Silicon Valley-based software company BrightEdge plans to build a sales-focused office in downtown Cleveland.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Silicon Valley-based software company BrightEdge plans to build a sales office in downtown Cleveland.
The marketing technology company that uses data analytics to improve online content marketing for companies has 10 employees so far in the Fifth Third Building on Superior. But a company official said he expects the office to have 25 to 50 employees in the next six months.
Brad Mattick, vice president of marketing and products at BrightEdge, said Cleveland is attractive for many reasons including the talent pool, quality universities, transportation ease, and inexpensive downtown real estate.
BrightEdge clients include both small, mid-size companies and major corporations. Clients range from an online retailer with $25 million in sales to a tech company with about $150 million in sales, to household name brands such as Microsoft and Home Depot.
"We thought a lot about how we're going to grow and scale our business. Silicon Valley is not a great place to build a sales force. We looked at a number of locations and Cleveland stood out as the clear choice for BrightEdge."
BrightEdge is a 7-year-old private company with sales of about $50 million, has about 200 employees in San Mateo and about another 100 worldwide in offices as diverse as Chicago, Seattle, Australia and Japan.
Mattick declined to predict how fast the Cleveland office would grow in the next few years other than to say, "I think for us we will add people as quickly as we can train them.
"Customers that have over $500 million in revenue have grown over 50 percent in the last 12 months," he said. "We've seen tremendous growth for two reasons, what we do, and secondly how we treat and create value for our customers. We're a young company, and we really invest in company success.
"Whether it's a bank like Wells Fargo, or a tech company like Adobe, or Columbia business school, everyone has to create content on the Internet," Mattick said. "It sounds simple, but we help them achieve their goals on the Internet."
Brad Nellis, executive director of OHTech, formerly known as the Northeast Ohio Software Association, said it's great that BrightEdge is growing its staff with a Cleveland expansion.
"We have a lot of advantages that can be very beneficial to them and companies like theirs," he said. "Great schools, low cost of living, an educated talent pool and lower operating costs are just a few of those strengths. In fact, after the sales office is successful here, we'd love to see them open a development operation too."
Nellis mentioned Virginia-based Acumen Solutions, as an example of a company finding success with its Cleveland location. The company opened a Cleveland office in 2011 specifically to hire and relocate software talent. At the time, the company reported plans to hire about 80 people in the next few years, citing motivators for the Cleveland expansion such as lower-cost infrastructure, highly educated candidates, and an opportunity to increase Midwest clients.
Acumen Solutions' Christian Coleman, who is wearing Google Glass, works on an app at the cloud enterprise and IT business consulting firm in this 2014 photo. The Virginia-based company has built the Independence location up to about 120 employees since opening the office in 2011.Kate Gross, operations coordinator at Acumen, said the Independence location has about 120 employees and has doubled space to 2,400 square-feet since moving here. The cloud-enterprise and IT business-consulting company has five offices including London, New York and San Francisco. Cleveland is the smallest city, with the second largest office.
"Cleveland is a good area for us. It's changing from a place where people were relocating from - to a city where people want to relocate to - to start or continue their careers. We have big goals to expand here in 2016."
BrightEdge is among companies worldwide that are benefiting from larger marketing budgets being spent on content marketing. In September, Content Marketing World 2015, attracted more than 3,200 people from 48 countries to the Cleveland Convention Center. What started as a much smaller niche trade show with about 600 attendees in 2011 continually attracts more digital marketers, storytellers and social media experts.
In September, Andrew Davis, author of "Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships" and "Town Inc." and a popular CMWorld speaker, said CM World founder Joe Pulizzi is not only introducing people in his industry to his hometown, but also trying to entice them to move to Cleveland. He was referring to content marketing agencies, technology providers, content marketing software providers, consultants and producers.