OMAHA—There’s still doors to add to meeting rooms and boxes of 60-inch TVs on the ground waiting to be put up, but Hudl Omaha is open for business.
The sports video software company officially moved into its new space south of the Old Market Tuesday.
More than 20 full-timers filled the office this week with space for more than 70 people—they’re still hiring.
CEO David Graff and VP of operations Matt Mueller, who occupied a pod Wednesday, said they want to be there weekly.
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The pair showed SPN around the new place Wednesday morning.
In short, it’s open, it’s collaborative and beautifully done with Hudl colors and subtle sports themes, while maintaining the natural wood and brick guts of the building.
It might be in part because Hudl has a full-time architect, Jeff Scott, on the team.
Scott did a remodel of the Hudl extension office in Lincoln in 2010.
With two offices in Lincoln and Omaha, and a London office in the pipeline, Scott was hired on full time in 2013 as an in-house architect and facilities manager.
“It’s great to have Jeff on staff because he can see how people use the space and remodel it accordingly,” Graff said. “He’s learned things from this (Omaha) project that he will bring over to the Lincoln office.
“This is the first office we’ve done cohesively. It’s gone really smooth.”
Scott also has his own custom furniture startup, Werk, that designed and built custom standing desks, conference room tables and a ping pong table for the Hudl office.
Remodeled in just four months
The office came together at almost a dizzying pace. Hudl looked at buildings in Omaha at the beginning of the year, before landing on the old Nomad Lounge space. In May, it hosted an open house for the space during Big Omaha. The next week, demolition started, tearing out the old bar and elevated areas in the space. They did keep some of the old touches: brick walls, exposed wood beams and a massive sliding wood door to partition off a lounge space.
In just four months, the space is completely transformed.
“We wanted to maintain an open feel, but also have places to get away and work alone or collaborate,” Mueller said.
Teams of six to eight people work in pods separated by heavy plastic flaps that reduce noise—the kind you’d see separating a grocery store from its stockrooms. Several teams will work in Omaha, including product, sales, account management, marketing and business development teams.
Breakout rooms are a vibrant blue and orange with clear whiteboard paint to turn the walls into massive writing surfaces.
The breakout rooms each have an iPad next to the entrance with a custom scheduling app created in house.
A sports theme runs throughout: basketball court wood slats on meeting room walls and on the bar, painted track lanes loop around the whole office, astroturf lines the walls in booth eating areas.
Graff said he hopes the new office helps spur some hiring. They’re looking to double their product team, adding 43 new employees across all the offices.
“We wish we could hire faster, but the space does help to show them what it’s going to be like to work here,” Graff said.
A win for employees, company, city
The Omaha office, announced in May, was created to help out more than a dozen employees who were commuting back and forth to Lincoln and also aimed to draw more talent.
The prominent sign and physical presence in downtown Omaha also adds to public awareness as more and more coaches, high school athletes and parents use the software.
Graff spent Tuesday and Wednesday meeting with Omaha community members and business leaders, as well as time with the Omaha team getting a feel for the space.
“There’s a lot of great business minds here that want to talk,” he said. “We’re excited to be here and Omaha is excited to bring in new companies, so it’s a great win for Hudl, Omaha and Nebraska overall.”
Hudl also is tentatively planning a mid-October open house for the new space.
Stay tuned to SPN for more photos of Hudl’s new office as they finish out the space.
Credits: Top photo by Jordan Pascale, middle photo by Cliff Carlson, last photo by Dana Nielsen.
3 responses to “An inside look at Hudl’s Omaha office, where astroturf acts as wallpaper”
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