“It’s go time,” reads the slogan of website domain registrar GoDaddy, the company that manages more than 57 million domains for 12.5 million customers worldwide. In the past few years, the company has taken that slogan to heart when it comes to expanding its own business.
The Arizona-based company, which was established in 1997, employs more than 4,000 people, all of whom needed space to inspire continued innovation. Where many companies might focus on their existing spaces, however, GoDaddy took its future into its own hands by laying foundations throughout the United States. The company expanded its Arizona headquarters, but recent moves to Seattle, Washington, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Sunnyvale, California mean that the organization can also tap into local talent—using graduates from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the University of Washington to continue GoDaddy’s trajectory of success.
The growth, according to Calvin Crowder, GoDaddy’s senior director of real estate, is a reflection of the company’s leadership.
“When our CEO, Blake Irving, came aboard a few years ago, he dramatically changed the culture,” Crowder says. “We all began this mission to radically shift the global economy toward small business by empowering people to easily start, confidently grow, and successfully run their own ventures. To do that, we needed to transform the work space from the cube farms of the 1990s into an environment that inspired our employees to collaborate, innovate, and deliver best-in-class technology—and customer service—for our customers.”
Crowder says the work will continue. As of press time, GoDaddy was in the process of renovating its office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He says that project should be another feather in the company’s cap when it’s completed.
“Incredible leadership coupled with world-class work space is the one-two knockout,” Crowder says. “GoDaddy employees are passionate about our mission and feel inspired in the workplace every day to produce uncommonly good outcomes for millions of small businesses and individuals around the world.”
Here are some of the revamped locations that illustrate the company’s transition.
KIRKLAND, WASHINGTON
Size: 35,000 square feet
Overlooking Lake Washington in the Puget Sound region outside of Seattle, GoDaddy’s Kirkland office provides a modern open-office concept. The space is open and bright, with an array of both collaborative spaces and private conference rooms. A 30-foot meeting table in the middle of the main floor allows for both collaborative and individual work as well, and the office also features a self-serve bar and floor-to-ceiling fireplace.
Commuters to the building have a variety of options in which to reach the office: cyclists can store their bikes in a secure section, and even boaters can pull up and dock their watercraft in company-provided slips. Even with these amenities, GoDaddy doesn’t appear to be done with its work on the office. According to an August 2015 article in the Puget Sound Business Journal, GoDaddy had plans to expand the space to accommodate more than 225 new employees.
SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA
Size: 35,000 square feet
It’s only fitting that the tech-savvy company would have property in Silicon Valley, and the doors to its Sunnyvale office opened in 2014. Given the area’s strong competition for talent, GoDaddy had to find a way to set itself apart with this location.
In addition to colorful materials, the open space is connected by racetrack-themed hallways that include push-pedal go-karts. The thinking, according to a 2014 profile in Office Snapshots, was to create activity-based spaces to suit the employees. To this end, open environments inspire collaboration, but there are also focus rooms to provide space for concentration.
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
Size: 9,600 square feet
GoDaddy opened the Cambridge office—its first in Massachusetts—in 2014. The decision to secure space in the state was no accident, as the One Main Street location helps provide “access to top-notch technology talent at MIT and from Boston,” according to a statement from GoDaddy’s chief people officer, Auguste Goldman, at the time of construction.
The office features open work areas that cater to the company’s push for collaboration, as well as a panoramic view of downtown Boston from its Kendall Square location. The employees at the location are primarily software engineers.
