A Tale of 2 Cities and 6 Offices
“To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.” Winston Churchill.
As one of the co-founders and CEO I think it is important to preserve the history of how we started for a few reasons:
- To introduce new team members to the roots of how we started;
- To remind ourselves and our early team members of how far we’ve come and;
- To remain grateful and celebratory of our achievements, no matter how big or small they may seem.
Office #1, City: Chinatown Vancouver BC Canada
When MuseFind was nothing but an idea and the three of us met in the evenings after work or early in the mornings before our full time jobs. Keith Ippel from Spring let us use the basement of Spring Activator.
We got into the habit of developing perseverance; when most people were off work and able to relax, we would leave our full time jobs to only dive head first into ideating and prototyping MuseFind until late at night.
Office #2, City: New York City NY USA
All of New York City suddenly became our office. We were accepted into the renowned venture backed ER Accelerator program. We lived in 3 different apartments spanning in New Jersey, Astoria and Chelsea and then proceeded to hop from hotel to hotel every single night (that’s right, we would sleep in a different hotel every. Single. Night.) for the next 6 weeks. We called this phase, #Musehomeless.
Office #3, City: Chinatown Vancouver BC Canada
Hopeful and alive. We survived our first of many moments in NYC and came back to Vancouver to grow our main team. We had a bit of angel funding, eyes wide open and a new networks built out in the concrete jungle. We survived and were ready to thrive. Our first “office” again in Chinatown upstairs of Spring Activator thanks to Keith Ippel’s generosity in letting us stuff in 6 people in this room.
#bestROI-ing all 20 sq ft.
Office #4, City: Chinatown Vancouver BC Canada
We moved next door in the same building to a slightly larger office in the Chinatown building. We were able to fit 7 people and a Stella Artois keg! Many nights leaving work included texting one another to stay away from the stairwell as some local residents of the neighbourhood were found often passed out in there.
Little did we know that we’d quickly outgrow this office and would need to move again.
Office #5, City: Gastown Vancouver BC Canada
I remember when we first saw this room and we thought “This is HUGE”.
Little did we know that towards the end of our time here, we’d outgrow it so fast and often ran out of chairs and tables for the team. But many memories were shared in the Gastown loft we affectionately nicknamed Diagon Alley,
Office #6, City: Coal Harbour Vancouver BC Canada
We finally signed our first headlease to our new home at #480–1500 West Georgia St in the heart of Coal Harbour. Finally we had a space with A/C, clean bathrooms, elevators and even key cards for entry. It was a huge move and being able to watch the team develop its culture and energy on a daily basis is one of the biggest rewards of our journey so far. It’s no longer about the three of us, it’s now about all of us. #bestteam.
