Music streaming service Pandora opens office in St. Louis

    By Maria Altman

    A little more West Coast is moving into St. Louis.

    The music streaming company Pandora opened an office inside Cortex, St. Louis’ innovation district, on Monday.

    “Pandora came looking for us,” said Dougan Sherwood, co-founder and managing director of CIC St. Louis, which is housed in the @4240 building.

    Sherwood said officials with Pandora, which is based in Oakland, Calif., wanted to replicate the culture they have at their headquarters.

    “So when you come to a place like CIC, which has intentionally developed a culture of entrepreneurship, and startup activity and technology, I think the folks there felt like they were at home,” he said.

    Pandora provides a fee-based subscription service, as well as a free ad-based service with locally-targeted ads. The St. Louis office will have a sales team of five to seven employees within CIC St. Louis.

    The news comes on the heels of Square’s announcement last month that it planned to expand into St. Louis. The company, co-founded by St. Louisans Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey, plans to add 200 employees once it moves into a new wing of the @4240 building.