The Nerdery expands to Arizona, plans to hire more than 150

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The Nerdery

Mike Johnson, the Nerdery's Phoenix branch manager, moved from the Minneapolis area with his wife, Louise, and their 2-year-old son to expand the software development company's footprint to Arizona.

Hayley Ringle

Reporter- Phoenix Business Journal

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The Nerdery has gone west.

The Bloomington-based Web software and mobile app developer opened its fourth office in Phoenix, where it wants to hire more than 150 employees during the next four years.

The Nerdery works with five-person start ups to billion-dollar companies, including Yahoo, Target, Google and Microsoft.

It's one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in Minnesota. The company expects $63 million in revenue in 2014 and its five-year goal is $250 million in revenue.

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The 10-year-old company already has 500 employees across the country and offices in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo.

The Nerdery considered six other cities, including Denver, Miami, Dallas and Austin, Texas.

But it picked Phoenix because it has a good talent base and there's not a ton of competition, said Mike Johnson, the Phoenix branch manager who moved from the Minneapolis area with his wife and 2-year-old son.

"We liked the Midwest feel and culture, and it's a similar market to Minneapolis," said Johnson, a 2005 graduate of the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in computer science. "There's a good number of businesses here and we saw an emerging tech scene."

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Nerdery President Tom O'Neill said the company's vision is to be the "best place in the world for nerds to work."

"We really believe in this craft that is custom Web and mobile development," he said. "If we appreciate the craft, we'll have the best people, and then we'll do the best work and have the best clients. Ultimately, we're trying to help big businesses with technology."

Hayley Ringle covers technology and startups for the Phoenix Business Journal.