We have to thank our friends at Officesnapshots.com who recently visited Rofo’s office to photograph our space. We have a sublease in which we’re sharing space with a couple of other internet companies. Beyond the typical benefits of subleasing office space – furniture, data and phone service, and shorter term flexibility – there are some softer benefits with many sublease/shared space arrangements. For us, we ended up in a large open area. This usually means more light and less of a claustrophobic space. Another benefit is the shared resources like conference rooms, a large break room and an employee lounge. Finally, if you’re lucky, you may end up in a space where you can exchange knowledge and ideas with another business/entrepreneur.

Rofo was picked up by Techcrunch this Monday. We were pleased with the story – not only the attention brought to our service but also their review of the site. . Here’s an excerpt:

The story generated some heated discussion about the value of a site like Rofo. As with anything, the value will always be influenced by your perspective. Our perspective, as former commercial real estate brokers and as entrepreneurs, is that there’s demand from all stakeholders to have a better way to connect the demand and supply.

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Ever wonder what it looks like inside the Facebook HQ? How about Flickr and Google? Maybe you haven’t. But the guys at Office Snapshots have assembled a great portfolio of tech company office spaces.

The Craigslist bathroom was probably the most original…

and then there’s the Google slide…I believe this is their San Francisco office which they now plan to occupy through 2015 according to the Business Times.

Let us know if you’ve seen better. .

We’re always looking out for the best and cheapest ways to improve an office space. The folks at Wetpaint.com have come come up with a top ten list (Top 10 Ways to Give Your Office a Web 2.0 Makeover) that, based on my calculations, would cost you about 1400 bucks.

I’m into the white boards – www.whiteboardsetc.com is a good source. Cheap, convenient and, like conference rooms, you can never have enough. .

If you’ve been through the move process you’ve undoubtedly asked this question and have looked at a few of these:

As an entrepreneur, and depending on your company, right-sizing your space will be an ongoing challenge. There are some general metrics used by brokers and larger companies that can be a helpful guideline. A common one is usable square feet per employee. The usable square feet vs. rentable square feet topic is a lengthy discussion and worthy of a separate entry.

Guy Kawasaki published a great article on Redfin detailing their startup costs and budget including their office space estimates:

Redfin Model: $250. Actual Redfin Cost (Last Month): $336

Our actual costs are high because we just moved last month into an office with room to grow, which seems to happen every eighteen months. When people were sitting in hallways at the old space, we were paying about $200 per employee, per month. Class B space on well-traveled mass transit lines is roughly $20 per square foot per year in Seattle, $30 in the Bay Area. You need 165-200 square feet per person or more.

At the extremes, Adobe supposedly allocates 435 square feet per person while Yahoo! allocates 220 square feet per person. The startup cult of cramming people into small spaces is counter-productive: people are what’s really expensive, not space. web archive The cost Redfin really didn’t anticipate was for tenant improvements which you mostly have to fund yourself when signing sub-three-year leases. In September, we spent more than $100,000 to add private offices for our engineers on the hope that our current office will last us longer. It was probably too much money.

If you’ve come across any other stats or tricks for planning your current and on-going space needs please let me know. Our Q&A section at www.rofo.com is always a good place to check for other ideas and resources.

As a startup (read small user of office space with a budget) it was a challenge to find good office space. We find it an even bigger challenge to manage our ongoing space needs. I’ve spent a lot of time talking to other entrepreneurs and found that most everyone struggled with the same process. I came across a great blog entry Xobni’s office space from the guys at Xobni detailing their search for space, their criteria and recommendations, and the lessons learned. I don’t think their overall process was unique. But they’re very unique to have documented and shared it. This is a huge value add for anyone just beginning their search. I’m always interested in hearing more stories to share with our readers. If you have one let us know.

After 18 months of business planning, research, development, testing, alpha and beta releases Rofo.com is here. Our original idea was simple – create a website to help small users of commercial space easily find the right spot for their business.

Small is relative and therefore not the easiest thing to define. It may be an individual with a newly formed business, a start-up with seed funding, a locally established non-profit, your neighborhood coffee shop or pilates studio, a paint contractor, or a regional sales office for an international company. The size of the space could be as small as an individual cubicle.

But it’s less about the size of the space and more about the resources the company has (or lacks) – a broker to help with the search, a telco company to get your phones and data set up, or an attorney to review your lease. The list goes on and on. And the goal of Rofo is to simplify the search, connect you with experts and leverage the ideas and experiences of the community to help you navigate a tedious process.

We launched Rofo in the Bay Area and we look forward to making it available in other markets in the very near future.

We hope your experience with Rofo is a good one. We always welcome and encourage your feedback.

-Alan

Our website (www.rofo.com) was launched today as a closed Beta. We’re working on some great ideas (in our opinion) that will help you navigate the process of finding a home for your business. tajikistan We look forward to formally launching in the San Francisco Bay Area in the coming months.

About Rofo: Rofo offers an innovative approach to solving your commercial real estate needs. Whether you’re looking for an office space with a view, an inexpensive warehouse or a neighborhood retail outlet, Rofo will simplify your search for commercial real estate. .