Yodle plans for employee growth at North Austin office

Photo by Amy Denney

Online marketing company Yodle moved into a new office in September in North Austin. Two walls are engraved with the word Yodle and include a gong that employees bang when they make a big sale.

New York–based Yodle, a company that assists small businesses with their online presence, is planning to expand its Austin office from 550 employees to 800 in the next couple of years, CEO Court Cunningham said.

Employees in Austin work in sales and service, marketing, and product development, and Yodle will hire employees for all three areas, he said. Yodle's products help about 45,000 small businesses—from dentists to plumbers—with managing websites, Facebook pages and email lists to reach new customers and retain existing ones.

Cunningham said it will not be difficult to fill new positions because of the company's culture. Yodle hosts game nights and recruitment events for nonemployees to interact with Yodle employees and get to know more about that culture.

"Austin is not only a great place to do business because of the quality of life, reasonable cost of living and high caliber of individuals with all the people coming out of the university, we also found our recruiting boundary is really all of the [Southwest]," he said. "We have people who want to move to Austin from Arizona, Colorado. We've had great success with getting people to move Austin."

At least once a quarter, Cunningham said he visits the Austin office at which about half of the company's 1,100 employees work. He announced the growth plans during his recent visit in early October.

In September 2012, Yodle opened its 100,000-square-foot Austin office at 12234 N. I-35.

As to whether the company would relocate its headquarters to Austin, Cunningham said it is an idea that is not off the table but one he is not actively pursuing.

"Never say never, but it's not high on our list right now," he said.

Yodle is hosting an information session Oct. 22 from 6–8 p.m. at Kung Fu Saloon, 510 Rio Grande St., for people interested in a sales position. Interested attendees should register for the event.