[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ustin’s tech industry is booming as more than $900 million was invested in its resident 5,485 high-tech companies as of 2015, according to Innovate Austin.
However, for at least one high-tech software company, the city’s traffic was a deal breaker.
Accio Data, a company that provides software to employment screening and background investigation firms, has been operating as one of the lone high-tech companies in Dripping Springs since 2005.
“The owner of the company (Barry Boes) did not want to live in Austin, and he loved Dripping Springs and wanted to have his software company out here as well,” said Accio Data Marketing Director Galen Svanas.
Svanas said just as many people move to Austin to get out of California, Boes “bucked the trend” of keeping tech in Austin and moved his family and company to Dripping Springs. He expects when programmers get older and to a different stage of life, the appeal of Austin’s night life may wear off.
“I think technology companies tend to draw younger employees straight out of college ... Similarly, more established software companies tend to get more people who are interested in quality of life – they start having families so they’re worried about schools and how much time it takes to get to work, which is what we’re trying to appeal to. We’re definitely trying to appeal to different age and life stage of an employee than a lot of tech companies in Austin are trying to do.”
Galen Svanas, Accio Data Marketing Director
The company has taken out billboard advertisements targeted at programmers in Dripping Springs in an effort to make their existence known in the unlikely destination for a tech company.
“We know there are some programmers who live here in Dripping Springs, some who live in Belterra, Wimberley, Kyle and places like that,” Svanas said. “So we want to make sure they’re aware that there’s a great company to work for in Dripping Springs in case they don’t want to deal with the hassle of Austin traffic.”
According to a 2015 report by Inrix, Interstate Highway 35 from Ben White Boulevard to Martin Luther King Boulevard ranks No. 24 on the list of 356 most congested roads in the nation. A distance that would take only five minutes to travel during minimum traffic times takes 32 minutes to cover during peak congestion, the study found.
Five other stretches of commonly congested Austin roads rank within the nations 32 most congested roads during peak travel time, according to the study.
“I can tell you I actually live in Austin in Oak Hill and it takes me less time to get to my job here in Dripping Springs than it ever took me to get anywhere I was in Austin,” Svanas said.
Although Accio has to compete with Austin to hire “really good programmers”, Svanas said finding customers is no issue for the coding company since it markets its services internationally.
“Accio Data is here and if you’re a programmer and you’d like to stay here in the area and not deal with all the traffic – we exist out here and we’d love to talk.”
