Otter helps Kochava celebrate new HQ

SANDPOINT — Local and state dignitaries were on hand Monday to witness the official opening of Kochava's new downtown headquarters. The 32,000-square-foot facility at Second Avenue and Church Street is described as state-of-the-art in a press release issued by the Sandpoint mobile analytics firm. However, construction crews are still at work on the outside and interior of the building, so the actual move-in date will be delayed.

Mayor Shelby Rognstad opened the ceremony once all the key participants were on hand. Rognstad arrived in a black pickup truck loaded with sound equipment, which he proceeded to set up in the open foyer of the building. Gov. Butch Otter and First Lady Lori Otter arrived on foot, stopping to shake hands with Idaho Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, and state Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay, as well as greeting several others in the assembled crowd. Kochava CEO Charles Manning was the last to arrive, exiting a tour bus with several visiting customers who were in town for Kochava's annual summer celebration.

Each of the men offered brief remarks before taking up the traditional oversized scissors to cut the ribbon stretched across the building entrance.

Rognstad focused on the value of the company at the local level, praising its "long-term commitment to revitalization of downtown."

When Otter took the podium, he called the ribbon cutting "a tremendous occasion."

"When a company like Kochava decides to plant its roots in Sandpoint, you can be sure others will follow," he said.

Manning agreed that it was a great day, especially because he was joined by several representatives from client companies.

"Unlike many companies that subsidize their growth with outside financing, this company has done it with its own bootstraps," he said. "We've had 71 people working on this building over the last three months. We're moving in at the end of August. By next year, we'll be over 120 in terms of team size."

Manning is a game developer and app writer who turned to customer engagement measurement four years ago, according to a May 5 article in Forbes.

"The software start-up, headquartered in the ski resort town of Sandpoint, Idaho, has increased sales 300% per year for the last three years with no outside financing," according to the article. 

One feature of Kochava's new space is an amphitheater on the first floor big enough for everyone in the firm to get together in one place. Manning said he plans to use it for weekly staff meetings.

More than doubling its workforce from 2004 to the present, Kochava now employs 80 people. Firm officials selected the building at 201 Church St. as its headquarters both because of its capacity for expansion as well as its central location in the city's downtown core, according to a press release.

"Kochava offers a unique, holistic and unbiased approach to mobile attribution and analytics for connected devices. Via its platform, Kochava provides mobile advertisers with precise real-time visualization of campaign data that spans from initial launch through conversion and lifetime value reporting, including comprehensive post-install event tracking. Kochava’s tools enable customers to turn their data into actionable information. With over 2,200 publisher and network integrations including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pandora and Amazon, Kochava is trusted globally by the largest brands in mobile gaming, commerce, news and media," according to corporate information.