Software company is relocating to Pasco

DataMentors Inc., which is moving its headquarters from Tampa, will open a 10,000-square-foot site in the Cypress Ridge Office Park.

LAND O'LAKES - A Tampa software company whose products help businesses with their marketing strategies is moving its headquarters to Pasco County.

DataMentors Inc. plans to open a 10,000-square-foot facility next year at Cypress Ridge Office Park, at the northeast corner of Interstate 75 and State Road 56, Pasco Economic Development Council officials said at their meeting Wednesday.

The 8-year-old company employs about 20 people and hopes to hire another 20 within the first three years of operating in Pasco, said DataMentors president Bob Orf.

DataMentors' customers range from banks to drugstores to casinos, Orf said.

The firm's software helps companies figure out what types of products specific customers are buying - information that allows the businesses to better target their marketing. Casinos, for instance, use the software to make sure they are not marketing to people on what is called the "disassociated players list," which contains the names of people with gambling problems, said Orf.

DataMentors' products range in price from $7,500 to $300,000.

Orf started another data company in Tampa called Okra Marketing about 20 years ago. That business was eventually sold to the John H. Harland check printing company of Atlanta.

Bryan Kamm, PEDC project manager, noted that DataMentors comes with the types of higher paying jobs - average wages run between $50,000 and $60,000 - that the county has been trying to attract.

Since the company has a national customer base, it had no strong ties to Tampa, where it currently leases property, said Orf.

He said he had wanted the company to own its own property and heard last year about commercial space available at the Cypress Ridge Office Park.

"There's not a lot of property left in Hillsborough," Orf said.

Jodie Tillman can be reached at 727 869-6247 or jtillman@sptimes.com.