Invention company’s HQ have a decidedly Quirky feel

Quirky is a company that cares about image.

Don’t let the employees, who don sneakers and jeans on the regular, fool you. The New York City-based invention company is working hard to ensure its new Schenectady location is just as hip as its West Chelsea headquarters, or as close to hip as can be.

Eight months after opening and after much insistence that the space didn’t look quite how they wanted it to yet, the company agreed to provide The Daily Gazette a peek at its new space in Center City on the top two floors above Johnny’s.

There was custom-made furniture still to be acquired (vintage 1950s lockers were used to make a reception desk, old industrial steel pipes to make tables), giant vinyl logos to be hung (a neon Quirky sign hung by its lonesome on one wall), stick figures to be plastered along the walls (each employee draws their own), a “Whichever” gender-neutral sign to be etched into the bathroom door and long wooden desks to be built for employees working on Macs downstairs.

The Schenectady location, which opened in May and will eventually employ 180, houses Quirky’s customer-service and tech support representatives. As of January, about 110 employees had been hired to staff the 24/7 operation. This is where customers call with questions or problems with Quirky products, or advice on how to connect a home device (air conditioner, lights, thermostats) to their smart phone or WiFi.

The entire 22,000-square-foot space has an open-office layout — two levels of bare concrete floors and floor-to-ceiling windows connected by a wide-open stairwell, where employees sit each Thursday night in front of a big screen to help the New York City crowd vote on which invention ideas to pursue. Employees sit at long, open tables, taking calls over headsets from all over the world.

The Schenectady location houses every single Quirky product ever created. This includes kitchen products like egg yolk separators and skewer sets, home supplies like folding hangers and desk organizers, and electronics like flexible power strips and wrap-around extension cords.

On a recent January day, the afternoon sun painted the space in dramatic contrasts: Employees and furniture cast long, dark shadows and the glint off stainless steel kitchen appliances caused eyes to squint. The space overlooks a revitalized State Street corridor, downtown rooftops, brick facades, church spires and the iconic General Electric sign in the distance.

The GE connection

Last spring, Quirky founder and CEO Ben Kaufman cited the close proximity of General Electric as a big reason for opening the new location in Schenectady. A few months later, the company partnered with GE to make a series of smart home devices, like web-and smartphone-connected air conditioners, security cameras, lights, garage doors and thermostats.

TJ Drucker, a tech-support employee from Albany, demonstrated how a smart GE light bulb works. He pulled out a tablet and brought up the Wink app, which showed logos for activating outlets, light bulbs, cameras, thermostats and more. When he tapped the bulb logo, a GE bulb that hung from a pegboard along the wall lit up.

“We will do anything we can to try to re-create an issue a customer is having connecting a device,” Drucker said. “We basically troubleshoot. The amazing thing about Wink is that you can take a bunch of off-brand products and make them talk to each other. So you can set it up so that when you open your garage door all of your light bulbs turn on and your thermostat kicks into gear.”

Almost always open

Unlike the company’s other locations, which host mandatory blackouts (a one-week period when employees are asked not to go into work or check email), the Schenectady office almost never closes. Employees work in four shifts — 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. or 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. — to keep the place going ’round the clock. On Christmas and New Year’s Eve, it closed for 12 hours.

When employees aren’t answering calls and troubleshooting, they’re mingling in a glass-enclosed break room complete with beanbag chairs and a flat-screen TV or snacking in the kitchen, which features snacks, coffee, beer and wine (the alcohol is only served after 5 p.m. and is limited to two drinks per customer).

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