office « a quirky blog

Posts Tagged ‘office’

Fri, May 28 2010

Introducing: Melissa!
By jovena at 10:09 am

Melissa has been with us a while, although somewhat under the radar… But, I think it’s about time for an official introduction. What many of the Quirky team notices is how clean the office is, especially on Friday and Wednesday mornings. It’s not magic. It’s not elves. It’s the work of our very own Melissa. She comes in after hours to stock the fridge with sodas and spiff up our office.

Tonight I showed her the Broom Groomer. She was immediately excited. “Oh, wow!” She tried it out and immediately saw the value, “How did they come up with this idea? This is really cool. You can use the comb to clean off the dirt and hair from the broom.” She wants one!

Melissa is amazing at what she does. Really great. She always arrives with a big friendly smile, manages to find any little mess left behind and leaves the place sparkling every time. She even cleans up the fridge after sodas explode. (We have a temperature issue with our fridge, so the sodas freeze and explode occasionally.) In addition to her friendly smile, she’s quite a classy lady.

On a side note, if you’re looking for janitorial service for your NYC office, you’re in luck. Melissa has a slot or two available. You can reach her at mrosado8607@hotmail.com.
- Tags:
- love,
- office,
- products,
- quirky team
Wed, Apr 21 2010

We’re Hiring!
By jess at 12:10 pm

You heard Jovena… Quirky’s a prettttttty sweet place to work. And the best part? We’re hiring! That’s right, now’s the chance to join in on all the fun. If you’re interested, qualified, and in the greater New York area, send over your application. No recruiters or third-party applications, PLEASE.

VP Product Design

In order to insure exceptionally high product and design quality as we grow, we’re looking for a rockstar Industrial Designer with considerable leadership experience in Consumer Products, Brand, and Marketing. The perfect candidate is dozens of successful products beyond their start in an Art School model shop, but desires the creative rush that their early career provided. Read the full job description here.

Bookkeeping Wiz

Ready to learn new software, dig into a big pile of paperwork and keep our records organized? We need a superstar of a bookkeeper: someone who can crunch numbers like a pro, keep our files spiffed up and help with our general office needs. This is an entry level position and doesn’t require a ton of experience. But, the position does require lots of brain power and a track record of solid use of smarts and creativity. Read the full job description here.

General Interns

Quirky is seeking hard-working, ass-kicking interns to join our energetic start-up team in our New York office. There will be no coffee runs, and we don’t even have a Xerox machine. Quirky interns will assist the operations, community, and content departments with, well, pretty much everything. This internship will introduce you to the world of social product development and provide hands-on experience in the fields of consumer products, social media, online community management, and marketing. Read the full job description here.

Design Interns

Quirky.com is an exciting and fast paced workplace for passionate and talented designers. We will be adding to our design department and are currently seeking skilled product design interns to assist our design team in developing a new consumer product a week. This internship will last approximately 3 months, from May to August. The exact start and end date will fluctuate based on the candidate’s school schedule. Read the full job description here.
- Tags:
- jobs,
- office
Mon, Mar 29 2010

Open Beats Closed
By mitch at 12:13 pm

That is the foundational belief at Quirky. Since the industrial revolution, business has been “closed” — meaning relatively few people have made the decisions about what products come to market and how a business should be run. At Quirky, we believe that’s an outdated way of doing business. In fact, we’re betting the company on it. We believe that we, together, are smarter and more capable of designing great products and building a great company. Together, we can reshape markets, design breakthrough products, and demonstrate to the world that, in fact, Open Beats Closed.

I’m creating a forum topic about this: let us know your thoughts here.

I wrote this in my last blog post, but it’s worth repeating. What we’re trying to accomplish here won’t be easy. No start-up is. But Quirky especially will take incredibly hard work, imagination, a willingness to take risks, and an incredible team of employees and community members. We’re trying to do something absolutely profound here. We’re trying to bring the dreams of inventors from all over the world to life. We’re trying to build a consumer brand from scratch. We’re competing in many different consumer product categories against many entrenched companies. We’re sharing rewards with thousands of contributors from around the world. We need to build robust capacities in design, manufacturing, and distribution. We need to build a great team. And we need to manage cash flow. Like I said, this won’t be easy.

