In 2000, we moved into a large office office in Superior, Colorado that at the time we fondly called Hotbank. Incubators were all the rage and creating one seemed like a good idea at the time.
Over the years we’ve shared space over the Old Chicago pizza joint and Superior Liquors with a number of different companies. One of the companies that started out in the space about the same time as we did was Veripost (which merged with Return Path in 2001.) At the end of 2002, StillSecure moved back in, moved out, and then moved back in again in 2004.
In 2005, we turned the lease in the space over to Return Path and StillSecure. At that time each of them consumed about a third of the space. We stayed in our offices (about 10% of the space) and had a few other companies – including Collective Intellect and Slice of Lime – hang out with us.
At some point Return Path and StillSecure kicked us out because they needed our space. We moved to downtown Boulder in mid 2007.
Several months ago, Return Path and StillSecure realized they had grown to the point where the space was too small for both of them and one of them needed to move out. However, both wanted to stay. The solution – I tossed a coin yesterday to choose who got to stay in the space.
We did two out of three. StillSecure flipped first and the coin came up Return Path. Return Path then flipped and the coin came up StillSecure. I flipped the tiebreaker – which came up StillSecure.
I’m really proud of all the people at Return Path and StillSecure – it’s been a blast to be close to them as they have each grown into substantial companies. Flipping the coin to decide who got to stay in the space was a nice karmic closure for me.