Category: Austin (Page 37 of 318)

By Kenny Tomlin, Founder and Executive Chairman of AnthemIQ

It’s difficult to believe that the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) industry has continued to operate in essentially the same manner the past 15 years, considering how much technology has advanced and significantly improved most industries. Yet, even the most technically savvy brokers still run their business through a combination of PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, text messages, and email. 

One of the primary reasons the CRE industry hasn’t modernized their method of working is because the solution simply hasn’t been there to drive change the way it has for other industries — for example, when a tenant rep broker reviews commercial options for new clients (tenants) looking to lease space, it is a very manual and time-laborious process spread out over many tools and tasks with disparate data having to be pieced together into a word doc or pdf that is non-dynamic with poor usability. Let’s break this down in very familiar terms.  Now, imagine that Amazon was merely an online catalog of what could be purchased instead of the super powerful commerce and transaction engine it offers today. Remember what catalog shopping used to be like? Frequently, the price of the item wasn’t included and only a short description and a few photos were provided. The purchase process was often a nightmare as well and might have included contacting the seller to receive pricing, availability, and shipping costs. What a pain!

Out with the Old: Wheel-Reinvention is a Must

Stepping back into the past is a good way to understand how tenant rep brokers utilize the primary data source in most of today’s CRE transactions.  The traditional and generally accepted tactics in today’s CRE pipeline give those involved in the process a general but woefully incomplete view of available options. What results is a dysfunctional and disconnected flow of emails and phone calls between the tenant rep, broker, and the leasing agents, who put together a market survey for the tenant. It sounds like it might be comprehensive, but it is literally just a very long and tedious PDF list of available commercial spaces that are potential options for the tenant to consider.

The slow, laborious and not at all future-forward CRE transaction process continues with the tenant rep preparing to email his or her client the aforementioned “market survey” along with a spreadsheet of financial metrics and links to something like a Dropbox that contains the leasing agent’s marketing flyers, floor plans, and property photos. Imagine how much time is wasted going back and forth between the tenant and tenant rep with these static documents, amongst multiple stakeholders responsible for the leasing decision.

CRE Transactions for the 21st Century and Beyond

So, how can we reinvent the wheel? What if the CRE industry stepped into the 21st century with technology that creates a centralized platform that benefits all stakeholders (tenant, tenant rep, leasing agent, and landlord)? The results would be astronomical. Gone would be the days of back-and-forth emails, tedious Excel spreadsheets, and pointless PDFs. The whole process would be expedited, meaning clients and landlords would be much happier as tenant reps and leasing agents close more deals.

Think about it. Enhanced technology that streamlines CRE transactions would bring speed, convenience, transparency, and personalization to the transaction process. It would be like the Uber of the CRE world — using it would bring that “aha!” moment where one stops to think “why hasn’t it been done this way all along?”

But, is the global CRE business community ready for this type of disruption? Put bluntly, YES. With the right technology, every CRE transaction would be easier than it currently stands. Technology has been adopted into nearly every aspect of the human experience, so it’s finally time for CRE industry professionals to wake up and keep up — what do they have to lose?

Editor’s note: This is a Guest Article Contribution to Silicon Hills News

SKU, the consumer packaged goods accelerator, along with Naturally Austin, have selected ten companies to participate in its SKU M/O track that focuses on diversity and inclusion.

SKO M/O kicks off on June 3rd.

The accelerator provides education and mentorship to diverse founders. It’s a combination of Naturally Austin’s Fellowship program and SKU’s accelerator curriculum.

The SKU M/O cohort includes:

Hangio (flexible hangers), Ayodele Aigbe

Jeany’s Ginger Elixer (Jeany’s Ginger Elixir is a Caribbean inspired food and beverage company based on family recipes from Grenada)  Naijean Bernard

Luv Fats Ice Cream (small batch ice cream made with an avocado and coconut cream base) Chi Ndika, 

Homescape Pets: (All Natural Cat and Dog Supplements) Nana Pfeifer

WAJU: (A line of sparkling waters made from fruit) Chris Oates

Algo Dulce: (handmade flan) Jesse Mondregon, 

Ujamaa, (lightbulbs) Rob Jackson

Naturally Noah’s (plant-based Vietnamese Noodles) Jimmy Tay Trinh

Babka ATX (Gourmet Babka) Sariel Brummer

Cognite, an industrial software as a service company that has its U.S. headquarters in Austin, announced this week that it has closed on a $150 million investment round.

