Author: LauraLorek@gmail.com (Page 33 of 351)

A blue Volkswagen ID.4 rolled into Austin on Friday on a quest to break a Guinness World Record for longest road trip in an electric vehicle.

“This world record should demonstrate that an EV engine car can perform the same as a combustion engine car,” said Rainer Zietlow, a professional driver who holds several electric vehicle world records.

On Friday morning, Zietlow drove the 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 onto the lawn of Infineon semiconductor’s plant in Austin. It was the fourth stop on a 37,000-mile road trip through 48 states that began on July 18^th in Herndon, Virginia, and ends on Oct. 18^th. The stops took place at Infineon’s locations throughout the U.S. including Austin, Livonia, Michigan, San Jose, and El Segundo, California. The last stop is in Washington, D.C.

Zietlow and his co-pilot Derek Collins of Kansas City, Mo., stopped at the Infineon fab in Austin because it has played a key role in the operations of the Volkswagen ID-4.

The Austin-based manufacturing plant, the largest for Infineon in North America, is making dozens of chips that perform various functions in the car including adaptive cruise control, emergency braking system, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth communications. Infineon even makes the chips that power the drivetrain.

Zietlow said he can’t see or feel the Infineon chips, but that’s the point. They are the magic under the hood.

“I have a good feeling that Infineon is on board,” Zietlow said. He already holds the world record for with the Volkswagen ID-3, a smaller version of the car, with Infineon on board in Germany driving 18,000 miles and visiting 850 Volkswagen dealers.

“Our semiconductors are at the heart of vehicle electrification and the enabling charging infrastructure,”  Lars Ullrich, vice president of automotive at Infineon Technologies Americas said in a news release. “By increasing range, efficiency and accessibility, we are helping the automotive industry to successfully achieve the fundamental transformation towards electromobility – to protect the environment without compromising drivers’ flexibility and comfort.”

The ID.4 is Volkswagen’s first all-electric SUV and the brand’s first global EV. With a price tag of $39,995, the vehicle can travel up to 250 miles on a fully charged battery. Zietlow uses a mobile phone app to check for his next charging station on the road. It takes about 35 minutes to recharge the battery to 85 percent, Zietlow said. Volkswagen partnered with Electrify America, which has  600 charging stations in the United States with plans to add 300 more within two years, he said. Most of the charging stations were based at Walmart stores near the highway, he said.

Infineon already has plans to expand the fab in Austin through the CHIPS for America Act, which is a bill pending in Congress that was introduced by Texas Senator John Cornyn and others, said Carl Bonfiglio, with Infineon’s automotive group based in Michigan. The Volkswagen ID.4 has more than 50 chips just from Infineon.  The CHIPS for America Act would invest tens of billions of dollars in semiconductor manufacturing incentives and research initiatives over the next decade to strengthen and sustain American leadership in chip technology.

San Jose-based Infineon Technologies entered the Austin market when it bought Cypress Semiconductor, with the sale closing in April of 2020. The Austin campus was previously an AMD site. The factory, built in 1995, produces chips using 200 mm or 8-inch diameter wafers. The Austin Infineon site has 1,000 employees and 1.5 million square feet of space of which 115,000 is cleanroom space, said Steve James, vice president of Infineon’s Wafer Fab Operations. The plan is to add 40,000 square feet of cleanroom space, he said.

Roughly 70 percent of the world’s cars contain chips made in Austin, James said. More than 35 electric and plug-in hybrid models with a drivetrain using power semiconductors from Infineon will be in production worldwide this year. Infineon has been in the automotive business for more than 35 years.  Electric cars have a lot more semiconductors than traditional cars, Bonfiglio said. That is also putting additional strain on the semiconductor industry as more electric vehicles hit the road.

Infineon also specializes in security. The chip that is in all U.S. passports is an Infineon chip.

As cars connect to the Internet, there is a need to ensure communications are secure and that no hacker can get into the car. That’s top of mind at Infineon.

