OpenGov, a company that makes cloud financial software for state and local governments, has opened an office at 247 W. Freshwater Way in the Global Water Center building in Walker’s Point.
The company has already hired 17 Milwaukee-based employees and plans to have a total of 37 by the end of the year — including the company’s president, David Reeves. OpenGov anticipates having 100 employees in its Milwaukee office within three years, according to the company.
Based in San Jose, California, OpenGov moved into its Milwaukee office in June 2020 and opened for limited in-person attendance in early April 2021. It also has offices in Portland, Chicago, Boston and Grapevine, Texas.
Reeves, who is originally from Milwaukee and is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, moved back from California last year during the Covid-19 pandemic and now lives and works in Milwaukee full time.
But the decision to launch OpenGov’s Milwaukee office started before the pandemic, during a conversation with Reeves and Marquette University president Michael Lovell, Reeves told the Milwaukee Business Journal. After Reeves expressed interest in opening a Milwaukee location, Lovell encouraged OpenGov to hire Marquette graduates and suggested that Marquette could provide office space.
Subsequently, OpenGov hired several Marquette graduates and Marquette University leased the West Freshwater Way office space to the company from June 2020 to June 2021, as confirmed by Marquette University.
"We're excited to partner with OpenGov and to help play a role in the development of a tech talent and employment pipeline in Milwaukee," Lovell told the Milwaukee Business Journal in a statement. "Not just for Marquette graduates, but for the city and the region."
OpenGov has been building its Milwaukee team with entry-level employees as well as more senior professionals, Reeves said. The roles span from implementation analysts who help deploy OpenGov software, to individuals who work on marketing, training, sales or finance. The company currently has several open jobs posted on its website for Milwaukee-based roles.
OpenGov’s core product is its enterprise resource planning (ERP) cloud software, which is designed for state and local government agencies to help with budgeting, accounting, citizen services and reporting. More than 1,000 government agencies already use the product, including the cities of Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Baltimore, as well as state agencies in California, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
Founded in 2012, OpenGov has raised more than $140 million in funding from venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, JC2 Ventures, Weatherford Capital and Emerson Collective. The company's founders include its current CEO, Zac Bookman; Joe Lonsdale, the company's current chairman and founder of 8VC; and a group of Stanford University engineers.
The company’s board includes several high-profile executives: Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz; John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO); Katherine August-deWilde, former president of First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC); and Amy Pressman, co-founder and former president of Medallia (NYSE: MDLA), an experience management software company.
OpenGov’s Milwaukee office is drawing excitement from the city’s local technology community.
“This provides the opportunity for early-career professionals to work for the fast-growing tech industry right here in Milwaukee,” MKE Tech Hub Coalition CEO Kathy Henrich said in an email. “(Reeves) is a positive advocate for the region within his networks and is invested in growing our tech community.”
Reeves is not the first Wisconsin alumnus and technology professional to move back to the area from Silicon Valley. Several others have done so, including Glenn Reid, a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate who developed Apple’s iMovie software. Reid moved his family and company, Marathon Laundry Machines, to the Milwaukee area in 2019.
“Bringing some of that fire from Silicon Valley and mixing it with the common sense and strong work ethic of Milwaukee is the perfect recipe for success,” Reid said in an email. “You need a little of that lighter fluid from Silicon Valley, but you also need the oak and hickory firewood of the Midwest to build a lasting fire.”
