GoDaddy officially opened its new Kirkland office with a formal ribbon cutting ceremony this afternoon.
Kirkland Mayor Joan McBride and GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving led the opening of the new Carillon Point 10,000-square-foot office overlooking Lake Washington.
Upon entering the new space, guests were greeted with a modern lobby, two private conference rooms at the hall, which entered into a wide open space where desks, offices and a long table are strategically faced so that employees can enjoy the view of Lake Washington.
GoDaddy International Senior Vice President James Carroll said this was possibly one of GoDaddy’s most beautiful office locations.
“It was an easy choice, it was our first choice,” Carroll said about the Kirkland location pick, which was pitted against other Puget Sound cities in a few months ago.
Irving, a 15-year Microsoft veteran, took over GoDaddy CEO in January and identified Kirkland as a prime location for recruiting top-tier technology talent in June. GoDaddy opened a temporary office in Kirkland last spring, as it built out the new, larger office.
“Our mission here at GoDaddy is to radically shift the global economy toward small business by empowering people to easily start, confidently grow and successfully run their own ventures,” Irving said. “Kirkland gives us access to an amazing cross-section of tech talent. We’re stoked to be here in this phenomenal space working with some of the best and brightest men and women in the tech industry.”
The GoDaddy office is a collaborative, contemporary environment, four times the size of its initial office space. Right now, 20 people work in GoDaddy’s Kirkland office, mostly technologists who specialize in engineering, design and product management. GoDaddy plans to hire another 50 people over the course of the next year and has plans of expanding the office to the west to accommodate growth.
“When I heard the GoDaddy mission and strategy, I was immediately drawn to the idea of joining a company so focused on changing the world,” said Chief Architect Arnold Blinn said. “We are building a tremendous team of engineers and developers here with one goal in mind — helping the go getter, the little guy, kick ass online.”
Blinn was one of GoDaddy’s first local hires.
Over recent months, GoDaddy executives have reshaped the company’s vision to focus on empowering very small businesses, enterprises with one to five employees, and other individuals who labor for the love of it. The company has invested in its technology portfolio, overhauled its hosting infrastructure, redesigned its online customer experience and expanded its around-the-clock, personalized customer service.
GoDaddy has attracted talented leaders from companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Yahoo! Intuit, AT&T and Cisco. GoDaddy is recognized for being a great place to work and was honored in Fortune magazine’s 2012 Best Companies to Work For list. GoDaddy was honored with numerous national and local employment awards over the years, including a sixth year on the national Alfred P. Sloan’s Flexible Workplace list.
GoDaddy employs more than 4,000 people and serves 12 million paying customers around the world. The Arizona-based company also has offices in Sunnyvale, Calif.; Cambridge, Mass.; and Hiawatha, Iowa along with an international presence in Asia, Europe, India and Canada.
To find out more about working with the GoDaddy team, visit www.GoDaddy.com/Jobs.
Photos by Raechel Dawson, Kirkland Reporter.