That funding round values the company at $1.6 billion, earning the company’s unicorn status.

TCV, a private equity firm, led the round in Cognite, founded in 2017, which is based in Oslo, Norway. Cognite opened its North American business in 2019 and has grown to over 40 people, with more than half of our employees in Austin. 

TCV has a broad network and expertise in successfully scaling technology companies, including Netflix, OSIsoft, Splunk, Airbnb and Spotify.

“Cognite is building the future by redefining modern industrial data management,” Jake Reynolds with TCV said in a news release.

Cognite has products in data and artificial intelligence which help companies run their operations more effectively. Its customers include bp, Saudi Aramco, Alfa Laval, Statnett, and Mitsubishi.“Cognite is on a strong trajectory to help transform industry, and since our founding four years ago, we have managed to attract top global talent, and partner with top industrial companies to accelerate modern industrial data management worldwide,” John Markus Lervik, CEO and co-founder of Cognite, said in a news release.

Cognite continues rapid expansion with over 500 employees across offices in Europe, the United States, Asia, and the Middle East.

Austin-based Hearth, a financial platform for home improvement contractors, announced this week it has raised $23 million.

Human Capital, a San Francisco-based venture firm, led the Series B funding round.

Other investors include 8VC, Suro Capital, Jay Levine, Barry Sternlicht, and The Chainsmokers.

To date, Hearth, founded in 2018, has raised $51 million. Previous investors include  8VC, Founders Fund, and Goldcrest Capital.

Hearth’s platform is a one-stop-shop for contractors to finance projects, send digital invoices, collect payments, and obtain general liability and workers’ compensation insurance.

With the funding, Hearth plans to expand its product suite for craftsmen. Hearth is developing a suite of financial and workflow tools specifically tailored to contractors to help them run their business, save time, and protect their profits,  Anna Fabian, SVP of Product at Hearth said in a news statement.

The company also plans to double in size from 100 to 200 employees. It has offices in San Francisco as well as Austin.

“Our work at Hearth is about translating the incredible amount of innovation in digital financial services into tools that are accessible and useful to the small to medium-sized contracting businesses,” Anthony Ghosn, Hearth co-founder and CEO, said in a news release. “We were the first in the market to enable the SMB segment with financing and we’re looking to build on our momentum by innovating around the rest of the financial services stack. With this additional capital, we’ll focus on expanding the features and resources available to our customers, as well as quickly growing our team.”

Telemedicine startup, Wheel, announced this week that has closed on $50 million in funding.

The Austin-based startup, founded in 2018, created a platform focused on providing services to clinicians to provide better telehealth care to patients. Michelle Davey and Griffin Mulcahey founded Wheel, previously called Enzyme Health to provide high-quality virtual care at scale. They previously worked at Medici, another Austin-based startup focused on telehealth.

“Today, I’m excited to share that we’ve taken a giant step towards changing the way healthcare works,” Davey, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder wrote in a blog post on the company’s website.

Lightspeed Ventures led Wheel’s Series B round. Existing investors CRV, Silverton Partners, Tusk Venture Partners, and J.P. Morgan also participated in the round.

“When we first founded Wheel, we had big ideas and even bigger ambitions about how to revolutionize the way we access healthcare,” Davey wrote. “The pandemic has shown patients are eager to continue seeing the doctor virtually, but it’s an immensely complicated and expensive feat to bring healthcare visits online. That’s why we’re focused on making it as simple as possible for companies to participate in virtual care.”

Wheel has created a telemedicine platform that allows companies to provide services to patients under their own brand. Wheel handles all the back-end technology and provides an easy-to-use interface for healthcare providers to treat patients.

The company plans to use the funds raised to expand its clinician network. It currently supports more than 100 treatment areas over primary care and behavioral health. It also plans to continue to invest in its technology behind its virtual care platform.

“Today our partners can deliver asynchronous, synchronous, and scheduled synchronous consults – as well as longitudinal care, labs, and diagnostics, and we’re just getting started,” Davey wrote.

Wheel also plans to hire more employees. To date, the company has raised $66 million.

In October of 2019, RigUp closed on a $300 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, a16z to expand its marketplace for energy workers.

A lot has changed since then.

This week, the startup, now called Workrise has announced another $300 million funding round. This time led by Baillie Gifford, an existing investor.

