Whoa: Monetate will move its HQ to a forthcoming New York office

Monetate, one of Philly’s flagship e-marketing companies, announced Tuesday the relocation of its headquarters from Conshohocken, Pa., to New York City.

CEO Lucinda Duncalfe told Technical.ly over the phone that the company’s Conshy office, which currently houses around two-thirds of the company’s workforce, will stay put, as will the Palo Alto, Calif., and London locations, though the Philly footprint will likely shrink.

“The reasoning behind this is: we want to be closer to our clients who are sitting in the midst of the marketing ecosystem,” Duncalfe said. “And it’s all in NYC. We want to make NYC our spiritual head.”

Though the exact location of the New York space has not been determined, Duncalfe said it will initially house client-oriented functions, including executive, sales and services staff. It’s expected to be up and running by the first quarter of 2017. The exec, who became CEO of Monetate in 2014 and has overseen the company’s sometimes-rocky shift from startup to corporation, will split her time between the New York and Philadelphia offices, and will continue to spend time in Monetate’s other two locations.

Duncalfe declined to disclose the company’s current headcount, which we last tracked at around 200. The move to NYC is also a sign, Duncalfe said, of the company’s return to the “one-to-one personalization” space (which means retailers can tailor experiences to individual customers) which started 18 months ago. “That now is coming to fruition,” Duncalfe said.

Of course, we had to ask the key question that usually follows announcements like these. Any layoffs coming? “Yeah, you will see staffing changes. None so far,” Duncalfe said. “Our staffing changes are more around aligning behind our personalization drive than the NYC announcement. Of course, with any strategic move like this there are organizational changes. People will shift roles and shift in and out of the business as our needs evolve.”

Several employees have been offered relocation to the new office, and the company has job openings based in New York.

“This is the first in a drumbeat of announcements,” Duncalfe said. “You’re going to hear client stories, personnel changes, product announcements over the next quarter.”

It’s not clear yet what this will mean for the Philly tech scene, as Monetate was arguably one of the biggest, most established tech companies in the region. But if making New York the company’s “spiritual head” is the right move for Monetate, might it also be the right move for the Philly tech scene, at least in the longterm?