Silicon Valley may be the world capital of tech talent and tech money, but firms that make their living in the digital industry spread their tendrils all over the nation and the world.
One of many mini tech hubs on the move is Indianapolis, Indiana. Why do we say that? Well, a handful of growing companies have set up shop there in the past several years, establishing offices and hiring talent there.
According to a soon-to-be-release report from real estate services company, Colliers International, on the movements of players in the technology industry, the biggest deals on office space include an mammoth investment by sales cloud platform company, Salesforce. The firm, which bought Indy-based firm ExactTarget in 2013, closed on a deal that would give it a 278,000 square-foot footprint in the city’s Chase Tower on Monument Circle, giving it naming rights for the building as well. That means the Chase Tower is now Salesforce tower.
Salesforce, which leases other office space in the city, had said it plans to hire more an additional 800 Plus personnel by 2021.
Another tech-oriented company with a large footprint in Indianapolis is Angie’s List, the crowd-sourced review site. The firm controls nearly 200,000 square-feet in town across a handful of buildings and employs about 1,800 people. The company had initially planned a larger expansion but former CEO Bill Oesterle tapped the breaks on the project in the face of the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which critics assert could be used to infringe upon the rights of, in particular, members of the LGBT community. The bill was signed into law by Indiana governor and vice presidential hopeful Mike Pence.
“There's a great ecosystem of technology companies here that was originally anchored on ExactTarget – now Salesforce.com – Angie's List, and Interactive Intelligence to name a few, plus a lot of start-ups built up around those anchors,” Angie’s List CEO Scott Durchslag told Forbes via email. “Second, unlike Silicon Valley employees are here because they want to be here which tends to lead to much more loyal employees and a lower attrition rate. And third, we have a spectacularly supportive state and city government that incents innovation and creates a highly attractive business environment.”
Durchslag says local institutions buoy the area’s talent pool and personnel tend to stay put. We have a really supportive set of colleges and universities that develop great coders with the skill sets that we've identified as being necessary. Plus we've found a deep pool of other tech talent, such as those with software expertise and java developers.”
As far as education, institutions like Purdue, Indiana University, Butler, Marian University and the University of Indianapolis surround Indianapolis. Farther to the north one can find Notre Dame.
Other companies are electing to put down firm roots in Indianapolis as well. The multi-billion dollar Massachusetts-based workforce management software company, Kronos, has, according to Colliers, laid claim to 40,000 square-feet worth of workspace in the city. Kronos rep, Domenic Locapo, told FORBES that talent pools were key to the Kronos adventure in Indy: “Many of the positions at the Kronos Indy office are filled by recent college graduates and people starting their technology/cloud/professional services/consultation careers. Therefore, one main reason the company chose to pursue an Indy office was to tap into the local pipeline of exceptional tech talent throughout Indiana.”
Also, decade-old software firm, Appirio, opened its second U.S. location there in 2012 and last summer made the new offices its official headquarters, shifting primary status away from its San Mateo California office. Today the company has more than 24,000 square feet of space in Indianapolis.
Why choose Indianapolis? Talent, the company says: skilled tech minds and a culture of above-average education which make for a fertile ground in which a company can grow.
In terms of livability, Indianapolis has some good selling points. “When you're a Midwestern city you obviously don't have mountains or oceans so you have to do other things to attract talent,” says Colliers’ Vice President & Co-Market Leader Matt Langfeldt. The city’s downtown has been arranged, he explained, in an easily navigable, tightly concentrated collection of neighborhoods.
Colliers market research director, James Winkler, says tech firms in Indianapolis also can boast an affordability factor that many large or even medium sized cities cannot. “We’re constantly on the list of affordable living. For a lot of those tech companies that are trying to attract talent, its very attractive.” There’s also, says Langfeldt, a good food scene.
