Stories | The Forum | Tailored workspaces by Fora, made for Moloco

Decorative image — Made for Moloco
Working with our Design team, machine learning specialist Moloco created their own unique offices at our 22 Berners Street workspace.
Written by
Emma Moore

A new home for new tech

Exit the lift onto Floor 4 at Fora’s 22 Berners Street workspace, and you can’t help but feel the buzz as you step into Moloco’s office. The team’s lunch orders have just arrived and are being hungrily unpacked, while a cosy breakout area with soft seating beckons. It’s flanked by a long wooden communal table and benches, with glass-walled meeting rooms beyond. Light filters in from the windows sandwiching the space, and in view is an expansive terrace that must surely be the envy of all Fitzrovia.

Moloco is a young tech company founded and headquartered in California, which might go some way to explain the flavour of office now nurtured on this particular floor of 22 Berners Street. Specialised in engineering machine learning that turns performance advertising into growth for brands, Moloco was founded just 11 years ago, and has grown fast. In the past three years, staff numbers in London alone have grown from 20 to more than 50, and offices are found across the States, in India, Korea, Japan, Tel Aviv and Berlin.

Moving from Fora’s Parcels Building last November, Moloco’s London team has taken up residence across an entire floor at 22 Berners Street. The move was a chance for the cohort to bring and build on its own distinct brand of work-life balance, designing a space to custom fit its needs, with expert help from Fora’s design team.

Work hard, play hard, eat well

At Moloco, it’s clear that people come first. Working life is hybrid – Mondays and Fridays are home days. Once a year everyone takes a ‘thrive’ day. The nature of the work sees staff graft intensively at times – closely tethered to their machines when deadlines loom, but staff are encouraged to kick back in professional style too. There is happy hour once a month to promote social bonding, the snack supplies are free-flowing, and fridges are full of liquid refreshments of all kinds in the generously sized kitchen.

“When it comes to food, staff are well looked after,” says Mariam Abu, who, as Senior Workplace Manager, ensures the smooth running of operations and happiness of the crowd. “We provide them with the types of food they want for breakfast and lunch. We also have ‘We days’ every month when we bring in different activities and foods – for example it might have a wellness focus one time or a celebration theme like Halloween. On these occasions people are often here until midnight.”

“The move was a chance for Moloco to build on its own distinct brand of work-life balance, with help from Fora.”
Mariam AbuSenior Workplace Manager, Moloco

Design that works for the team

The move to 22 Berners Street presented Moloco with the opportunity to upgrade the design of its space to accommodate its human-centric culture more fully. The areas designed for social interaction and connection are front and centre across the space. “It’s amazing for team bonding,” Abu says, who remembers an earlier location with multiple floors where the stairs served as a barrier to integration. “Here when you have a social happening, everyone can see one another and join in. Having a single space with a layout and flow that allows the team to communicate and connect improves everyone’s experience and working relationship.”

The all-important sense of home is brought by warm colours and tactile materials in the breakout area and communal dining spot. Moloco brought in a comfy L-shaped sofa and worked with Fora’s team to layer in further design elements such as the Floor Story rug, Audo Copenhagen coffee tables and armchairs, as well as the zoning of the space – keeping in mind the varied needs of Moloco’s team members.

Shaped for unique ways of working

When Moloco moved to 22 Berners Street, Abu was keen to ensure that the new space would work for each of Moloco’s distinct teams – which include engineers (the product team); a sales and marketing team, an implementation team (who once the sales team brings in a new client, take over for three months to onboard them), and the growth team whose role it is to build long term relationships with clients. “The engineers’ needs are very different to those of sales and marketing, for example” explains Abu. “The engineers are the tech geniuses – they need quiet to focus and like a warm environment. Sales and marketing are loud. They get up, move around, go out, listen to music. They are totally different.”

The basic infrastructure of desk and chairs were provided by Fora to Moloco’s specifications and the layout tweaked to accommodate these idiosyncrasies. Standing desks and a bank of Taiga call booths offer helpful variety, while three ample meeting rooms facilitate frequent collaborative teamwork.

Less expected is the sound-proofed games room, with its fußball table, dartboard and big screen, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, which is popular with the tech team. As is a wellbeing corner with a massage chair featuring 20 different modes. These perks play into the idea that when staff are given the freedom to manage their own time it heightens the overall performance of a workspace.