One was a distributed messaging system (imagine geographically partitioned real-time clusters for investment banking and their transacted operations), another

One was a distributed messaging system (imagine geographically partitioned real-time clusters for investment banking and their transacted operations), another was a web app for creatives from a top company utilizing bleeding-edge tech and we created some innovative things competitors lack till this day. I don't think we would if we all were stuffed in some open-plan office somewhere as it required individual creativity and surprising solutions one could figure out in solitude only and only then discuss with the others... Both companies extremely well-known and darlings of developers world-wide (producing tech almost everybody used).