My team grew by one yesterday, bringing syndeo::media’s grand total up to 5 full-time web applications developers. (If that sounds like a small number, consider the fact that 4 months ago, there was only two of us, and we still managed to churn out 2 sizable social networks. The potential output of 5 people is mind-boggling by comparison.)
Anyway, to celebrate this small achievement — and also to create some semblance of professionalism in our jury-rigged startup office — I bought a new table and a whiteboard/flipchart. The table was actually a small 6-seater conference table, but I wanted everybody to be able to face each other while they were working so I made it a work table instead. (The only problem is that we’ve got big LCDs separating either side of the table so I have to stand up just to see over them.)
The whiteboard/flipchart is super-cool, although I have yet to use it on anything. For the uninitiated, a flipchart is essentially a notepad the size of an illustration board. You clamp it to the top of a stand and work on it similar to the way a painter would at an easel. Instead of writing and erasing the whiteboard repeatedly, you instead get to write on a piece of oversized paper that you can potentially archive on the off-chance that you scribble something particularly brilliant on it. (Also, I haven’t drawn by hand in about 4 years, so the thought of having access to a big wad of paper excites me somewhat.)
I’ve still got a list of must-buys as long as my arm, but the big priorities are:
1. A Windows laptop. We’re all currently working on Mac or Linux laptops, so testing on IE essentially means loading up an icky virtual machine. (And yes, desktops are out of the question. All 5 laptops combined consume the same amount of power as your average desktop, and that kind of energy-efficiency ratio is a big deal to me.)
2. A small projector, preferably running a resolution higher than 800×600. (I need something that you can read console text comfortably on.)
3. One of those terabyte-sized network storage solutions. We’ve currently got all of our code secured on Unfuddle, but I like having a tertiary backup somewhere close by.
4. A bigger office … but I guess that’ll happen when we’re ready ;)