“Technology you can trust is what Infineon seeks to provide,” Bonfiglio said.

MOVE America, a global mobility event, will be held in Austin at the Palm Events Center on September 28th and 29th.

Silicon Hills News readers are being offered a free pass. Just use the code SHN100 on checkout.

The event features more than 100 sponsors and exhibitors on the expo floor and more than 100 conference sessions across 18 content stages. MOVE America features more than 300 speakers from government, tech, Tier 1/2/3, and industry verticals.

It’s a chance to gather with thousands of your industry peers and network and connect in person after 18 months of Zoom calls. There’s also a drink reception.

The speakers include:

• Steve Adler, Mayor, City of Austin
• Mei Cai, Director, Battery Cell Systems Research, General Motors
• Edwin Olson, CEO, May Mobility
• Rory Harvey, VP, Global, Cadillac
• Sonia Rief, VP, Vehicle Connected Services & Program Management, Nissan North America
• Gerardo Interiano, VP of Government Relations, Aurora
• Parker Meeks, Chief Strategy Officer, Hyzon Motors
• Sam Zaid, CEO, Getaround
• Tracie Winbigler, EVP & Chief Financial Officer, Amtrak
• Jon Coleman, Director, City Solutions, Ford Motor Company
• Daniel Laury, CEO & Chief Product Officer, UdelV
• Carla Bailo, President & CEO, Center for Automotive Research
• Spencer Reeder, Director, Government Affairs & Sustainability, Audi of America
• Mark Dowd, Chief Innovation Officer, New York MTA
• Rebecca Yeung, VP, Advanced Technology & Innovation, FedEx
• Nate Litton, VP, Data & Analytics, Toyota North America
• Brett Pope, Director, Electric, Volvo Trucks North America
• Susan Anderson, Global Head of Uber for Business, Uber
• Brian Dillard, Chief Innovation Officer, City of San Antonio
• Arjun Naran, CTO & Co-Founder, Gatik
• And hundreds more incredible industry leaders​​​​​​​​​​​​

If you are part of the tech and mobility industry, register now and get your free ticket with code SHN100.

This is a sponsored post.

Austin-based Sana is a healthcare startup that provides health insurance plans as an alternative to big insurance providers like Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Cigna, and Humana. It competes with them by providing insurance that is, on average, 30 percent cheaper. Will Young, CEO and Co-Founder of Sana, recently answered questions about how the Pandemic has affected Sana’s operations.

Q. Has the Covid-19 Pandemic changed the way Sana Benefits works?

A. Yes and no. Yes, because we previously had an office in Austin that our sales team and others worked out of before the pandemic. Those employees and teams had to switch to a work from home model which was an adjustment. No, because most of our team was already remote before the pandemic so we already had good systems in place to hire and manage remote teams.

Q. Do you plan to adopt new ways of working as a result of the Pandemic?

A. The pandemic has deepened our commitment to remote work. If we were 90 percent committed before COVID we are now 100 percent.

A. When do you plan to return to the office?

We are figuring out our strategy now. It’s less and less likely we have a traditional office setup going forward. Having clusters of part-time opt-in coworking might be what we lean into, but all options are still on the table.

Q. Do you require employees to get vaccinated?

A. No. We strongly encourage employees to get vaccinated because we believe the science supports it, but ultimately it’s a personal health choice and we respect that boundary. As we return to in-person events we may request that people who have not been vaccinated abide by stricter mask protocols.

Q. What are you doing to promote company culture and motivate your team while they are working remotely?

A. The best thing you can do for company culture – whether remote or in-person – is to hire motivated people and give them the opportunity to do rewarding work. That’s far and away the most important thing we focus on. We also do things like virtual watercooler channels in slack, randomly assigned groups for social zoom hangouts (opt-in basis) and team happy hours.

Q. Has remote work been beneficial or detrimental to the growth of your business?

A. As a health plan that helps businesses save on costs, Sana’s messaging really resonated with employers during the pandemic. Employees’ health was top of mind and the bottom line was hurting as the economy contracted. We grew a lot last year.

