Bain & Company opens Austin office
Strategy firm Bain & Company has opened its third Texas location with the launch of a new office in Austin.
The consulting firm has virtually launched the new location and is currently preparing a physical office that will be a “highly creative, innovative space for Bain’s people and its clients to collaborate,” according to a release from the firm.
The Austin outpost is Bain's third in Texas, joining offices in Dallas and Houston. It is the firm’s 13th office in the US, and 60th globally.
"Bain & Company has been working with clients in the Austin and San Antonio area for decades, and this move brings us closer to many of our enduring clients," said Peter Bowen, a partner at Bain & Company and head of the Austin office. "It will also facilitate collaboration with new clients—in industries such as technology, retail, consumer products, and fintech—while creating further access to one of the country's fastest growing talent hubs."
Tech companies are increasingly fleeing the hyper-expensive confines of northern California for cheaper locales in Denver, Miami, and Austin. Software firm Palantir has moved to Denver, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is switching to Houston, and Oracle has decided to move its headquarters to Austin.
Analysts note that companies moving their corporate headquarters out of Silicon Valley probably aren’t doing so for business tax reasons, but because of a lower cost of living that will allow them to pay employees less in the long term. They may also be looking to avoid current or future costly, municipality-specific laws in the famously liberal Bay Area.
“You're going to always have the vast majority of tech companies coming out of the Valley, and you can’t create that anywhere else,” Dan Ives, a financial analyst at Wedbush Securities, told NBC News. “But when you look at an Austin: It’s creating a mini Silicon Valley at half the cost for an average employee.”
Bain will now be closer to its clients in the burgeoning tech hub. "Austin is an exceptional place to recruit top business and technical talent, and we look forward to welcoming a diverse group of new and transferring team members to help us serve our many clients in Austin," said Chuck Whitten, managing partner for Bain’s US Southwest region.
The firm, which advises many of the largest companies the world, said the new office’s design was made through a collaborative effort with employee volunteers ranging from interns to senior leadership. The Bainee volunteers drew on inspiration from Austin’s local music and food scenes, greenspaces, and architecture, according to the firm.
