Hudl’s open-air second-story landing (above) will give way to more office space to accomodate the company’s growing team.
Hudl‘s rapid growth hasn’t come without a little collateral damage.
Like that second-story landing at Hudl’s office in Lincoln. The spot has been a popular place for employees to play basketball, but it won’t be for much longer. “Unfortunately, it’s probably going to end our summer basketball league as they tear that building down and rebuild it,” Hudl CEO David Graff said. “But we’ll make the sacrifice in order to get more office space.”
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Such is life these days for Hudl, which makes web-based video analysis and coaching tools for sports teams. From office space to client base, the company is growing by every discernable metric.
The most notable spike in Hudl’s growth came earlier this month, when the company announced the acquisition of APEX Sports Software. It marked the second time in a year that Hudl had bought out the second-largest player in the sports video analysis market, following the July 2011 acquisition of Digital Sports Video.
The day Hudl announced its purchase of APEX, Graff (left) in a phone interview provided insight into how his company is growing to accommodate its ballooning client base, which he expects to number more than 10,000 by year’s end.
For one, Graff pointed to the continued expansion of Hudl’s workforce. On June 18, the company brought seven new employees aboard, bumping its total to 61. “We’ve had a really good year so far growing the team,” Graff said. “(We’ve) added a lot to our product team, a lot of developers and a lot of designers, grown our support team and our sales crew. So we’re well positioned to deliver in a lot of different areas this year.”
To attract the right kind of talent to fuel that growth, Hudl in April floated the offer of a $10,000 hiring bonus for software developers and designers. Graff said as of early June the incentive had led to four new hires.
“All four of those people profiled out kind of like we expected for that,” he said. “They were all individuals … who were out of college for awhile, who worked other jobs — anywhere from four years of experience to 12 years of experience working in development or design. So that’s been awesome for us.”
With demand constantly increasing for Hudl’s tools on smartphones and tablets, Graff said the company is devoting considerable attention to its offerings for those platforms.
“Our mobile team has grown about sixfold over the past month as we’ve reallocated resources there,” he said. “So we’ll have a lot coming that will not only impact our football coahces but will help coaches across all sports.”
For more on Hudl’s recent growth, see our previous story: “Hudl acquires Apex, solidifies spot atop sports video analysis market“.
Credits: Screenshot courtesy of Hudl. Photo of Graff from hudl.com.