This works if we do it together. We’re committed to building an extraordinary team at Quirky. And if you’re interested, we want you to be a part of it. We’ll always post our open positions on the web site and do a blog post about them. If you think you’re a great match, or know someone who is, let us know!

But the Quirky team won’t be enough. We need your participation. We’re going to let you inside the Quirky business in a way that I don’t think has ever been done by another company. You’ve begun to see it: the forum and our blog posts. That’s just the beginning. We promise to be honest and fully transparent with our community.

In return, we’ll ask for your participation and your bright ideas to help us navigate the difficult choices we’ll face as we grow. Keep telling us what we can do to get better. We’re listening.
- Tags:
- community,
- forum,
- jobs,
- office,
- open business
Mon, Mar 15 2010

#MusicMonday
By jess at 7:07 pm

#MusicMonday is a popular trending topic on Twitter. For your listening pleasure (or displeasure – see Robert’s answer), here’s what we’re listening to on our individual headsets.

C. France: This Charming Mixtape by Theophilus London

Jess: Ernie Halter radio on Pandora

Janet: The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy) by Simon and Garfunkel

Jordan: Fancy Footwork by Chromeo

Lacy: http://www.last.fm/user/neurokinetikz/tracks

Gui: Today, the Polish construction worker’s squeaking ladder. Or, Led Zeppelin IV.

Robert: I am listening to the silence of the black hole of my soul.
- Tags:
- music,
- musicmonday,
- office,
- office culture
Tue, Mar 9 2010

Sweets From A Sweetie
By jess at 6:31 pm

Yesterday, we received this scrumptious package of delectable scones and biscotti from one of our wonderful community members. Isn’t your mouth watering just looking at ‘em? Ours too. We couldn’t keep our hands off, especially from the raspberry white chocolate scones. Yum.

Shout-out to MsCotti – The “Softer” Hand-Dipped Biscotti and Scones:

Cleveland-based, MsCotti Inc. is best known for its unique line of “softer” hand-dipped biscotti and “flavorful” scones. Our goal is to provide our valued customers with quality products made from only the finest and freshest ingredients.

MsCotti products are available for sale online through MsCotti.com. Trust us — you’re gonna want to try these.
- Tags:
- appreciation,
- community,
- love,
- office
Thu, Feb 25 2010

Setting Up Shop
By jess at 7:50 pm

Check out these pictures from the big move… more to come!
- Tags:
- office,
- quirky team
Wed, Feb 24 2010

Moving Day!
By jess at 5:09 pm

This is what we’re doing right now.
- Tags:
- moving,
- new office,
- office,
- quirky team
Mon, Feb 22 2010

My Top Five Things To Do While Solidworks Is Thinking
By ben kaufman at 7:11 pm

I don’t know how many of you out there use Solidworks, but it’s a program that allows you to build 3D models. Sometimes it does so quickly, and that’s always good to hope for, but mostly Solidworks decides the rate at which Solidworks wants to work. Unless you want it to crash, you often have to switch to something else for a minute or two while it thinks over whether or not it’s going to do what you requested. My five favorite places to go (in no particular order):

1. http://www.quirky.com – OK, that’s a cop out, but I really do read the comments, I obsessively watch what’s close to its presale threshhold, and I’m starting to leave more comments of my own.
2. http://www.asofterworld.com/
3. http://thereifixedit.com/
4. The Onion horoscope
5. http://wondermark.com/
- Tags:
- favorite links,
- office,
- quirky team,
- solidworks
Mon, Feb 22 2010

Calm Before The Storm
By ben kaufman at 6:02 pm

Sun sets at Quirky’s sparkly new HQ on Broadway in New York City.

(photo compliments of Mike Lacy)
- Tags:
- office
Tue, Feb 16 2010

So Long Avenue A(wesome), Hello Broadway
By ben kaufman at 2:03 pm

Here’s a shot from yesterday on Avenue A:

Meanwhile, across town on Broadway (between Bleeker & Houston) our friends Peter and Carlos are finishing up construction on Quirky’s new HQ & Lab (forgive the blurry cell phone pictures).

Our new space is 5x the size of what we have now, and will have a fully functional Model & Prototype Shop, Conference Rooms, as well as plenty of Design & Community Support / Sales Space.

We’re excited to be growing up a bit, and look forward to showing you the new space once it’s all set up. We plan on moving the second half of next week.
- Tags:
- office,
- quirky team