When I entered LevelUp's Boston headquarters at One Federal Street on a recent afternoon, dozens of employees were gathered in the restaurant payments startup's common area watching Andrew Baber, a technical manager, show off his passion: making really good food.
To make sure everyone grasped the dish he was putting together, a large TV to Baber's left showed an up-close view of work area. This was part of the company's monthly Nosh and Knowledge series, an opportunity for employees to teach each other new skills. It's also one of LevelUp's ways of engaging its community of employees, which has now reached 167.
Having recently raised a $50 million round led by JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions, LevelUp is set to continue growing its workforce — roughly 30 job openings are posted to its website now — as more restaurants buy into its mobile payments and customer rewards platform.
So how does LevelUp continue its momentum? One of the surprising answers I found during my recent visit is the lack of something I usually find at startups: open offices. Instead, the company uses cubicles, some taller than others, for employees' workspaces while offering them a number of other places to work, including nooks with plenty of soft seating, conference rooms and the common area — which could pass for another startup's office because it's literally a bunch of tables.
When I talk to other startups about their open offices, they often espouse values of open communication and collaboration. What they don't mention is that open offices can often be distracting and lead to less productivity.
According to Alex Shuck, LevelUp's director of marketing and analytics, that's the exact conclusion the company reached after doing its own research.
"You definitely save money doing the open seating, but a lot of studies now show that's not super awesome for productivity," Shuck told me. "I think it also reflects our focus on the work that we're doing: We have a road ahead of us, we know the direction that we're going and everyone's very motivated to [push forward]."
But that doesn't mean employees aren't discouraged from walking together. In one section of the office, I found a few employees sitting on the floor between cubicles. I then found something else on the floor: a very good dog.
Office dogs aren't the only cool benefit. Since LevelUp's app is literally about paying for meals at restaurants using your phone, employees are given credits to get lunch with the app on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — the company provides catered lunches on the two other days, so there's no need to ever bring your own lunch in.
Besides the monthly Nosh and Knowledge, LevelUp provides some other ways to build community and let employees showcase their passions. Shuck said employees are encouraged to take a little bit of time in their work week to tinker on projects that are related to LevelUp, even if the immediate business impact isn't clear. For example, Steve Pomeroy, a senior software hacked together a light board that illuminates different tiles to show restaurant orders made in real-time.
"If you have an interesting project that's interesting and connected, you can take that time to explore it and craft it," Shuck, who's been at LevelUp for six years, said.
The company also has what it calls Lunch Time Share Time, an opportunity for employees from each department to share with everyone what they've been working on. It's also a chance for new employees to speak up and get acclimated. It's these kinds of meetings that illustrate how much the company has grown since it was founded in 2008 by Seth Priebatsch.
"Originally, it was just all of us at roundtable talking about what we're working on, and now it's a presentation, a big room and that's pretty cool," Shuck said.
