Campbell McKellar

Bio:

I'm from Atlanta, live in Brooklyn now and have had stints on the West Coast and in Boston. Unfortunately, I lost most of my southern accent sometime around 2001.  My road to starting Loosecubes has been a bit winding.  Let's start for a moment in the spring of 1994.  It was a big day: the results of cheerleading tryouts were to be posted, along with the coach's selections for captains. Where I grew up, this was a big deal. The following year was my senior year.  I'd been one of four juniors on the team and was fairly certain I would be selected to be the head cheerleader. I finally slipped through the crowd of girls around the bulletin board to see the list. Stunned, I read the list three times. Not only was my name was not listed next to "Captain," it wasn't on the list at all.  I did what any good southern girl would do.  I sat down by the lockers and started crying.

Just kidding.  I marched myself into our coach's office and suggested she correct the typo. It took quite a bit of back and forth, but eventually I was back on the team. I wasn't the captain, but I was back.

In that moment I learned a valuable lesson.  No doesn't always mean no.  It's hard to believe that was 17 years ago.  Since then, I've started a photography business and a nonprofit organization, posed as an investment banker, worked for a real estate developer, and started an internet company.  At every turn, someone wanted to say No.  Someone wanted to tell me I couldn't do this or that because I didn't have the [experience/skills/balls]. And I may not have had those things (especially the balls part).  But you make your own destiny.  I'm not sure where I'll end up, but one thing's for sure: if I keep thinking big and taking small steps every day, it'll be somewhere great.  It already is.

• Title: Founder & CEO, Loosecubes
• Location: Brooklyn, DUMBO
• Contact: @cmckella

You mention in your bio that we’re all responsible for making our own destiny.  What inspires you to do what you do and how you choose to live your life?

I believe work - where we work, how we work and who we work with - is incredibly important.  We spend more hours doing it than pretty much anything besides sleeping.  I've always tried hard to create a worklife for myself that's aligned with my values. I couldn't live any other way.  That said, it's often a lot easier to just "take a job" rather than "design a career" that works for you.  For Loosecubes, I wanted to make the "where would I work?" question easier to solve for anyone like me who's trying to create a career that is right for them.  I really believe that the world will be a much better place if we choose where we work and who we work around.  We'll be more innovative, greener, and more connected with our local communities.  A Loosecube on every corner means productivity, freedom and the ability to create a work - life fit that works for you.

You recently hit 1,000 spaces listed on Loosecubes, which are located in 29 countries and 223 cities.  If you could bounce around every month for a 6 month period between any of the countries/cities, where would you like to try working?

I would love to go to Berlin...so much is going on there now creatively.  I'd also spend a month on a private island in Panama, and then potentially make Manila a home base for a month or two while exploring Asia. Once I'd had enough amazing asian food, it's would be great to come back to the USA. I'd hit up our friends at Office Nomads in Seattle or Cohere in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Then wrap it up with a month at Pingg's office in the Flatiron once some space frees up there (Manhattan is exotic to me!).

What has been your greatest challenge since deciding to found Loosecubes?

Learning how to translate business & product objectives into engineering language.  Ask our team how I am doing, but I've learned a lot about communicating well with people who's expertise is very different from mine.  This is my first web product.  I had a lot to learn...but one thing's for sure, I feel like I've found what I was meant to do.