Hey all- As I mentioned yesterday, Postabon just moved into our new office, so I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you all about how we found the best value on office real estate for a start-up.

In true start-up form, for the first couple months we worked out of our CEO Stu’s apartment. We knew we needed to upgrade, and with all of us consolidating from different places (namely Boston) to New York, an office was necessary. We wanted to find something quick and fast, and after searching Craigslist, we decided our best bet might be one of those temporary office locations that you always see on Taxi TV. We went with one located down in the East Village, which was good, especially because we could take advantage of the happy hour at Central Bar! However, it ended up becoming a bottomless pit of money (the $50 per hour of conference room time didn’t help), so we started searching again.

This go-around we had a little more time on our hands, so we explored some different avenues. We used a commercial real estate broker, called other start-ups for ideas, and went back to Craigslist as well. The broker was great, and showed us some good space, but since we are so small and wanted a limited term, he wasn’t for us (though he was a good guy, and hopefully we will use him in the future). Craigslist ended up working the best, as we found some some good, shorter lease-term spots downtown, and ended up settling on one down in SoHo. We were a little worried about losing our happy hour spot, but found a great new one in Bar Henry (great $1 oysters).

For start-ups, sublets are definitely the way to go, because they will let you do a shorter lease, as well as normally offer smaller spaces. Also, location is important, so be sure to use Postabon to check out the neighborhood your potential office is in to search for great local deals!