On Friday, October 25, the City of Lynchburg, the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance and CloudFit Software announced that the company’s new headquarters will be in the historic Carter Glass Building in Downtown Lynchburg. Officials held an event at 10:00 AM on the steps of Monument Terrace at Church and 9th Streets.
CloudFit Software was founded in March 2018 by a group of cloud pioneers from Microsoft, including their co-founder and CTO who grew up in Pittsylvania County and refers to Lynchburg as his home city. CloudFit Software is a select Microsoft partner serving Fortune 500 and Department of Defense customers from their headquarters in Lynchburg, Virginia.
“The City of Lynchburg and Economic Development Authority is thrilled that CloudFit has chosen Lynchburg as the home for its international cloud computing and software development operations,” said Marjette Upshur, Director of Economic Development and Tourism for the City of Lynchburg. “Our office has been working with CloudFit’s founders closely for more than a year to make this announcement a reality. The redevelopment of the historically significant Carter Glass building, anchoring Lynchburg’s iconic Monument Terrace, into a state of the art headquarters for 21st century computing speaks to the strength, diversity and positive trajectory of Lynchburg’s business community.”
CloudFit Software currently has employees in 16 states, but Lynchburg is its home. Since 2018, the company has operated in the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance incubator.
“Cloudfit is demonstrating that the American spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship is thriving in the Lynchburg Region. We couldn’t be more proud of Carroll Moon and the entire CloudFit team for their decision to innovate and grow in the region,” said Megan Lucas, CEO of the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance. “Through the entire start-up process, the leadership of CloudFit has demonstrated vision, passion, and integrity – they have been a joy to support and we look forward to continuing to do so during this next phase of growth.”
CloudFit’s vision is to empower every business on the planet to successfully transform at maximum velocity. The company’s mission is to modernize their client’s full IT portfolio through technology and human accountability. CloudFit has hired 90 employees to date and plans to add 139 jobs in the first three years of operation. The City of Lynchburg is working with the Commonwealth of Virginia to support CloudFit’s job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP).
“CloudFit Software loves that we get to call Lynchburg home, bringing bay-area-technology jobs to the Lynchburg region. Having grown up here, I am an enormous fan of the people of our region—brain power, work ethic, service to customers and teammates. I call it ‘blue collar brilliance’,” said Carroll Moon, Chief Technology Officer for CloudFit. “We are excited about the historical significance of having our headquarters in the Carter Glass building. Secretary [of the Treasury] Glass authored the Glass-Stegall act of 1933 and effectively redefined the banking system in the United States. CloudFit Software aims to define the world’s systems for cloud computing from the same building in Downtown Lynchburg.”
About the Carter Glass Building
Glass, publisher of Lynchburg’s The News and The Daily Advance commissioned his son-in-law, Roanoke architect Robert McClanahan Allen, to design a new building for him at the northwestern base of the iconic Monument Terrace in downtown Lynchburg. The September 29, 1931 edition of The News announced the move to the new office located at what is now 863 Church Street.
Later a United States Senator, Mr. Carter Glass died in political office in 1946. His family continued to publish both papers until 1979, when the papers were purchased by Worrell Newspapers Inc., which began publishing a merged edition, The News & Daily Advance. In 1974, the downtown office was abandoned for a new complex at Wyndale Drive off of Lakeside Drive, where it remains today.
During the late 1970s, after the newspaper moved from downtown to Lakeside Drive, the building stood empty. It became offices for the City of Lynchburg’s data processing and information technology departments, with the downtown post office located on the First Floor. The City’s offices were relocated in 2007 and the building has stood empty since.