As founders of a marketing agency, Garrett Moon and Justin Walsh were using content marketing tactics such as blogging and social media to promote their services. That’s when they discovered a big problem with the disconnected marketing processes the entire marketing industry was dealing with. Now, the reigning most-successful start-up in North Dakota employs industry leaders in its Bismarck and Fargo offices, a team of talent directly impacted by the communities in which they exist.
The process to create a start-up typically begins when the absence of a marketable idea exists. For Moon and Walsh, this occurred as the two traveled from Atlanta to North Dakota in January 2013. Frustrated with the processes in which they were confined to bring their creative ideas to fruition, the duo started with a blog and calendar process to ease the flow of teamwork from the idea stage to production and delivery. They utilized office space existed that was home to their prior marketing agency. Within a year, they launched CoSchedule. Within another year, the company had gathered enough seed funding to rocket forward. Add another year to the mix and the company’s customer count reached 5,000 and offered the team the need to open a second working location in Fargo, ND.
Presently, CoSchedule meets the needs of customers in over 100 countries around the world by employing top talent within North Dakota state lines. “Building a business like CoSchedule in the state of North Dakota is definitely a strategic advantage for us. There are a lot of talented, passionate, and hard-working people right here who are hungry for the kinds of work we do. When you get those people together, the tenacity is contagious, and the outcome has been a really successful product because of a really great team culture. We get to do what we love every day, and it shows,” said Nathan Ellering, Head of Marketing. CoSchedule is one of the fastest-growing companies, as recognized by its inclusion on the Inc. 5000 list two years in a row.
The current CoSchedule team sits at roughly 50 members who’ve honed their talents at colleges and universities or companies within the region. And, every single employee calls North Dakota home. In fact, CoSchedule finds pride in the fact that the company has actually attracted talented employees back to North Dakota who thought they had to move away to do the type of work they do at CoSchedule. A product designer, for example, moved to Washington state and then returned to be with family while still being able to do what he loves with software design. While talent seems easier to come by in a larger market, CoSchedule has successfully challenged itself to look solely at its neighbors and within its communities for the most skilled people to fill each role, understanding that top talent can be found in cities and towns like those in North Dakota. “We have team members who thought they needed to leave North Dakota to find jobs they’d enjoy. It’s been fun to see these people return to—and stay in—North Dakota to be with family and share their talents with us” said Brandy Miller, Director of Human Resources. By hiring local, CoSchedule has not only had a hand in creating loyalty within the community for a company many wouldn’t expect to exist in cities like Bismarck and Fargo.
For CoSchedule, the years of success have offered further reasons to celebrate. Currently, the company is looking to build its team by filling the roles of Software Engineer, Product Designer, and Marketing Intern. Miller says, “CoSchedule continues to hold the bar high for talented and passionate individuals wanting to make a difference in their daily work, community, and organization. The candidates who are drawn to apply are those who see CoSchedule make an impact in marketing and software development and want to be a part of the rapid growth we continue to experience, all from North Dakota.”
