Google, Amazon, and AppFolio Execs Discuss Staffing in S.B.

At the 2024 TechTopia Summit hosted on August 29 by the S.B. South Coast Chamber of Commerce, guests got a fascinating tour of four of UCSB’s high-tech centers, followed by an insightful panel discussion with tech executives on the challenges and benefits of Santa Barbara as a business location. Also, the chamber explained its multifaceted internship initiative followed by an industry panel on the benefits of internships.

The tour, in which more than 200 guests participated through rotating small groups, visited UCSB’s AlloSphere, CA NanoSystems Institute, UCSB Nanofabrication Facility, and UCSB NSF Quantum Foundry, with presentations from key staff at each.

Afterwards, guests returned to the Hilton Garden Inn in Goleta for the remainder of the program. In a panel on Santa Barbara as a business site, AppFolio VP of Product Operations Cat Allday shared that UCSB has been a great recruitment source for its business, including through internships, to attract talented people who want to live here. As a result, AppFolio boasts long tenure for its employees, which is unusual in the software industry, with 25 percent of staff having been there for at least five years. She credits the longevity in part to S.B. being such a great place to live and a good entrepreneurial community.

Amazon Santa Barbara Director of Artificial General Intelligence: Information Kevin Davis echoed Allday’s remarks regarding retention, with team members sticking around in S.B., unlike in Seattle and other offices, where people leave after just a year or two — when people have just figured out what they are doing. Amazon S.B. has staff who have been with it for many years, including a decent percentage of the team that was acquired here.

Amazon arrived in S.B. in 2017 with the acquisition of Graphiq Inc., which had developed technology that Amazon sought for Alexa. In fact, most of Alexa’s current technology came out of the S.B. office. Davis remarked that tech jobs, with their long hours, are difficult, but the great quality of life that S.B. offers balances that out.

Google Scalable Hardware Lead, Quantum AI Jeremy Hilton explained that in these early days of quantum computing, it has had to search globally for the specialized research and technical staff it needs, but attracting them to S.B. has been straightforward. Now that Google has gotten through some key research stages and is transitioning to larger systems, it needs staff for more conventional roles. In this phase, it sees a lot of talent in the community with which to build the expertise it needs to grow its effort here.

Google Quantum AI originated here with the acquisition of a UCSB research group. It is developing quantum computers that will revolutionize a lot of key areas with their superior computational capability. According to Hilton, one of the most serious and successful efforts in quantum computing in the world is happening right here. 

Hilton believes that the natural beauty of the area is incredibly helpful for innovation. Some of his company’s best ideas, Hilton related, have come out of physicists hiking together or otherwise engaging in nature in S.B.

When asked about the biggest barrier to its business here, Amazon’s Davis pointed to marketing Santa Barbara to prospective hires, especially those with a partner because of both the high cost of housing and a misperception about the opportunities here for employment of their partners. It may take longer to find talent, he quickly added, but it’s worth it, because those people Amazon does hire tend to stick around. Management has to point out to potential hires, he explained, that although you pay more and can’t get eight bedrooms, you can be outside in the winter and it’s otherwise awesome to live here.

Google’s Hilton echoed these sentiments, noting that Google encounters reticence from potential hires currently residing in big tech centers for whom quantum is not their domain and who are unsure about Santa Barbara, especially with the high cost of housing. He also noted that as Google starts scaling up, it will be hiring more entry level staff, whom it will be training, so it wants people who have already made the decision to be and stay in S.B.

AppFolio’s Allday shared that it hires a lot of very young people, some of whom they lose when they want to settle down because of the limited size of the dating pool here. She also remarked on conference constraints. For the past 11 years, AppFolio has hosted an annual customer conference at the Hilton (previously Fess Parker), topping out at 800 guests, but it has grown too large this year, so the company had to hold the event in San Diego.

Chamber President and CEO Kristen Miller explained that the chamber has been working with tech and manufacturing businesses to streamline and demystify the process of offering internships and has been connecting more high school and college students with these opportunities. The chamber’s website offers lots of resources. A panel from Curvature and PseudolithIC — leader, mentor, and interns — shared the multitude of benefits internships offer.

UCSB NanoFab Process Group Manager Demis John explains the Nanofab’s work. | Gail Arnold