Much of the country’s tech community is situated in larger metros like San Francisco and New York. However, as growing businesses are faced with higher costs of living and other taxing economic factors, many tech companies have flown the coop in favor of more affordable and diverse areas. Atlanta is one of these fast-growing tech hubs, and its latest corporate resident is building its “nest” in Midtown.
Canadian software developer Hootsuite is growing its U.S. presence with new office space in the WeWork Coda coworking facility in Tech Square. The company builds social media management software to help brands and organizations reach their audiences at scale via social networks and direct messaging channels. Hootsuite currently serves millions of customers across the globe, according to the company.
Having already established a location in New York, landing on Atlanta as its choice for its next phase of U.S. expansion was an obvious decision for Hootsuite, as stated by the company’s CEO Tom Keiser. The city was attractive due to its rapid growth in the tech sector, as well as its diverse talent pool in the SaaS space.
“Atlanta is a talent-rich city, where culture, education, innovation and tech come to thrive,” Keiser said in a statement.
The Coda office building stretches 1 million square feet across 21 stories and encompasses several features including parking and street-level restaurants and bars. With a modern and creative design, the building is outfitted with research labs, office spaces, common areas and event space. Hootsuite’s new digs inside the building will span 2,700 square feet with room to accommodate 60 employees.
“One of the great things about WeWork is that it gives Hootsuite flexibility to create our own space and, from there, the scalability to expand,” Keiser told Built In via email. “As we’re planning to open our doors on February 1 in Atlanta, WeWork is also enabling us to get on our feet quickly. Coda, also home to Georgia Tech, is beautiful and Midtown is a really great location for us. The building is also a LEED Platinum facility, which is very important to us from a sustainability perspective.”
Hootsuite is furthering its ongoing growth. The company has hired almost 600 new employees so far this year, according to Keiser, and has also completed two acquisitions. New to the company are Belgian customer engagement platform Sparkcentral and Montreal-based conversational AI platform Heyday. After expanding its capabilities, Hootsuite is now turning its focus to internal growth.
Looking to expand its operations, better serve its customers and build out diverse go-to-market teams, Hootsuite has plans to hire at least 60 new people by the end of 2022. As it continues to embrace a hybrid work model, the company currently lists nine Atlanta-based roles on its site across sales, core services and customer support.
