Deque doubles Ann Arbor headcount, eyes bigger office space

Deque has doubled the size of its office in Ann Arbor over the last year and plans to keep hiring at that pace over the next year.

Deque creates software that helps make websites more accessible to people with disabilities. A growing number of companies are working to enhance their websites in this way to open up their products to bigger markets. That’s where Deque is carving out its niche.

“A billion pages are being developed everyday and most of them are inaccessible,” says Preety Kumar, founder & CEO of Deque.

The Virginia-based company’s CTO lives in Ann Arbor and works remotely from Tree Town. The start-up has steadily built up its presence in Michigan, at first with a few hires through the CTO and then by opening its development center in downtown Ann Arbor in 2010. Today the office has a staff of 12 employees, which is up from six a year ago. The company is currently looking to fill six more positions.

“We have many open positions for talented software developers,” Kumar says.

Deque’s decision to grow in Ann Arbor made sense because of its ability to recruit computer science graduates from the University of Michigan and otherwise draw from the region’s talent pool. Kumar calls the company’s presence a “natural fit” with the firm’s culture and choose to set up shop in downtown Ann Arbor because of its vibrancy.

“It’s just a more accessible location for people living in Ann Arbor and for graduates from the University of Michigan,” Kumar says. She says the company’s growth is pushing the limits on its 2,500-square-foot office, prompting it to look for a bigger space to accommodate its new hires.

Source: Preety Kumar, founder & CEO of Deque
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.