Nomming on pizza in Zagreb, Croatia. Photo by Robert.
When I moved to San Francisco in 2011 for Expensify, I was moving across the country to a city where I knew a whopping two people amongst a city of 825,000. Those two really adopted me at first and helped introduce me to a number of great people. However, being passionate about what I was doing had me working really late hours and so our schedules just never lined up. Continue Reading…
I hope everyone is getting ready for some relaxing downtime in the next week. We kicked off the holiday season with an evening as a team at Frances, with Executive Chef Melissa Perello cooking an incredible dinner for us. Plus we dressed in formal attire which was pretty exciting to see each other all dolled up. Tis the season for some company loving!
Robert gives his toast looking quite dapper
1. Instagram the picture of the new keys. Make it artsy so your friends will think you are creative.
Reality: taken in the elevator on top of an envelope and made to look edgy.
2. Cram into the elevator and make sure you bring some booze.
Riding the old elevator for the final time as a group was bitter sweet (really it was just sweet…those elevators are the slowest I have ever experienced)
3. Capture the moment of opening the door for the first time.
And make sure you look adorably excited as you do it.
4. Christen the new office.
How else do we christen a new office? Whiskey shots was the perfect way to make ourselves feel at home in our snazzy new (read: larger) office.
5. Appreciate the view from the new digs.
Yes this photo is also instagrammed. You know you like it. But seriously, how majestic is the fog rolling in??
Note the TV….still not sure the purpose but I can only narcissistically assume its so that we can see ourselves behind home plate?
Let’s talk about the amazing day I had today…honestly so unreal.
When I got to the office this morning, our board meeting was going on, so I quietly shuffled to the side to crack down on some email. An hour later, after our investors headed out, I was moving to my favorite spot in the office, only to be pulled aside by David, our CEO.
“Psst, Alex. Do you like baseball?”
[pause] “Um…yeah, I love baseball.”
[hands me an envelope] “Here are two tickets for the Giants game today at at 12:30. You should go. These seats are killer.”
“What?!? Oh my god! Miss work?”
“Yeah, go, bring whoever you want!”
All of this occurring before 11:30 AM. I spent the next 45 minutes feeling like a cracked out Cinderella, twitching with excitement, barely able to focus while imagining the fun I would encounter at the game. I had heard briefly about these mythical, magical seats that our awesome investors had been known to hand out…but I had never been the beneficiary of such generosity. As I squirmed at my lap top waiting for the minutes to tick by I kept thinking…”is this real life?” à la small, drugged, car-seated youtube sensation of yesteryear.
Fast forward to the actual game. Holy crap are these seats killer (See inset).
I could have licked the field should I have been so inclined.
It was a wonderfully warm day with sunshine and the perfect light breeze. Bratwurst and beer magically appeared before me (ok not magically, we ordered and paid for it) and, although Lincecum struggled throughout the day, being so close to the field and watching the players warm up made me so uncomfortably starstruck, I thought I was going to cry… until my co-worker Matt pointed out that my heroes would, in fact, be able to see me cry.
Somehow I pulled myself together to revel in the glorious day (unsurprisingly, it wasn’t too hard to enjoy). Once the game ended and we headed back to work with our giddy smiles and a spring in a step [read: delicious beer in our stomachs] it occurred to me that today was maybe one of the most absurdly amazing surprises of my life which would never have happened if it weren’t for a combination of our amazing investor Bobby who so generously gave his tickets to David to share and David himself, for deciding that a couple Expensify-ers deserved a three hour lunch at AT&T park.
Seriously guys, best company ever.
French Passeport
Expensify is a very innovative company. We have an awesome expense report system, a cross platform framework for mobile development, real replication layer, … But we also innovate on non-technical areas, such as immigration.
