After working from Seattle Coffee Houses everyday over an extended period of time, we decided to do an online search on craigslist to see if there was anyone out there willing to sublease us office space.  Don’t get us wrong, we love coffee and loved going to Odd Fellows, El Diablo, Cherry Street Café, Holy Grounds, Victrola, and Uptown Expresso, but we were spending $600 a month on coffee for ourselves and our interns… not to mention we also covered lunch. 

As such, we decided to look on craiglist to see if they had anything.  We could not believe what we found.  This was the ad that was posted on May 13:

$750 / 2000ft² – Share our awesome loft, month to month rent! Views, Hardwoods, Kitchen (Queen Anne/Belltown) (map)

Reply to: hous-bjrpn-1169209010@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

Date: 2009-05-13, 12:39PM PDT

Looking for the anti-office office? You found it. Welcome to “The Loft” at the Northwest Worklofts.

“The Loft” features hardwood floors, 15 foot ceilings, open beams, huge windows with lots of light, view of Elliot Bay, large conference room and kitchen.

Your space will accommodate up to 5 desks for your small firm. There are three other firms that share the big open space. Why work alone when you can join a community of cool people?

This is a month to month lease – only your first and last month’s rent is required. It includes Internet, bottled water, full use of kitchen and conference room, and 24/7 access. Perfect for the person looking to move out of their home office, or for a 1 to 5 person firm looking for the ultimate in flexibility and an authentic, cool workplace that inspires.

We are about 100 yards from Rain Fitness if you need a gym. We also have many options for lunch/happy hour within easy walking distance. On lots of bus routes at the Intersection of Denny and Western, parking is available for about $100 a month if you want your own spot. Street parking is fairly available. Take a look at the pictures, and if you like what you see call Ken at 206 714-4767 for an appointment. Or you can swing by anytime to take a peak. Suite 515.

3131 Western Ave at Denny (google map) (yahoo map)

We spoke with Ken Mahar, a cool and collected guy, from E-Mail Broadcast, and cut him a check for $750.  We waited a week to get approval from the Northwest Work Lofts to bunk with Stratejoy and a couple of other start-ups.  The management of Northwest Work Lofts, however, had other ideas.  Several changes occurred at the same time we were looking for space and they came back with a win-win-win solution.  They offered us our own space in Suite 506 that Typecast Films was subleasing and provided E-Mail Broadcast their own space in another space so they could put in the market an amazing work loft space of ~4,000 square feet to another future tenant.  We were going to get our very own office space.  Amazing!

Nervous and inspired, we decided to sublease Typecast’s office space.  After all, we were already spending $600 a month on coffee.   What was another $150?

One problem.  We knew we had an amazing office space with great potential, but we had never designed an office space… where do we get desks, chairs, flip charts, white boards, etc.  On top of making the decision to sublease space, our budget was like… what budget?  We don’t have any money.  We are bootstrapping this company.

Having limited dollars to our name we decided to check out Dibspace to see if we could barter up something.  We put an ad and looked up interior designers.  We called several designers, but Amy Woidtke was on the money.  She answered the phone and was willing to meet us the next day at 8 a.m.  When you have no revenue, time is money.  On June 12, Amy met us at our new loft space and we knew instantly that we were working with a pro.  She was a complete professional.  She came in with her notepad, sketch book, asked about the intention of the space, collaborated with an architect and she was off.  She came back in 3 – 4 days with a proposal for our office space. 

The sketches reflect our vision. 

Our vision is now reality and we want to share with you our office space.  We are excited.  We’ll share with you how our office space came together from Craigslist, Fremont Flea Market, Value Village, Cost Plus World Market, and IKEA.

Thank you for coming together tomorrow evening to hang out.  We are excited to share a glass of wine and discuss with you the challenges of starting a company and building a collaborative office space with no desks.  

Looking forward to having you come next door to mix and mingle with Guys And Girls Next Door at 3131 Western Avenue, Suite 506, Seattle, Washington.