Christopher Aker hoped to attract developers to the Jersey shore town of Galloway, which he called home until recently, but now he appears to be throwing in the towel.
Eighteen months ago, Aker, the CEO of hosting company Linode, announced his efforts to get Philly talent to relocate to Galloway. He’s since changed his mind and plans to relocate to Philadelphia, said spokesman Keith Craig. He also moved to Philly a few months ago. The rapidly growing company is looking for office space now.
They have to follow the talent, Craig said.
He wrote in an email:
For employees coming onboard, working in Philadelphia offers off-hour, year-round activities, convenient public transportation, and a community of growing tech. The cloud isn’t shrinking. We’re going to need an anticipated 20-30 more team members over the next year just to keep pace. We need to be where those candidates are, and that’s Philadelphia.
Right now, Linode employs nearly 80, up from 40 at the end of 2013.
Most are based at the Galloway HQ but about 15 are based in a satellite office in Haddonfield, N.J., at the Kings Hall coworking space. The company saw a marked difference after opening an office in Haddonfield, hiring more than 15 in one month, Craig said. That pushed them to decide to move to Philly.
“To paraphrase WC Fields, ‘On the whole, we’d rather be in Philadelphia,'” Craig said.
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