Why Grassroots Unwired left Philadelphia for Bristol

Russ Oster wanted to keep his company in Philadelphia, but it just didn’t make sense given the makeup of his staff.

All six team members of Grassroots Unwired, a venture-backed startup that provides a canvassing mobile app for nonprofits and political organizations, live outside the city, said Oster, 42, of Yardley.

The commute, he said, was getting “increasingly horrible.” It would take roughly 30-45 minutes for his team to get to Philly’s Callowhill neighborhood, where the firm long had office space at coworking space Venturef0rth. Grassroots Unwired was the first paying member of Venturef0rth, joining it after graduating from DreamIt Ventures’ early stage accelerator in late 2011.

That’s why, last April, Oster moved his company to Bristol, Pa. They now have a 1,000 square foot space in Canal Works, an 1800s-era seed factory turned office building. Canal Works is building a 2,000-square-foot space that will become Grassroots Unwired’s permanent office, Oster said.

Oster’s move is the opposite of the trend of suburban tech companies moving into the city, often for recruiting purposes. The recruiting angle is something he’s thought about.

“We made sure to find a space that is a five minute walk from SEPTA so we can still tap into talent in the city,” he wrote in an email. Though he’s going in the opposite direction of some, this move does still fit into the theme: Oster is going where his team wants to be, so the question will be if it’s a drag on future prospecting.

One thing he won’t miss about Philadelphia? Business taxes.

“Not having the Philly taxes taken out of our paychecks is obviously a plus as well,” he wrote.

Read more about Grassroots Unwired in this profile in the Daily News.