Startup Office Space Search Lessons from Tripit | Rofo.com

Gregg shares lessons and advice for other businesses searching for space.

Rofo: What were some lessons learned and how would you go about the process differently the next time around?

Gregg Brockway:

#1: Sizing the space is definitely one of the first challenges. If youre an early stage company, the shorter (the lease) the better. You just never know how things are going to turn out. We are in a good space but were going to be bursting at the seams here very soon. But we need to be in this space through September (of 2009). Fortunately, I think were going to be looking for space in a good environment.

#2: Signing a lease. Ive done a lot of contracts in my life but I havent signed very many leases. We learned a few things the hard way. Its actually very easy to do a sublease because you basically assume the terms of the person who had the lease before you did. When we went to renew our lease with the landlord, I found out about a little thing called base rate and base rate changes from one year to the next. We signed (a lease) at the end of 2008 at a 2008 base rate. I thought that was what I was going to be paying for the next year but I got a rental increase notice basically 90 days later that my rent had just gone up 12%. For experts in the field, this was something to be expected. For me, it was definitely not something I had anticipated. Even if you pay attention to the details, there are little gotchas in the lease. Ill definitely run it by a professional next time I sign a lease.

http://www.tripit.com
http://www.rofo.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Tripit
• office space
• rofo.com
• rofo
• commercial real estate
• broker
• Gregg Brockway
• tripit.com
• lease
• base rate