In new space, digital marketing agency MINDSCAPE sets $10M growth goal in business

In its new home on the fifth floor of the John Widdicomb Building, CEO Pete Brand of digital marketing firm Mindscape says his company has a big but achievable goal: grow from where they are now into a $10 million company over the next three years. 

"That has been one of our goals for a really long time, but we never put a plan in place to get there," says Brand, who is looking to kick off that expansion with the addition of 5-7 new team members over the next 18 months. 

"Our purpose as an organization truly is to enable growth for the clients we serve, but also to enable growth for the team members that are with us," he says. "One of the things that keeps me awake at night is the idea of sitting across the table from the people we work with and having them say, 'I've had a great time here at Mindscape, but I need to take the next step in my career,' and I know if we continue to grow the organization and expand the career paths here, they won't have to go somewhere else."

Brand says the positions they plan to hire for will vary with business, but all new jobs will be full-time and housed at Mindscape's new headquarters on 601 Fifth St. NW, perched at the top of the historic mid-19th century Widdicomb Building. 

Former owner and furniture retailer Bob Israels invested $11 million to convert the total 65,000-square-foot space into a high-end showroom, but defaulted to Fifth Third Bank who then sold the space to Energetix Properties last year for $1.7 million. 

With renovations completed, Mindscape officially moved into their own slice of the historic space three weeks ago, a 7,000-square-foot open floor plan that Brand says is doing wonders for employee productivity and overall morale. 

"The open floor plan has been really, really great because our type of business is all about collaboration and over time, when you send people off to their little offices or put them in different portions of the office, it's really difficult to collaborate effectively," he says. "We knew going into that there was a potential of a lot of distractions that could kill productivity, but it's actually the opposite…it makes people want to be here, and one of our company values is to build strong personal relationships, so you can see that playing out here every day." 

Mindscape's lofty goal for growth rests largely in its workforce and in the meeting of two very different generations with two very different, but very palpable, skill sets. While Brand says Millennials often get a bad rap from older generations as the "entitled, transient" workforce, he sees it differently. 

"Millennials are the majority of the workforce and I think they have a handle on the way things should be," he says, citing an increased focus on social welfare, creating workplace balance and the desire to make greater contributions earlier on in their careers. "We've got Millennials that have worked with us for six or seven years and I think as an owner of a business, if you don't take the time to understand your workforce and understand what's important, it's easy to be lazy and think that's just the way it's going to be but you can leverage the strengths from multiple generations and build a company that everyone wants to work for."

Visit Mindscape online for more information about the company or possible careers there.

Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Mindscape  


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