“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca
We have spent the last 4+ years growing CheckOutMyCards.com to the point where we are ready to now take a big leap into a 27,000 sqft building. As part of the move & expansion, we needed to buy some additional furniture. Last week we were hunting for a conference table, couch and some other furniture on craigslist when we got “lucky” and discovered a large amount of furniture that was being moved from an skyscraper in downtown Seattle.
Their plan was to move the office furniture to warehouse in Kent where the public could pick through it, and they would liquidate it over the next week. We mentioned that we might be willing to take all of it, and they allowed us to swing by and look through it before they began the move. So, last week we visited the skyscraper and were waiting for the security guard to let us in to the office when we discovered that Zillow had just moved, and we were at their old headquarters. You can take a tour of Zillow’s new HQ. When they moved, they opted to get all new furniture. Ironically, they had taken the same strategy as we have done, and their old furniture was nearly all recycled furniture originally from Microsoft. Walking through their old head quarters, we found ourselves literally following in the footsteps of Zillow.
For a little more than the cost of moving, we have acquired more than enough furniture to furnish our entire building and then some. The total came to about 30 truck loads. We have been joking about launching a new site… CheckOutMyFurniture.com. It is nice to think that we are building for the future on furniture that was originally purchased by the largest Seattle area tech startup (Microsoft) and most recently used by a company that was considered the largest Seattle area startup by Seattle20.com for many years (Zillow). The only reason they are no longer on top of the Seattle Startup Index is that they are no longer considered a startup.
We will do our best to continue the tradition, and use this furniture to launch our company to new heights.
Posted by Tim Getsch 