In addition to the name change, Workrise now serves companies and trade workers in the solar, wind, commercial construction and defense industries. The company’s online platform matches workers with more than 500 companies in its network, manages payroll and benefits and provides access to training.

Workrise, founded in 2014, has raised more than $750 million to date and the latest funding gives the company a valuation of $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. Other investors in the Series E round included new investor Franklin Templeton joining existing investors including Founders Fund, Bedrock Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Moore Strategic Ventures, 137 Ventures, and Brookfield Growth Partners.

The company also laid off 120 employees last March as the Pandemic caused the global economy to shut down, according to a report in Austin Inno.

The company plans to use the funds raised to expand into new markets. Workrise now serves more than 70 metro areas in the U.S.

“The shift to clean energy and a redoubling of investment in infrastructure are opening up jobs that are desperately in need of filling,” Xuan Yong, Workrise co-founder and CEO said in a news release. “Our platform makes it easier for skilled workers to find work and for companies to hire in-demand workers. We are grateful to everyone who has backed our vision for bringing infrastructure and energy staffing into the future.”

The company plans to place 100,000 workers in jobs by the end of 2023, and 1 million by the end of 2030.

Dean Kakridas remembers the old Austin tech scene.

And by old, he is talking about 2003 when he landed here. But he’s also spent time in Europe, Asia, and Silicon Valley.

For the past 18 years, he’s worked in a variety of roles and has seen Austin’s technology scene mature and expand. During that time, he has experienced explosive growth in Austin and throughout the state of Texas, which is the second largest in the U.S. Texas also has the 10^th largest gross domestic product globally and four of the top 11 U.S. cities, according to Kakridas.

Now, he is the managing director of Fresh Consulting, which is based in the Seattle area. Last October, Kakridas launched the Austin office. This year, Fresh Consulting plans to have 15 employees in Austin. It is a product and digital innovation firm that creates software, hardware, robotics, and more for its clients, which include Dell, CBRE, Dell, and Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas.

“Texas is like its own booming country,” he wrote in a blog post. “I believe Texas, and specifically the capital of Austin, was the perfect location for a fast-growing company like Fresh.”

Kakridas is a former director of business development for frog design. In his role at Fresh Consulting, he acts like the Wizard of Oz behind the scenes. He works with a variety of tech companies in the areas of design, strategy, and engineering.

“We help companies invent the future – especially their own future,” Kakridas said.

“Fresh Austin is uniquely strong in hardware and software technology and innovation. We’re very excited about helping growing Texas companies with digital transformation and product development in robotics, industrial automation, mobile autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, AR/VR, and similar technologies.”

The timing is right for Fresh Austin, Kakridas said.

“COVID has really been an accelerant,” Kakridas said. “It shows that it doesn’t matter if you’re in the same city anymore.

The pandemic “has proven among many other things, that distributed workforces can perform just fine, and often even better, when equipped with the right tools, approaches, and partners,” Kakridas wrote in a blog post. “Blended workforces (internal and external thinking and executing at velocity) are redefining how organizations innovate and drive optimal products and successful business outcomes.”

Fresh Austin also works with a lot of funded startups on product development and strategy, Kakridas said.

“We speak their language,” he said.

But Fresh Austin also works with established companies.

“Everybody’s moving to Austin,” Kakridas said. “All of these big companies are coming here, and they need help. We can help them be all they can be.”

The Fresh Austin office also services clients in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston, Kakridas said.

“My team can get in a car and drive to any one of those cities in a few hours or less from Austin,” he said.

Founded 17 years ago, Realty Austin has seen tremendous growth.

The husband-and-wife team of Jonathan and Yvette Boatwright have developed the company into the number one independent brokerage in Central Texas.

In the beginning, Jonathan worked at Microsoft at the time Yvette was starting her real estate business. Together, they focused on the technology behind the website, creating a robust home search engine on the Realty Austin platform that attracted a lot of homebuyers.

“In 2003, Zillow didn’t even exist and if it did, no one knew about it,” Jonathan said. “There weren’t any good property search sites, so people flocked to ours. That enabled us to attract real estate agents to work for us with the promise of Internet leads to help them grow their business.”

To this day, it’s a big reason people join Realty Austin, Jonathan said.

“We have about 15,000 visits a day to our site in Austin,” he said. “It generates about 150 new leads every day, which is about the same number moving to Austin every day. It seems like most of them sign up on our website.”

