KACHARAGADLA

India’s IT professionals are moving to non-traditional destinations in droves in search of the right work-life balance. It was not a hot destination for an IT start-up when Kevin Eichelberger left Atlanta and moved to Charleston to set up Blue Acorn, a company that offers data-driven optimisation techniques to midlevel e-commerce platforms. The limited space it had for its seven employees seven years ago required someone to leave before it could receive a visitor. The company’s sprawling office today has abundant space not only for its 130 employees, but also their pet dogs that sniff around Mac machines and pizza boxes. “Our primary competitors and peers are all in primary cities like New York, LA and Chicago. Charleston is not known for tech. But things are changing fast,” Mr. Eichelberger said, sipping beer. “In the last seven years things have changed. We have an advantage of being in a smaller city. Quality of life, affordable spaces – for companies and homes, lowe