When someone gets around to writing the history of Silicon Alley, 36 Cooper Square is going to be front and center. The long time home of Foursquare will now be the new office for TechStars New York, helping to incubate the next generation of Silicon Alley startups.
“Big things happened in that space, and its going to be inspiring for the young entrepreneurs coming through our program,” said TechStars New York’s managing director, David Tisch. “For us, we’ve never had a permanent home, so this will allow us to create a more full-fledged workspace.”
Mr. Tisch says the additional room will mean TechStars can bring in more Hackstars, their roving rockstar developer types, and give mentors visiting from around the country more space and time to hold court while they are in town. “Plus we can provide desks for alumni and stop kicking them out when the program is over,” Mr. Tisch joked.
Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai said that he and Mr. Tisch were having breakfast recently and found themselves both bemoaning their lack of space. “It made perfect sense, and it felt great to give the space to another member of the New York tech scene.”
The move won’t happen officially till January, which means things are getting pretty tight at foursquare, which has grown from about 35 to around 100 employees in the past year. “We’re using poker tables as desks right now. And people have been turning the supply closet into a quiet space for conference calls,” said Mr. Selvadurai.
The team at foursquare used some of their geographic know how when selecting their new office at 568 Broadway. “We mapped out the commute for a lot of our employees and the 6 train turned out to be this really central line. It will be great not to have to work in our kitchen, but I’m also gonna miss that scrappy startup feel.”
