By Takaai Iwabu for the News & Observer
I cringed when I read how a local startup company was busted by Raleigh’s zoning inspectors Tuesday after being featured in Monday’s N&O. This doesn’t look good for a city that is attempting to show it’s startup-friendly.
Then I looked at Takaaki Iwabu’s photo of the group, showing thirteen employees working in the founder’s basement.
Thirteen? Thirteen? Dude, come on! There’s rarely even a dozen people in my company’s RTP office suite and we have thousands of square feet!
This is not a case where a guy and a few close friends are working out of a home office. I think once the company reached 4 employees, tops, it should have found a real space. Either that, or let your employees work out of their own homes using telecommuting. I can imagine how the neighbors must feel about thirteen extra cars in their neighborhood.
I’m all for startup companies, believe me. I’ve worked for many of them and I support Raleigh’s efforts to get more. That said, I think our zoning department did the right thing to prod these folks into getting digs more appropriate for their business. Fortunately they’ve landed since then, at HUBRaleigh.
Then on the other hand, Raleigh and Wake recently rolled out the, uh, red carpet for Red Hat’s move to downtown. Little did they know that in Red Hat’s early days Bob Young and gang unlawfully ran the fledgling business out of a Durham apartment. Sometime it pays to turn a blind eye!