Arcjet has opened its first physical office in New York City a central hub connecting our distributed team.
WHY NEW YORK?
New York City is now home to Arcjet’s first physical office. We chose NYC not just for its iconic energy and opportunity, but because it’s the perfect midpoint for our distributed team across North America and Europe.
At Arcjet, we think the best way to find the best people is by hiring with a few location restrictions as possible. However, timezones are a real challenge so our focus has so far been on the US and Western Europe. Today, our teammates span both coasts of the United States as well as Canada, the Netherlands, and Italy from San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, and Phoenix to Pittsburgh, Lecce, and Amsterdam (and growing). We’re just about able to all be online at the same time.
There's a huge value of time spent in-person, so we organize team offsites every 3-4 months. This works well for engineering where quiet time is essential for coding, but we’re still able to chat every day and meet regularly.
Arcjet is remote-first, but there are some roles that work better in person: operations, marketing, technical support. This is why we’ve opened our first hub in NYC.
Our team values are simple:
Having a central place to collaborate in person reinforces these values. It strengthens our culture, deepens our relationships, and helps us move faster together. NYC also gives us access to incredible resources, from our partners at a16z (a short train ride away) to a vibrant network of innovators and creators.
Oh, and the pizza’s not too bad either. 🍕
WHY A SHARED DESK SPACE?
Arcjet is currently 10 people and only a few of us are in NYC. For our first office, we wanted flexibility and energy without a huge empty space or expensive lease.
This meant looking at private offices within a shared workspace so we don’t have to worry about the overhead of running an office in NYC (hello, compliance!). Plus there’s the added benefit of community. It’s social, collaborative, and makes work feel less isolating, especially for a small, hybrid team.
Our non-negotiables:
We “test-ran” several spaces before choosing one that felt just right. This is difficult to do if you’re leasing your own dedicated office, but shared workspaces usually have free desks so you can try it out for a few days.
Since moving in, we’ve met some great neighbors - from a hair salon and an insurance company to a handyman service. Even our shy next-door neighbor pops by to say hello now and then.
CREATE THE SPACE YOU WANT TO WORK IN EVERYDAY
The first step was making it official - putting our name on the door and lighting up our neon Arcjet logo.
From there, we focused on comfort, function, and a few personal touches:
And, of course, no workspace is complete without snacks. Ours includes team favorites like Ito En Oi Ocha green tea (unsweetened, of course), Diet Coke, Cheez-Its, granola bars, and a trusty kettle for coffee and tea.
ORGANIZATION IS KEY
A well-organized office isn’t just nice to look at - it’s how we stay efficient and focused.
Our space has tall ceilings, so we wanted to use that vertical space wisely. Since we attend a fair number of conferences, we’ve built up quite the collection of marketing materials and team swag. To keep everything tidy, we invested in an industrial ULINE shelf.
Each shelf is labeled and neatly arranged in clear bins for:
Now, anyone can walk in and quickly find what they need. Our ongoing goal: keep everything clean, well-stocked, and, most importantly, organized (especially the tea).
The hub model is becoming more and more popular for remote companies so you get the best of both worlds - those who want to work in-person are able to, but you can still find the best people wherever they happen to be.
The big challenge is keeping the remote-first culture. In-person communication often defaults to speaking directly to the person you’re with. That’s fine for social and/or quick questions, but you lose the written documentation. You can’t search the transcript and link back to an in-person chat! This means we have to be more deliberate about recording decisions or relaying discussions back to the wider team.
With that, we’re officially settled into our new home in NYC. Opening this office is more than just a logistical step; it’s a milestone in how we continue to grow as a company.
We can’t wait to welcome teammates, partners, and friends into our new office soon!
Get the full posts by email every week.
