3304 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco 1980’ish — When we opened Network Answering Service in my studio apartment in 1976, it was because I’d realized that the phone company’s new “Call Forwarding” service would enable me to build an answering service without the need to buy a switchboard, which also needs a LOT of costly wiring. The downside of my method was that when our phone rang, the incoming call could be for ANY of our clients. But who?

So we’d answer, “Network Answering Service, who are you calling please?”

Oddly enough, this worked rather well, and so we grew.

But when we outgrew my studio apartment at 3rd and Anza, north of Golden Gate park, we had to [Read more…]