INNOVATORS | COVER STORY
THE STARTUPS REDEFINING HOW WASHINGTON WORKS From graffiti walls and giant boomboxes to meditation zones and four-legged coworkers, these inventive firms are energizing work spaces as we know it. BY DA R A K L AT T
A work shed conference room at Contactually.
Dog are welcome at iStrategyLabs.
Modus Create’s workspace features a giant boombox made of cardboard.
T
his is the anti-office,” fashion blogger Meg Biram states matter-of-factly about her Georgetown-based Creative Collective. Looking out at the Key Bridge from this stylish, sunlit space with modern armchairs and standing desks (while a photo shoot with rubber French jewelry gets underway in the back), she beams, “I’m still kind of like ‘pinch me,’ is this really my office?” Here, and at a number of forward-thinking startups, the traditional office space is being rethought … or maybe regurgitated. In its place is something bright and playful, open and hip, and perhaps even happy. Channeling a Silicon Valley-type sensibility, the offices are built on the concept of being anything but typical. This is reflected in imaginative conference rooms, quirky homemade art, game stations and svelte lounge
52
This 1973 VW Transporter bus at iStrategyLabs will soon be a meeting room.
areas. It’s also evident in the multitude of hot drinks and Trader Joe’s snack options, bathroom amenities and indoor bike racks. Call it the millennial dream office come true. At iStrategyLabs, a digital agency in Shaw, the average staffer age is 28 and a youthful creative tech vibe runs rampant across their brand new, eye-popping 18,000-square-foot space. You’ll see a blue 1973 Volkswagon Transporter bus (soon-to-be converted into a meeting room), a colorful library with a secret door, an elevated nap pod, a serene mediation area and a trifecta of yellow, turquoise and red conference rooms. Similarly, Contactually’s Mt.Vernon Square office embodies fun and startup-scrappy. Inside this 4-year-old firm are work shed conference rooms that still smell like fresh timber and are decorated with birthday streamers and polka
dot art. The kitchen has a beer tap, bottles of Sriracha hot sauce and a panini press. And even before 11 a.m., CEO Zvi Band says, “it’s like Thunderdome,” with dogs running around and knocking into each other. What truly stands out with these trendsetting spaces is the brand touch in the details. Social Tables in Chinatown created its own “wallpaper” with the group’s core values emblazoned across the design and made an impromptu wall out of employees’ job application cover letters. Modus Create CEO Patrick Sheridan and his coworkers built a giant boombox out of cardboard boxes in their Reston office (after Googling how to do it) and painted a graffiti wall with their logo and software code. It all makes you smile and want to stay for awhile. That’s what they’re going for.
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
| N O V E M B E R | washingtonlife.com