How the ZeroFox Castle Helps Define Company Culture
ZeroFox’s HQ in a single word is “historic.” In the figurative sense, it’s a memorable and captivating physical space; in the literal sense, it’s a designated Baltimore City historic building that dates back to Baltimore’s beer brewing boom in the 1800’s. The building is the former Pabst bottling plant in historic southern Baltimore, and it’s built like a castle -- hence why we all refer to HQ as the ‘ZeroFox Castle’ -- complete with crenelated parapets, watch towers and arrow slits. Anyone living in southern Baltimore knows the building as an icon and a landmark. It’s an honor and a responsibility to work in the space, and we try our hardest to treat it with respect.
The ZeroFox Castle is recently renovated, but we kept as much of the historic charm as was possible. You can find all the startup office cliches: exposed brick, original beams, roof deck, standing desks, open workspaces, kegs in the kitchen (which was a speakeasy during Prohibition -- some employees maintain that it’s haunted), couches with social media icons for pillows. In the front office, we have a shrine to Pabst, ensuring its original purpose is never forgotten.
The interior of the ZeroFox Castle is cavernous with tall windows, a Big Ass Fan (capital B - A - F), and a balcony overlooking main floor. The open architecture demands an open workspace, and interior design and architecture collude to make an incredibly collaborative space. When the majority of the company can ask almost anyone else in the company a question without leaving their desk, we can keep meetings to a minimum, make sure everyone knows everyone’s name, and create a sense of family, even as we continue to grow past hundreds and thousands of employees.
Our company culture is a product of the ZeroFox Castle and its physical spaces, of which we’re immensely proud. We’re a Baltimore company through and through, and we’ve been successful in a an unexpected place. Our employees’ commitment to Baltimore is palpable. We host charity events for local causes, host Baltimore startup groups and hackathons, and, whenever employees leave the office early, it’s either to drink a Natty Boh and eat crabs on the waterfront or to head to an Orioles game at Camden Yards.
All our conference rooms are named after other Baltimore landmarks -- Belvedere, Domino Sugar, the Chesapeake. Our main conference room is complete with a long table of reclaimed wood from the castle, and our second biggest conference room has a spiral staircase up to the watch tower. Details like these bring the office to life and make for a vibrant place to work. Working in a historic building in the heart of Baltimore is our way of forever immersing ourselves and our team in Charm City.
Our offices have tons of additional perks as well -- catered lunches, open spaces for collaborations, closed conference rooms for confidential calls, renovated yet historic architecture, beer on tap, a brand new roof deck, locker room, exercise equipment, arcade games, shuffleboard and more. When the office is a fun, beautiful environment that employees look forward to working and hanging out in, the culture supports itself. Team members choose to stay for lunch and hang after work on the roof deck with their coworkers for a beer.
We’re simultaneously coworkers, friends, family, foxes, and Baltimoreans. The ZeroFox Castle is the backbone of that shared identity.
Interested in joining the ZeroFox Team? We're always hiring!