Why Indy? That’s a question companies get asked every time there is an announcement about a relocation or expansion to Indianapolis. As someone that has been working in the tech industry in Indianapolis for 20+ years, my reaction is “Why not?”
With Atrium announcing the opening of our new office here for our 30 employees based in the greater Indianapolis area, let me highlight some of the reasons we chose Indianapolis and Indiana as a solution center.
Access to Talent
The access to talented people is by far the number one reason for us to be here. A big part of that talent is in the local universities and colleges in Indiana, where we heavily recruit and bring recent graduates into our Luminate program.
Over ⅓ of our team graduated from an Indiana university or college in the last two years. After a little training, these team members shine brightly and the comment I hear constantly from the team outside of Indiana is “These Luminate hires are so good, I’m so glad I wasn’t competing with them when I graduated college.”
But it isn’t just the Indiana colleges that are generating top talent. Salesforce’s Pathfinder program, a workforce development program designed to train individuals with technical and business skills to become the next generation of Trailblazers, regardless of background, demographics, and socioeconomic status, has been a solid partner to Atrium, and has produced fantastic talent! We’ve hired half dozen graduates from Pathfinder and we are committed to continuing to hire from the program as we scale!
While we would love to fill all our positions from recent college graduates or Pathfinder grads, there is always the need to hire experienced team members as projects demand them. Indianapolis and Indiana as a whole have plenty of talent in the tech industry for us to find these team members as well.
Hoosier Culture
If you’ve visited Indy for one of the many big time events that we host every year, you might have been amazed by all the friendly and helpful volunteers. What you might not know is that it is a core part of Hoosier culture, so much it even has a name – Hoosier Hospitality. It’s something that is real and for us it fits into our culture as well.
At Atrium, as a consulting firm working with clients closely, the down to earth and friendly nature of our Indiana based employees is one of the ways we build trust that we are looking out for our client’s best interests and not just looking to make a buck. This is something that isn’t prevalent in all areas of the country, so not having to teach and break this with employees just saves time.
In addition, one of the items I love about Atrium is that the employees as a whole are very willing to help each other out with issues. Our ‘Halp’ chat room gets lots of questions and answers all day from everyone. We all know that if we have an issue or are stuck on a problem, all we have to do is ask someone and we’ll get help.
Location, Location, Location
We all know the saying the 3 most important things in real estate are Location, Location, and Location. Well for us Indy is the ideal place for our 2nd office in the US. We’ve got an office in Bozeman Montana, which really helps us serve the west coast and mountain regions of the country. But using it to serve our east coast clients is difficult. Indianapolis allows us to serve the central plains to the east coast and the southern states easily.
While we might not be traveling as much as we did prior to the pandemic, we still anticipate the need to travel to client sites. Indianapolis has a big enough airport to get us to the major areas we need efficiently.
Cost of Doing Business
When you take into consideration the talent, location, and the overall culture of the people, Indy stands out, but when you add in the cost of doing business in Indiana, I’m not sure there is a better place.
First and foremost, we pay at competitive rates nationally. But here that goes farther than in Silicon Valley. Just take a look at one of the many different cost of living calculators on the Internet. The Indianapolis metro area is typically anywhere from 8-15% below the national average. Silicon Valley, well they are often double the national average. We want our employees to enjoy life outside of working for Atrium and them being located in a place where their salary easily allows them to do that is what we want.
Outside of the employees, Indiana’s corporate tax rate is also one of the lowest in the country. Indiana and the IEDC has made it very painless for companies to apply for and receive tax credits and grants that further reduce the cost to the company to be located and grow their presence here.
While I might be biased, I don’t think Atrium could have chosen a better place to put down roots. I can’t wait to see how we grow and impact Indianapolis over the next few years.
Does that sound exciting to you? We’re hiring! Check out our open positions here and we’ll be thrilled to meet you.
