Bustle, a young website for millennial women, was just getting off the ground when its founder and CEO, Bryan Goldberg, decided to make the move from San Francisco to New York City. Goldberg founded Bustle in 2014 after selling his first media property, Bleacher Report, to Time Warner for about $175 million in 2012.
“I had a temporary apartment that I lived in as I decided whether or not I wanted to move permanently to New York. Bustle’s success made that a pretty straightforward decision,” Goldberg told Business Insider.
He spent nearly a year looking around Manhattan for a no-frills apartment that had plenty of space he could make his own. In Chelsea, he found a centrally located pre-war co-op building with a loft that perfectly fit the bill. He bought it in July 2015.
“What I like about the home is that the building is very unassuming,” Goldberg said. “There’s no doorman, there’s no fancy lobby – but the home is spacious. I really didn’t want amenities, I didn’t want a fancy gym, and I didn’t want a roof deck. I just wanted as much space as I could get, in the spirit of downtown New York.”
“I saw it, fell in love with it right away, and realized it had everything I wanted and nothing I didn’t.”
Goldberg enlisted the help of the architects at Parc Office to build out his ideal space. The renovation took about six months to complete, so Goldberg hopped around different Airbnbs in the meantime.
He recently invited Business Insider to come check out his new digs - let's take a tour.
When you enter the apartment, an extra-long couch decked out with faux-fur pillows immediately catches your eye. The orange chairs on the left-hand side were bought vintage and repurposed, while the unique end tables were made by New York-based designers Egg Collective.
Goldberg brought this Eames lounger from his old apartment.
And right behind that, Goldberg's whiskey collection is on display. "I wanted to have a great whiskey bar," he said. "There's not a lot of art in this apartment yet, but having a lot of whiskey bottles on the bar catches your eye."
The whole apartment has a midcentury vibe. One long wall hides lighting systems and storage behind paneled doors.
The spaciousness of the apartment is a big perk, as Goldberg likes to host friends who also work in tech and media. "I'm not a fan of huge parties with dozens of people, but I love throwing dinner parties for a small but talkative group of people," he said.
"People in media and tech are really busy," he said. "It's hard to get a dozen or sixteen people together in one room to talk off the record about what's going on [in the industry], and I'm able to do that here. If I had to point to one reason why I wanted to have the space, that would be it."
As for the food being eaten at these dinner parties, he usually turns to a few caterers he's gotten to know over the past few months. In the spirit of his northern California hometown, taco bars are a favorite.
Since he likes to have people over so often, it was important for the designers to create a division between the public and private spaces in the apartment. "I wanted to make it feel open but also make it feel homey, and the architects achieved that by building this floating media cube to kind of separate the public portion of the home from the more private section of the home," Goldberg said.
The books on the shelf show off some of his interests.
Working in media can be a 24/7 gig — especially when you're running a steadily growing site like Bustle — so Goldberg savors his weekend downtime. "The interesting thing with media is that it can be difficult to define when you're working," he said. "For example, when I'm not hosting a dinner event, I'm often attending one ... It's a business with a lot of shmoozing, and it's an industry where you can never network enough."
"It’s rare that I’m home before 10 or 11 p.m. on a weeknight," he said. "On most weekends, nothing makes me happier than just to crawl up in a blanket, relax, and watch TV or a game."
Located to the right of the media room, the bedroom has a dramatic, full-wall headboard.
A comfortable armchair takes up another corner of the bedroom.
And in the closet, we took a peek at his shoe collection. "I walked everywhere in San Francisco, and I walk everywhere here. If that means it takes me 45 minutes to get to a meeting, that's fine," Goldberg said. "One of the cool things about living in the Chelsea area is that there are very few parts of Manhattan that are more than a mile away."
"I just love being in the city and having everything nearby and go to new bars and restaurants," he said. "I'm never planning to leave."
