Workspace with a Custom Laptop Stand in California, US

Name: Vick Vahram Antonyan

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Occupation: Platform Manager

Room size: 19 m² (205 ft²)

Cost of the setup: ~$3K give or take — including the laptop

Social media: Instagram

Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m a startup guy from Silicon Valley. I work in early-stage startups, balancing tech and business. I wear both product and operations hats.

I was lucky enough to get into the startup field while attending school at San José State University. I’ve been in startups ever since.

During COVID, I started my own startup — humble help. It’s a two-sided marketplace that connects students with small businesses for part-time marketing internships.

It was a pivotal time in my career; I’m trying to figure out what’s next. At the moment, I’m an On Deck fellow.

I enjoy helping people, and I try to give back whenever I can.

Being an immigrant, I often felt like an underdog while pursuing my engineering degree. This led me to become a volunteer at the Tiger Woods Foundation where I’m a student mentor.

Take us through your setup

It literally took years to complete my setup. It’s been a gradual journey starting probably back in 2017 when I got my Jarvis standing desk.

I have always liked a nice setup and would take inspiration from r/macsetups and Instagram.

I know some people drop big bucks on their setups, but I simply didn’t have the resources or desire to spend so much on mine.

Having a small eBay business on the side, I know my way around this platform pretty well, so I can get good deals and not get scammed!

So that’s what I did.

I bought most of my accessories used from eBay for huge discounts (except the laptop and monitor). Feel free to take a proper gander at my gear.

During COVID-19, my workspace changed a lot. Being forced to spend more time at home pushed me to spend more time in my room, and I kept on rethinking things in my setup.

My desk was one of the things I didn’t like about my setup.

Don’t get me wrong, Jarvis is a great brand, and the setup alone was roughly $1K MSRP (the manufacturer’s suggested retail price; I bought it for $250). But I had a huge 72″ long Jarvis black tabletop, and I hated it.

So I replaced my tabletop roughly a year ago, and it pushed me to change almost everything on my desk.

I bought a new $60 tabletop from IKEA and got rid of that old vast one that used to take up way too much space.