TextFromLastNight expands virtual office to M@dison, Pony Ride

TextFromLastNight is growing up to the point that it needs to consistently leave its co-founders kitchen table and work elsewhere. That's why the 3-year-old start-up has taken desk space two of Detroit's hottest entrepreneurial hubs, the M@dison building and Ponyride.

"I took it (two desks at the M@dison building) because I have a lot of friends who come into town and want to see the city," says Ben Bator, co-founder of TextFromLastNight. "We also have a lot of friends who work there. Plus, it's nice to get of home and work there."

TextFromLastNight (originally TextsFromLastNight) is a website that allows users to post funny text messages, which often are oriented around wild adolescent behavior of young people in their teens and 20s. The company has historically been run virtually from its co-founders laptops. It has a business address in Birmingham but is principally based out of Bator's high-rise loft apartment in downtown Royal Oak.

Bator and his team (eight employees and an intern after hiring two people over the last year) took desks in the M@dison building and Ponyride (the entrepreneurial co-working space in Corktown) because of the built-in community and pleasing aesthetics.

"I like it because it's a little more focused on the tech industry," Bator says. "Plus being close to these people just made sense."

Source: Ben Bator, co-founder of TextFromLastNight
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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