Reid Carr

Looking out my window at the Downtown skyline, I watch seats slowly filling before a game at Petco Park, ships passing through the bay and cars crawling across the Coronado Bay Bridge. This is the third East Village office for my company, Red Door Interactive, and it is hard to imagine being anywhere else. Our location is a major selling point, luring qualified, creative and technology employees from jobs in North County, Los Angeles, Orange County and even other countries.

The environment Downtown has a vibe that keeps the office humming, from the early mornings when the sun rises over Golden Hill — not that I’m here to see many of those — to when it sets over Point Loma. Employees arrive with hot coffee in hand from competing favorites including It’s a Grind, Starbucks and the local Café Noir. Each cup is a metaphorical Foam No. 1, giving rise to perpetual conversation about which brew is best. I typically choose the free office variety in the morning, but do participate in the afternoon coffee walk ritual, a time when I gather some of the best insight into how the company is operating. This informal, insightful gathering is just one advantage being Downtown gives me over the competition.

When I worked in Sorrento Valley, the lunch choices were the food court, an office park deli or Chili’s, and forget about a creative walk. Today Red Door clients are eager to come in for a meeting and later enjoy being treated to a unique lunch locale or some spirited conversation at day’s end in one of the many local pubs. Clients quickly take ownership of favorite places, helping us develop even closer social and business bonds.

The natural diversity of Downtown helps, too. We are a creative industry where inspired thinking drives many of the ideas we must generate to help our clients profit from their Web initiatives. Seemingly each day we can introduce ourselves to the next new place; they do come and go. This constant exposure to the creativity of others encourages new ways of thinking.

For example, a recent lunch at the new Cowboy Star sparked a lively conversation about the way the restaurant operators had mixed the Western theme with such a modern, urban look and smart customer services like a convenient butcher shop with fresh meat to go. The level of creativity demonstrated inspired a productive discussion about customer service we applied directly and immediately to our business. (No, spurs were not involved.)

Without ways to invigorate thinking or creativity, Red Door would not experience the longevity it enjoys from key creative people. If we failed to provide a place for employees to go and re-energize, they might get stale and need a change in environment; i.e. a new job.

Certainly at times I experience the knee-jerk reactions about visiting Downtown. You know: “Where am I going to park?” “What about the traffic?” Usually a single visit allays those concerns. Parking is ample — we do pay for our employees’ — and traffic is a lesser issue than I faced when working up north. All public transportation roads point Downtown and several of our nearly 50 employees take advantage. Even cooler, our East Village building offers a local shuttle service which is nice for the occasional cross-downtown treks.

Now I’ll confess that not every day is like the following, but many are: A morning visit to a favorite coffee shop, hitting the downstairs gym, a quick meeting at an outdoor venue (there are numerous parks Downtown… who knew?), lunching at a chic new place, picking up an afternoon coffee with the group and enjoying a happy hour at a new hotspot or hole in the wall. You would think we couldn’t get work done, but we do. And what my team produces is inspired, fresh, creative and a breath of fresh air, in large part because we have a location where talented people feel motivated to step out in it once in a while. We love Downtown.

Reid Carr is president of Red Door Interactive, a firm founded in March 2002. It just made its second appearance on the Inc. 5000.