Even in a digital world, I often get asked where I live and work. It keeps the conversation personal, and that's what "getting to know each other" is all about, right?
At some point in 2018, Jasper Pegtel and I decided to quit our jobs and go for it. RogerRoger was not much more than a concept at the time. We thought over the business case, which could support the team we wanted to build, so we set out to find an office. Within a week, we took residence in a small "shed" like office in Almelo I had already rented as a freelancer.
We have grown to 4 people since then and changed offices several times. We learned to take our office space seriously since we spend serious amounts of time in it.
We built half of our office into a living room so we could sit down and talk, game, or discuss stuff if needed.
RogerRoger is located in Hardenberg (Netherlands). It's not as well known as Amsterdam, but lucky for us, location doesn't (always) matter in a digital world. In the center of the town, an old school building with three old chestnut trees on the schoolyard houses startups in different fields like marketing, software, and recruitment. We even have a tire broker onboard. The concept is called Startershuis Doen, which translates to "Starter House DO."
The main idea is to house startups and promote working together, which is pretty straightforward. During Covid, the "working together" part has been minimal, but we like the idea. Every startup gets a classroom; and with that, I mean a real classroom. We had to transform it into an office ourselves, and up to now, we're happy with the result.
With the growth rate of our startup, we know we will have to find a bigger office shortly. So, for now, this is where we build RogerRoger. And you're always welcome for a coffee if you want to see it yourself. 😉
