INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Joanna GlasnerContributorMore posts by this contributorAmerica’s mayors have spent the past nine months tripping over each other to curry
favor with Amazon.com in its high-profile search for a second headquarters.More quietly, however, a similar story has been playing out in
Many of the most valuable venture-backed companies are venturing outside their high-cost headquarters and setting up secondary hubs in
smaller cities.Where are they going Nashville is pretty popular
Portland and Raleigh also are seeing some jobs
A number of companies also have a high number of remote offerings, seeking candidates with coveted skills who don’t want to relocate.Those
are some of the findings from a Crunchbase News analysis of the geographic hiring practices of U.S
Since most of these companies are based in high-cost locations, like the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and New York, we were looking to see
if there is a pattern of setting up offices in smaller, cheaper cities
(For more on survey technique, see Methodology section below.)Here is a look at some of the hotspots.NashvilleOne surprise finding was the
prominence of Nashville among secondary locations for startup offices.We found at least four unicorns scaling up Nashville offices, plus
another three with growing operations in or around other Tennessee cities
Here are some of the Tennessee-loving startups:When we referred to Nashville’s popularity with unicorns as surprising, that was largely
because the city isn’t known as a major hub for tech startups or venture funding
That said, it has a lot of attributes that make for a practical and desirable location for a secondary office.Nashville’s attractions
include high quality of life ratings, a growing population and economy, mild climate and lots of live music
Home prices and overall cost of living are also still far below Silicon Valley and New York, even though the Nashville real estate market
has been on a tear for the past several years
An added perk for workers: Tennessee has no income tax on wages.PhoenixPhoenix is another popular pick for startup offices, particularly
West Coast companies seeking a lower-cost hub for customer service and other operations that require a large staff.In the chart below, we
look at five unicorns with significant staffing in the desert city: Affordability, ease of expansion and a large employable population look
like big factors in Phoenix’s appeal
Homes and overall cost of living are a lot cheaper than the big coastal cities
And there’s plenty of room to sprawl.One article about a new office opening also cited low job turnover rates as an attractive
Phoenix-area attribute, which is an interesting notion
Startup hubs like San Francisco and New York see a lot of job-hopping, particularly for people with in-demand skill sets
Scaling companies may be looking for people who measure their job tenure in years rather than months.Those aren’t the only placesNashville
and Phoenix aren’t the only hotspots for unicorns setting up secondary offices
Many other cities are also seeing some scaling startup activity.Let’s start with North Carolina
The Research Triangle region is known for having a lot of STEM grads, so it makes sense that deep tech companies headquartered elsewhere
might still want a local base
One such company is cybersecurity unicorn Tanium, which has a lot of technical job openings in the area
Another is Docker, developer of software containerization technology, which has open positions in Raleigh.The Orlando metro area stood out
mostly due to Robinhood, the zero-fee stock and crypto trading platform that recently hit the $5 billion valuation mark
The Silicon Valley-based company has a significant number of open positions in Lake Mary, an Orlando suburb, including HR and compliance
jobs.Portland, meanwhile, just drew another crypto-loving unicorn, digital currency transaction platform Coinbase
The San Francisco-based company recently opened an office in the Oregon city and is currently in hiring mode.Anywhere with a screenBut you
don’t have to be anywhere in particular to score jobs at many fast-growing startups
A lot of unicorns have a high number of remote positions, including specialized technical roles that may be hard to fill locally.GitHub,
which makes tools developers can use to collaborate remotely on projects, does a particularly good job of practicing what it codes
A notable number of engineering jobs open at the San Francisco-based company are available to remote workers, and other departments also
have some openings for telecommuters.Others with a smattering of remote openings include Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity
provider CrowdStrike, enterprise software developer Apttus and also Docker.Not everyone is doing itOf course, not every unicorn is opening
Many prefer to keep staff closer to home base, seeking to lure employees with chic workplaces and lavish perks
Other companies find that when they do expand, it makes strategic sense to go to another high-cost location.Still, the secondary hub
phenomenon may offer a partial antidote to complaints that a few regions are hogging too much of the venture capital pie
While unicorns still overwhelmingly headquarter in a handful of cities, at least they’re spreading their wings and providing more jobs in
other places, too.MethodologyFor this analysis, we were looking at U.S
unicorns with secondary offices in other North American cities
We began with a list of 125 U.S.-based companies and looked at open positions advertised on their websites, focusing on job location.We
excluded job offerings related to representing a local market
For instance, a San Francisco company seeking a sales rep in Chicago to sell to Chicago customers doesn’t count
Instead, we looked for openings for team members handling core operations, including engineering, finances and company-wide customer support
We also excluded secondary offices outside of North America.Additionally, we were looking principally for companies expanding into
In many cases, we did see companies strategically adding staff in other high-cost locations, such as New York and Silicon Valley.A final
note pertains to Austin, Texas
We did see several unicorns based elsewhere with job openings in Austin
However, we did not include the city in the sections above because Austin, although a lower-cost location than Silicon Valley, may also be
characterized as a large, mature technology and startup hub in its own right.
