‘Loyalty’ Helped Appirio Choose Indy

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When asked about the reasons behind San Francisco-based Appirio’s decision to move its corporate address to Indianapolis, Chief Executive Officer Chris Barbin doesn’t hesitate. "Talent," says Barbin. "Access to talent and 75 universities and being able to pull talent from those universities would be number one." But he is quick to add another factor that makes the Indy region special. "The loyalty we can build here with the talent pool is fantastic," says Barbin. "One of the challenges you have on the coasts is it can be a little bit of a mercenary culture."

Barbin and Appirio have big plans for Indianapolis, which will serve as the company’s global training center and recruiting hub.

The cloud services company opened an Indy office in 2012 and have grown from four employees to more than 150. Barbin hopes to hire more than 400 additional workers in Indy over the next five years to fuel ambitious growth plans. "IT services is a $350 billion industry and it’s going through a massive change and disruption," said Barbin. "We want to be the leader in that space."

Appirio is the latest in a string of tech companies to make significant jobs announcements in Indianapolis, including Austria-based cloud marketing company Emarsys. Indy beat out San Francisco and Austin for Emarsys’ North American headquarters and potentially more than 170 jobs in downtown Indianapolis. You can connect to a profile of what Emarsys is looking to do in Indy by clicking here.

"We don’t want to be on an island," noted Barbin. "You want to be around other thought leaders, other people who are pushing the envelope. Had we not seen it in this three-year almost trial period (in Indianapolis), we probably wouldn’t have done it."

Barbin also says Indianapolis will host one of the company’s biggest annual events. In November, Appirio will host 100 of the world’s top coders, designers and developers for a three-day event known as the ‘Top Coder Open.’