The Coffee Shop Office

This is a great story:

Wired News: Monster Fueled by Caffeine:

SAN FRANCISCO — Delicious Monster is the Mac software company behind the hit Delicious Library, a program for cataloging collections of books, movies and games. The software is selling like hot cakes and has garnered rave reviews and awards, yet the company’s headquarters is a Seattle coffee house.

I ran a piece in the magazine about a year back looking at coffee houses coming full circle back to their 18th century roots as business places. It’s satisfying to see the prediction becoming so true.

its four main employees meet every day at the popular Zoka coffee shop in Seattle’s university district.

“It’s cheap rent and a fun environment,” said Matas. “We go down there every day with our laptops and work. It’s an incredible place. They have two or three of the top baristas in the country (the awards are on the wall). We pay our rent by buying coffee…. They love us. We’re some of their best customers.”

As well as creamy lattes, the coffee shop offers wireless internet access and big, bench-like tables that several people can gather around. Often, Delicious Monster’s entire seven-person staff will work there.

We’ll see more and more of this for small, agile and young companies.