AUSTIN | Economic Development

[freerover]

Originally Posted by AustinGoesVertical

The ATX used the color blue in his calendar hinting at Facebook.

Or Calendar Club.

[chinchaaa]

Originally Posted by AustinGoesVertical

The ATX used the color blue in his calendar hinting at Facebook.

It's not FB. The color lines up with Salesforce.

[clubtokyo]

My money is Salesforce it makes so much sense for Austin.

[lzppjb]

I'll throw one out that no one is mentioning: IBM

Their stock has been having some success based on their cloud services. They've had a presence in Austin since the late 60s. Most of what they do is software/cloud/R&D. They are still a huge player in the technology field.

They're always looking to cut costs, so maybe moving HQ to a low-tax state is a possibility.

[East7thStreet]

Originally Posted by lzppjb

I'll throw one out that no one is mentioning: IBM

Their stock has been having some success based on their cloud services. They've had a presence in Austin since the late 60s. Most of what they do is software/cloud/R&D. They are still a huge player in the technology field.

They're always looking to cut costs, so maybe moving HQ to a low-tax state is a possibility.

I've always thought this too. IBM has such a strong long-term connection to Austin and New York is such a high tax state.....a major move wouldn't be a huge surprise.

That said...from the clues given so far.... it sounds like Apple or Amazon.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by lzppjb

I'll throw one out that no one is mentioning: IBM

Their stock has been having some success based on their cloud services. They've had a presence in Austin since the late 60s. Most of what they do is software/cloud/R&D. They are still a huge player in the technology field.

They're always looking to cut costs, so maybe moving HQ to a low-tax state is a possibility.

Perhaps Broadmoor could come into play?

[the Genral]

Originally Posted by urbancore

Not it.

I don't see IBM packing up their Armonk Headquarters. They could have done that years ago when the Nabisco CEO turned IBM CEO and made it his mission to cut expenses albeit mostly by getting out of the manufacturing business.

And urbancore, to end this guess and wait game, I'm willing to put up $250,000 (payable at $1 / month over the next 21,000 years.)

[Tyrone Shoes]

Originally Posted by urbancore

Heard a rumor to expect a BIG announcement this year (sooner than later) from a major employer. I know more, but can’t say.

If it goes down, needless to say, Austin skyline will never be the same (I know).....again. Hoping on hope.

What if it's not a tech company...what if Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria moves their US headquarters here or better yet they move their whole corporate enchilada to a stable US city.
Think about it. I don't want to take anything away from Birmingham but it's an out of the way city. Austin has gotten a vibrant young reputation with the ability to offer non-stop flights to anywhere South America.


https://i.postimg.cc/SKF41ysf/BBVA.jpg

[murfnut]

I am sorry I could not help but laugh at the IBM suggestion. I will hold back my comments since this is a public forum. If they did move, maybe to Raleigh where Redhat is headquarters.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Shoes

What if it's not a tech company...what if Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria moves their US headquarters here or better yet they move their whole corporate enchilada to a stable US city.
Think about it. I don't want to take anything away from Birmingham but it's an out of the way city. Austin has gotten a vibrant young reputation with the ability to offer non-stop flights to anywhere South America.

Interesting that you bring up non-tech employers. It could very well be from an industry outside of the tech realm. Then again, industry boundaries are becoming more and more blurred these days.

[urbancore]

New HQ.

100 employees from San Fran.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...RUNE9DK1luayJ9

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by urbancore

New HQ.

100 employees from San Fran.

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...RUNE9DK1luayJ9

For the benefit of those running with an ad blocker or confronted by a paywall. How about a brief summary or at least a recap of the headline?

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by austlar1

For the benefit of those running with an ad blocker or confronted by a paywall. How about a brief summary or at least a recap of the headline?

From the ABJ article today.

San Francisco online-survey company QuestionPro moved its headquarters to Austin after finding it too difficult and costly to make a big hiring push in California's Bay Area.

“We need to be in a city where we can scale and grow,” QuestionPro founder and CEO Vivek Bhaskaran said. “The Bay Area is too high priced, but price-to-valuation is a better description of the situation.”

He said if employees’ rents are going up at 10 percent then they need a similar increase in their salaries, with some already devoting half their income for rent payments in the Bay Area.

“We are beginning to scale the team, and we can’t scale at these rates,” Bhaskaran said. The company had about 20 employees at its San Francisco headquarters on Market Street. With the move to Austin, the company plans to grow its workforce to 100.

“The economics of the Bay Area are not sustainable,” said Bhaskaran, who founded QuestionPro in 2005 and moved the company’s headquarters to San Francisco in 2011.

