Plenty of us who live in South Austin cringe at the thought of driving north to do just about anything. But if you live up north, especially near The Domain, you know it’s a fast-growing and hopping area. Some are even calling it Austin's second downtown.
Paul O’Brien, also known as SEO’Brien, wrote that driving through The Domain these days (and much of North Austin) “feels like driving through Mountain View or San Mateo (CA), with Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, and more making it feel like you’re in tech country.”
Indeed, there are plenty of tech giants out in the land of beautiful department stores and Sprinkles cupcakes.
Not only that, but with the growing tech corridor on the north end of Loop 1 comes the need for multiple tech meetups. Marc Nathan and the team at OpenCoffee hosts a meet-up every third Wednesday at Whole Foods Domain, with other meet-ups happening elsewhere up north. Tech Ranch holds weekly fireside chats at the incubator’s offices a mile or two away at MoPac and U.S. 183. WeWork has offices at The Domain and hosts events there. And there’s more activity popping up every week.
Let’s break down some cool companies that have offices in or near The Domain.
The Giants
Amazon
Why You’ve Heard of Them: Perhaps you’ve made an order on Amazon Prime, or streamed a movie on the service. Maybe you’ve sent a holiday gift to someone via the service? All in all, Amazon is the biggest player in the e-commerce world and opened its Austin office in 2015. The company is said to have as many as 450 employees there.
Why You've Heard of Them: You have a connected device and you're on planet Earth. With 2 billion users, they've reached almost everyone in the developed world in some way. The company's primary Austin offices are downtown. But the Austin Business Journal reported in January Facebook would open an office in the same building as Amazon at the Domain.
Blackbaud
Why You’ve Heard of Them: If you’ve ever tried to fundraise, work at a nonprofit, or work in education Blackbaud has been your software of choice. The company makes their offices in the heart of The Domain, and the company recently acquired Austin startup Academic Works.
Accruent
Why You’ve Heard of Them: Accruent runs in the real estate space as a software company that helps in facility management and lease administration. The company has been up north since 2010. It opened its office at The Domain in November last year and now has all 450 Austin employees under one roof.
HomeAway
Why You’ve heard of them: Maybe you’ve booked a vacation rental through there? The Austin-born company has several Austin offices, including downtown and south Austin. You can take a look inside The Domain space in our September 2015 Office Envy.
Nearby Giants You’ve Probably Heard of
Bazaarvoice
The social commerce software company opened its new offices west of MoPac and The Domain at the Stonelake Office Park in February 2016. (See our February 2016 Office Envy)
IBM
The tech giant has several offices along Burnet Road just east of The Domain, including one of 12 IBM research laboratories worldwide.
Absolute Software
The Canadian tech company opened its U.S. HQ in Austin in 2009.
The University of Texas J.J. Pickle Research Campus
This facility, just south of The Domain, houses the Texas Advance Computing Center's largest supercomputing systems. There are few more advanced systems in the world.
Some Smaller Players
Q1 Media
Who They Are: A full-service digital media company that has made their home in Austin for years. The company made the move to The Domain in 2015 in order to give space to their ever-expanding roster of employees.
EyeQ
Who They Are: An analytics platform for brands that provides insights from and ways to engage with shoppers. The company just made the move from downtown to Greenway Central, about three miles from The Domain.
Get Paid Up
Who They Are: Plenty of Northside parents have their children participate in sports leagues. Get Paid Up helps coaches by contacting parents in those leagues for payments fees. The company was founded by Allan Rayson out of his Bank SNB up north.
