Tech firm moves from Chicago area to Fishers, eyes local growth
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Technology firm MadeLabs LLC recently moved its headquarters from suburban Chicago to Fishers, and the company says it anticipates adding five to 10 new employees by the end of this year.
President Nicholas Barger and Vice President Adam Broadbent co-founded MadeLabs in 2018. Barger moved to Fishers from the Chicago area last year, while Broadbent lives in the Lansing, Michigan, area.
The company, which officially relocated to Fishers Jan. 1, currently has 25 employees and operates as a remote-first company.
Barger and one other person are MadeLabs’ only Fishers-based employees, but that number is likely to grow. The company plans to hire up to 10 employees this year, with a focus on finding local employees to fill those spots. The company is operating out of the co-working location Launch Fishers.
“We are going to focus future recruiting efforts here [in the Indianapolis area],” Barger said. “We’ll recruit in as close proximity as we can and then we’ll expand out.”
Current MadeLabs employees will also have the opportunity to relocate to central Indiana—although they won’t be required to do so, Barger said.
Barger has a sister-in-law living in Fishers, but he said the supportive business atmosphere he discovered in Fishers also helped lure him to the area. Barger said he also anticipates that operating from Launch Fishers will give MadeLabs a chance to make new business connections.
“I think that this area has some really great companies that fit some of the things that we do, and we’d like to be able to learn more about them and help them in a variety of ways,” Barger said.
MadeLabs serves software-as-a-service companies and does everything from building software products for clients to helping them integrate or modernize their existing products. The company targets clients that operate in high-compliance industries in which process documentation is important. Such industries include aviation, medical devices and supply-chain companies that handle perishable products, Barger said.
Barger and Broadbent bootstrapped the company, meaning that they did not take any outside investment, and Barger said the company is operating without any debt.
MadeLabs is looking at 2024 as a rebuilding year, Barger said. About a year ago, the company had 40 employees, but in the second half of 2023, the company was forced to cut some jobs because of a slowdown with a major client in the financial technology industry. Barger described the episode as “a sudden but temporary market event.”