Stock media startup (and Coolest Company hall-of-famer) VideoBlocks is moving house in 2017, leaving its long-time home in Reston for Arlington and a lot more room.
"We went from six people in 7,500 square feet originally, to 77 people in the same 7,500 square feet," VideoBlocks CEO TJ Leonard told DC Inno in an interview. "Our retention rate is something like 99 percent, so while we've put our marks all over the office, we now we need additional space to grow."
Though the company has narrowed its search to spaces of about 20,000 square feet in a few locations scattered around Arlington, the final choice has yet to be made. There's not an immediate rush since the current lease runs until October, but it is getting a bit crowded, Leonard explained. This year alone, VideoBlocks added 22 new employees, and there are plans to bring 0n another 25 or so next year as well, aiming at 150 total in the next three years.
"We've had some test bids from places, but we have a few must-haves," Leonard said. "We want a ping-pong room and we have what we affectionately dubbed the 'pet parlor' showing up in drawings as a dedicated space for the animal friends of VideoBlocks. I'll be bringing my puppy Copper at some point, though he's only eight-months-old right now."
There will also continue to be a space for creating some of the media offered by VideoBlocks on its platform, Leonard said. Much of the collection comes from outside a studio, including the material company founder and executive chairman Joel Holland on his RV journeys, but there's a place for the media that is put together in a controlled environment.
VideoBlocks can certainly afford the upgrade. It's already profitable, with 150,000 subscribers bringing in $30 million in revenue. The company has raised $10.5 million from venture capitalists, and $8 million in debt financing. Mainly, though, the space is so that VideoBlocks can bulk out its team without actually stacking them on top of each other. As it adds new features like the recent Enterprise platform, it needs more full-time tech talent.
"We're building out our API and our technical team," Leonard said. "We want to make it possible to get access with third parties or in ways that won't always need our regular membership system. We want to see how far we can stretch our marketplace content."
