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Sanctuary Computer is an artful user interface studio on the Bowery in New York City. We partner with some of NYC’s best design shops and startups, employ modern technologies, share profit, learn together, and push each other to be better.
I started the company in 2015, but it wasn't until January 2016 that Sebastian joined Sanctuary - we moved into New Inc (the New Museum's Incubator space) alongside our buddies, Playlab, and started working with Dame Products and Dig Inn. We grew organically from there through word of mouth, and we're happy to say that in the time we've been a company, we've never once needed to cold-pitch for work, or take investment.
There's a lot of reasons we're a bit different to a regular US dev shop, but if you had to distill it down, it's because we believe three things:
From day one, it's been a huge priority that Sanctuary Computer fulfills design to the highest degree possible. For that reason, we've prioritized hiring for designer/developer hybrids, and taken User Experience Quality and CSS practices really seriously.
Love enters through the eyes, and our customers love our work.
We go to great lengths to show our clients that we really, really care about their project. Our quotations are fair and transparent, our communication is fluid and careful, and we're compromising on everything except quality. We use friendly metaphors to explain the complicated, and take special care to set expectations early on.
We care deeply about, and optimize for the client's experience in working with us, much like we'd optimize an app or website. It's a bit different every time, and needs special care and attention.
In a world where agencies treat clients as "other", it's a powerful point of difference.
At Sanctuary Computer, we work together to be better than the sum of our parts. Be it that we take time to pair program and work through hard problems together, or take extra care to format friendly PR reviews.
Every interaction is tuned for understanding - we're honest about the hard things that we can change, and positive about the those that we can not.
This is a Sanctuary for creative people, and for that reason we provide a work environment that is flexible and free. We choose our own hours, provide time to work on side projects, and ruthlessly defend work-life balance. Our financials are transparent, and success in our bottom-line is distributed through a generous profit share program. We cover health insurance 100%, and work to give back to our community where we can.
We accept all genders, races, religions, ages, sexualities and backgrounds, and have a zero tolerance policy for any conflicting behavior.
We welcome anyone who's willing to do their part in making everyone feel safe, and building an open, welcoming and caring place of work.
As a team, we're committed to constantly changing, growing and evolving. We are allergic to "frog boiling", and welcome new ideas with energy and excitement. We plan to always keep the team small and nimble, focusing on ever-increasing our capacity and ability to produce world-class technology experiences.
Quality over quantity, plain and simple.
Over time we expect to build more and more financial freedom for both the company and the individual by:
- Building on our notoriety so to take on better clients and projects
- Building and releasing our products for recurring revenue, and
- Taking on equity in upcoming brands and startups that we truly believe in
As these secondary revenue streams materialize, we'll be establishing mechanisms programs to award ownership and profit back to Sanctuary Computer team, much like we have with our Profit Sharing agreement.
We plan to continue always be improving our great work-life balance and happiness by keeping our management structure as light-weight as possible, in a support-like role (rather than middle-managey). As we create the financial confidence to do so, we plan to continue adding to the quality and quantity of benefits we can provide for the individual.
This is a Sanctuary for creative people, and it always will be.
