Pendo’s new HQ, located along the top five floors of downtown Raleigh’s newest office tower, Raleigh Crossing, boasts striking architecture and sweeping skyline views.
Pendo employees began moving into the space last week. The new office includes an on-site coffee shop—courtesy of a partnership with 321 Coffee and its neuro-diverse workforce—that’s free for employees. The 120,000+ square feet include a hidden speakeasy bar, a multi-level pink staircase, a pizza oven, six beer taps, a wine bar, and an open-concept feel that allows all employees to enjoy the view of the city.
A large balcony awaits Pendo workers when the warmer months arrive, and each floor follows a different North Carolina theme: Raleigh, the Coast, the Piedmont and the Mountains. (The fifth and lowest floor won’t be finished at the moment, but allows Pendo to have room to grow in the future.)
The space was designed by Durham’s Alliance Architecture, while Davis Moore acted as Pendo’s broker.
Ultimately, the new HQ is an indicator of the unicorn’s shift into the future and new ways of working, according to CEO Todd Olson.
“I think you have to create a space that people want to come into work and and want to use,” Olson said. “So I think part of the design of this space is to attract people.”
Pendo first started looking for a third HQ in 2019. Pre-pandemic, the choice was necessary to make more space for the rapidly growing company. Pendo now employs more than 900 employees—with more than 400 located in Raleigh—just eight years after being founded. And it’s only getting started. Pendo plans to hire 400 additional employees this year, with 110 open positions on its website.
With close proximity to the Fayetteville Street Corridor, the Warehouse District and Glenwood South, Olson wanted a place that is accessible to its Raleigh-based employees. And for Pendo’s immediate future, the new HQ leaves plenty of room to grow.
Amid a hybrid working environment, the amenities Pendo provides in the space are intended to be incentives for employees to come into the office and work collaboratively.
So far, Pendo has allowed employees to choose whether they work in the office or at home, and Olson thinks the new HQ as well as the end of Raleigh’s mask mandate Friday will beckon even more employees in. Last year, Pendo saw an increase of in-person workers when the mask mandate subsided before Delta variant concerns eventually dropped office-working levels back down.
“I’m a big believer that we need to create an environment and use incentives to get people back,” Olson said, “rather than focusing on any sort of more aggressive tactics [like mandating a return].
The current Pendo space was designed with collaboration in mind. No employees have their own office—not even the CEO. Everyone works in an open space. There is plush seating and perks like the pizza oven and beer taps along several corridors, and the scenery of the city is shown from nearly everywhere.
“The reality is for modern companies like ours, it’s a team sport,” Olson said. “Very few of us succeed just as individual contributors. You have to work together to really drive meaningful outcomes, and I think we do that by spending time with each other.”
Around 650 Pendo employees, or 72 percent of its workforce, attended the company’s global kickoff in-person two weeks ago.
Because of Pendo’s size and rapid expansion, Olson said the company had to create a new HQ building themselves.
“If we were in a larger city, there’d be plenty of inventory for us to move into,” Olson said. “In Raleigh, you have to build it because there wasn’t 120,000 square feet just sitting unused.”
Earlier this month, Pendo released Pendo Adopt, a new suite of products to help companies better understand how employees are using workplace software and increase employee productivity. This launch builds upon Pendo’s success with its Pendo Engage suite of products, which are used by more than 2,300 companies to improve their software for customers.
Pendo has been on a trajectory of growth this year, with 60 percent year-over-year revenue growth. It also recently acquired product management community Mind The Product, enabling the company to offer more education and resources to the global product management community.
Olson said Pendo is working on adding more self-service capabilities and unlocking markets they haven’t yet tapped into. The unicorn company also intends to grow its international expansion across London, Tokyo and Sydney.
“That is really an opportunity to expand and almost double our addressable market,” Olson said. “Getting successful in the market and making sure it has traction is a huge priority for this year.”
[See more pictures of Pendo’s new HQ below.]
