INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
favor with Amazon.com in its high-profile search for a second headquarters.More quietly, however, a similar story has been playing out in
Many of the most valuable venture-backed companies are venturing outside their high-cost headquarters and setting up secondary hubs in
smaller cities.Where are they going Nashville is pretty popular
Portland and Raleigh also are seeing some jobs
Since most of these companies are based in high-cost locations, like the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and New York, we were looking to see
if there is a pattern of setting up offices in smaller, cheaper cities
(For more on survey technique, see Methodology section below.)Here is a look at some of the hotspots.NashvilleOne surprise finding was the
prominence of Nashville among secondary locations for startup offices.We found at least four unicorns scaling up Nashville offices, plus
another three with growing operations in or around other Tennessee cities
Home prices and overall cost of living are also still far below Silicon Valley and New York, even though the Nashville real estate market
has been on a tear for the past several years
An added perk for workers: Tennessee has no income tax on wages.PhoenixPhoenix is another popular pick for startup offices, particularly
West Coast companies seeking a lower-cost hub for customer service and other operations that require a large staff.In the chart below, we
Homes and overall cost of living are a lot cheaper than the big coastal cities
attribute, which is an interesting notion
Startup hubs like San Francisco and New York see a lot of job-hopping, particularly for people with in-demand skill sets
The Research Triangle region is known for having a lot of STEM grads, so it makes sense that deep tech companies headquartered elsewhere
might still want a local base
The Silicon Valley-based company has a significant number of open positions in Lake Mary, an Orlando suburb, including HR and compliance
The San Francisco-based company recently opened an office in the Oregon city and is currently in hiring mode.Anywhere with a screenBut you
A lot of unicorns have a high number of remote positions, including specialized technical roles that may be hard to fill locally.GitHub,
which makes tools developers can use to collaborate remotely on projects, does a particularly good job of practicing what it codes
A notable number of engineering jobs open at the San Francisco-based company are available to remote workers, and other departments also
have some openings for telecommuters.Others with a smattering of remote openings include Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity
Many prefer to keep staff closer to home base, seeking to lure employees with chic workplaces and lavish perks
Other companies find that when they do expand, it makes strategic sense to go to another high-cost location.Still, the secondary hub
phenomenon may offer a partial antidote to complaints that a few regions are hogging too much of the venture capital pie
other places, too.MethodologyFor this analysis, we were looking at United States unicorns with secondary offices in other North American
location.We excluded job offerings related to representing a local market
Instead, we looked for openings for team members handling core operations, including engineering, finances and company-wide customer support
We also excluded secondary offices outside of North America.Additionally, we were looking principally for companies expanding into
In many cases, we did see companies strategically adding staff in other high-cost locations, such as New York and Silicon Valley.A final
note pertains to Austin, Texas
We did see several unicorns based elsewhere with job openings in Austin
However, we did not include the city in the sections above because Austin, although a lower-cost location than Silicon Valley, may also be
characterized as a large, mature technology and startup hub in its own right.
