‘More is better’ TrueAccord CEO says as Silicon Valley startup plans for 150 KC jobs

TrueAccord is “furiously hiring” to jumpstart the San Francisco-based startup’s intense expansion plan now supplemented by a growing Lenexa office, said Ohad Samet.

Ohad Samet, TrueAccord

“We’ve been very successful [in Silicon Valley], but at some point we realized that we really needed to blow up,” said Samet, co-founder and CEO of the debt recovery startup, which recently pledged to add 150 jobs to the Kansas City area out of its 16011 College Boulevard space.

“While we enjoy having operations in San Francisco and we’ll always have our headquarters there, we wanted to look for a market that we can extend in and tap into that talent that not a lot of other people are seeing,” he continued.

With the current count at 15 employees after a few weeks of operation, TrueAccord expects an increase to 50 by the end of 2019, then finally to the promised 150 over the next three years, Samet said.

“Honestly, given our growth projections for the company, [the 150 goal] could be an understatement,” he added. “We don’t know yet. What I will say is that we’re very excited about everyone we have hired.”  

The team at TrueAccord conducted a wide search when looking for the perfect operations base but ultimately chose the Kansas City area because of its available space for growth, Samet said, noting the cost of living, access to operations and engineering talent, as well as the ability to grab a direct flight to San Francisco played a role as well.

“I think when we chose [Lenexa] everyone was like ‘Oh, that’s interesting,’ but in a few years they’re all going to say, ‘Wow, you saw something that we didn’t see,’ — that’s Kansas City to us,” he said.

“It was the right thing to do,” Samet continued. “They’ll catch on in a few years. In the meantime, we’ll be doubling down.”

Click here to read TrueAccord’s initial announcement of opening its operations base in Lenexa.

The Thursday ribbon-cutting ceremony at the company’s new space at 16011 College Boulevard highlighted an overwhelmingly positive reception from the Kansas City community, he said, noting the presence of Lenexa mayor Mike Boehm, and the KC Chamber of Commerce.

“It was a charming ceremony,” Samet said. “We’re excited to see those opportunities that are usually reserved to the coastal cities in Kansas and Missouri and to hire people who want to live here but have the startup experience across multiple functions.”

Samet aims for a long-term impact of perpetuating startup culture alongside the mission of TrueAccord, he added.

“I’m hopeful that in a few years down the line, maybe this is a huge office with hundreds of people working here for two to three years then cycling out to build their own companies,” he said.

“If we’re really successful then we can help kickstart the startup scene here — not to say that there isn’t a scene [already] — but my impression is that more is better and we can be a part of that more,” said Samet.