SquareTrade Culture Hub

OK, so we got a little excited for Halloween over here at...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:02:43 -0400

OK, so we got a little excited for Halloween over here at SquareTrade. Not only was the office decked out (and very scary) and we had a pretty great costume contest, but the Giants World Series parade was happening right outside the office and it was our creative director’s birthday.

Yeah, it was a pretty darn exciting October 31st over here at 575 Market St!

Playoff Break

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 19:35:25 -0400

Well…we’re a little excited about the Giants winning the first series of the playoffs.

This is part of our Marketing and Business Development teams taking a slight break to crowd around a computer and watch the Giants strike out the Reds in the ninth inning. There were small explosions of excitement throughout the game.

OK, back to work! With a little bit more gusto than before ;)

Happy Birthday, Nima!

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:00:00 -0400

One of our Marketing Analysts got a little surprise yesterday…

Everyone else was surprised, too! Nima hadn’t told anybody about his birthday until his wife had an impressive set of balloons delivered.

What a beautiful day at the ballpark! SquareTrade went to a...

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:52:01 -0400

What a beautiful day at the ballpark!

SquareTrade went to a Giants game! The sun was shining, the Giants were winning and the hot dogs and garlic fries were as good as ever. Everyone was decked out in their Giants best, and Rick, Liz and Rosa won for Best Dressed Giants fans.

The Face-off and the Crow

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:47:57 -0400

Have you seen our latest face-off video? Check it out below, and then take a look at the behind-the-scenes photos one of our super talented designers, Vic, took during the shoot.

The phones…

Chris gets ready to shoot the intro…

Preparing to drop…

Chris assesses the iPhone 5 damage…

Right when Chris would start talking…this crow would start crowing.

Getting ready for the collision test…

This duck, hanging out in the pool, was ready for its moment in the spotlight.

Our director gets underwater-shot ready:

And then water drop:

All in all, it was a beautiful day and we all learned a lot from this drop test. Thanks to Jason for the creative direction, Chris for the smooth narration, Dmitriy for the dropping and Kaboom for the beautiful shooting.

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:18:49 -0400

Yesterday after work, more than 40 SquareTraders changed into race shirts and workout gear for the annual JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. It was a beautiful day for a run.

Our CEO Steve Abernethy came in first with a time of 21:43. Wow!

It’s an invasion! They came from post-its and made their...

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:54:00 -0400

It’s an invasion!

They came from post-its and made their way onto various windows over here at SquareTrade. The question is…where will one turn up next?

Thanks to Dennis (again!) for the great photos.

The Face-off and the Cat

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:57:20 -0400

Have you seen our new iPad vs. Nexus 7 Face-off?

We’re really happy with how it turned out. And here’s a little behind-the-scenes photo for you, too. Norman the cat wanted to join in on the fun, too!

Happy Friday! Hope your lunch is as yummy as ours. (Thanks to...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:55:00 -0400

Happy Friday! Hope your lunch is as yummy as ours.

(Thanks to Dennis, one of our lead engineers, for the awesome photo.)

What a kick...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:11:00 -0400

Friday was kickball day…and it was SUNNY! (rare for San Francisco in July!)

Such a beautiful day. By the way…how DID that bench break?

(Thanks to Pace, our lovely newsletter guru, for the great photos!)

Party Time

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:31:46 -0400

A couple of weeks ago our Customer Care and Marketing teams had a little party with games, food and everyone’s favorite—a keg! But we had to wait for the keg…

…just until John Hua had gotten an award…

…and Vince Marchi could get a little gag gift (that’s an abacus).

THEN it was time for the beer, taco bar and games.

Don’t worry, there’s more photos to come from that party! Thanks to Robert from the Customer Care team for these awesome ones.

There’s Alice and Richie saying, “Til next time!”

The Demise of the Camera

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:23:00 -0400

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos of our next campaign that our awesome designer Megan took.

