Digital product development agency 352 Inc. has officially moved it’s headquarters to a new office in Midtown Atlanta. 352 Inc, which started in a University of Florida fraternity house bedroom in 1997, has since evolved into a Fortune 5000 digital agency with over 80 employees dispersed among multiple teams in Gainesville, Tampa and Atlanta.
Although the Atlanta location is now the official headquarters, 352 is committed to its Gainesville roots. 352 Inc signed a long-term lease and, along with Tioga Town Center’s management team, invested more than $200,000 into the custom build-out of their new Gainesville office in early 2014
352 has grown exponentially since initially opening their Atlanta office in 2006. Growing from just a few Atlanta employees to currently more than 30, 352 plans to hire at least 20 more employees over the next 18 months. As the company began acquiring larger clients, Wilson and his executive team have decided to move 352’s headquarters from Florida to Atlanta’s Biltmore building, one of the city’s most prominent social and business hubs.
When 352’s work with AutoTrader Group expanded and when the agency won several new clients in 2014 including the Chik-Fil-A Peach Bowl, CNN and the Atlanta Speech School, Wilson saw an opportunity to expand aggressively in Atlanta. Through digital prototyping, user research, custom development and marketing, 352’s Atlanta-based teams have launched websites and digital products for these companies and many other Atlanta organizations.
“While having a ‘local’ partner might not seem important when you’re working in the virtual world, having 352 in town with us has been a huge asset to our business,” said David Epps, COO of Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. “There’s something about sitting across the table from an excited, experienced, creative team that generates a different energy and connection when you’re working toward such important goals. We’ve been incredibly pleased with our partnership with 352 thus far – and are so happy to have a team here in Atlanta that is dedicated to playing a meaningful role in the enhancement of our brand.”
“Atlanta represents a tremendous opportunity for us,” Wilson said. “The strong start-up culture and mentality, surplus of meetup groups and organizations like TAG as well as the ever-growing pool of talent are all reasons why we decided to headquarter 352 in Atlanta.
Atlanta is on the fast track to becoming one of the top cities for tech startups. 352 has access to the city’s wealth of Fortune 500 companies, like AutoTrader, CNN, and SunTrust, and their key decision-makers to help bolster customer growth. The city is also home to more than 60 colleges and universities, including Georgia Tech and Emory University. True to its college-town roots, 352 hopes to tap this source of technology recruitment and entrepreneurial spirit.
According to Robert Berris, VP Digital Strategy, 352 works in location based teams. Each team consists of 6 or more employees. These teams replicate mini agencies and work on one project at a time. Although 352 Inc client engagements are largely on a project basis, rather than retainer, over 75% of their work is through additional projects with existing clients.
Currently, the Atlanta, Gainesville and Tampa offices are all similar is size with three teams each totalling roughly 30 employees per city. Berris estimates that the Gainesville and Tampa offices are poised to take on an additional five employees per location while the Atlanta office will likely remain steady through the remainder of 2015.
During their Gainesville grand opening celebration in 2014 Geoff Wilson, 352 president and CEO affirmed their commitment to Gainesville, stating “We’re proud to be part of the Gainesville community, and we’re especially proud that our company’s name, 352, symbolizes the city that gave us our start. Someday we hope to be one of the most respected digital agencies in the world, and when people ask us what our name stands for, we’ll have a great story to tell about the city we love.”