Jobber opens a downtown Vancouver office for its 100-plus local staff and plans to hire more

Jobber, the Edmonton-founded company that makes software for plumbers, landscapers, cleaners and other home service businesses, has opened an office in downtown Vancouver, where it already employs more than 100 people. The hybrid space at 601 West Hastings Street has 70 desks. Jobber says its software powers more than 100,000 teams in 60 countries, and it also has offices in Edmonton, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and Boston.

"Great Vancouver-based talent kept joining us organically, but we weren't getting the benefits of co-location because those folks had nowhere to meet," said Lynsey Thornton, a vice-president at Jobber. Chief executive Sam Pillar put it more bluntly: "The most depressing celebration is the one where you drop an emoji in Slack or toast the camera on your webcam after a significant win and then log off to silently go fold the laundry." Thornton added that "AI is compressing the time between idea and execution," and that working in person could make those loops faster.

The company is hiring in Vancouver, particularly engineers, designers and product managers, and plans to host community events in the space once its lounge areas are finished. Thornton said many local staff joined because a friend or relative runs a home service business. "The home services community in Vancouver is large, and we want to help strengthen it," she said.