How to Setup Dev Workstations for our Startup Office

Hiatus again?? What is up with Marie and Pinoy Web Startup and it’s on and off postings for the past months?!

I wish I can tell you we’ve been busy with our product… and we did put some time into one baby project along with our new intern Ralph… but the start of this year was crazy. One of our partners jumped ship to movie school, we had too little money coming in from web development consulting projects, mainly due to a delinquent customer who was full of promise (and promises), but life goes on! and so do rental payments and salaries — thankfully things are looking up! (Quite!)

So, let me tell you the reality of our dev life — and what I’ve been up to as the enabler (so does that make JP the implementer?) Checks to write, meetings and tasks to delegate and actually work on, clients to interface with and events such as Philippine Web Designers Organization’s Form Function Class and One Web Day 2009 (next Tuesday! September 22 – Earth Day for the Internet).

We’re finally getting our office almost to the way we want it, after a year of bootstrapping. Each developer works on either an iMac or an HP laptop. The workstation has a 22-inch monitor (really liking Samsung P2250) or one of our own old 19″ monitors that JP wants to get rid of ASAP lol, beautiful super slim multimedia keyboard with laptop-like keys (Samsung Pleomax PKB-780 same as Tonio — which you can find for less than P800 if you shop around Festival Mall), and laser optical mouse (Logitech – buy from E-Hub, not from Octagon).

Small Office (not Home Office) Ergonomics

Since being a programmer entails continuous hours of sitting down, the comfy executive chair is a given. Our worktable comes is long enough and spacious enough to fit up to 2 (even 3?) 22″ monitors and extra stuff. We can’t have any of those fugly bulky wood or clerical desks with built-in drawers. For one thing, our chairs wouldn’t fit! haha and they’re too small to fit a laptop and monitor setup. We gotta make the most of our small office!

We debated whether to:

a) get one of those virtualization devices that allow you to share processing power from 1 CPU to 3-5 users. Cheapest option but could be demoralizing for the devs given that, hello, we’re a software company and we have to share computers?
b) desktops for the devs… but they wouldn’t be able to work from home, unless it’s using their own machines. It’s awesomely cheap to build though and easy to upgrade. But what about the data on the local drives? What if there’s a power outage? In short, it’s just too troublesome to think about… So we went with…
c) invest in a laptop for each dev. PC (HP Compaq) for now and as cash flow allows, perhaps provide Macbooks. Of course, there are security risks, especially in our wonderful developing country, since there is no laptop insurance in the Philippines (that I know of). Hey, I just googled and saw that Omnibrokers has computer insurance — but it doesn’t cover theft, more like a glorified warranty.

So now I’m the only one using a desktop (formerly used as dev server with CentOS) and Macbook at home while the others get to use the iMacs and the laptops. I have the biggest desk of them all because I need space to layout papers and attempt to have a GTD workspace.

We’re conscientious with using the laptops though. Cornell University recommends for full-time laptop users:

• position this on your desk/worksurface in front of you so that you can see the screen without bending your neck. This may require that you elevate the laptop off the desk surface using a stable support surface, such as a computer monitor pedestal.
• use a separate keyboard and mouse. You should be able to connect a keyboard and mouse directly to the back of the laptop or to a docking station
• use the keyboard on a negative-tilt keyboard tray to ensure a wrist neutral posture
• use the mouse on an adjustable position mouse platform
• follow the postural guidelines for working at a computer workstation

More photos of our fab green office. It’s mostly just my workspace — pardon the image quality, just using the camera phone. Will have to ask Flicker Happy Photographers where the other photos are.

Startup Purchasing and Financing Tips

Since furniture and computer equipment enable us information workers, that’s got to be foremost in your considerations in setting up an ergonomic office, aside from choosing an accessible location and preparing your downpayment for the office, and having a credit card, checking account, cash box, and some place to store files.

But since these are big-ticket items you’ll be using for a long time, it makes better sense to use longer-term financing. Well, that’s what business advisors will tell you — use long-term financing (loans, stock investors) for long-term assets, short-term financing (credit cards, short-term personal loans) for short-term expenses. So if you can loan from business angels or generous titos or titas that would be perfect. So that you can pay them back in a year or two, or when able. But if you really don’t have a choice, take advantage of 0% installment plans, whenever possible. The cash price is sometimes a bit less than the listed price, but in general, spreading out payments over a few months is better for your cash flow than paying a chunk of cash at the beginning.

Now if only I can find a good-looking reasonably-priced laptop stand. There’s your peek at running a startup office!