There may be twenty days left in the year, and here at Rhode Island Inno, we want to spend them celebrating.
We're doing just that with our "End of Year" series, starting first with this roundup of Office Envy pieces alllll the way back from our first month this July.
For the unfamiliar, these Office Envy articles take a look inside some of Rhode Island's coolest working environments, and talk with the people that make them so special.
Here are our first five.
Elevate
Charlestown-based Elevate Coworking is only about a mile from the beach, and looks to give its members a peaceful place to work and play. “We really thought about how we could create a really quiet and also really collaborative [spot],” said co-founder Genny Plas. “We focused on the decorations; making it fresh, making it inviting.”
The result is a comfortable, 1,000 square-foot space, with couches, private offices, and conference rooms, all in soothing blue and gray tones. “We didn’t want it to be a beach office, but we did want to give a nod to the beach,” she said.
That's not the only reference to the ocean. Elevate members have access to a deli on the first floor, and an on-site locked storage space for shelving their bikes, kayaks, or paddle boards.
It’s a well-used perk. Members can (and do) punctuate their work by “jump[ing] out for a couple of hours and go to the salt ponds or the beach,” Plas said.
Read more about Elevate here.
MojoTech
Software development and design agency MojoTech‘s team, at its core, is about doing one thing: “we really aim to build high quality software.”
MojoTech’s office is designed to facilitate just that, with an open floor plan and conference rooms with glass walls for dynamic planning sessions. There’s a tech library, two kitchens, and an “extra-large, family-style lunch table where we enjoy team lunches,” said Courtney Fanning, marketing manager at MojoTech. “Mojo green” covers pillars and walls. “It makes you feel like you’re living your brand,” she added.
While all that is important to life at MojoTech, it’s secondary. “I think what you really want out of an office space is that you’re excited to come and work every day,” Fanning said. It’s not about ping pong tables and candy drawers. “[We want] to energize you, not distract you.”
While MojoTech certainly has those bells and whistles (cold brew coffee, dogs allowed at work, trust-based vacation time, privacy pods, a pumping space for nursing mothers, etc., etc.), it aims to make sure that the work is as meaningful and cool as the spot you sit in. “The space should be there as an invisible perk,” Fanning added.
Read more about MojoTech here.
NAIL Communications
For advertising agency NAIL Communications, the space echoes their vibe: irreverent, daring and open. And that’s the point.
When the company moved to their current spot at 63 Eddy St. in 2008, they used experiences from their previous space to help influence the new digs. “We were able to design it based on what we liked and what we wanted to do,” he said. [It’s] interesting and creative and funky … a space you can come and brainstorm, and not feel like you had to leave and go to a Starbucks.”
As a result, NAIL’s tank desks are kept interesting, too. They're a staple the company has embraced since day one. “It’s become part of our brand, part of who we are — for better for worse.” These desks, rigged to raise, have puppet-fabricator-designed “feet” — aliens, chickens, robots, etc. — that cover the lifting elements and add a decidedly quirky edge.
Gross emphasized that a good space makes for happy employees with great ideas. It’s part of their core values, after all. “You want to go to [work] and don’t dread it, and want to do the best work you can,” he said.
Read more about NAIL Communications here.
Red DWG Library
The Pawtucket-based Red DWG Library is a coworking space that leans in hard to its sense of style.
Founder and CCO David Gomez said that he knew he wanted to fuse the chic aesthetic of places like the SoHo Club with a warm, hospitable feel, and then turn the result into a coworking space — one that allowed folks to focus and work like they were at a library.
Ultimately, the Red DWG Library team landed on a space in an old mill, built in 1900. “Details in here are absolutely spectacular, and the space is laid out almost perfectly to the needs a coworking space would have,” Gomez said. The Red DWG Library takes up 8,500 square feet of the mill, making it the largest coworking spot in the state, he adds.
The look of the Library is carefully curated. “I combined an old traditional space with the artsy, technology kind of an atmosphere – you feel like you’re back in the 1920s [but with] state-of-the-art tech,” Gomez added. “People are saying that we are less expensive [than we look].”
Read more about Red DWG Library here.
Upserve
Providence-headquartered Upserve, the most-funded startup in the state, is a restaurant point-of-sales and analytics software provider that aims to make its office playful and bright.
While the company has other offices across the country (New York and San Francisco, to be specific), an estimated 75-80 percent are based in Providence.
The company's Rhode Island HQ is a boon for employees, said founder and CEO Angus Davis. “We’re not paying less than Boston employers, but our employees are paying a little bit less to live here,” he explained. “It’s not a huge difference, but it is a difference.”
Read more about Upserve here.
