

Ask HN: Should my small company take a big (but sweet) space in San Francisco - fishcakes

We are small right now (4 people) but we are kicking ass and we are need some good space (about 750 - 1000 sqft) because we've outgrown our sublet.<p>We found some awesome space that I think will ROCK (great location, very cool industrial space, 2 decks) in the longer run (as we grow) but is very big and expensive (3000 sqft / $6500 per month).  We can hustle and make this work by subletting some parts of it and benefit by having sweet space but its a distraction.  Hacker News: What would you do?
======
JangoSteve
In the startup world, I often hear very anti-office-space sentiment (either
"don't get it" or "learn to rough it / cheaper is better"). I think this may
be the after effects of the bubble, but that's an entirely different topic.
Instead, I'll provide a slightly different perspective.

When deciding whether or not to buy office space (and how much to spend), I
converted rent dollars to productive hours. For the sake of simplicity, let's
assume that you are a one-person startup (as I was), and that you could easily
get contracting gigs for $100/hr. Heck, let's be more conservative and
consider $75/hr. Again, for the sake of simplicity, let's assume that your
time spent on the startup is equally valuable as your time would be spent
consulting.

In Michigan, a nice office costs around $400/mo. So, in order for this office
to pay itself off, it must help me produce an extra ~5.5hr/mo of billable work
(i.e. productivity). This amounts to around 11 extra minutes of productivity
per day. This doesn't take into account other things like mental outlook,
well-being, company attitude, etc.

So, in my scenario, I decided 2 years ago that yes, an office would add 11
extra minutes of productivity to my day. This is a decision each person must
consider, as it's not one-solution-fits-all. And for a startup team, you must
take into account everyone's individual productivity in addition to group
productivity.

In my experience, I love having an awesome office and it's helped me through
the day many times. However, I'm also constantly (and at time, painfully)
aware of the cost of this luxury. For example, I still do more consulting than
I'd probably prefer.

------
anigbrowl
Pass on this one. $6500 * 12 /3000 is $26 per square foot/year, which is a bit
pricey even by SF standards. There's about 90m square feet of commercial space
in SF, and this is set to increase by 5% within the next 2 years; that's one
reason the city bent over backwards to give Twitter a favorable deal. For this
kind of money you could get a rather fancy retail/restaurant space in a good
location, or a full-service suite with less space but an impressive financial
district address and all the trappings of success. If you sublet you need to
budget for the cost of accounting services and what-all else as well; if
you're going to go down that route then go big so that you have your eggs
spead across several baskets at $15/sfyr. Try loopnet.com, but also look into
the city's tax exemptions.

------
md1515
With 4 people there is absolutely no reason to get 3000 sqft especially for
$6500 per month. I would suggest either staying put or finding something much
cheaper you can all live in and work in.

You are tiny and you have to act as if the money is yours (perhaps it is
actually your own investment). Even if it is VC money you do not want to blow
through that on BS stuff like renting space in a "nice" "cool" location. In
the end it will make you run out of VC and need more, diluting you further and
losing you money in the long run. No matter how you look at it, this is your
money so spend it wisely! Ramen profitability is the goal! (PG plug)

------
Stronico
Don't - places are good because of the people, not the decor. Any space of
sufficient size with cool people will be cool. I would spend the money on a
place that either saves your time in commuting or in maintenance.

my two cents.

------
thenomad
Don't go there unless you have a very, very solid reason to get that much
space. I very much doubt you each need nearly 1000 sqft to work in!

------
boop
Nope. Don't move into a bigger space until you _HAVE_ too (no more room in old
space).

------
davidandgoliath
Don't. Why ingest such a massive amount of overhead? Co-work until no longer
feasible :)

------
brudgers
> _"its[sic] a distraction"_

This didn't need collective wisdom.

------
timjahn
If you don't NEED that big/expensive of a space, don't get it.

------
fishcakes
Thanks all for your help!