It started out with just the two of them, but today Realty Austin has 45 full-time employees and 580 agents across the region. And they’ve done it all bootstrapped without even taking out a loan.

“We’ve definitely built something really strong in Austin,” Jonathan said.

And now Realty Austin is expanding and opening an office in San Antonio, called Realty San Antonio. Marisa Jackson is heading up that office as its Agent Success Manager. The office is in the La Cantera area and it has brought on about 18 agents since February.

“We’ve got a different philosophy when it comes to hiring real estate agents. We don’t hire new agents,” Jonathan said. “We don’t hire part-time agents. We only hire full-time, committed real estate agents who are focused on this and this only.”

Realty Austin’s focus is on empowering the top-tier real estate agents, Jonathan said. They provide marketing and other support services so agents can focus on closing deals.

“We’re taking that to San Antonio, which is really exciting because I think Austin and San Antonio are blurring the lines between the two cities,” Jonathan said. The I-35 corridor feels more and more like one big metropolis, he said.

“As Austin becomes less and less affordable, we are seeing more and more buyers moving in from other states and they are really looking at further South like San Marcos, New Braunfels and San Antonio as an option now,” Jonathan said. It’s more affordable, and a lot of new transplants have jobs that allow them to work from anywhere, he said.

“Covid has enabled people to have a little more flexibility in where they live,” he said. That’s why now is the perfect time to expand into San Antonio, he said.

“There is just a great migration to Central Texas that is picking up steam for better or worse,” Jonathan said. “It doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down any time soon.”

Austin and San Antonio are like sister cities, they are each special in their own way, said Yvette.

The expansion comes as Realty Austin recorded $4.4 billion in sales in 2020 with more than 9,800 transactions.

Last March, literally, the bottom fell out of the real estate market overnight, Jonathan said. People were stuck at home and Realty Austin couldn’t do open houses and agents barely showed houses, he said.

“Some people definitely put in offers sight unseen,” Jonathan said.

But now there are not a lot of restrictions any longer related to Covid, and the market has just gone into hyperdrive with a lot of pent-up demand, he said.

“We’ve seen homes go for as much as 40 percent above asking price,” Jonathan said.

In Austin, the company is seeing routinely 20 plus offers per property and 20 percent above the asking price, Jonathan said. The bedroom communities are driving the market as much as homes in Central Austin. Houses are selling within five or six days on market, he said.

Realty Austin also works with Homeward, an Austin real estate tech startup that created a product called The Homeward Way that allows its customers to make all-cash offers to secure their next home before selling their existing home. 

“There is so much competition for homes because so many people want to move at one time,” Jonathan said. “It’s just unprecedented in modern history that this many people would be wanting to move at the same time. I don’t know where it ends.”

Realty Austin also has giving back at the core of its corporate culture, said Yvette Boatwright. Its agents have donated $1.9 million to affordable housing organizations since 2010. And it is building its 10^th Habitat home this year.

Austin’s housing market continues to be red hot. In April, Austin’s median house price hit a new record of $550,562, up 32 percent from the same time last year, according to the latest report from the Austin Board of Realtors.

Recently a large brokerage company out of New York approached the Boatwrights about selling their business. But they like what they are doing, and they aren’t interested in selling, Jonathan said.

“We’re not interested, we’re having fun,” Jonathan said.

“We’re young,” Yvette said.

Depending on how the expansion into San Antonio goes, the company may expand into other markets, Jonathan said.

“Our oldest daughter is actually in the business along with her husband,” Yvette said. “It is a family-run company that we hope will continue that way.”

Hypergiant Industries on Tuesday announced it has hired Mike Betzer as its new President and CEO.

Ben Lamm, co-founder and former CEO of Hypergiant Industries will become the company’s vice-chairman.

Hypergiant Industries, founded in 2019,  is bringing Betzer on as it continues to go through an aggressive period of growth, according to a company news release. The company’s customers include Sumitomo Corporation, Boeing, Schlumberger, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the United States Department of Defense. Hypergiant sells AI services, software, and solutions.

“Hypergiant’s AI Applied AI solutions and platform are on a path that will continue to show huge growth in the years ahead,” Betzer said in a news statement.

Previously, Betzer was Chief Digital Transformation Officer and Chief Product Officer at Khoros. He also was Senior Vice President of Lithium Technologies and CEO of Humanify. He also held leadership roles at Social Dynamx Inc, Convergys, and Siebel Systems.

