Whisper Moves from a Santa Monica Frat House to a Fortress In Venice
What's gnarlier than a startup office with a pool and ping pong table five blocks from the Santa Monica beach? Using a nice chunk of the $54 million you raised to inhabit a Venice "fortress" once owned by Anjelica Houston.
Curbed reported yesterday that the anonymous app Whisper—the Facebook to Secret's Tumblr—might be renting this $11.15 million home as its new Los Angeles headquarters. A source confirmed the move to Valleywag. CEO Michael Heyward liked to host theme parties in the old office, which was dubbed "the Chamber of Secrets," to maximize professionalism. (Business Insider also noted in January that a new office was imminent.)
The house, designed by Huston's late husband, sculptor Robert Graham, was first listed in 2010 for $18 million, but, despite some pricechops, the property languished. That's not to say there weren't a few close calls: The Hollywood Reporter says that producer/house collector Megan Ellison was in escrow to buy it late last year, and, before that, there was some totally serious, unironic talk of turning the house into a private "gourmet bathing club" with a farm-to-table restaurant and seltzer-water tastings.
"Unironic" will go over like gangbusters with the locals.
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