Advocado Commits to Accelerating Growth in Downtown St. Louis Headquarters

Advocado announces its three year plan to create more than 100 high-paying technology roles within the company.


Advocado_Inline_Full-Color_Web-1-1

AdTech startup plans to add over 100 jobs in urban core,

capitalizing on the region’s tech talent availability 

and innovation ecosystem

 

ST. LOUIS, MO—June 2, 2021—Advocado, a cross-media data management platform (DMP) fueling advertising performance, today announced its three-year plan to add over 100 high-paying technology jobs—a combination of engineering, data science, customer success, operations, sales and marketing roles—in downtown St. Louis as part of its long-term commitment to the city’s economic development. Advocado was founded in St. Louis in 2017.

 

This commitment follows Advocado’s recent evaluation of multiple markets, ultimately deciding to maintain and grow their headquarters in the Midwest’s “capital of innovation,” St. Louis, despite pressures to expand their business in a traditional coastal tech hub. To make this decision, the startup leveraged the strategic regional insight, market analysis, and the business and civic relationships facilitated by AllianceSTL, the business-attraction initiative of the metro’s regional economic and civic leadership organization, Greater St. Louis, Inc. With the support of the Missouri Partnership, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership and the St. Louis Development Corporation, the business attraction team at Greater St. Louis, Inc. helped the company establish roots in the city and accelerate its growth, reinforcing St. Louis as a world-class destination for startups and tech innovators.

“We’re excited to see Advocado expand in St. Louis,” Missouri Governor Mike Parson said. “The company’s commitment to innovation and growth has resulted in the creation of over 100 jobs that will provide new opportunities for Missourians to grow and succeed.”

“Our passion for revitalizing the economy in St. Louis naturally attracted us to the urban core,” said Brian Handrigan, 52, co-founder and CEO of Advocado. “At the same time, our collaboration with the regional team that was convened by Greater St. Louis, Inc.  allowed us to see how the city could function as a launchpad for our growing business. Not only have we been able to escape the restrictions of a coastal tech hub, expand on a massive scale and develop our product, but we’ve also been able to thrive here knowing we’re a positive force combatting workforce displacement in the area.”

“Being in St. Louis allows us to embrace our core values and our commitment to an uplifting work culture,” said Jeff Linihan, 46, co-founder, COO and president of Advocado. “We’re able to provide our diverse group of talented employees a space that is teeming with character and depth—it’s beyond physical structure. A building with the history and feeling of our current headquarters is hard to find outside of St. Louis City. As an AdTech company, we know that tech jobs, at their core, are creative and require the atmosphere to match; a farm of cubicles doesn’t compete with 15-foot ceilings and the cultural amenities of a world-class city. “

Advocado’s historic location at 1000 Clark Ave. in downtown St. Louis is over 13,000 square feet in size, a testament to the city’s affordable real estate and standard of living, which ranks the 7th highest in the U.S. Boasting numerous accolades and rankings, St. Louis is home to a highly qualified workforce, a nationally acclaimed startup movement and a diverse economy. With one of the nation’s lowest costs of living, St. Louis is recognized by Entrepreneur as the “No. 1 City for Innovation in the Heartland” and LinkedIn’s “Top U.S. City to Launch Your Career,” a place where investment, talent, mentorship and lifestyle all intersect. 

The spirit of St. Louis will allow the startup to remain at the forefront of the advertising industry, despite constant shifts in the digital media ecosystem. As ad dollars move away from linear broadcast and cable television, Advocado will be able to improve its data management platform and better monetize the real-time actions of viewers in a cross-platform environment. With the city’s superior talent and opportunities for technology and R&D, the company can expand its capabilities further and provide more accurate, abundant data that will give its customers a leg up in a very competitive landscape. 

“Advocado fully understands the value that the St. Louis region brings to the growth of their business. As a burgeoning tech hub, the Greater St. Louis metro offers the affordability, flexibility, investment potential and talent pool a business like theirs needs to move from startup to standout,” said Steve Johnson, chief business attraction officer, Greater St. Louis Inc., and president of the AllianceSTL initiative. “We join our state and regional partners in recognizing and applauding Advocado’s commitment to our region and their impact on job growth and technological innovation. Their choice to commit specifically to Downtown St. Louis makes great strides in bringing new jobs to the core of the region — advancing a significant goal in the STL 2030 Jobs Plan. Advocado joins a rapidly expanding number of companies that see their civic commitment as growth potential — and we can’t wait to watch what they do next.”

 

Available to advertisers worldwide, Advocado helps power over 210 local U.S. markets and is the most robust real-time TV ad insights platform available to date. 

 

About Advocado 

Advocado's cross-media managed data platform instantly generates, integrates, analyzes, and activates data. The platform fills visibility gaps with data that brands, media companies, and agencies can’t get anywhere else, helping them target their multi-screen campaigns more effectively, maximize ROI, and bridge the space between offline audiences and digital behavior. Built by marketers for marketers, the platform uses signal data via patented watermark technology, natural language processing, automated content recognition, and real-time weather to connect offline and online audience data to reveal and influence the entire customer journey. The Advocado platform helps customers and partners uncover hidden insights that open the doors to better performance. The platform gives them immediate visibility into their campaigns, and automatically adjusts those campaigns to deliver unprecedented results, maximizing every advertising dollar. Advocado is headquartered in St. Louis, MO.

 

About AllianceSTL and Greater St. Louis, Inc.

Greater St. Louis, Inc. is a 501(c)(6) organization of businesses formed through the merger of five private-sector led and St. Louis-focused economic development and civic leadership organizations on Jan. 1, 2021. The five combining organizations were AllianceSTL, Arch to Park, Civic Progress, Downtown STL, Inc., and the St. Louis Regional Chamber. Greater St. Louis, Inc. brings together the business community to help drive economic growth and create opportunities for all with a focus on inclusive growth. Greater St. Louis, Inc. is in a position to drive economic growth with a unified voice, a bold agenda, and as one St. Louis metropolitan area that is anchored by a vibrant urban core. Additional information is available at GreaterSTLinc.com.


AllianceSTL is the business-attraction initiative of Greater St. Louis, Inc. It promotes the competitive advantages of locating and investing within the 15-county, bi-state St. Louis metropolitan area. AllianceSTL works directly with clients to identify real estate and workforce solutions that leverage St. Louis’ competitive economic advantages and quality of life. It connects decision makers to key contacts and networks, offers intelligence and information, and provides the tools and resources that can help clients unlock all that the region has to offer. AllianceSTL helps businesses start up, stand out and stay in St. Louis. Find out more at AllianceSTL.com.

 

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