“The Bay Area has nicer weather, there’s no question about that. But economically, we could not make it work,” Bhaskaran said.

QuestionPro, with more than 3.5 million users, counts among its clients Visa, Amazon, Intel, Netflix, Google and Facebook.

So why Austin?

Much of the team has West Coast roots and were willing to move to the Texas capital, Bhaskaran said.

“Austin is the perfect tech-friendly city for QuestionPro to place our roots and to drive our business to the next level,” Bhaskaran said. “It offers a mix of vibrant startups, incubators and classic technology corporations that we’re excited to be a part of.”

He’s also confident that QuestionPro can attract new hires to Austin as he builds the company’s workforce. The company had considered Dallas and Houston, but Bhaskaran said attracting the tech talent the company seeks to those cities was a “nonstarter.” Still, Texas has been a popular destination for Bay Area companies and residents leaving California.


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Bhaskaran’s assessment of hiring in the Bay Area is echoed by other entrepreneurs and executives who have decided it’s time to leave California. Last year, Chubbies Shorts Co. also moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin, sharing the news with customers in an email that sported the subject line, “The sun is setting on SF.”

Caring.com CEO Jim Rosenthal moved his company’s headquarters from San Mateo to Charlotte, North Carolina, saying, “We struggled a lot to hire in San Mateo. At times, I felt like I was banging my head against the wall.”

Even companies committed to remaining based in the Bay Area are finding that they need to expand outside California. San Mateo fintech Tipalti said that it will open an office next month in Vancouver, Canada.

Jason Gardner, CEO of Oakland fintech Marqeta, told me this week that his company will open an office in another city as it seeks to boost its workforce from 370 to close to 500 by the end of the year. He was tight-lipped on details except to say the expansion city will be unveiled in the next few months.

“The greatest developers in the world, the greatest talent for tech is in the Bay Area, bar none. But it’s definitely gotten more difficult,” Gardner said. “Every company in the Bay Area, whether you’re Facebook or Google or you’re Marqeta, is dealing with rents that are extraordinary.

“It’s difficult to buy a house and grow a family here, so that’s a factor. But it’s not the main factor,” Gardner said of his search for an expansion city. “We’re a global company. That’s really the basis of it. How do we begin building around the world?”

[jkconno]

Is QuestionPro moving to Austin the announcement we were waiting for? Was hoping for more than 100 employees, ha.

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by jkconno

Is QuestionPro moving to Austin the announcement we were waiting for? Was hoping for more than 100 employees, ha.

Nope. Looks like it will be tomorrow or my source is wrong. We shall see.

[Jdawgboy]

The problem that I see is we are following in the footsteps of San Francisco in terms of housing cost... It's not at the same level as SF but we are already dealing with an affordability problem of our own. I can see those very same things said about Austin in another decade or so if we do not do something soon.

[We vs us]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

The problem that I see is we are following in the footsteps of San Francisco in terms of housing cost... It's not at the same level as SF but we are already dealing with an affordability problem of our own. I can see those very same things said about Austin in another decade or so if we do not do something soon.

Pretty long way to go till we get to the San Francisco level . . . or for that matter any of the coastal cities, east or west. It doesn't feel like to those of us who already live here but we're still a bargain in comparison.

[urbancore]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Pretty long way to go till we get to the San Francisco level . . . or for that matter any of the coastal cities, east or west. It doesn't feel like to those of us who already live here but we're still a bargain in comparison.

By comparison...the hottest coastal cities will ALWAYS be more expensive for "like kind" property/areas of town....than Austin.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by urbancore

Nope. Looks like it will be tomorrow or my source is wrong. We shall see.

Has your source re-confirmed the rumor this week?

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by We vs us

Pretty long way to go till we get to the San Francisco level . . . or for that matter any of the coastal cities, east or west. It doesn't feel like to those of us who already live here but we're still a bargain in comparison.

Well considering many of my friends either can't find anything affordable in the city or are having difficulty staying where they are, I'd say it comes down to perspective. For many people (mostly native Austinites) it's already unaffordable. Heck even I'm being affected due to the property taxes which go up every year. I wouldn't call it a bargain when we have to cut, in some cases our food budget just to make sure we can pay taxes. My point is one could say we have a long way to get to their point but we don't need to get to their level to be in trouble.


And rant over,

I know what you mean, I'm just frustrated because I see these articles saying how cheap it is to live here and I feel like throwing my phone out the window (since I use my phone to read these articles).

Rant over again.....

We may continue with waiting in anticipation for whatever might or might not happen tomorrow.