When it came time for San Francisco-based
Force by Design to move easterly, principal and co-founder Micaiah Filkins, 32, thought first of his birthplace: Lansing, Mich.
Between the presence of
Michigan State University, a burgeoning IT community and the recruiting help of
Leap, Inc., it was soon clear that
Downtown East Lansing was just the place to expand Force by Design’s unique,
cloud-computing services.
"The Midwestern work ethic was really certainly a factor as well," says Filkins, who now lives in San Francisco.
"There is kind of a drought of our services on the East Coast. We wanted to get into an area where the wages were competive and we could be within striking distance of the major markets on the East Coast."
Force by Design’s high-wage MEGA tax credit of $231,000 was just granted on December 14th, but the company is already busy setting up shop, finalizing their lease on the second floor of the Marriott Building in East Lansing and getting people hired.
"We have already hired our first employee, who started last Monday, Filkins said. "We hope to be moving in sometime in February."
That one employee is just the beginning.
Over the next five years, Filkins says Force by Design intends to hire 50 employees and invest $430,000 in the region. And what will those 50 employees be doing? Ushering in the next era of computing. Filkins described the massive changes from the 1960s to the 1990s and then to present day.
"We see cloud computing as the next iteration of computing," he says. "We’re excited to be coming to town, and we know that people may not understand exactly what cloud-computing is, so we’ll be throwing several fun events to explain our services to the community."
Source: Micaiah Filkins, Force by Design
Writer: Natalie Burg, Interim News Editor
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