Over the past decade, technology professionals across the country have come to know Dice.com as an important site for industry job-seekers and recruiters. What’s not always apparent, however, is that Dice is located in the Des Moines area and has been since the founders moved it to Iowa 15 years ago.
The company began as a San Francisco-based startup in 1990 when two former Iowans, Lloyd Linn and Diane Rickert, came up with idea and created a business around a job board. Five years later, they migrated their technology to the web and their company back home to Des Moines.
In 1999, the company was acquired by New York City-based Earthweb, who later changed their name to Dice Holdings, Inc. Dice Holdings includes Dice.com and several other industry-specific career websites.
I sat down with Paul Melde, Dice’s vice president of technology, to get to know more of Dice’s story in Des Moines. Paul, a 10 year veteran of the company, also heads up the Des Moines base of the company which includes company operations and the two data centers. What’s not local is company’s senior leadership who reside in New York.
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“There are a couple of things that have always kept us here,” said Paul, pointing to the quality of the sales force and customer service teams as well as the technical resources, both human and physical, that are available here. The geographic disconnect hasn’t hampered the ability for the company to operate, according to Paul.
“The CEO, CFO, CMO, all make frequent trips [to Des Moines], they’re out here at least monthly, as well as some other folks throughout the business. We’ve also had a lot of use of video conference technology since 2000,” said Paul.
I can remember coming in 2000 and being really surprised at the size of the company and the rather extensive video conference gear that was already in place. We’ve certainly made use of that through the ensuing years. Every time we’ve acquired a business, I’d say we have put video conferencing in there within the first 90 days, if not sooner.
In its two decades, Dice has grown through a dual strategy of organic growth and acquisitions. ClearanceJobs.com, eFinancialCareers.com, AllHealthcareJobs.com, and WorldWideWorker.com are all job boards that have been brought into the Dice family through the years.
Screenshot of Dice.com taken Friday, July 16
“[We’ve] been able to show that our vertical niche strategy makes a lot of sense to people. We can focus in on giving them communities that make sense to them: ‘It’s the jobs that I’m interested in. I don’t have to sort through lots and lots of other things. It’s people who are looking for people like me.’ That’s true in lots of different categories where we have our job boards.”
In the 10 years since Paul left a similar leadership position at the ING Advisors Network to join Dice, he’s seen a change in the community’s attitude towards technology startups:
“When I came here everybody was surprised that I would take what was seen as a pretty big risk, going from the stability of a really solid, sound, international financial services player to take a bet on a small internet startup.” Paul continued, “Ten years ago, nobody thought about startups at all…now the notion that you can really build something new and unique and interesting out there is a little bit more common.”
In the video below, Paul talks more about Dice’s operations, its history, and his thoughts on changes in the Des Moines technology community.
