Dyn Inc. in Manchester doesn't just promote a creative corporate culture for its employees, it is working to grow an entrepreneurial ecosystem to help attract and retain young professionals in the state.
While its business is making websites run faster and more reliably, and ensuring emails reach people's inboxes, Dyn encourages employees to explore side projects of their choosing, and if viable, start their own businesses. The company is also reaching into the community to support entrepreneurial efforts by young professionals. Dyn's theory is if there are more high tech businesses in NH, it helps to attract the best and brightest.
No company can survive and succeed without a lively economic community of which it can be a part and Dyn sees it as crucial to help build and maintain that community, no expense spared, says James Coughlin, chief executive officer of abi Innovation Hub, a business incubator in the state.
The desire for just this kind of ecosystem was the impetus for Stay Work Play NH, an organization that Dyn has been involved with from its beginning. To support employee creativity, the company holds Un-Road Map Days and allows all technical employees to spend up to 10 percent of their monthly time experimenting on side projects unrelated to their jobs. This has led to both new companies and innovation at Dyn-both of which help with recruiting employees, says Jeremy Hitchcock, CEO of Dyn.
They encourage collaboration and taking a more holistic view of the world. We think both of these things help make better employees, says Hitchcock of employees' side projects. Two companies have already been created, including GearFreedom, an online marketplace that allows people to research and reserve sporting gear like kayaks, bikes and skis, that was created by Mike Veilleux, director of email. Veilleux's company won the 2012 NH Start Up Challenge created by Manchester Young Professionals' Network and sponsored in part by Dyn.
When it comes to keeping young professionals in NH, Dyn plays a key role. It also held a half-day Culture-Con event last year dedicated to creating great corporate cultures. There is only so much opportunity at Dyn-we can only have so many leaders-so we wanted to ensure there were other great companies out there, Hitchcock says. This is also beneficial for us because it attracts better employees to Dyn when we can tell them, Look at what the person who had your job is doing now'.
Current Issue - May 2024