That point where it no longer feels like a startup

Today I got a tour of our office that we’re currently renovating. Our SF and Amsterdam headquarters have been out of co-working spaces since we started Secfi. This office will be the official first office we have complete with Secfi decorations, branding and our own personal touch.

It was surreal getting a tour of the office today. It feels like a culmination of our hard work is starting to pay off. I joked earlier today with our CEO and co-founder that the company is starting to feel like a real legitimate company finally.

Next week, we’re going to have close to 30 of our U.S. based employees in the office together. Combined with our product/engineering team in Amsterdam, we’re starting to get close to the 100 employee mark. I suspect that we will hit that mark before the year ends quite easily.

All this is pretty crazy to see. I started as one of the first employees (I believe I’m officially 7) and the first US employee. At one point, it was myself in a co-working space in SOMA. Now we may very well be in a position where we’ll be onboarding someone new in the office perhaps multiple times a week.

By the definition of the term, we are very much still a startup, but it sure doesn’t feel like a startup anymore. That’s obviously a product of our success and growth is something that every company should aim for, but it definitely feels a bit weird. I think it’ll continue to feel weird for awhile. Perhaps by the time it feels normal, we’ll be at 300 employees.