Tech company SquareTrade is expanding, and Orlando is the second home.
The San Francisco-based company deals in warranties, helping customers with concerns about their TVs, laptops and cell phones.
“Warranties, before we started, were really a bad word,” said Ahmed Khaishgi, SquareTrade’s Founder and CEO. “Consumers used to go to a retail store. There’d be a pushy sales person, you couldn’t leave the store. You felt bad. If you bought it, you felt dirty.”
So, 15 years ago, the dad of three started SquareTrade, hoping to change the negative feeling associated with warranties.
“The idea that protection doesn’t have to be a horrible, terrible experience was one that consumers said, ‘You’re right,’” he explained.
The company now works with most major retailers in the U.S., from Amazon to Costco. They will be adding Florida retailer Office Depot next month.
Last year, SquareTrade looked to expand from Silicon Valley and searched around the country. Other cities, like Oklahoma City and Phoenix, courted them. But, after talks with the Orlando Economic Development Commission, or EDC, SquareTrade picked the City Beautiful.
“We looked at a bunch of cities. Frankly, Orlando was an easy one to work with,” said Khaishgi. “There’s a growing tech scene, there is great talent.”
And there are incentives: According to the EDC, Orange County offered SquareTrade a QTI, or qualified tax incentive, for their high wage job creation; 31 jobs, with salaries close to $50,000, counted as high wage jobs.
SquareTrade did not say how much the wages would be for lower-level jobs.
The tech company also got a separate incentive, a reimbursement, if they went through a workforce training program.
“When you think about all the places that Square Trade could’ve gone for their second home, the competition was pretty stiff,” said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs.
On Monday, Jacobs, Gov. Rick Scott and other leaders gathered for the tech company’s official inauguration. From the fourth floor of a high-rise off of Orange Blossom Trail, they touted the jobs SquareTrade created and the positive employee experience---as well as the bigger economic picture for the state.
“Orlando is on a roll and the state is on a roll,” said Scott, adding that the state has added over one million jobs in a little over five years.
The governor also said that unemployment in the state is down to 4.9 percent, and, thanks to legislature support, $1.2 billion has been cut in taxes over the past two years.
As for SquareTrade’s Khaishgi, his pride lies in looking around the 16,000 sq. ft. call center and mingling with his 120 employees. He’s looking to hire around 60 new employees in the coming months.
“It’s a great space. Everyone I talk to says, many of them worked in customer service jobs before and they say this is such a better place to work,” he said, adding of the expansion, “[It’s] still my baby. It’s like a kid going to college somewhere else. Still your kid.”