Botkeeper, an automated bookkeeping solution powered by skilled accountants, machine learning, and AI, has employees all over the world, but recently chose to relocate its corporate headquarters to St. Petersburg, Florida.
Major Airport Access with a Low-Key Vibe
When company founder Enrico Palmerino and his wife spent time in Florida during an unexpected repair of their Boston-area home, they fell in love with Florida’s weather, water, tropical plants, and “nicest people” and decided to relocate. Palmerino scouted multiple locations in the state, starting with cities near major airports to accommodate his heavy travel schedule. He narrowed the search down to places on the coast with less traffic and more predictable commutes than some other communities. While he explored the east coast of Florida, he said, “the area just wasn't our vibe, as we are more low-key and laid back when not working and the Gulf side offered nicer water and better sand.”
Location and Demographics for Tech Talent
After touring the Tampa Bay area, Palmerino added that he fell “totally in love with St. Pete, as it reminded us of what Cambridge is to Boston— the hip, restaurant-packed, work/live/play integration, and fun— there seemed to always be an event or activity in the city and every day something was happening on the Pier.”
Conscious of wanting to be able to appeal to new talent, Palmerino noted that, “Also, St. Pete was more artistic, romantic, and appeared to be going through a major boom that would be attractive for employees looking to relocate—this could only assist in my recruiting efforts. “
In addition to relocating employees, Palmerino was struck by the existing talent in the Tampa Bay area, contrasting the region’s growth with places like Boston and San Francisco, saying, “When you are building a company you want to build in a place where the talent pool is growing and where the market isn't over saturated. Next you look at the population age to gauge the potential workforce, and Tampa Bay also has benefited from a migration of people out of Miami and up to Tampa Bay. With this migration have come a lot of engineers that were a part of the Miami crypto boom, which is a great pool to pull from for machine learning and AI engineering.”
“When you are building a company you want to build in a place where the talent pool is growing and where the market isn't over saturated. Next you look at the population age to gauge the potential workforce, and Tampa Bay also has benefited from a migration of people out of Miami and up [here.]”
Fintech Focus in the Sunshine City
Botkeeper entered a thriving fintech scene in St. Pete, joining companies like Dynasty Financial Partners, ARK Invest, Webull, and Bedrock that have relocated to the Sunshine City. Financial services powerhouse Raymond James has flourished since its founding in St. Petersburg more than 60 years ago and today the marriage of financial services and technology continues to grow. The Fintech Center of Excellence at the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance in the Muma College of Business on the University of South Florida’s St. Pete campus is a hub of engagement and activity. Academic research, world-class teaching, business engagement, and innovations surrounding the expanding financial technology sector are all under one roof.
In addition, the area’s tech community continues to expand. Palmerino is no stranger to innovation—the idea for Botkeeper grew out of his frustration with getting financials at his first company, a lighting company he founded in his dorm room that grew to $8.5 million in revenue with 60 employees and was ranked number 46 on the INC 500 list before he graduated. The lack of timely financials led him and his entrepreneurial team to create the world’s first AI-powered accounting automation platform—for faster, more accurate, more affordable, and truly available accounting.
Centralizing Engineering and Product Employees in St. Pete
Botkeeper is a predominately a virtual company, but Palmerino believes it's important to have a home base and build a populous around a headquarters. As a result, Botkeeper decided to start with office space at Industrious, a co-working space located in the 200 Central Building in downtown St. Petersburg. Palmerino said, “Industrious offered flexibility and locations in multiple states where our team of 550+ in 40 states, 7 countries, and 4 continents could meet up.”
Botkeeper plans to start by centralizing engineering and product in St. Petersburg, with an initial staff of 10 employees. Palmerino noted that, “The more meetings I host with various departments here, the more people seem to suddenly decide they need to move to St. Pete. So, we will see how this plays out, but my guess is St. Pete quickly garners the highest concentration of Botkeeper employees and may get there in two years, which is significant considering we were founded and headquartered in Boston for eight years.”
He added, “We were one of the earliest totally virtual companies to start back in 2015 and thus our ethos is about hiring the best people wherever they are. That said, we will do incremental targeting and recruiting efforts in areas that we want to concentrate... and St. Pete is that area for us. There's a great booming pool of talent here and frankly, like with gravity, we will likely continue to attract more relocations as our population density grows here and as more people discover the magic that is St. Pete. Plus 361 sunny days on average per year and 10.3 hours of daylight in its shortest day in December compared to 9 hours in Boston... that extra hour at the end of the afternoon when you finally call it a day and stop working makes all the difference.”
“Plus 361 sunny days on average per year and 10.3 hours of daylight in its shortest day in December compared to 9 hours in Boston... that extra hour at the end of the afternoon when you finally call it a day and stop working makes all the difference.”
St. Pete EDC Connections a Strategic Advantage
One of Botkeeper’s investors, Scott Coleman from Ignition Partners, connected Palmerino with his friend Allie Felix at Embarc Collective who introduced him to the St. Pete Economic Development Corp. Palmerino said, “Since then, the EDC staff has connected me with dozens more people and now I randomly run into them and others frequently via mutual friends. The net net is that the EDC exponentially accelerated my connections in St. Pete and in less than a year I was meeting major players, fellow CEOs, and others involved in the business, real estate, investment, and arts community of St Pete. My wife used to joke that in Boston we couldn't go to a restaurant or an event without having someone come up and say "hi," and in less than a year that same phenomenon has started happening in St. Pete thanks to the EDC and the community here. And thanks to the EDC I'm a phone call or text away from anything I could ever need in the city—workforce and recruiting, incentives, investment, schools (I gave a talk at USF about AI thanks to an intro from the EDC team), etc. That's a powerful thing— think about it—you need anything to amplify your business and a text later you are instantly connected...speed is key, and the St. Pete EDC provides me and Botkeeper a strategic advantage.”
He jested, ““So taking all this into consideration, my biggest worry is maybe I'm on the early end of what will become a great corporate migration to Tampa Bay and St. Pete and the benefits I'm describing above could be lost...but hey, I'll take my chances. After all I'm an entrepreneur and thus everything is a calculated risk/bet.”
About Botkeeper
Botkeeper provides automated bookkeeping support to accounting firms by using a powerful combination of skilled accountants, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Clients receive 24/7 accounting and support, as well as incredible insight into their financials with interactive dashboards and unlimited reporting. Botkeeper’s accounting partners can grow their books of business and provide high-quality services to their clients, increasing their ability to take on new clients while getting spotless financials at tax time— and reducing overhead. Botkeeper is the only solution of its kind, acting as a force multiplier for growth-minded accounting firms. For more, visit https://www.botkeeper.com/.
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