The Internet has enabled all kinds of new businesses from blogs to shops to apps to flourish.

Many of those businesses pull in revenue from consumers, advertisers, affiliates, and more.

To help match business sellers with buyers, Flippa created an online marketplace for businesses and digital assets. And on Monday, the company announced it has raised $11 million.

The company, founded in Melbourne, Australia, has its North American headquarters based in Austin.

Flippa’s Series A round was led by Sydney-based venture capital firm OneVentures. The round also included existing Flippa investor Andrew Walsh (ex-CEO Hitwise, acquired by Experian) and Co-Founders / Investors Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz – Co-founders of Flippa, as well as 99designs. Flippa’s new investors include Gabby & Hezi Leibovich (Founders of Catch.com.au), Guy King and Bevan Clarke (Founders of RetailMeNot.com), and Tim O’Neill and Tim Fouhy (Founders of Reactive Media).

Flippa sells digital assets like mobile apps, eCommerce stores, blogs, software companies and other online businesses.

Platforms such as Amazon, WordPress, and Shopify enable entrepreneurs and creators to startup and scale their projects into sustainable companies. Flippa gives them a place to sell those businesses.

Flippa has more than 3 million registered users to date. Flippa’s proprietary valuation product and matching algorithm accurately values businesses and matches them directly with qualified buyers.

“In 2009, Flippa invented the space for buying and selling digital businesses and as a bootstrapped startup we’ve achieved #1 status globally,” Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, said in a news release. “We’ve witnessed thousands of success stories, where business owners use Flippa to realize value in their extraordinary efforts. We are now growing into a market network to streamline transactions of all sizes and we’re excited to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs and investors.” 

With the funding, Flippa, with 50 employees, plans to hire more than 50 new employees in Melbourne, San Francisco and Austin as well as remotely. It also plans to use the funds to expand its platform product functionality, including scaling the company’s business valuation tool.

Sante Ventures, an early-stage healthcare, and life sciences investment firm, announced it has raised $260 million for its Fund IV.

The Austin-based investment firm plans to invest the funds in building a portfolio of 15-25 investments across biotech, health tech, and medtech businesses that demonstrate the genuine potential to deliver better health outcomes at lower costs. 

Sante secured the capital from more than two dozen limited partners including the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System and new institutional investors in Asia and Latin America. Returning limited partners in previous Sante funds made up nearly 90 percent of the total capital.

“The confidence and commitment of our investors led to the quickest fundraise since inception,” Kevin Lalande, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Santé Ventures, said in a news release. “We are grateful for their partnership as we deploy this next fund to capitalize on significant healthcare opportunities and nurture cutting-edge technologies that can improve lives.”

“We have seen firsthand how events over the last 18 months have accelerated the adoption of technology in all facets of life, especially in healthcare,” Lalande said. “Our team’s deep understanding of biological systems, machine learning, and health industry economics offers a truly differentiated investment platform. Santé’s disciplined portfolio strategy is designed to engineer the luck out of fund-level venture capital returns by delivering superior performance independent of vintage year and the broader macroeconomic cycle, as demonstrated in the success of our track record over the last 15 years. We are well-positioned to develop this next portfolio of compelling new venture opportunities, which will be consistent with the investment strategy and operating principles that have served the firm so well to date.”

As a first-mover in the healthcare and life science sectors, Santé typically leads or co-leads Seed or Series A fundraising rounds, often creating the new company from scratch or as an entrepreneur’s first institutional investor.

Founded in 2006, Sante Ventures has made 76 investments and had 13 exits, according to CB Insights. It has invested in Claret Medical (Boston Scientific), TVA Medical (Becton Dickinson), Millipede Medical (Boston Scientific), Molecular Templates (MTEM), AbVitro (Celgene) and Explorys (IBM Corp).

The firm has offices in Austin and Boston.

