Washington Post, Capital Business by Aaron Gregg
Optoro, the Maryland e-commerce start-up that has attracted more than $80 million from investors for technology that helps retailers resell unwanted inventory, is in talks with D.C. officials to make its new city office the company headquarters.
The company moved into a 25,000-square-foot office in the District’s Metro Center neighborhood this year, bringing a workforce that now totals 200. That’s more than four times the head count at the office in Lanham, Md., which is still listed as the corporate headquarters.
In recent years, the company has attracted interest from some of the D.C. area’s most well-heeled technology investors. Revolution Growth, the $1.1 billion venture firm backed by AOL co-founder Steve Case, Washington sports-teams owner Ted Leonsis, and managing partner Donn Davis, led a sizable investment in 2013 that added Leonsis to the company’s board. A much larger, $50 million round in 2014 came from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a prolific Silicon Valley fund known for making early investments in giants such as Google and Amazon.
Optoro chief executive Tobin Moore grew up in the District but built his company in Lanham, in Prince George’s County. He said any decision to move would come down to whether District officials are able to come up with a favorable incentive package. He declined to elaborate on exactly what the company is seeking.
“We just want them to be competitive,” Moore said.
The mayor’s office said it is committed to coaxing Optoro into the District but declined to outline specifics while talks are still in progress. Andrew Trueblood, chief of staff to the deputy mayor for planning and economic development, said the company may be eligible for at least two government programs that provide tax credits and grants for tech-focused businesses in the District.
The programs were tapped for the incentive package given to the local education-technology firm Blackboard, which renewed its lease last year after considering options in Maryland and Virginia. Blackboard could be eligible for as much as $5 million in incentives under the two programs.
The mayor’s office went even further to hold onto the Advisory Board Company, a health-care consultancy that employs thousands, passing special legislation offering the company as much as $6 million in tax incentives tied to the certainty of a set number of jobs.
Both incentive packages are dwarfed by $33 million worth of tax breaksfor LivingSocial in 2012. LivingSocial went on to lay off thousands of employees and sell itself to close competitor Groupon for an unspecified amount last month, raising questions about effectiveness of such incentives given to companies in the fast-changing technology sector.
“We’re not going to throw them tons of cash, but we want to put together a package that helps tip the decision towards D.C.,” Trueblood said. “Our goal is we don’t want to open up the paper and find out that an organization that employs D.C. residents is thinking of moving their business elsewhere.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/dc-mayor-works-to-lure-retail-tech-start-ups-hq-from-maryland/2016/11/20/6d305ad6-ad19-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html