Rural Sourcing couldn’t be happier with Fort Wayne as the choice for its eighth location.

When Rural Sourcing was getting ready to expand and open an eighth location, Fort Wayne was selected from among more than 50 potential cities. Leaders at the custom software development company found Northeast Indiana to be welcoming on many levels.

“Our three favorite words are colleague, client and community, and the feeling of community here is very strong. That’s important to us,” said Rural Sourcing Fort Wayne Development Center Director Bill Rose. “This entire region is continuously working to improve and grow. You can feel it when you come here.”

With centers in New Mexico, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Wisconsin and now Indiana, the highly specialized experts at Rural Sourcing build custom websites, software and mobile apps for companies in a variety of industries. Even during the pandemic, business has been booming and staffing levels are skyrocketing. The Fort Wayne office grew 140 percent between March 2020 and March 2021. There are currently 80 employees, with plans to hire 50 more in the next 18 months. Fort Wayne staffers work with local clients but are also engaged in projects with teams from across the country.

Rose attributes the early success to what he considers to be a robust engineering culture in the area.

“There’s also a strong university system here. Within the region, there are six 4-year colleges that we actively recruit from. We’re having enormous success recruiting interns and first year associates into the company. The quality of junior associates (interns) that we’re seeing is very high.”

While admitting that Northeast Indiana hasn’t traditionally been seen as a tech hub, Rose has found no shortage of talent, both home-grown and transplanted.

“It’s a very supportive place to do business. The work ethic here is just fantastic. It is outstanding. People work hard, and they’re very conscientious,” Rose added. “If you’re thinking, ‘How do I do business here?’ the answer is to leverage the existing and upcoming talent and to recognize the opportunity to bring others to the region. With the high quality of life here in Northeast Indiana, I don’t think that’s hard to do.”