Self Financial announced it has raised $50 million in additional funding.

The Austin-based fintech company has raised $127 million to date, including $40 million in funding last December.

The Series E round of funding was led by Altos Ventures with participation from Meritech Capital and Conductive Ventures.

The company plans to use the funds to scale its business to make building credit accessible for the 100 million Americans that have no credit or low credit scores, according to the company.

Self Financial created the Credit Builder Account to allow its customers to build credit and savings without a hard credit inquire or prior credit history. It also offers the Self Visa Credit Card, a secured card. To date, Self has served more than two million customers.

“We deeply support Self’s mission of helping underserved customers to build credit and savings, bringing them into the American financial mainstream,” Anthony Lee, Managing Director of Altos Ventures said in a news release. “Since our original investment, Self has helped millions of people build credit and this latest round will enable them to scale their team and products to help millions more.” 

Self’s customer base has more than doubled in the last 12 months, according to the company.

“We believe everyone should have the opportunity to improve their financial future. That belief shapes everything we do, so looking ahead, we will continue to invest in the business and improve on our products to offer industry-leading solutions that support consumers, particularly those who are new to credit or building their credit,” Self founder and CEO James Garvey said in a news release.

Self now has nearly 200 employees, up 120 just this year.

Rocket Dollar, a self-directed retirement platform, recently closed on $8 million in funding.

The Austin-based fintech company, founded in 2017, allows people to use self-directed retirement accounts to make a wide variety of investments in alternative assets like real estate, startups, private equity, cryptocurrency, and more.

Park West Asset Management led the Series A financing with participation from Hyphen Capital, Moneta Venture Capital, Kraken Ventures, and Primetime Partners. Existing investor Sure Ventures also participated.

The company also announced that former T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services CEO and President Todd Ruppert will also join Rocket Dollar’s board.

Rocket Dollar plans to use the funds for product development, customer service, cybersecurity, and expanding investment education and content creation.

“Modern investors expect ease, trust, and convenience when it comes to managing their investment portfolio,” Henry Yoshida, CEO and Co-Founder of Rocket Dollar, said in a news release. “After studying this industry for years, we have applied new technology to a paper-driven complex industry that instantly makes investing in alternatives accessible and affordable. This gives control back to clients and opens a wider range of asset classes to savvy investors, without the need for expensive service providers.”

Rocket Dollar offers a flexible investment IRA and Solo 401K platform that enables account holders to tap into investment opportunities outside of stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

“In recent years, we have seen an explosion of interest in alternatives as individuals see how much wealth is created from private investments,” Dave Lu, Founder and Managing Partner of Hyphen Capital. “Henry and his team are uniquely qualified and well-positioned to revolutionize how investors leverage self-directed accounts for alternative investments, having helped thousands of individuals unlock the potential of their IRA funds to accelerate wealth accumulation.”

“The financial sector is in the midst of a technological revolution,” Brandon Gath, Managing Partner at Kraken Ventures, said in a news release. “Diversification is the only free lunch in investing, but siloed operating systems and outdated tech stacks mean consumers have long struggled to move their retirement savings into a wide range of asset classes. This is what Rocket Dollar solves: they enable anyone, from the twenty-something straight out of college, to the 60-year-old looking to maximize their savings, to gain the same level of financial autonomy that has historically been reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Kraken Ventures believes technology ultimately empowers the investor and Rocket Dollar enables everyone to add crypto – the highest performing asset class of the past decade – to their retirement account.”

Rocket Dollar has more than $350 million in customer assets.

Car insurance that relies on credit scores, homeownership, and demographic data has a lot of structural bias baked into it, said John Henry, co-founder, and co-CEO of Loop.

“A lot of the pricing is based on demographic factors,” Henry said. “If you look at the rate filings of the top ten carriers, a credit score is 65 percent predictive. Your credit, your income, your occupation, all of those things predetermine your rates. When we saw that we were flabbergasted. We did not think that was at all indicative of your risk.”

