An emerging tech sector?

POTENTIAL COUNTERTREND

An emerging tech sector?

Internet company Clickbooth provides a magnet for millennials

By Barbara Peters Smith
barbara.smith@heraldtribune.com

Erin Cigich knew it was a long shot, trying to land a job in Sarasota as an advertising grad from the University of Florida — in 2007, just as the Great Recession was starting to cast its long shadow over the marketplace.

But she was a Florida girl, born in Land O’ Lakes, and she wanted to live near her boyfriend in Englewood. So she took a chance on an internet startup with an office in Nokomis, on the second floor of a pool supply business.

Ten years later, that boyfriend is her husband and the father of their two daughters, 4 and 1. And she is the CEO of Clickbooth, an online technology platform that sells global placements to advertisers — who only pay when the outcome is a lead or product sale, not just a click or impression.

Erin Cigich, left, is CEO of Clickbooth, a digital advertising company in Sarasota. Cigich thinks Sarasota County has a lot to offer young professionals. Clickbooth’s average employee age is 32.  (Herald-Tribune staff photo / Mike Lang)

“It was a scary time for the economy, but a good time for our business, because advertisers know exactly what they’re getting when they work with Clickbooth,” Cigich says of her company’s origin story.

Clickbooth’s 50-plus employees, with an average age of 32 and an average annual compensation of $97,000, are exactly the kind of new residents that Sarasota County needs plenty more of, to address its worrying shortage of young professionals. Cigich believes it’s a possible dream.

“At one point we had 20 people who were all engaged at the same time, and we had weddings for two years,” she says. “So now we’re starting to have kids. The public school system is wonderful, so when we’re looking to recruit, it’s a huge selling point.”

There’s a day care center in the same building, on Honore Avenue near University Parkway, and Clickbooth staffers get a discount. And Cigich says that for tech sector job candidates, Sarasota’s housing prices are actually an inducement.

“The cost of living here is much less than at any of the competing technology companies in San Francisco or New York or even Atlanta,” she says. “We have people a couple of years out of college who are buying homes, because they can.”

The local restaurant scene is another plus, she says, impressing even team members who regularly travel to Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas and Bangkok. Add to that the beaches and the arts, and there’s plenty here to attract more young professionals, she believes. But Sarasota County is not quite a paradise for millennials — not yet, anyway.

“It’s frustrating to me that a lot of the festivals get canceled or there are noise ordinance complaints,” Cigich acknowledges. “And that downtown you can’t really go out past 10 p.m. and listen to live music.”

That one cultural sour note aside, she adds, “I’d love to see even more technology companies in Sarasota, and I think we’ve planted the seeds for that to happen, for sure.”

Mireya C. Eavey, Sarasota area president for United Way Suncoast, agrees that Clickbooth is changing minds — and along with it, the region’s image.

“They’re selling Sarasota and they do a really good job,” she says. “If you’re someone who works in technology, the first thing you’re going to look at is what companies are in the area. Because if you’re going to relocate your family, you want to make sure that if that job doesn’t work out, there’s another company you can go to work for. As technology companies keep growing here — and we’ve gotten a few new ones recently — you’ll see; it will be even easier."