Hubpages HQ

Some of you will probably have stumbled across my forum post recently which stated that I was going to visit Hubpages HQ in San Francisco. To be a little more accurate, I was going to be going on holiday to San Francisco and taking the opportunity to pop-in for half an hour to have a nose around the office and try to steal a Hubpages branded pen or similar. Well, I did it! I would have liked to have stayed longer and written this Hubpage from the office but my fiance (now wife, we got hitched in Vegas a few days later) had possession of my wallet which contained my credit card. It also contained, and this is a very rare occurrence, a large amount of cash. This wouldn't usually have concerned me but the Hubpages office happens to me close to Union Square, an area which contains lots of shops - a few of them way outside of my budget. I did pick up a few pair of Levi's in Union Square though, if I had any baggage allowance left it would probably have been a few dozen; Levi's are twice the price in the UK.

I had it all planned, my trip to the Hubpages office was going to be a complete doddle. The fiance and I hopped onto one of those old San Fran trams a short distance away from our hotel, and then hopped back off on Market Street (the heart of the retail quarter and spitting distance from the Financial District). I had already worked out, using my tourist map, that I was going to trundle off to Minna Street which is about three blocks away from Market Street and meet my fiance back at Cafe Nero in around an hour. If she was late I would wait, if I were late she would be off shopping and I would be waiting a long time. What I had failed to notice on my map was that somebody at some stage had plonked a giant convention centre right in the middle of Minna Street, effectively creating two Minna Streets; they should have been labelled a) and b)!

I got lost, what should have been a five minute walk turned into a forty-five minute walk and by the time I had arrived at the Hubpages office I had smoked several cigarettes, was thirsty, and needed to use a restroom. In fifteen minutes time my fiance would be arriving at Cafe Nero only to see that I hadn't returned and subsequently gone to spend my slot machine money for Vegas. Now, I was standing outside of the Hubpages office and wasn't going to go and ask to use their restroom. So, what do I do? I find the nearest coffee shop, I sit down, order a coffee, use the restroom, and another twenty minutes passes, I had already used my agreed quota of time and still hadn't managed to steal a Hubpages pen. This rules out any aspirations that I may one day have to become the next James Bond. Before I entered the building I took a quick snap of the entrance which is also branded with Hubpages insignia, as you can see above.

I finally arrived at Hubpages HQ, ten minutes after I should have left, and pressed a button on the intercom. Somebody answered, I mumbled some incoherent ramble on the intercom, and they let me in. I had actually been allowed in, my mission was on track. I found an elevator on my right hand side, some stairs in front of me. I pondered my route for at least a few seconds, American portions were doing my waistline no favours and this led me to decide to take the stairs; a couple of flights later and I arrive at a front desk for Hubpages. Sitting on this front desk was a male who I later realised was probably the Hubpages graphic designer James Edmondson; hungover, jet lagged and out of breath (I need to rejoin the local gym) I once again mumbled something incoherent (inducing a 'WTF is this British idiot talking about' look from James or whoever he may have been) but was saved when Simone and Jason appeared. I went over to introduce myself to them, it took me sixty seconds to forget what we had talked about, but Simone was exceedingly pretty and Jason seemed like a nice guy. In fact, everybody seemed very nice.

Next I was up to the next level to find Maddie Ruud, who was ace, Paul Deeds popped onto the scene too. Again, I can't really remember what we talked about as I have the memory of a fish and was constantly thinking about the damage to my credit card which could have been happening at that very moment, but I do recall finding out that her father was a Professor at Oxford and that she thinks American trains are crap. And the best bit about my venture into the Hubpages office? I got two free t-shirts! And, the most incredible Hubpages mug! A photo opportunity arose when I asked to check my Amazon earnings from a Hubpages computer (I have now touched the mouse which has banned me on several occasions), Maddie made great use of her camera skills to make me look relatively normal on a day when I probably looked a bit 'different'.

After being given a quick tour around the office and being introduced to plenty of staff members that I didn't recognise, I said my goodbyes. Paul Edmondson was nowhere to be seen, he hadn't turned up for work yet, I was a little disappointed not to meet Paul in case Edmondson and Deeds become the next Page and Brin. The Hubpages office, by the way, isn't all that big. I hadn't expected the Googleplex (although Maddie did have a space hopper), but I was surprised and impressed by the efficiencies of the operation.

On my hurried walk back to Cafe Nero I happened to walk past...... yep, none other than Paul Edmondson. I was caught in a dilemma, do I walk back and shout "Paul" to somebody that I don't know (and risk further collatoral damage) or rush off back to my now probably slightly angry fiance? It was a no-brainer, I walked back and shouted "Excuse me, Paul" about three times. He looked at me like a deer in the headlights, probably wondering whether I was a) a stalker, b) a journalist or c) somebody that he should recognise but didn't. We had a good ten minute chat in which he asked me a few things about my Hubpages experience and handed me a business card (which was a bit crumpled up Paul!), he too was a great bloke and seemed excited to have bumped into a Hubber, I found out that I was up there with the best of them in terms of traffic which is good to know. I hope that I didn't seem too rude by cutting the conversation short early, I would have written the Hubpage from an HQ computer had I have known that my fiance was in one of her "I can't find anything that I like" moods. She only cost me $20 and a coffee.