After a long vacation, TechCrunch Cribs is back! But as TechCrunch alum Jason Kincaid left us with some pretty big shoes to fill, for our first installment we decided to start with a company that knows the Cribs drill already — enterprise cloud storage company Box. → Read More
Baidu is one of the most known of the Chinese Internet giants. Some of the buzz is admiration for Robin Li, one of the pioneers of the Chinese Web scene who built a global giant that succeeded in a political environment where Google cried “uncle.” Others have painted Baidu as the mirror image of Google’s lofty “do no evil” credo.
So on our recent trip to Beijing, we decided to take our cameras to the search giant’s massive headquarters– which spans more than one million square feet– to see if we could find any torture chambers. Big thanks to our gracious host and good sport, Baidu spokesperson Kaiser Kuo. → Read More
We’re back with a new episode of TC Cribs, and it’s featuring one of the most tricked-out offices yet: YouTube.
Yes, the world’s biggest archive of cute cat videos (among other things) invited us to take a stroll through their halls, which are brimming with nifty artifacts, viral video memorabilia, and gnomes. A lot of gnomes.
There’s also a big surprise that comes around two-thirds through the episode that had me hurting for a couple of days. Don’t miss it! → Read More
We’re back for a new episode of TC Cribs, and this one is chock-full of unique, incredible creations that you’ll never see in another office: yep, we made it to Etsy.
The Brooklyn-based company gives artists, designers, sculptors, and all sorts of other creative people a place to sell their wares online — and the startup is eating its own dogfood by decorating its office with items purchase from the site. And boy, does it work. You can’t walk three feet without stumbling across a man made out of metal wire or freakishly massive owl. → Read More
We’re back with a new episode of TC Cribs, and this one is sure is sure to be a crowd pleaser: red-hot blogging platform Tumblr. The NYC-based startup has been growing like crazy (they’re now up to 11.6 billion page views per month), and they’ve given us a chance to take a peek inside their headquarters.
For a company with over $40 million in funding the Tumblr team is still surprisingly small, and the office is relatively humble. But there’s plenty of charm: handcrafted furniture, board games abound, and robots that look suspiciously like my favorite wizard.
Be sure to watch til the end, when I get to walk Tumblr founder David Karp’s dog.
→ Read More
I need to start with a warning. Depending on your work environment, this may not be safe for work. Especially if you don’t want to hear some a lot of four letter words. It may not be safe around small children either. But for everyone else, you might enjoy watching this video over and over again.
One of our popular TCTV shows is TC Cribs, where Jason Kincaid goes behind the scenes of a tech company to see what it’s like to work and play there. Of course, we edit it and don’t use all the material we shoot. Our editor John Murillo decided to edit together some of the outtakes. → Read More
Warning: if you are an obsessively clean person, you may want to skip this episode of TC Cribs.
For those of you brave enough to tune in, here’s a bit of an explanation.
Over the last few months we’ve seen some pretty blinged-out offices, featuring go-karts, gorgeous skyline views, and endless supplies of free snacks and beer. But the reality is that most startups don’t look anything like that. Instead, they often consist a handful of founders working (and sleeping) out of somebody’s apartment and eating ramen noodles twice a day with the occasional pizza splurge. LikeALittle (LAL) is a lot like that.
There’s stuff everywhere. Not necessarily gross stuff, but the floor was littered with dolls, photos of Ashton Kutcher, iPads, markers, venture capitalist business cards, and popcorn. In other words, it was a lot like my college dorm. And it’s awesome. → Read More
We’re back with another episode of TC Cribs, taking you inside the offices of some of the tech world’s hottest companies. This episode features Meebo, which rose to popularity as a multi-protocol web-based chat client, and has since gotten tons of traction with their Meebo Bar (not to be confused with the numerous drinking holes located in the office, as you’ll see in the episode)).
Tune in to learn about Meebo’s traditions, their giant cookies, their hidden staircase to the happiest place on Earth, and the wooden board they call a ‘rock wall’ that is much, much harder than it looks. Seriously, it’s really hard. You’ll see. And do be sure to watch til the end. → Read More
It’s time for a new episode of TC Cribs, and this week we’re showcasing the home of one of the easiest-to-use blogging platforms around: Posterous, the service that lets you turn an email into a blog post (among other things).
As you’ll see in the tour, the Posterous office is located in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District so there’s always something exciting going on outside the window. The team has also developed a strange affinity for a certain inexpensive beer… and Snuggies. Oh, and don’t worry if you’re not sure how to actually pronounce “Posterous” — in this episode, we answer the question once and for all.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the past episode of TC Cribs:
We’re back with a new episode of TC Cribs, the show that takes you inside the hopping offices of tech startups. This week we check out Seesmic, the multi-protocol client that lets you monitor your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and many other accounts from one place (they offer a nice web app and native mobile apps as well). And they have a thing for raccoons, as you’ll see in the video above.
Tune in for our full walkthrough of the office, led by Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur.
Oh, and if you want to watch Loic’s full description of Seesmic (which ran a bit long), you can watch it right here.
As usual, credit to Ashley Pagán and John Murillo for the camera work, and to Mr. Murillo for the great editing.
Here are the past episodes of TC Cribs: → Read More
The wait is finally over: TC Cribs is back.
This week’s episode features IGN — the web’s most popular gaming destination — which happens to have an office loaded with video game memorabilia, arcade machines, and students of comic book lore. I also get a chance to show off my innate video game-playing abilities.
Also make sure to watch our previous episodes if you haven’t seen them yet. And don’t worry, so long as I don’t get struck with another bout of pneumonia, the wait for the next episode will be much shorter than this one.
It’s time for another tour of a hot tech company’s office, and this week brings us one of my favorites: Dropbox. The service makes it easy to share files between multiple computers, and their office is loaded with neat memorabilia, games, and unreasonably tall people.
Make sure to watch til the very end for a surprise, twist ending. That I won’t be able to live down for quite a while.
And in case you missed them before, make sure to check out our previous episodes:
Last week we debuted a new show on TechCrunch TV that took us on a whirlwind tour of Scribd, the popular document sharing website. Feedback to that episode of was extremely positive, so we’re not wasting any time in bringing you another awesome tour of a hot tech company. This week’s blinged-out pad: Yelp.
We’re still taking suggestions for more companies to check out, so feel free to leave your requests in the comments (be sure to tell us why it’s a great office!). And yes, we’re definitely interested in scoping out startups that don’t necessarily have millions in funding — provided your office has some character. We’ve also gotten a bunch of requests to check out offices in other parts of the country (I hear you, NYC), so we’ll do our best to get out there too. → Read More
It’s funny. When I tell my ‘normal’ friends that I’ve just come from Facebook’s office or need to head down to Google’s campus in Mountain View, they often give me a strange look, as if I’ve just told them I’m about to make a house call to the Easter Bunny. These companies aren’t places inhabited by actual people — they’re nebulous things coursing through the Internet’s series of tubes.
But I can’t blame them. Most of the startup profiles we see in magazines feature a portrait of the founders solemnly gazing into the distance as they plot to change the world with their revolutionary new sharing widget. Sometimes there’s a snapshot of a few desks, each of which is far too neat for anyone to actually have done any work on. There’s got to be a better way. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
