SAN DIEGO— There are real competitive advantages to small businesses being in San Diego; people just need to know more about them, Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps Inc.—a successful mobile-app start-up that recently relocated to La Jolla, CA, from San Francisco—tells GlobeSt.com. The firm intends to create more than 100 new jobs for the city and was recently joined by Mayor Kevin Faulconer for a press conference to announce its official office opening. We spoke with Gazdecki about the move to the San Diego market, what draw the company in and how San Diego could improve its offerings for young businesses.
GlobeSt.com: What drew you to the San Diego market specifically, and what are your growth plans here?
Gazdecki: Our growth plan as a company is to add 100 new jobs to the San Diego area over the upcoming year. What drew us to San Diego is the untapped talent emerging from the universities as well as the experienced talent. We needed both: entry-level employees and really talented experienced people. We get that from Qualcomm and other local companies. We were also drawn here because we felt it was an untapped area, and we could essentially be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. But the main reason was the talent—we wanted to attract the very best talent, and the talent pool here is better than other areas we looked at. Considering UC San Diego has one of the biggest computer-science programs in the whole nation, it was very attractive to us. Coming from San Francisco, San Diego is not the cheapest area, but what you get are ocean views; Hired.com says San Diego is the number-one relocation choice, and the quality of life compared to Seattle, Austin, Las Vegas or some of the other cheaper locations is unparalleled.
GlobeSt.com: What does San Diego offer new companies that other markets can't?
Gazdecki: From our experience, I think it's the support from the City. Mayor Kevin Faulconer has been a huge support in really creating excitement around start-ups in a way I've never seen. Our moving down here created a local media buzz. San Diego wants fun, exciting, fast-paced start-ups, and it's great to have the whole city rooting for you and supporting you. We're proud to call San Diego home; it's a better place to work, we stand out more and are able to attract higher-quality talent because of the attention we received from the media, the mayor and the local EDC. San Diego as a city is starting to provide more for start-ups to help fuel the innovation economy that they're looking to continue to build, and I think they're doing an absolutely incredible job.
GlobeSt.com: What could San Diego stand to improve on in its offerings for young businesses?
Gazdecki: There probably needs to be more affordable housing. For businesses like ours and obviously for entry-level employees, San Diego is still fairly expensive—not as much as San Francisco, but affordable housing is number one on the wish list for our employees. Also, having more of a guide to what it takes to move people down here would be helpful—anything it takes to attract start-ups down here. I read a stat that 60% of computer-science students leave San Diego, and we want people to stay. For businesses like ours, anything that can attract more start-ups down here and provide a full service for how you move your company to San Diego and how the city can help. We just kind of jumped down here based on the research we had done, but if there was more of this type of dialogue going on, it would attract more companies out of the Bay Area. You don't have to be in the Bay Area to grow a tech company—there are real competitive advantages to being in San Diego. People just need to know more about them.
GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about your company's growth trajectory?
Gazdecki: We were on the Inc. 500's fastest-growing companies list for two years in a row. In 2014, we were ranked the 58th fastest-growing private company in America; in 2015, we were ranked #91. A fun fact about Bizness Apps is we have created more mobile apps than any other company in the world—500,000 thus far—adding more as every month goes by. There are tons of growth and opportunity in this market, largely because the mobile market is so massive. What we do offer is an easy way for any small business to create a mobile app for their customers, either via mobile loyalty programs, mobile shopping carts, mobile reservation systems—the things that really drive customers back to a business and keep them loyal and retain them. Some could say that 80% of a small business's revenue comes from 20% of their best customers, so if we're able to provide those tools at a really low cost, our revenue increases. We're in markets including Brazil, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, helping small businesses connect with their customers wherever they are. We want to take every small business in the world mobile.
SAN DIEGO— There are real competitive advantages to small businesses being in San Diego; people just need to know more about them, Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps Inc.—a successful mobile-app start-up that recently relocated to La Jolla, CA, from San Francisco—tells GlobeSt.com. The firm intends to create more than 100 new jobs for the city and was recently joined by Mayor Kevin Faulconer for a press conference to announce its official office opening. We spoke with Gazdecki about the move to the San Diego market, what draw the company in and how San Diego could improve its offerings for young businesses.
GlobeSt.com: What drew you to the San Diego market specifically, and what are your growth plans here?
Gazdecki: Our growth plan as a company is to add 100 new jobs to the San Diego area over the upcoming year. What drew us to San Diego is the untapped talent emerging from the universities as well as the experienced talent. We needed both: entry-level employees and really talented experienced people. We get that from Qualcomm and other local companies. We were also drawn here because we felt it was an untapped area, and we could essentially be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. But the main reason was the talent—we wanted to attract the very best talent, and the talent pool here is better than other areas we looked at. Considering UC San Diego has one of the biggest computer-science programs in the whole nation, it was very attractive to us. Coming from San Francisco, San Diego is not the cheapest area, but what you get are ocean views; Hired.com says San Diego is the number-one relocation choice, and the quality of life compared to Seattle, Austin, Las Vegas or some of the other cheaper locations is unparalleled.
GlobeSt.com: What does San Diego offer new companies that other markets can't?
Gazdecki: From our experience, I think it's the support from the City. Mayor Kevin Faulconer has been a huge support in really creating excitement around start-ups in a way I've never seen. Our moving down here created a local media buzz. San Diego wants fun, exciting, fast-paced start-ups, and it's great to have the whole city rooting for you and supporting you. We're proud to call San Diego home; it's a better place to work, we stand out more and are able to attract higher-quality talent because of the attention we received from the media, the mayor and the local EDC. San Diego as a city is starting to provide more for start-ups to help fuel the innovation economy that they're looking to continue to build, and I think they're doing an absolutely incredible job.
GlobeSt.com: What could San Diego stand to improve on in its offerings for young businesses?
Gazdecki: There probably needs to be more affordable housing. For businesses like ours and obviously for entry-level employees, San Diego is still fairly expensive—not as much as San Francisco, but affordable housing is number one on the wish list for our employees. Also, having more of a guide to what it takes to move people down here would be helpful—anything it takes to attract start-ups down here. I read a stat that 60% of computer-science students leave San Diego, and we want people to stay. For businesses like ours, anything that can attract more start-ups down here and provide a full service for how you move your company to San Diego and how the city can help. We just kind of jumped down here based on the research we had done, but if there was more of this type of dialogue going on, it would attract more companies out of the Bay Area. You don't have to be in the Bay Area to grow a tech company—there are real competitive advantages to being in San Diego. People just need to know more about them.
GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about your company's growth trajectory?
Gazdecki: We were on the Inc. 500's fastest-growing companies list for two years in a row. In 2014, we were ranked the 58th fastest-growing private company in America; in 2015, we were ranked #91. A fun fact about Bizness Apps is we have created more mobile apps than any other company in the world—500,000 thus far—adding more as every month goes by. There are tons of growth and opportunity in this market, largely because the mobile market is so massive. What we do offer is an easy way for any small business to create a mobile app for their customers, either via mobile loyalty programs, mobile shopping carts, mobile reservation systems—the things that really drive customers back to a business and keep them loyal and retain them. Some could say that 80% of a small business's revenue comes from 20% of their best customers, so if we're able to provide those tools at a really low cost, our revenue increases. We're in markets including Brazil, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, helping small businesses connect with their customers wherever they are. We want to take every small business in the world mobile.
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