Company announces series of new hires, bolstering product and engineering teams with strategic talent
CHICAGO – December 7, 2016 – Fast-growing, recently-funded Chicago tech start-up project44 today announced its move into a custom built, brand new office space in downtown Chicago. The new space triples project44’s former footprint and makes room for the company’s wave of strategic new hires, including:
- Director of People – Rima McIntire
- Director of Strategic Account Sales – Nadav Weinberg
- VP, Engineering – Steve Henkels
- VP, Product Management – Steven Jones
- VP, Sales Engineering – Jason Kerner
In the last 90 days, project44 has more than doubled its headcount. The office move and new hires come on the heels of a recent $10.5 million series A funding round announced on September 12. Led by Chicago Ventures and Emergence Capital, the investment has fueled the company’s strategic talent and product growth.
“The Chicago logistics and SaaS technology sectors are extremely hot, making the competition for talent stiff,” said new Director of People Rima McIntire. “Yet, project44 continues to attract some of the smartest, most well-rounded talent I’ve seen in a long time. Building a winning team continues to be a priority here, and we’re laser focused on doing exactly that as we continue to scale.”
New Space Built with Stress Relief in Mind
Job-related stress has major consequences — both on an individual level and for workplaces as a whole, costing U.S. companies alone an estimated $300 billion a year. project44’s stress management focus is essential to employee well-being, long-term engagement and overall team productivity.
“A company is only as good as its people and we wanted a space that would creatively combat the workplace pressure common to technology start-ups,” said Jett McCandless, CEO of project44. “While certain stressors can be unavoidable, we aim to create an environment that will help our team react better to those events.”
McCandless designed the new office largely with stress relief in mind, a nice contrast to the fast-pace nature of project44. From the abundant light and floor-to-ceiling walls donned with real plants to the long row of Steelcase Brody WorkLounges, the space is designed to help employees cut out distractions and remain focused. Conversely, when it’s time to blow off some steam, their competitive spirit comes out in regular games of Ping-Pong and PacMan.
New Look, Same Commitment to Technology Excellence and Hyper-growth
With a new space and staff on board, project44 is still driven by the same goal to build a superior technology solution that enables the global supply chain to operate in a smarter, more efficient and hyper-connected way.
“In order to meet the rising demand for project44, we need to continue to grow our product and engineering teams, roadmap and strategies,” said McCandless. “Our customers see their net income and market capitalization significantly increase as the number transactions executed through project44 grows. Today, over 2.1 million daily API transactions flow through the network. Our plan is to grow this volume at a rapid pace by expanding our API platform into new modes and geographies -- ultimately providing our customer’s stronger fiscal results.”
To learn more about project44 or to explore open positions within the company, visit project44.com.