26 Mar Glendale News-Press: Local Tech ‘Titan’ Moving Headquarters to Former Nestlé Building
By Lila Seidman
Glendale-grown “unicorn” startup ServiceTitan will be moving its headquarters to 800 N. Brand Blvd., occupying office space that Nestlé vacated last year.
It was a matter of finding a big enough space for the expanding home-services software company’s 1,000 employees, a number that grew from 500 over the course of last year, according to company co-founders Vahe Kuzoyan and Ara Mahdessian.
With the leased space spanning 125,000 square feet — the founders anticipate it will be able to accommodate an additional 1,000 employees they plan to hire by the end of this year. Fellow tenants in the 21-story property include Disqo, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Union Bank.
“We’ve constantly been in an exercise of running out of space and frantically trying to solve for that,” Kuzoyan said after a press conference Monday, where the announcement was made. The company is currently located across the street from its new headquarters.
Glendale residents Mahdessian and Kuzoyan, son of a contractor and a plumber, respectively, met during college and went on to build a software suite designed to be used by electricians, plumbers, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning-repair technicians and other home-service providers.
It resonated with a large, untapped market. The company is now valued at $1.65 billion, raising a whopping $165 million in venture capital this past November. It is referred to as a “unicorn” startup because of the rarity of such private companies exceeding a billion dollars’ value.
When Nestlé announced two years ago it would be leaving Glendale, taking roughly 1,200 jobs with it, “many viewed viewed it as a cataclysmic economic event,” Mayor Zareh Sinanyan said during the press conference.
A year before Nestlé’s announcement, Sinanyan announced an initiative to develop Glendale as a tech hub. ServiceTitan’s decision to remain in the city signals that the plan is working, he said.
Beacon Capital Partners, owner of 800 N. Brand, will be adding a tenant lounge and café, as well as refurbishing the property’s fitness center and lobby. It also hopes to breathe life into the plaza with fresh landscaping and seating, said Conan Cotrell, a managing partner with the firm.
It’s all part of a plan to continue as a hyper-growth company, Mahdessian said.
“We’re trying to make the biggest impact that we can,” Mahdessian said. “That requires being able to recruit the best talent … and to be able to do that, you really do need to create the highest-grade work environment for the team.”
That’s why they’ll be building a basketball court for the office, he added.
Serving as the proverbial cherry on top, ServiceTitan will install its logo onto the face of the building.
It’s the aspect of the move that Kuzoyan said he is most excited about.
“It’s a pretty iconic building in Glendale,” he said, “and it’s cool to be able to see our logo from the freeway.”
Source: Glendale News-Press