From Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley

View from Yammer New York Office

Following a customer meeting in New York City on December 7^th, 2011, I learned that Yammer was going to establish a New York office. In Yammer years, that was an eon or two ago. At that time, I was based at headquarters in San Francisco and worked primarily with Northeast accounts across Pharma, Media & Advertising, and Professional Sports verticals. I’ve always loved New York City, and was eager to help establish the New York office. After all, New York is the fastest growing US tech region and the second largest tech region in the US next to the Bay Area. Mayor Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of the tech growth in the city, and whereas investment banking was once the desired career track, the healthy tech industry has forged its way to the front of the pack.

It was decided that I’d be joining my colleague who was preparing for her move to New York from Australia, and in true Yammer fashion, it went into effect with velocity. On a subsequent business trip to New York in January, I met with an apartment broker, found an apartment within one day, and on March 1^st landed to unlock the door to Yammer New York.  The beauty of being remote within a start-up that’s on a hyper-growth trajectory is that you may be isolated, but you are far from alone. To connect to colleagues was as simple as entering our internal Yammer network. As soon as I set up the Yammer New York public group and started getting ‘likes’ from my colleagues, Yammer’s cultural power permeated the space, and Yammer New York was thus born healthy and strong.

With more colleagues joining our team within the past four months, we have already moved twice, and are now in our third temporary space. Our temporary office is at Techspace, a shared, turnkey facility with fantastic staff, which has helped make the move seamless. Techspace is effectively the physical embodiment of what Yammer accomplishes virtually, i.e. connecting professional people within organizations, driving consistent culture, and thus elevating everyone’s ability to contribute to that community.

Our future Yammer office on W. 18^th St. is currently being built out. With 13,500 square feet we will have a lot of room to do what we do best: grow fast. Crain’s New York Business recently published the article: “Yammer hailed as a good thing for NYC.”

Yammer New York operates on the hub and spoke model with the city hub office connecting our numerous Sales, CSM, Training, and Solution Engineers throughout New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Florida. Run by our Regional Vice President, Fran Forte, the Yammer New York office functions as the regional hub with San Francisco headquarters as the primary hub.

It’s exciting being part of New York’s growing tech community while also being connected to Yammer’s pervasive culture. With the growing team in our New York office, we have been able to onboard Yammer quickly into the city and the region. Opportunities in this region for Yammer are as limitless as are one’s ability to find a great dinner in New York. The Yammer New York team is constantly in the air, on a train, or taking to the streets to get from meeting to meeting. Our Yammer mobile apps get a lot of use and keep us connected when we’re traveling. Transparency is very important within our work and culture, and with our posts to the Yammer New York group, headquarters is able to keep close tabs on our progress.

Central Park has quickly become Yammer New York’s Center for Work Life Balance. The formation of the Yammer New York Running Society with the post-run debrief taking place at The Boathouse has become routine. We use the Endomondo geo-tracking app to log our runs and we then post them to Yammer so that our colleagues see the evidence. Here’s one of our recent 4 mile YNYRS runs. We now even do the YNYRS runs when we travel together and if a visiting Yammer employee runs with us, they automatically become a lifelong member of the YNYRS.

The same sense of community that Yammer offers its customers is enjoyed and appreciated by Yammer New York’s employees. How does Yammer help your organization connect with remote offices? Please leave us a comment, as we’d love hearing about your experiences, both personal and professional, as you use Yammer to connect with your cultural hub.