TalkBox makes business meetings more personal

Open floor plans are nearly ubiquitous in business these days. They offer some great advantages like collaboration among team members, easily configurable space, and they're less expensive. They're also louder and filled with distractions, which can make meetings difficult. That's where Denver-based TalkBox, which launched in July 2016, enters the picture. 

"Offices today are built around community/team areas, full openness for collaboration and temporary stations for the mobile workers," explains TalkBox co-founder Todd Budin. "Having a single-person room which can be moved around fits right into this new definition of the office." 

The TalkBox takes its cue from the tried and tested phone booth -- although it was designed for business. As such, it includes a desk space, ventilation, a door with a window and soundproofing. 

"We actually follow the ABCs of noise reduction in our design," says Budin. "A, absorb the user's sound so that it doesn't create a bad echo experience and so that it doesn't reverberate to be heard from outside. B, block external noise from coming in. C, cover the internal and external sounds with white noise to help mask anything left over."

The units are flexible Budin says, and take advantage of the wireless communications networks we use today. "We have a lot of clients who just rely on their wifi, but also some high bandwidth clients (e.g., engineering firms, big data companies) who drop an Ethernet line into the TalkBox," Budin says. "It's easier to drop a line in there than it is to wire up any sort of junction box, so we've gone that route." 

Currently, the company is selling roughly two units, which are made in Colorado, weekly. The majority of its clients are in Colorado, San Francisco and Detroit at this point. Thus far most are companies with open floor plans. But some coworking operations, like Shift Workspaces or Galvanize, are potential clients, Budin says. The rooms start at $5,700.