One day at the office 500px. Photo story

This summer I was lucky to be in Toronto. It is there, and not in the Valley that is familiar to everyone, that the office number 1 in Canada is located - 500px . Of course, it was impossible to miss the chance to visit a world-famous project, which, by the way, was created and developed by two “our” photographers - Muscovite Evgeny Chebotarev and Kiev resident Oleg Gutsol. So, on one of the Fridays I went to visit.

What is 500px?

“ 500px is a photo community powered by creative people worldwide,” the authors themselves say about their project. I would add that this is the best site with the most beautiful pictures I've ever met.

Thanks to the internal ecosystem, which selects really amazing pictures for everyone, its excellent interface and thoughtful rules of motivation for photographers, the site has gained worldwide fame and continues to grow rapidly.
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It was really interesting to visit the office at such a project and plunge into the working atmosphere.

Office

The main working space is open space in a large room. Tables are located "farms" in several rows of 4-6 jobs in a row. Jobs are against each other.





The main working tool, of course, is Mac. That in itself is not surprising, and considering the subject of the project, perhaps, without options :)



There are 4 smaller rooms, 3 of which, however, are not occupied most of the time. They are occasionally used for discussions and meetings in order not to distract the others.







The famous Scrum board 500px - right on the wall. By the way, an excellent solution, perhaps, is really stupid to buy a board, then to glue the leaves on it, because the board, it’s in order to write and draw on it.





I also remember in the office and on the tables - cleanliness and neatness, there are almost no extra items. But many colors





and cool photo-paintings.





Desktops are large, much larger than can usually be found in offices. As it turned out later, this is not an accident, but a conscious choice of the founders.

And, of course, the indispensable companion of North American startups - aeron chairs :)

Process and atmosphere

Throughout the day, the work atmosphere was filled with silence and dedication. It was a Friday in the Hack Day format, when everyone can do any interesting task that would be useful 500px. And everyone enthusiastically did something. I think even coffee / tea was rarely drunk, almost without stopping to talk in the kitchen.



Of course, I would like to see more fierce disputes during the discussions, for sure there are such, but on this day there was no dispute. Everything just worked with enthusiasm.

And at the end of the day was the presentation of the results.



We saw several beta versions with photos on the world map, the new 500px interface for the iPad and the implementation of other ideas that employees shared with each other in turn.



After that, there was another Friday rally with the results of the week from the management, to which only full-time employees could stay.

Team

The right people - if not a guarantee, then surely the key to success. This thesis is constantly encountered not only in books, but also in communication with the leaders of successful companies and projects. 500px is no exception.

Now in the 500px team, those who really want to be there. It was felt. Later, when we discussed the mistakes of the first years, which we would not like to repeat, Zhenya and Oleg (the founders of 500px.com) called insufficient attention to the selection of people. Then most of the team was re-assembled, and now the selection at the employee reception stage is one of the most important stages.



Since the introduction of new principles of recruitment, no one left the company after the trial period (3 months).

By the way, now in 500px 30 people work, and the team continues to grow. Plans to hire another 20 developers and 10 designers. So, still open a lot of vacancies . This is not an advertisement, but if suddenly someone has the right to work in Canada and the desire to join an excellent project, you can try. :)

Coffee and cookies

Coffee, tea and cookies, of course, is. Without any frills, but no one will be hungry, especially given the two-kilogram can of Nutella, which, unfortunately, did not appear in the photo :)



On a typical day, an lunch is ordered to the office, and there is a large table next to the kitchen behind the cupboard with helmets. This allows you to save time and not to break away from work for a long time.



But on Fridays - there are no lunches, so she is Friday - so that there is an additional reason to take a walk, explore new places and have a little more rest on the last working day.

Interview with the founders

While the working day was coming to an end, we with Oleg and Zhenya (500px founders) still had time to talk about how it all began, how the first investments came, the current business model of the project, attendance, audience, motivation and recruitment principles, technologies and closest goals.

The conversation turned out to be interesting and informative. So, if you are interested in not only pictures from the office, then welcome to the sequel - “ Interview with the Founders of 500px ”, which was published on the AIN website.