Nobody can think in a glass box

Every startup office I walk into in Paris looks great in photos. Concrete floor, big windows, glass meeting boxes, one long table. And half the team wearing headphones by 10am.

It's not the people. It's the room. Hard surfaces everywhere and nothing to catch the sound, so every call, every coffee machine, every laugh travels the whole floor.

Before anyone orders another plant wall, I usually ask for three boring things.

A big rug under the long table. Heavy curtains on at least one run of windows, even if they stay open all day. Shelves that are actually full, books or files, not three decorative vases.

Then one small room with a proper door and no glass. Not for meetings. For the person who needs forty minutes to think without being watched from the corridor.

Startups are very good at buying nice chairs. Rooms with doors, a bit less 🙂