Opening a second office was scary, I like being close with my people, but we ventured out west and set up an outpost almost 10 years ago in downtown San Diego. This is Crystal sizing up the first space we looked at on 7th & Broadway.
I used to drive cross country (yes I calculated my likelihood of dying on these drives and yes I got close once) to spend time out there, my people were out there, I wanted to be there with them, deliverables are easy to check remotely.
P&L's are great at telling you financial performance, but Seer was born out of something greater than that.
I started this business in large part because my boss wouldn't approve me working through my lunch to go volunteer at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
So when I built a company I was going to hire people who wanted to surround themselves with people who wanted to kick ass at 2 things:
1 - Digital marketing
2 - Uplifting their community
It's easy to find people who want to do one or the other, but both...very hard.
Planting our flag in Little Italy, then East Village in San Diego
It felt that not too long ago, I stood at one of our standing desks in our East Village San Diego office, working and looking out at this downtown unfolding in front of us, our office had through floor-to-ceiling windows and we were on the first floor so we saw…everything. I mean everyTHANG!
Someone who was homeless peeked in, or yelled at us, we were seeing real mental health episodes and people needing help, which was a common occurrence in our ground-floor retail space in this "up and coming area.”
Those windows—just a piece of glass separating us from the raw realities of life for real people going through real shit. It was a reminder that we have a responsibility to uplift others (one of our values).
What's the ROI of pride?
We did have a dope courtyard where we held our first west coast Seerfest and raised a ton of money for local orgs, and supported local non profits, thank you to everyone who helped come out ands support it. We planted that flag and said, we're here, we're going to use our spaces for uplifting others in our community and on that we were successful.
A reason to grow... the better Seer does financially the better we can support our community.
Closing an office & turning my back on a community whom we supported sucks...
When Seer comes into your city, with it we bring a commitment to make things better in our own small way. We make a commitment to the people in that community.
The pandemic changed everything. Our team scattered, finding new homes away from San Diego as remote work became not just possible but preferable for many.
Opening our office in Philly in the “Search Church” an abandoned old church helped me realize the importance of space. If we made the investment in extra space, we could invite non profits in, we could invite in great speakers to raise money for charity, we took a hit on the expense line, hurt our margins, to but real effort behind a belief system.
At Seer, we open offices, with space that helps us bring together our digital marketing community, to help us aid the local community, it was the vision. San Diego, Philly, and I wanted to eventually open in Detroit, but pandemic changed that.
Go to get coffee, you see homeless people, go to happy hour, you smell things that reminded you of what people were going through, but then all you had to do was look at our company and realize we were actively trying to be a part of the solution. I hoped that created pride.
Building a company of helpers maximizes impact when you make it easy for your people to have contact with people they'll never meet in a cul de sac.
This morning (May 13th, 2025) I called 911 (in philly) on my run for a woman with a needle next to her I couldn’t wake up. These things matter, being close to people nothing like you matters, it creates a pause moment, am I going to walk by or am I going to try to help.
Offices in downtowns, expose people commuting in to a pain they may not see daily. Then when a company is full of good hearted people, who chose a company in part to impact their industry community and local community, it feels good.
It feels good to build a thing that took up physical space, and said we’re going into areas that have been ignored and we’re going to buy local, support local businesses, and local people to do our part.
In San Diego we weren't tucked away in some office park or high up in a tower with security in the lobby. We were at street level, face-to-face with both the beauty and struggle of urban life.
When you see 3, 5, 10 people experiencing homelessness peeking in your windows, it becomes impossible to pretend these challenges don't exist or that they aren't our collective responsibility.
A true ethos will survive longer than an office
So what now? How do we maintain that connection, that perspective, that responsibility without our physical presence?
Ownership - First we hired Joanna Bowen, a person who has a full time job helping us figure out how we keep community impact and uplifting others going in a remote world, here are some of her reflections. When you are innovating, you don’t have blueprints to follow.
Transparency - Second we have community impact reports that show our impact and where we’re having it.
Kaizen - We don’t have a blueprint, so we improve every day if we can. We admit defeat when things don't’ work and we improve them.
We try to hire people who care about their local communities, whether they are remote or not and are willing to put in the work.
I don't have many answers for how we maintain this connection without our front-row seat. But I know we have to try. We'll continue supporting local organizations doing meaningful work. We'll find new ways to keep our team connected to the communities we serve, even if we're not physically present every day.
Today what does this look like? Well I’ll let Joanna highlight all the things we’ve done, but I am a CEO and I have to lead… and this is how I’m trying to do it…
Last year I flew to a city where a bunch of our remote co-workers could get to (some drove hours to get there) for a day of working together, and volunteering together, that day was a food bank in Akron, OH.
We entered in the wrong entrance and what stuck with me was how we saw how the Akron food bank set up a shopping area, that gave people choices, just like I would have if I went to Whole Foods. It reminded me of dignity, by giving people options to pick, you don’t bestow on them…you are lucky to have some food, but you have a choice.
Innovators figure things out, let's innovate
We may be leaving our office, we're not abandoning our post. The front lines have shifted, but our commitment hasn't.
To my team, our clients, and the East Village community: this isn't goodbye. It is a big change in how we show up, but as long as we have people there we will show up.
And to the countless number of people I’ve seen peeking in our windows—I hope someone else is doing more than “seeing” you but they see the humanity in you, and they take the active role our team did.
While the office was built for 50, and now in the region we might have 8 ish people, I will support those 8 & and any alumni in carrying the torch, and I hope other companies in downtown SD will join up with us!
