Startup life can mean long hours and late nights, which means you’ll want to make sure your company’s office space inspires creativity while making you feel comfortable and relaxed.
We caught up with three Boston tech companies about what makes their offices unique, and what their employees love most about the spaces. While awesome views and ping pong tables were referenced, many techies unsurprisingly cited having an awesome café as one of their favorite office perks.
Responses via Steve Fredette, President and Co-founder at Toast
Location: 401 Park Drive
What is your favorite part of space? The open-area concept — it’s helpful to collaborate with other team members.
What is the favorite employee hangout? The kitchen, where we always have plenty of toast and snacks for everyone to enjoy.
Is there anything the space is missing that you wish it had? More space! We are growing very quickly, but this, of course, is a very good problem to have.
Responses via Christina Luconi, Chief People Officer at Rapid7
Location: 100 Summer Street
How big is the office space? Our Boston office takes up two floors at Summer Street — about 66,000 square feet in total.
How many people work here? In the Boston and Cambridge offices, we’re about 400 — globally we’re just around 900.
What is your favorite part of space? It’s impossible for me to pick just one space! Our office was really designed (in the idea phase, anyway!) by our employees to meet the team’s needs as best we could. No matter where I look, I’m reminded of that collaboration and teamwork. It makes the whole office special to me.
What is the favorite employee hangout? In the office, we see a lot of people hanging out in the café – in the mornings, at lunch, and toward the end of the day. We also have ping pong tables on the 14th floor that are in pretty constant use. Outside the office, there are a number of local watering holes where you can catch team members at the end of the day. There’s also a very dedicated group of spin-class regulars.
Is there anything the space is missing that you wish it had? A teleportation device that went to all the other offices so we could spend more time with our global teams in person without having to hop on planes!
Responses via Cam Souza, Manager of Business Development
Location: 53 State Street
How big is the office space? 76,000 square feet
How many people work here? 320
What is your favorite part of space? I’m a big fan of the themed meeting rooms. All of our conference rooms are named after open source projects, and Solr is my personal favorite. It's great to take a video call with outer space as the backdrop, and the variety of different rooms helps keep meetings even more exciting!
What is the favorite employee hangout? The bar is the epicenter of post-work hangouts. When you combine beer on tap with the ping pong table and a pretty awesome view of Congress Street into Faneuil Hall, you can understand why everyone in the office tends to flock towards that spot.
Is there anything the space is missing that you wish it had? This is a tough question because the office is really awesome as is. I love football, so it would be really cool to have an area to toss a football around! The mini basketball hoop we have is a fun alternative though.
Photos via Built In
Know a tech company with an amazing office space? Let us know or tweet us @BuiltInBOS
