Company Culture

Why this West Chester company’s tech team works out of Old City

The team behind Traffic Safety Store, a West Chester manufacturer and retailer, had a problem. They couldn't find tech talent that was willing to commute to their office.

Traffic Safety Store's development team in its Old City space.

The team behind Traffic Safety Store, a West Chester manufacturer and retailer, had a problem. They couldn’t find tech talent who was willing to commute to their office.

“You could not pay people enough to get them out there,” said vice president Nick Eubanks. So they changed their strategy: they followed the talent.

Last January, Traffic Safety Store’s development team began working out of Old City coworking space Indy Hall, where Eubanks had been a longtime member.

“It made everything exponentially easier,” Eubanks said, referring to finding staffers, as well as temporary contractors to work on projects.

The roughly seven-person development team, which includes some contractors, has since outgrown Indy Hall and now shares a nearby space with MyClin, another startup that moved out of Indy Hall last January.

Moving the whole company to Philly is out of the question, Eubanks said, because of taxes, but more so because Traffic Safety Store operates out of a 40,000 square foot warehouse, where it keeps its inventory.

Though on a smaller scale, the story of Traffic Safety Store’s team is reminiscent of large suburban tech firms like Fiberlink, Bentley Systems and iPipeline opening offices in Philly in part to handle the ongoing struggle of recruiting. Online reputation manager Brand.com also recently moved to Center City from West Chester to be closer to talent.

Companies: Indy Hall
Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Donate to the Journalism Fund

Your support powers our independent journalism. Unlike most business-media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational contributions.

Trending

West Virginia ranks last in innovation. Meet the people trying to change that.

How do H-1B visas work? Here’s everything you need to know

How Susquehanna strikes a balance in teaching, trading and taking risk

This interactive map shows where STEM learning happens in Philly

Technically Media