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How Square Keeps Its Culture Cool And Connected: It’s An App.

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http://techcrunch.com – One of the things that really excited me about coming to TechCrunch is that I have the freedom to explore companies in a deeper, more meaningful, way. I’ve worked for quite a few startups and the people who make things tend to interest me more than what they actually make, sometimes. Along that line of thinking, I visited the Square folks today and had a great conversation about their stance on keeping a cool, calm, collected and connected culture in the office. As you know, the company is moving to a bigger space in San Francisco, one that dons an actual “square.” Also, Squa (IT news)

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Submitted by qq124 on 10/26/2012 – Made popular on 10/26/2012

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As I’ve been digging deeper into companies, specifically their internal culture, one company that has stuck out to me is payments powerhouse Square. As I wrote last week, the company does some pretty interesting things to keep its team connected and on the same page.

I spoke to Square today about some of its latest moving and shaking in recruiting and learned that the company has nabbed a 5,000 square foot office space in the Atlantic Station section in Atlanta.

Square has just announced plans for a new office in San Francisco. The mobile payments company, which is currently located in the Chronicle Building in downtown San Francisco, will only be moving a short distance away to a location in Central Market (1455 Market Street). The plan is to move into the new building by mid-2013.

It’s time to fill up that new Square office, and it looks like the company is looking to add a slew of new engineer-types.

It’s pretty interesting to learn about how a company got its name, and every company has a story. We learned about Square’s today, and it was almost called “Squirrel”, according to founder Jack Dorsey and Square’s Creative Director, Robert Anderson.

iZettle, one of the many mobile payment companies vying for the title of the “Square of Europe,” is taking one more step to cover the market ahead of U.S. rivals like PayPal’s here and Intuit’s European commercial launches. Today, iZettle chalked up its first full API partner in the UK, the appointment platform BookingBug.

After raising $200 million in new funding, payments company Square is spending some of this cash on an acquisition. Square has purchased New York-based design firm 80/20. The acquisition was first reported in the New York Times. As the company writes on its website: At 80/20, we’ve been fortunate to work on amazing products and platforms.

Jack Dorsey recently offered a look at the early days of Square, but today at the Techonomy Detroit conference, he was asked about the company’s future — specifically what Square will look like in five years. Dorsey didn’t get too specific in his answer, but he did talk broadly about his goals.

At an event in San Francisco at Blue Bottle Coffee, Square debuted a stand built specifically for the iPad, which turns the device into a card-swiping register. Hardware has always been a part of who we are and who we want to be, says Jack Dorsey, CEO and co-founder of Square. “We wanted to build software and hardware that matches,” he says.