Monday, September 10, 2007

Why OnForce is Moving to Boston

I ran into someone yesterday who mentioned that OnForce, a NYC start-up backed by General Catalyst, is in the process of moving from New York to Boston.

OnForce is basically an online marketplace for short-term technical gigs, like installing a bunch of new desktops, diagnosing printer problems, or setting up videoconferencing systems. The company's CEO, Peter Cannone, e-mailed me today, and the first thing I asked was, what's behind your decision to move to Boston?

Here's what he said:

    As we continue to build out the Company the biggest and most important short term need we have is highly skilled developers/engineers as well as product design and development folks. It was very difficult to find these folks in New York City. When we assessed a new location for our Company we thought Silicon Valley, Austin, Texas or Boston, MA. Boston MA was the clear choice for us. We have already hired some very talented folks up in Boston including a CTO and a Director of Product Development. Many of these folks are working in temporary space in Cambridge. As a validation of the decision one of my Board Members Marty Abbott previous CTO of EBAY who is very knowledgeable about locations of marketplace companies like OnForce was very supportive of the Boston move. Having [General Catalyst] close by also makes available additional resources which we can take advantage of. They are great VC firm. We will be opening the office in Lexington MA in early October and hopefully transitioning most of our employees from NYC by year end.

There you have it.

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1 Comments:

Blogger mike said...

I am always surprised when people instantly assume you need to move out west to make it big. As an entrepreneur who has worked at startups in the Bay Area and in Boston, I am staying here in Boston.

Rent is higher in the Bay Area, wages are higher, and there is a ton of competition for hiring the best folks, and frankly, the best folks start in Boston, coming out of MIT and Harvard. (Sorry Stanford, but its true you can't compete against the combo of MIT and Harvard.)

September 11, 2007 10:35 AM  

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