Based on major insurance provider’s actual rate filings, a driver could have a DUI and two speeding tickets but live in a more affluent area and be well educated and have a better rate than someone who lives in a low-income area with a completely clean driving record, Henry said.

That’s why Henry launched Loop with Co-Founder and Co-CEO Carey Anne Nadeau to provide car insurance based on a person’s driving record. Henry is a serial entrepreneur and investor who sold his first business at 21 and went on to co-found Harlem Capital, which raised $40 million for women and minority entrepreneurs before he left in 2020. Nadeau is an entrepreneur and an MIT-trained city planner who formerly worked at the Brookings Institute and Urban Institute

“Loop is completely technology-enabled and it’s powered by AI,” Henry said.

And on Saturday, Loop officially goes live in Texas to provide car insurance to drivers statewide.

The company already has a waiting list of 30,000, Henry said. To create awareness, Henry and Nadeau drove a “mom van” around the state to meet with potential customers in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Henry and Nadeau founded Loop in July of 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd murder by police officers in Minneapolis. The founders wanted to do something to bring more equity to people in under-served communities.

“We were inspired to do something big,” Henry said.

Loop closed on a $3.25 million seed-stage round of funding in January led by Freestyle VC. The company, whose founders resided in Washington, D.C. and New York, moved Loop’s headquarters to Austin earlier this year. They have also quickly grown from four employees to more than 30 employees. And they expect to be at more than 100 in the next six months and 1,000 with a year. Loop expects to close its next round of funding soon, Henry said.

Austin is a tech and insurance hub and is a particularly attractive market for innovative startups, Henry said. Loop recently became a member of InsureTech Austin, an organization that meets up monthly.

“We love the counterculture that exists here,” Henry said. “Here people are talented and optimistic, and they love what comes with joining a newcomer.”

Loop, which is a B-Corp, is a managing general agent that, unlike traditional agents and brokers, is vested with underwriting authority from an insurer.  It bases its insurance rates on driver behavior which it gathers from its mobile app installed on the customer’s mobile phone. The app can detect if the person is using the phone while driving, it can also measure other factors like speed and sudden braking.

Loop also uses data to set and lower a driver’s insurance rate based on where they live and the accident rate for that area. Loop taps into databases of traffic accidents, weather, road conditions, and more. The app also uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to recommend safer routes for drivers to avoid accidents, Henry said. It has a partnership with TomTom to provide traffic alerts and mapping in real-time.

Loop is aiming its product at Millennials and Generation Z who are avid mobile phone users and are comfortable with sharing data on their driving behavior for discounts on rates. It’s also going to be popular with renters, Henry said. Because a lot of insurance companies give a 15 percent discount to people who bundle home and auto insurance, he said. That doesn’t mean homeowners are 15 percent less risky than renters, he said.

By making the car insurance rate based on behavior and not any other demographic factors or extraneous factors, Loop is creating a fairer system for everyone, Henry said.

“When you are rated on the things that matter, you end up saving a ton of money,” Henry said. “If your credit score is fair, that shouldn’t matter. If you work a blue-collar job, that shouldn’t matter. If you didn’t go Ivy league and you can’t get that discount, that also shouldn’t matter at least according to our program.”

For many structural reasons, a lot of communities don’t have great credit ratings, Henry said.

“I reflect on my own experience,” Henry said. “I grew up below the poverty line. My parents immigrated from the Dominican Republic. We were poor but my mom and dad are really good people. But they didn’t have careers. They had jobs. They didn’t learn the language. My mom was a custodian, and my pops was a presser in a dry cleaner. And so, we always lived in lower-income areas.”

But they were also super safe drivers, Henry said.

“And it’s nuts to me that the communities that would need the breaks the most and often times have good driving records are often penalized and paying the most,” Henry said.

On average, a lot of these communities are paying 70 percent above average rates, according to the data Loop examined, Henry said.

People need insurance for everything from getting a car, to a house to renting and it’s conveniently invisible, Henry said.

