CEO and Founder Bob Parsons put it best when he announced his decision on where to expand in eastern Iowa, “Go Daddy is officially rocking and rolling in Hiawatha, Iowa!” With its human resources staff on hand ready to accept applications, the world’s largest Web hosting and domain name registrar formally christened its new Iowa facility with employees, local dignitaries and reporters.
Today, Go Daddy President and COO Warren Adelman and Iowa Lt. Governor Patty Judge “cut the ribbon,” provided a facility tour and spoke about one of Go Daddy’s core principals – customer service. The Internet giant boasts industry-best support for its more than eight million customers worldwide – all of whom are served from U.S.-based customer care centers.
Go Daddy expanded in Hiawatha to keep up with the company’s tremendous growth, saying it wants to leverage Iowa’s employment pool made up of hard-working people who love technology. Go Daddy is looking to fill 60 positions immediately and expects to hire up to 150 more over the next year.
“This new Hiawatha facility represents a tremendous opportunity for us to keep growing and for new employees to be a part of an exciting, dynamic team,” Adelman told the crowd. “We’re looking to hire passionate people for a variety of positions, people who want to make a difference. Developers, IT professionals, people for security and facilities, as well as customer care personnel for whom we provide on-the-job training.”
Lt. Governor Patty Judge pointed out Go Daddy is now eastern Iowa’s largest Internet company. “We know we are welcoming a true giant in Go Daddy,” Judge said. “We love how Go Daddy hires locally, trains and takes good care of its people while promoting them up through the ranks. It’s good old-fashioned American business.”
Job creation is on the minds of many Americans these days with rampant unemployment. Go Daddy has bucked the negative economic trends and has been in hiring mode throughout the recession. In 2009, Go Daddy’s revenue increased 22 percent. Within the last year, its customer base has risen by 18 percent. Go Daddy now employs more than 2,640 people and has offices in Ariz., Colo., Iowa, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Amsterdam and Singapore.
The purchase of the Hiawatha facility is a homecoming of sorts for Go Daddy’s CEO and Founder Bob Parsons, who operated Parsons Technology from 1 Parsons Dr. before selling it to Intuit in 1994. Parsons couldn’t be in Iowa for today’s ceremony, but insisted top-performing employees were treated to a trip inside the Go Daddy “Cash Machine.” The now legendary device blows money at employees who collect as much as they can in a matter of seconds. They keep the money and Go Daddy pays all the taxes.
“How excited are we to have Bob back?” asked Hiawatha Mayor Tom Theis. “This impact goes beyond the Go Daddy jobs – economists predict our community will see an additional 1,000 hires in related industries.”
If you have a passion for technology and want to make a difference, apply at www.GoDaddy.com/Jobs
About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains By Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 42 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world’s No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. During 2009, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all new domain names created in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.