The views are pretty sweet from GoDaddy’s new office at Kirkland’s Carillon Point, but CEO Blake Irving knows that the prime waterfront location and unique culture aren’t the only reasons the company has been able to grow its fledgling Seattle-area engineering office so quickly.
GoDaddy is in a rare position as a privately held company with an established business, and expanded mission, a growing customer base, and sizable revenue that is only now starting to expand aggressively outside the United States.
With equity serving as a common part of compensation, the prospect of the company going public at some point in the future can serve as an extra enticement for engineers working at more established companies such as Microsoft.
“That doesn’t hurt,” acknowledged Irving, the Microsoft and Yahoo veteran, in an interview during the official opening of the Kirkland office this afternoon.
GoDaddy, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has grown its Seattle-area engineering, product management and design team to 23 people so far.
Even as the company cut the ribbon on the new office today, Irving said GoDaddy is planning to expand beyond its existing 10,000 square feet by adding another 4,000 square feet in the building.
That’s expected to be followed by further expansion. Over the next year, the company is aiming to hire another 50 people in the region.
GoDaddy, with a total work force of 4,000 people, is the latest in a series of technology companies from outside the state to establish engineering outposts in Seattle, aiming to tap into the pool of talent in the startup community, the University of Washington and larger tech companies. Arnold Blinn, a 17-year veteran of the Redmond company, joined GoDaddy as chief architect to start the Kirkland office.
Here are more picture from inside the office at the event today.