Loop plans to roll out first in Texas and then launch in additional markets like Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio this year, followed by New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington state in 2022.  

Walmart may soon be delivering groceries in Austin via a driverless car.

The grocery store giant announced Wednesday that it is teaming up with Ford Motor Co. and Argo AI to launch an autonomous vehicle delivery service in Austin, Miami and Washington, D.C.

Walmart will use Ford self-driving test vehicles equipped with Argo AI self-driving system to deliver Walmart orders to customers.

“Our focus on the testing and development of self-driving technology that operates in urban areas where customer demand is high really comes to life with this collaboration,” Bryan Salesky, founder and CEO of Argo AI, said in a news release. “Working together with Walmart and Ford across three markets, we’re showing the potential for autonomous vehicle delivery services at scale.”

With the service, Walmart customers can place an order online and have it delivered to their door via an autonomous vehicle.

“We’re excited to expand our autonomous delivery efforts in three new markets alongside Argo and Ford,” Tom Ward, senior vice president of last mile delivery, Walmart U.S. said in a news release. “This collaboration will further our mission to get products to the homes of our customers with unparalleled speed and ease, and in turn, will continue to pave the way for autonomous delivery.”

Walmart plans to initially offer the service in the three test markets and eventually roll it out to other markets nationwide. The service is scheduled to start later this year.

“Argo and Ford are aggressively preparing for large-scale autonomous vehicle operations across a broad footprint of U.S. cities,” Scott Griffith, CEO, Ford Autonomous Vehicles & Mobility Businesses said in a news release. “Pairing Walmart’s retail and e-commerce leadership with Argo and Ford’s self-driving operations across these multiple cities marks a significant step toward scaling a commercial goods delivery service that will ultimately power first-to-scale business efficiencies and enable a great consumer experience.”

Since 2019, Ford has been testing self-driving technology in Austin. Its also operating in Miami, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Detroit and Palo Alto. Ford has been working on building autonomous ride-hailing and delivery services in those markets. It has been establishing a commercial fleet management capabilities, including fueling, servicing, and cleaning of self-driving vehicles, to support the customer and keep fleets running. Walmart previously tested with Ford in Miami in 2018.

By SIMON RYCRAFT, author of Negotiation Hacks and Founder at Hacks Capital, special contribution to Silicon Hills News

Philanthropy has received increased press and interest in the last few months, be it the news that MacKenzie Scott has donated over $6.9 billion of her personal fortune to charity since the beginning of 2020 or the fact that 204 billionaires have now signed Warren Buffet’s “Giving Pledge”, including our very own Elon Musk.

Academics have also begun to draw closer correlations between giving and success, helping validate what we already knew; some of the most successful people, in life and business, are “givers” – Professor Adam Grant (at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania).

Here in Austin, Ryan Ginard (Director of Development for UT’s Computer Science Department), is at the center of this growing trend. We connected with him to get his insights on the future of Philanthropy but also how technology will play an increasingly critical role.

Ryan is a civic connector and fundraiser with over 15 years of experience in government, higher education, nonprofits, and organized philanthropy, leveraging over $2.5bn in infrastructure funding and directly raising over $15m for charities. Ryan moved to the United States from Brisbane, Australia, where he spent five years as a policy and media adviser in the federal government on the portfolios of financial services, industry and innovation.

1. What brought you to Austin and how did you first get into the world of Philanthropy?

My wife works as a Technical Recruiter and her company was acquiring a number of transportation and cyber security start-ups here in Austin and was given the opportunity to move. Austin has been on my radar ever since I spoke at SXSW in 2015, and I was given the opportunity to come work at Texas Computer Science which was the perfect backdrop to my work in philanthropy & my passion for securing research funding that can advance society. While the timing for the move wasn’t fantastic having got here 3 weeks prior to everything shutting down due to COVID, it has ended up being a truly transformative chapter in my career and to be honest, gave me the insight & optimism needed to complete my upcoming book.

