Last week I arrived at a downtown office building in SoHo (NYC) to meet with a Series A stage founder and CEO.
The meeting was set for 9am in-person (already a good sign of grit and character). I walked in to a modest office that was starting to wake up with a couple of employees seated jamming away. Someone was washing the dishes and I introduced myself asking for the CEO.
He was the CEO.
The business had raised over $20M from some of the top funds and he was the first one in the office, doing the dishes.
He offered me water and coffee from a modest setup. Nowhere to be seen was the glitz of a snack-filled kitchen or a beer-filled fridge (that honestly distracts from the real essence of entrepreneurship IMHO).
He was making pour-over coffee while chatting with pride about this office they had just moved into and apologizing for the boxes near the door (they didn’t have a receptionist, office manager etc.) He had been there over the weekend trying to get things set up since, ‘everyone likes to come into a clean office on Monday.’
I was fascinated – it was refreshing and real. The office was full by 9:30 – all open work stations, no offices, desk side collaborations, CTO arriving with pastries for the team. He introduced me to most everyone regardless of their level and we sat for our meeting in an open area, pulling up white boards as needed and embracing the raw essence of entrepreneurship.