Artist focus: Emma Doner

What spurred the move?

There were a few reasons why we decided to move into a new office. One was very practical—our lease was coming up for renewal. When we moved into our last office space, we had 30-40 employees. We have over 100 today, and we will have many hundreds in the near future. So as I thought about future growth and because we would have to sign a new lease we decided to look around a bit.

First, we did some research, surveyed our employees, and saw what was available in the market—it felt like the right opportunity to set us up in a place where we could be for a long time. Our goals were to find a space that would be a good fit culturally, located in an accessible location, and within a building that would allow us the flexibility to grow over time.

“Our employees are much happier and more focused than ever before.”

How do you see the personality and culture of Narrative Science reflected in the new space?

The new office also really balances seriousness with fun. This is a serious place to work—you get that feeling when you walk through these doors. On the other hand, there are elements of this space that are clearly for blowing off steam and interacting socially.

It was really important for us to create an environment that reflects who we really are. We actually hired a company to observe how we interact with each other in order to build out the optimal space. It was clear that we needed an equal balance of collaborative areas with spaces that are more private. In the new space, we have two seats for every person here.