Inside Twitter's San Francisco office
Originally published in Russian on ekozlov.ru, 25 Oct 2010. Translated and lightly edited in 2026.
Original: Офис компании Twitter в Сан Франциско
As you know, I recently visited Twitter's office in San Francisco. I met one of the founders and some of the people who work there, and we talked about working together internationally, among other things. Plenty of media covered it, so I won't repeat all that. I just want to share a few photos from the tour.
This is reception, with the Twitter logo.
The walls are covered with articles and press mentions about Twitter.
In the lobby there's a cabinet of company awards and mementos, along with books about Twitter by various authors.
Screens around the office show what's happening on Twitter in real time.
The door to the engineering area has a warning for staff: "Beware of the tail".
Inside there are pleasant spaces for planning sessions, and Twitter-branded drinks machines everywhere.
The walls are full of letter Ts, and the sofa cushions say "Home tweet home".
Almost every meeting room is named after a bird. This one, for instance, is @kingfisher. Staff really do message each other like that: "Let's talk in @kingfisher." And this is @chat, used for group discussions about new features.
The whole @twitter office feels a little like a bird's habitat.
Then lunch. We had to queue for a bit, like everyone else. The people at Twitter are very friendly. They invited us to lunch and chatted about whatever we wanted to know. At lunch I met one of the founders, Biz Stone, who was eating and talking with his colleagues just like everyone else.
This is the view from Twitter's sixth floor.
Of course, we talked about Twitter in Russia. And here's a photo with Twitter's marketing team, a lovely, outgoing group.
That's about it.
Twitter asks what you're doing, and you simply answer. There's a lot behind that idea: Twitter has already grown a huge range of services and features its creators never imagined. The company is growing fast, too. A year ago fewer than 100 people worked in this cosy office; now there are more than 300, and they're still hiring, mostly technical, highly educated people. It was a pleasure to visit such an unusual and popular Silicon Valley startup. If you're not on Twitter yet, sign up :-)
