Software company Xero to leave S.F.
New Zealand accounting software company Xero will be closing its San Francisco office, its former U.S. headquarters, and plans to move to another location in the Bay Area, according to documents filed with the state.
Xero will close its Green Street location in phases and the winddown is expected to be completed by the end of the year, the company said in a letter sent to California’s Employment Development Department. Businesses must report layoffs above certain thresholds to state labor officials under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
“Xero’s San Francisco office will relocate to other premises in the Bay Area in the next few months,” the company said in a statement. “Last year we established our North American headquarters in Denver and as part of our strategy, we’re aligning our workforce to ensure we have the right roles, in the right locations, to grow our business. Our aspirations and investment in North America remain the same and significant, with plans to relocate and hire a number of new roles in Denver and Toronto.”
Xero opened its first San Francisco office in 2012 in South of Market, later moving to offices in the Financial District and then the Green Street location as the company expanded. “We’ve built the foundation for growth, built a strong team, have a marketleading product, and lots and lots of runway. The story is unfolding very nicely,” the company wrote in a 2013 blog post.
But company leaders began to express concern about the San Francisco office. Xero’s Americas president, Russell Fujioka, left in 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“It's difficult to grow this business in San Francisco,” Xero CEO Rod Drury told the New Zealand Herald in 2016, as the company built out its Denver team. “This change made sense, so we started looking for a long-term U.S. leader, and finding somebody happy to move to Denver was a key criteria.”
As it set plans to move its U.S. headquarters to Colorado in 2017, Drury cited Denver’s outdoor amenities and the workforce there, in an interview with the San Francisco Business Times.
“When employees are in their twenties and thirties, they want the energy and excitement of the city. But in their forties, with family and kids, priorities can change,” Drury told the Business Times in 2017.
The Green Street office closure will affect 87 employees, which includes employees who will have the option to transfer out of state, but doesn’t include employees who will move to the new Bay Area location.