Why Global Software Companies Call Las Vegas Home
(Las Vegas) – Dear LVGEA Supporters,
I meet many amazing companies as CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, but I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you a story about one company that stands out for all the right reasons: economic diversification, high-wage jobs, community investment, and local-born talent.
Housed in The InNEVation Center at Switch’s SUPERNAP campus, Originate is a global company that partners with F500 companies and high-growth startups to build innovative custom software products and technology platforms — and it was started by a Bonanza High School (c/o ‘95) graduate.
As an enterprising young man, Rob Meadows left Las Vegas to make his name in tech in Silicon Valley. His company was growing, he was looking for expansion opportunities, and he thought of his hometown, Las Vegas.
“The question was, is there a tech ecosystem there that would make sense?” Rob said. In other words, does Southern Nevada have a large enough skilled tech workforce for Originate to open an office there? The answer was a resounding “yes”.
“What really pushed the decision to go to Las Vegas was when we were introduced to Switch,” Rob said. “There are people who are taking technology seriously in Las Vegas. So we pulled the trigger and started hiring.”
Originate has 138 of the world’s top software designers, developers, and product strategists located across 8 global offices including Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, China and Sweden. Twenty of them are located right here in Las Vegas and that number will only continue to grow, so they’ve become embedded in our community. They’re hiring software developers out of the University of Nevada Las Vegas; they’re providing advice and lending their expertise to public agencies, helping build software that will make online business licensing easier; they’ve judged entrants in Rep. Dina Titus’ and Rep. Joe Heck’s Congressional App Challenge. They even allow their designers and developers to use 20 percent of their time at work to build a start-up. It’s called the Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) program, and its spawned three start-ups to date.
Now Rob and his team are using the Las Vegas office as a global business destination for their seven other global offices.
“This has started to become Originates’ global meeting point, the hub,” Rob said. “There are direct flights from everywhere in the world which makes it convenient to bring our partners together. There is housing, food and entertainment allowing us to easily bring in 40-50 people to the InNEVation Center.”
That’s all to say that this amazing company is a huge asset for Southern Nevada as we grow our tech community, and its positive proof that economic diversification is working in the Las Vegas Valley.
Originate is an incredible company, and I hope you take a few minutes to explore what they do at http://www.originate.com.
President & CEO, Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance
Breanna Bensoua