Heads up if you're looking at office space in Midtown right now

I was setting up my new app dev shop and had to pick between a cheap spot in an old building on Cass with no fiber and a pricier, newer place on Woodward. The old place was about $800 a month less, which was a huge deal for my startup budget. But after talking to three other tech founders who'd been in that building, they all said the internet was a constant problem, with drops during client calls. I went with the Woodward spot, and yeah, my rent is higher, but I haven't lost a single minute of uptime in six months. That reliability has already saved two client deals where we needed solid video demos. Has anyone else faced a similar choice with infrastructure versus cost, and how did you work it out?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_max2mo ago

My buddy tried the cheap route for his remote support gig, saved like a grand a month on rent. He spent that entire first year buying everyone coffee shop gift cards so he could go work there every time his building's wifi took a nap. The math definitely did not work out in his favor.

sagecooper2mo ago

That's like a thousand bucks in coffee cards just for wifi.

vera1959d agoMost Upvoted

The math definitely did not work out in his favor" - I read somewhere that people actually spend way more on coffee shop wifi than they think. One news article broke it down, and the average person working remote from cafes spends around $60 a month just on drinks. That's $720 a year. Plus you gotta factor in the time wasted hunting for outlets and dealing with loud customers. Not to mention the coffee shops near me started limiting how long you can sit there during busy hours. So yeah, that grand a month he saved on rent probably got eaten up quick by lattes and muffins.

hugos462mo ago

Why do we always pay extra to fix cheap stuff?