For the past few years, our little blogging company has been here, there, and everywhere. We’ve been gypsies, traveling around the states, and we’ve had a couple of small temporary offices in Worcester, Mass., and Homosassa, Fla.. Just a few months ago, we were trying to decide whether we should hit the road in a traveling office (aka a Winnebago) or settle down here in Providence.
You might be able to guess which one we chose.
Frankly, I’ve never been one for settling down. In 10 years, I’ve lived in 13 different places, and moving has always been a thrill. My life has been a series of six- to 12-month commitments, and it’s kind of fun that way!
But let’s be honest: Providence is a pretty darn cool place to have a start-up. As fate would have it, last year we inherited a house in East Providence, immediately revoking our gypsy status. To spice things up, we’ve grown at a ridiculously fun, exciting, and terrifying rate!
So, we decided to bite the bullet and get ourselves a real full-time office. In addition to Patrick and myself, we now have one full-time employee, a part-time employee, and 10 local and semi-local contractors. In the next month or so, we plan to hire two more full-time people locally, and we really want a place for them to call “home,” at least as far as work space goes.
Ready for work.
There are a lot of reasons we picked Hope Artiste Village, located in the arts district of Pawtucket, as our final settling place. We looked all over Providence and found that the office spaces – despite fancy elevators and epic views – felt too secluded. We’re huge in spirit, but still a pretty small company, so we wanted something with a sense of community and also … something that allowed dogs. We were told by every realtor in Providence we’d never find a place that allowed dogs. That was true.
We spent some time pondering the commute to Thames in Bristol or Water Street in Warren just for an excuse to walk outside and breathe in the ocean air. That still sounds pretty good.
Finally, we decided that Hope Artiste, right over the line in Pawtucket, felt just right for many reasons:
- We’re obsessed with shopping local, and the mill turned mixed-use community is packed with local shops, artists, and food makers. Everything going into our office is being built or designed by someone in Rhode Island, and that makes us really happy.
- New Harvest is on site, slinging coffee and hot chocolate. The Met is also on site, as is the Bread Lab. And we always keep an eye out for food trucks in the neighborhood.
- Dogs are allowed! There are cute dogs everywhere, and Napa might have an excitement breakdown when he visits for the first time, so we’re pumped to be able to bring him.
- Lots of cool and creative events for networking, being crafty, or just having fun.
- An abundance of super-cool, friendly people who seem to really enjoy high-fiving each other in the hallways – and I really like high-fives.
- The room and flexibility to build out the very cool office pods we’re designing.
- Tons of white walls and light. We’ve been shooting a ton of interview videos lately, and i been tiring moving all the equipment around.
- Farmers’ Markets. Need I say more?
We’re super excited and giddy. The photos show what our space looks like now, but we’re beginning to build it out with the help of a few local furniture makers and artists, and it’s pretty darn exciting!