I moved to the States in 2011 and after hitching a ride on some Congressional campaigns, I was offered the opportunity to lead the Civic Leadership Fund at a large community foundation which was a refreshing change to the cyclical nature of campaigns. In this role I had the opportunity to connect with society in innovative new ways to drive impact and I haven’t looked back since.

2. What are the top trends you are seeing in Philanthropy and how is Technology helping accelerate those trends?

We are starting to see the democratization of philanthropy and at a real opportune time in our history, given that a near $60 trillion transfer of generational wealth is to occur over the coming decades. Traditional grantmaking is being turned on its head in favor of a more dynamic place-based approach such as giving circles and impact investing. The social sector is finally realizing that a 501c3 is just a tax designation and not a business model and therefore are being more strategic in their fundraising. No longer will you see capital campaigns purely achieved by philanthropic dollars, with boards finally starting to greenlight a more creative mix of things like New Market Tax Credits and social impact bonds to ensure their success.

Technology is going to accelerate this evolution of the sector in a range of exciting ways. Firstly automation is going to make organizations more efficient & effective, AI is going to help identify donors in your systems that have either been overlooked or undervalued, smart contracts are going to save hours of time in grant writing & reporting and make the grantmaking process more fair and equitable. The list goes on and on. I’m a big proponent of ‘feeding the machines’ with the hope that machine learning will help inform new solutions to some of society’s biggest social issues such as homelessness and poverty.

3. What are some of the early-stage companies from Austin in this space you have on your radar?

There is some amazing work going on right now in Austin. I know this publication is called SiliconHillsNews but I’m really getting some ‘Silicon City Hall’ vibes which has me hopeful for some of our local start-ups. Civitech is definitely going places as there is a real appetite for data tools in community organizing and down-ballot political campaigns. It’s companies like this that will empower new voices and ideas to push back against the current status quo we see in legislatures across the country.

PILYTIX is another one. They have been working with UT Development for a while now using AI to focus on better donor leads and opportunities. I use the platform regularly and there is a lot of potential for them to grow into one of the leading companies in this space. The best thing about this platform though is that they use X.A.I. (Explainable AI) to demystify the tech and the modeling. By ensuring that users understand exactly how the output is generated, senior leadership will always feel more confident in their projections and understand what levers can be pulled to impact results.

I also like what InLieu is doing. It’s kind of like the Venmo of charitable giving and is super simple to use. I’m using it for gifting from now on and excited to finally leave the ‘thank you hampers’ that are extremely expensive and impersonal behind.

4. What can larger, more established companies do to improve their social impact?

I would encourage a two-step process. Focus internally first with your own people, build a strong culture, and have giving as that one shared value in what will hopefully be a diverse workforce. Give bonuses & actively seek opportunities for them to grow professionally. Provide a corporate match and incentivize giving on their terms. Have a day of giving (or even a month like Microsoft does!) Give time for folks to volunteer or join a board, lots of companies are starting to give two hours of time-off a month for their employees to participate in community leadership. We have some amazing CEO’s here in town that are really showing us how it’s done – Whitney Wolfe Herd from Bumble and Kendra Scott being the leading lights here.

Once your own house is in order, my one word of advice is to not get caught in the trap of giving in a confetti-like approach. Focus on one issue that aligns with the mission of the company and stay the course. Find a select few groups to support and be their partner, not just their benefactor and watch your impact compound over time. Pro bono services are also just as important as funding and if you actually create tech products, share them & help build their capacity. CSR is going to evolve quickly given all the recent societal upheaval and your customers & users are going to expect more, and most importantly to be more.

5. If anyone reading this would like to connect with you directly or order your book, how can they contact you?

My new book, Future Philanthropy – The Tech, Trends and Talent Defining New Civic Leadership will be out on October 26th  through Wise Ink Publishing, and you can pre-order your copy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or directly from www.futurephilanthropybook.com; You can also contact me directly at ryan@ryanginard.com