Chesterbrook software company Deacom is opening an office in Frankfurt, Germany

The team is looking to open the office at the start of 2020. It will initially have about 15 employees, with plans to grow to about 40 within 18 months, Deakins told Technical.ly Philly.

The new office is about 550 square meters, or about 6,000 square feet, compared to Deacom HQ, which is about 37,000 square feet. The company also has an office in Denver.

Deakins said he’s been considering a European office for about 10 years now, and said the company is finally in a place where they have the resources and operations to expand.

A few employees volunteered to move abroad from the Pennsylvania headquarters, but having a team built largely by Germans is important to the development of the office abroad, Deakins said.

“We don’t want to come over and say, ‘We’re Americans, this is how we do it.’ We’re going to embrace Europe and commit to Frankfurt and Germany,” Deakins said, adding that he’ll be spending about half of his time for the first year at the new office.

When the team was assessing where an office could be, they considered cities in Spain, England and France, but ultimately German culture and attention to detail matched well with Deacom culture.

The location within Europe was was also an essential part of picking Frankfurt. Deakins cited its central location to the rest of the continent and strong network of transportation.

“It’s an exciting time,” Deakins said. “We’re really committing to Frankfurt.”