Our New Office is Official
Peek inside the new Lickability HQ!
A few months ago, all seven of us were sitting side-by-side in a small co-working office. We had enough space for our desks and computers, but that was about it. Not exactly ideal. So, we decided to do something about it and started the search for a new office.
We wanted our new space to feel like an IRL version of our Slack — a corner of the NYC tech community that is uniquely ours, where we can have full control over our own workspace, invite folks over for discussions during lunch, and continue to evolve as a company. Our pal Bryan Irace referred us to Elie Reiss at Skylight Leasing, and with Elie’s help, we found the place for us a month later, after trying (and failing) to picture ourselves in other office spaces all over the neighborhood. At the end of August, we left our old office and excitedly moved into the brand new Lickability HQ in Chelsea at 26th St. and 6th Ave.
Signing the lease on our new place was only the first step. Suddenly, we were in a room several times the size of our old one, and we had almost nothing to fill it with. As eager as we were to leave our co-working space in favor of our own office, there were a lot of advantages to our old place that we never really thought about until we didn’t have them anymore — furniture, food and beverages, cleaning services, conference rooms, etc. were all taken care of for us. When we left, it was up to us to figure it all out ourselves.
We didn’t have any furniture, much less any clue how to decorate an office. So we turned to a friend of the company Megan Leet, at Perf, to help us design the space. She worked with us to find all the furniture, decor, and office supplies we needed to create an office that works for us — complete with adjustable-height desks, a comfy couch (which took us a week to decide on), and plants that we are doing our best to keep alive.
Our new office is great, aside from the lack of desks and chairs. 😅 pic.twitter.com/E794O3g7Eh
— Lickability (@lickability) August 30, 2018
When we first moved into the office, it was almost completely bare. We had a few large boxes full of everything we took with us from our last place, plus a couple of floor pillows to sit on while we waited for furniture to arrive. Over the course of a few weeks, everything trickled in until we were finally able to sit down at our desks to work every day and have meetings around a table in our conference room. Every day, we thought of something else we needed: sponges, dry erase markers, an umbrella holder.
Now, two months later, our office has finally come together. It wasn’t easy — we’ve been buried under piles of empty cardboard boxes, furniture assembly instructions, and shipping confirmation emails for the last couple of months — but we made it out alive on the other side with an office we love. The space, much like our apps, will never feel quite “done” as it continues to grow and change with the company, but that’s the beauty of moving into an office that’s truly our own and allows us to evolve beyond what we are right now.
As nervous as we were to take this leap, leaving that small, seven-person room behind was a big accomplishment for us. We needed room to grow and shape our company’s identity, and this new office gives us that. We’re excited to share the beginning of a new era of Lickability with you.