Less than two years after moving home to Milwaukee and establishing a local office for Silicon Valley-based software company OpenGov Inc., David Reeves stepped down as president of the growing firm, which has said it will hire at least 100 employees in Milwaukee.
But both Reeves and OpenGov plan to stay in Milwaukee.
OpenGov will maintain its Milwaukee office in the Global Water Center and will continue hiring local employees through a partnership with Marquette University, OpenGov director of marketing and communications Stephanie Beer said. It currently has 44 Milwaukee employees.
Reeves said that after successful stints as an executive at three different software companies — OpenGov, Zuora Inc. and PTC — "it was time to take a break and do new things," he wrote in a text message Thursday while on a flight to Phoenix.
"I was proud to have helped build a market-leading and transformational company in the GovTech space," he wrote, adding that he's still a large shareholder in OpenGov.
Reeves is now an executive in residence at Marquette, where he helps teach a class in the business school. He's also working on a project to help retain computer science and information systems students in Wisconsin after they graduate, he said.
Additionally, Reeves said he'll continue investing in and mentoring startups. He backed Character Capital's first $30 million venture fund, which is co-led by a former Google Ventures partner who has Wisconsin roots.
Since leaving OpenGov at the end of last year, Reeves also joined the board of Milwaukee nonprofit Journey House. He will take "plenty of time" to decide if he wants to take another operating role at a software company, he said.
"For certain, I am and will be working to create a strong tech ecosystem in (Milwaukee), as was always my plan," he wrote.
Reeves, a Milwaukee native, moved back to the city in 2020 after more than two decades living in Silicon Valley and elsewhere for work. He still had a residence in Menlo Park, California, but recently sold it, he said.
OpenGov, which is based in San Jose, California, doesn't plan to backfill Reeves' position and has instead been restructuring since his departure, Beer said. It started a rotating system where executives, including CEO Zac Bookman and chief marketing officer Matt Singer, visit the Milwaukee and Chicago offices in order to have an in-person leadership presence, she added.
A cloud software provider for local governments, OpenGov has raised $200 million in capital to date, according to Beer, including a recent $50 million equity investment from Cox Enterprises in a Series D1 round. OpenGov reported 34% revenue growth in 2021.
Through a partnership with Marquette University that Reeves established, OpenGov hires entry-level associate implementation analysts. The Milwaukee office also includes sales, marketing and customer success managers, solutions architects and learning operations team members, Beer said.
