelphia, PA. Our chairs were back to back and we would from time to time bump into one another. To start it was a couple of interns and myself. The room could only fit 3 people. We had our desks, chairs, printer, file cabinet were all packed tight! There was also a little hobbit like door that could be opened out to a deck. Somedays we would get a power strip and extend our computers out there on sunny days! The space worked, but it was a tight squeeze!
It wasn’t until Tony Hopkins, who is now our Director of 3D Visualization and Marketing, came on board full time, it was time to make the switch across the hall to 125 sq. ft bigger bedroom! I swapped out my bedroom at the time with two side by side closets, for the small 75 sq. ft. room. It was needed and the move we had to make at the time! We could now have 4 desks, extra shelves, a bigger printer, and a whiteboard to write on! Yes, the first whiteboard as seen below from Designblendz.
It’s Crazy to think we used to try and track our progress and write things out on this board. We still have that whiteboard in our office today and we utilize it to keep track of the projects to get done “this week.”
There came a day in DB history when Scott Woodruff, who is now our Director of Architecture was given a full time consulting contract on a Thursday night, and put in his 2 weeks that Friday morning at his previous employer. We now had 3 full time people, and an intern full time in a 125 sq. foot bedroom, it was time to make the jump to a paid office space.
There I was, on Craigslist…. looking for office space. I typed in “Office Space Manayunk”. (Manayunk is the area of Philadelphia where our company was founded and we still works here today.) I ended up finding an ad for a warehouse that was being fit out on Main Street in Manayunk. Called the number and the next day I was out there meeting Matt Gressen (Who would later turn out to be a senior project manager for our construction division). To this day you can ask Matt, he thought I was an a-hole because I brought some tech guy with me on my second visit to talk about laying out CAT-5 cables. Matt and that guy didn’t get along, but it would soon be the setup for our next big move!
The following week I was sitting face to face with Scott Gressen(Matt’s father) who owned the building. The space wasn’t complete yet, there was still drywall and framing to be complete. They also had to fit out our little kitchenette! We wanted a garbage disposal and we were going to get one! Scott was very fair. He told me my rent would be $750. $750! F**k! That was more than my rent at the time! It was scary, but we signed the 3 year lease and didn’t look back. Our company focused on the future and everything we envisioned becoming.
Two months later in November of 2014, we moved in after our space was complete. The room seemed empty, but I remember sitting down with the team to talk about our future plans for the seemingly large 650 sq. office space. We immediately designed and setup the space as if we needed all 10 seats. We didn’t think the space would fill for a few years. About a year later, we needed extra space, we started gathering up spaces in the building when they became available. We took downstairs, we took next door, and we took across the hall! As I’m writing this, our company and sister companies are split into 5 offices in the same building. But that won’t be for long.
It is time to upgrade once more. I will not be signing a lease for $750 again, but it will be for $5000 a month with a 5 year lease. Yes, that is more than my student loan payment, mortgage, and drinking habits combined over two months. But it is what we need to take our company to the next level. It is what our employees need to be more efficient, and bring more light into the space. I forgot to mention the one main space we got, didn’t have any windows. It got us where we needed to be and we will make up for it with double height transoms, exposed trusses, a glass wall conference room, and plenty of space to grow into a larger company. We are also getting a conference room table, custom made 5' x 14' from my good friend Greg Pilotti who makes awesome furniture! Check him out!
During the first week of April 2017, we will be moving into our new Class A office space here in Manayunk and consolidating a few of the spaces. We will have 1 large space for our architecture and 3D visualization departments. The construction department will exist on the floor directly below and be attached with either a spiral staircase or captains ladder! In total we will have around 3500 sq. feet for Designblendz and we will maintain an additional 1900 for other companies in the building.
We are so blessed and humbled to be working with really cool clients. And getting to work with all of my amazing team members at Designblendz, Legacy Capital, and Oakmont Acquisitions has been a truly life changing experience.
Thank you so much for reading! As always my goal with these articles is to inspire others to chase their wildest dreams and talk about various things I have learned while building a startup that you can utilize in your career. Please comment below and click the heart button if you enjoyed it! You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or SnapChat .