Thanks, Megan! I just might have to recruit you to be the official Culture Blog photographer…

Candy Time

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:24:00 -0400

This is your Official Guide to the Candy Bowls around the office. Get ready for your sugar rush!

This is Jason. He’s got the hard candy and sour candy. Ever since the Creative team moved into their new room, his candy bowl has been feeling lonely, so go in and say hey and pick up some Jolly Ranchers!

Kord’s got a wide variety of chocolate over in Customer Care/Ops, but he keeps it kind of in a corner. Keep a lookout for the big pumpkin bowl and do a sneak-by for some serious candy action.

Pace in Marketing has an awesome selection (and my personal favorite: lots of Reese’s peanut butter cups), but people are a little nervous by the scorpion suckers you have to dodge to get to the good stuff. The real question is: Who’s going to eat those bug lollypops?!

Last but not least is the lone candy bucket near the kitchen. Last time I remember seeing candy in there was sometime around last Christmas. Wonder who’s going to be nice enough to refill that?

Would anyone care to do a dramatic reading of this? Oh, and...

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:45:49 -0400

Would anyone care to do a dramatic reading of this?

Oh, and string cheese (light).

Behind the Scenes: Drop Test Photos

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:39:00 -0400

Friday was Drop Day—Galaxy S3 vs. iPhone 4S. Check out the video, and below that are some sweet behind-the-scenes shots of what went down.

First, the intro. We kind of had a whole crew!

Then, the kids drop…

John’s kids are insanely cute. Everybody was smiling when they were around.

After that we did the ear drop with Adrien, then headed a few blocks away to shoot the car scene.

Before we could shoot, my car was a little dirty so Jason was nice enough to wipe some weeks of city grime off of it.

Here’s Chris and Jeph getting ready to film the car scene (above) and doing the conclusion (below).

And that’s it! We shot the whole thing pretty quickly, Priya and Jeph worked like crazy over the weekend to do some quick editing, and ta-da! We dropped it at about 6:30 AM PST today. Great job, everyone!

Such a Mess...

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:26:22 -0400

All right, so it’s fake. But Tavis created quite a stir when he brought these into work. Becky even stopped in her tracks!

Here are some photos of SquareTrade at rapt attention while...

Tue, 29 May 2012 19:16:14 -0400

Here are some photos of SquareTrade at rapt attention while Steve gave us an all-company update.

Wait a Second...Who's That Celebrity on the 21st Floor?!

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:14:00 -0400

It couldn’t be…wait, is it?! Oh my gosh, it’s Trevor Childs!! (updated with Jack’s much more impressive photos)

That’s right, we’ve got a rock star in our midst and I joined some fellow fans as we cheered on this mysterious musician at the Makeout Room.

Will and Richard (above) and almost the whole crew who went below.

So who is this rocker (you may know we don’t have anyone who works at SquareTrade named Trevor Childs)? You’re just going to have to stay tuned to find out!

Where do we draw the line? And more importantly, are there going...

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:16:00 -0400

Where do we draw the line? And more importantly, are there going to be ice cream sandwiches in the freezer?

Caption: Ice Cream Sandwiches 5/15/12—What is this, Dairy Queen? (ya rly) Haha Just Kidding :)

Rock Climbing!

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:14:00 -0400

After work on Tuesday, I joined the SquareTrade Rock Climbing Team (OK, I made up the name) on a little outing to Mission Cliffs. Zen, Dennis, Fred and Jerry go every Tuesday and I was seriously impressed by their skills. Check out the photos, and join us next time! I think I might be a rock climbing convert…

Zen gets ready to belie Jerry…

Jerry’s a spider! He scaled that wall in no time!

Fred takes a solid stance as he holds the rope for Dennis…

Dennis comes down and shows off the difficulty level he just climbed. Impressive!

I’m a wimp and climbed one of the easiest ones. Next time I’ll be on 5.10 just like Dennis ;)

All in all it was a blast, and we hope to get more and more people joining us in the future…and we really WILL be the SquareTrade Rock Climbing Team!