By Raechel Dawson
Reporter Newspapers
The world’s largest provider of web hosting and domain names, Go Daddy, has hopes of expanding its company to the Northwest. But first executives need to pick a central location: Bellevue or Kirkland.
Go Daddy already has a temporary location at Carillon Point.
International Senior Vice President James Carroll described the Eastside as a “hotbed for talent. This is really where people want to live and it’s where people will live and raise families.”
While Carroll couldn’t disclose how many new employees the company is seeking to hire, he said the presence of big tech-companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and eBay, assures him of the Internet and web talent around the area.
The permanent expansion, wherever executives may choose, is expected to open in June, according to a Go Daddy press release.
“I think what we’re looking at is to be very aggressive, both in terms of finding the right talent and finding the right location,” said Auguste Goldman, chief of people officer at Go Daddy.
In addition to garnering Washington’s technological talent, Go Daddy plans to make the Eastside location a place to kick-off international products and services.
“Looking at the history of companies like Microsoft in the region, they’re really one of the first companies to go international in a big way,” said Carroll.
Goldman said their Eastside location will be the headquarters around some of Go Daddy’s niche products and services they intend to develop.
Go Daddy is a private company that is backed by KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures.
“The reason to join Go Daddy is simple … you can make a difference at a company that is hell-bent on changing the world,” CEO Blake Irving said in a press release. “We have the opportunity to help small businesses in ways no one else in the space is doing right now.”
Before Irving took over as Go Daddy CEO in January, he was the former chief product officer at Yahoo! and a longtime Microsoft executive. In February, he expanded offices in Silicon Valley; acquired M.dot, a mobile application that allows users to create a website from a smart phone; and hired a slew of veteran executives from Microsoft, Google, Amazon and eBay, among others.
Three of the eight new hires are located at the temporary Kirkland location and are former Microsoft employees. That includes Arnold Blinn, chief architect; Rick Eames, the senior vice president of design and user experience; and Scott Isaacs, distinguished engineer.
By Raechel Dawson can be contacted at rdawson@kirklandreporter.com