“As Hypergiant enters this next phase of scale and explosive growth, it is critical for us to bring in additional world-class team members to help in this period of rapid scale. Mike is among the best enterprise software and SaaS entrepreneurs and leaders in the country and one of the few who can really help to guide our business to this next level of AI leadership. I could not be more excited to have him take on day-to-day operational oversight and focus on our long-term growth,” Lamm said in a statement.

In addition to his role on the board, Lamm plans to “take time to pursue what he considers the most pressing issues of our lifetime: AI for good, climate change, and the continued positive impact of technology both on the planet and on the human condition.”

“As we take our much-needed AI operations management system to a broader market, Mike Betzer’s outstanding experience in building enterprise software offerings and scaling them with large clients provides Hypergiant with a leader that knows how to get it done in the enterprise,” Mohammed Farooq, Chairman, Global CTO of Hypergiant, said in a news release.

The following is a Q&A with Lamm, Hypergiant’s co-founder, and vice-chairman, conducted via email.

Q. Was there anything that prompted this change in leadership?

Lamm: We are entering the next phase of scale for Hypergiant — so bringing in the key personnel to take Hypergiant to the next level is my role as both an entrepreneur and the founder. Many people forget that building a startup is a team sport. And, teams need to change to meet new market demands, new strengths and new opportunities. As the founding CEO of Hypergiant, my job was to set the vision for the company, help it to raise money, grow our customer base and support our shareholders and, most importantly, our team. The company is doing exactly that and I now want to focus on the next big issues of our day — specifically, where we can leverage AI for good.

Q. Why are you stepping down from your role as CEO?

Lamm: Hypergiant is growing quickly. Because of this growth, I’m finding a lot of my time spent engaging in activities that others are better suited for. As such, I would rather bring in that top talent to help us continue to scale while I direct my energies towards the next big things for the company and for the planet. 

Q. What do you plan to do next?

Lamm: I will continue to be involved with the company but also I want to focus on activities that I am passionate about like climate change, AI for good, and other pressing global challenges. This is where, I believe, the world needs my time and attention — there are a few great people, like Mike, who are amazing at building, leading, and continuing to scale enterprise software companies. At my core, I’m a creator who likes to create solutions where there are none — and the day-to-day of running a successful business holds less appeal. 

Q. How many employees does Hypergiant have now?

Lamm: We are 180 people strong and since the pandemic are all working remotely. 

Q. What has been your biggest accomplishment as the head of Hypergiant? What are you most proud of?

Lamm: Building companies is hard but luckily you get to do it with amazing people and its a team sport. While we have built and continue to build some incredible ground-breaking technologies, I think the biggest accomplishment of not just me but the team is bringing Hypergiant from a brand and idea I had in my head to a company that is sustaining jobs for those in our community, returning value to our shareholders, and making a positive impact on the planet. All the little wins were fun but nothing is as rewarding as building these growing, real and scalable businesses. 

Q. How has the pandemic affected Hypergiant’s operations?

Lamm: We have been very fortunate to navigate through the pandemic. Since Covid, the teams have all been remote and distributed. We are all currently working remotely and come together in person for client meetings or in-person needed brainstorming sessions. We were fortunate that our Chief Delivery Officer, C.K. Sample set up all our systems and processes to run remotely well before the pandemic due to the speed at which Hypergiant has been growing since its inception — so it largely minimized the impact Covid had on our day to day operations.

Q. With the new CEO, is Hypergiant changing its focus at all?

Lamm: Not at all. Hypergiant is still focused on creating great AI solutions and systems in the areas of critical infrastructure, space, and defense. The only major change is that we will roll out our enterprise AI platform – Hyperdrive — which we have been working on for the last year. Mike’s first focus will be to make sure that the platform rollout to our customers and partners goes smoothly and that we scale it across various industry sectors.  Mike has a proven track record of scaling enterprise software businesses, and I can’t think of a better leader. 

Q. Anything else you would like to add that I have not asked you about?

Lamm: This team is incredible. This company is the start of a vision for a long-term change in improving the industries that are the building blocks of our country. The Colonial Pipeline incident this month shows the weakness of our critical infrastructure and the failures of our country to adopt modern and resilient systems. Hypergiant has been focused on improving our sectors since day one because we believe in a better stronger America.  This team is making products that are changing our future safety and resilience. I don’t know that we talk about that often enough – but I admire them and am really proud of what they have done.