Category: Austin (Page 95 of 317)

In Austin, Google Fiber unveiled three murals throughout the city that the company commissioned from local artists.

“Google Fiber believes that citizens should be always inspired and empowered to create a better city and a better future and that public art has a central role in the process,” according to a spokeswoman.

In Austin, three artists used their own style to tell the story of Austin.

At the Google Fiber Space at 201 W. Colorado, Austin Artist Mike “Truth” Johnston did a vibrant mural showing a person skateboarding with all kind of Austin icons in the background like a guitar, pinata, cowboy boot and more. The mural “Peace Love Austin” is left open to interpretation, a Google Fiber spokesman said.

When Google Fiber launched in Austin in 2014, the company hired Johnston to do a design on its Google Fiber vans. He also did a mural inside the Google Fiber officer.

A couple blocks over, in a parking garage, Johnston painted a Love Wins mural. He does a lot of murals for tech companies and other businesses in Austin.

“When Austin talks about keep Austin weird, this is one way to keep Austin Weird,” Johnston said. “Austin is creative, Austin is alive. Austin is creative. Austin is fun. Austin is peace, love.”

The other murals are located at I-35 and 6th Street by Zuzu and Encore Records at 809 E. 6th Street by Mila Sketch.

On Giving Tuesday, Austin-based Favor announced it is joining with Feeding Texas and local toy drives across the state to help those in need this holiday season.

Now through Dec. 15th, people can use the Favor app to donate directly to toy drives in six Texas cities and Favor is waiving the delivery fee.

“Simply open the Favor app, choose from various local toy drives featured, select the toy bundle you’d like to donate and your Favor Runner will purchase the items and deliver them to the Toy Drive’s drop-off location,” according to a news release. “Favor will cover the cost of the delivery fee for your donation, users just pay the processing fee and tip (minimum $2) that goes directly to their Runner.”

The toy drive donation feature is available 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. It’s good for the following toy drives:

Austin – Blue Santa Toy Drive
Dallas – Santa’s Helpers Toy Drive
Fort Worth – Cowboy Santas Toy Drive
Houston – Operation Stocking Stuffer
San Antonio – Blue Cares Toy Drive
San Marcos – Blue Santa Toy Drive

And Favor is partnering with Feeding Texas to raise funds to feed hungry people this holiday season. Now through Dec. 31, people can donate to Feeding Texas after completing their Favor transaction. Feeding Texas empowers 21 food banks across Texas and serves all 254 counties in the state.

Emma, a digital marketing platform based in Nashville, announced Tuesday that it is now accepting nominations for its 14th annual Emma 25 honorees.

The program, Emma 25, grants select nonprofit organizations Emma email marketing services for a lifetime. The free accounts let nonprofit organizations distribute email to up to 5,000 contacts per month.

To date, Emma has created 400 free accounts for nonprofit organizations and those organizations have sent more than 55 million emails. And that has helped change countless lives, according to Emma.

Nominations are open to any 501c3 nonprofit organizations with ten or less employees. Applications are due by Friday, Dec. 15th.

“In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, we are excited to announce another year of awarding nonprofits with email marketing services as part of Emma 25,” Colby Cavanaugh, senior vice president of marketing at Emma, said in a news release. “We are so proud of this program and the 400 nonprofits we have supported over the past thirteen years. We look forward to continuing to help change the way those companies are able to spread the word about donations, volunteers and changed lives through the power of email.”

In 2016, Emma 25 recognized a range of nonprofits, including organizations focused on domestic violence, human trafficking, mental health and education.

“Becoming an Emma 25 honoree was a game-changer for us,” Andrea Kelsey, Operations Manager for SIMA (Social Impact Media Awards) said in a news release. “Resources can be hard to come by, but Emma 25 has allowed us to grow our list of supporters and send great-looking email in a way we just couldn’t do before.”

Emma plans to announce the winners in early January.

Austin-based Bazaarvoice has signed a deal to be acquired by Marlin Equity Partners, a global investment firm, for approximately $521 million.

Under the deal, Bazaarvoice would become a private company.

Marlin Equity Partners, based in Los Angeles, plans to pay $5.50 in cash for each share of Bazaarvoice stock. Bazaarvoice is traded on the Nasdaq market under the symbol BV. Marlin’s price is 18 percent higher than the average closing price of Bazaarvoice common stock for the 30-calendar day period ending Nov. 24th, according to a news release.

“The Board of Directors appreciates the patience that our stockholders have shown as we’ve worked to improve our business and operations,” Tom Meredith, chairman of the board, said in a news release. “The Board ultimately decided, after extensive engagement with stockholders and an extended and thorough process, that Marlin’s offer to acquire Bazaarvoice is the best way to maximize value for our stockholders.”

“We are pleased to announce this transaction which enables our stockholders to realize immediate cash value at a premium and provides Bazaarvoice with the operational flexibility it needs to continue its strategic vision,” Gene Austin, Bazaarvoice’s chief executive officer, and president, said in a news statement.

“This transaction represents a unique opportunity to invest in a leading provider of consumer-generated content applications and data offerings,” Nathan Pingelton, a principal at Marlin, said in a news statement. “We are excited to partner with the entire Bazaarvoice team to build upon the company’s success and support their long-term objectives of continued revenue growth and product innovation.”

Bazaarvoice’s headquarters will remain in Austin, according to the release. The transaction is pending shareholder and regulatory approval. It is expected to close early next year.

Bazaarvoice also canceled its previously scheduled conference call set for Wednesday to discuss its fiscal second quarter 2018 financial results.

Brett Hurt and Brant Barton co-founded Bazaarvoice in 2005. The company helps brands and retailers market to customers through consumer-generated content including ratings and reviews.

EverlyWell, the Austin-based startup that makes at-home healthcare tests, asked for a $1 million investment for a 5 percent equity stake in its company, on Shark Tank Sunday night.

Julia Cheek, the founder, and CEO, ended up with a $1 million line of credit at an eight percent interest rate for a five percent equity stake from Shark Lori Greiner.

“We actually desperately need a line of credit,” Cheek said as she accepted the offer.

EverlyWell sells 13 at home lab testing kits for everything from checking cholesterol to vitamin D deficiency. Other kits check for sexually transmitted diseases, thyroid, metabolism and more.

Cheek founded the company in 2015 in her hometown of Dallas. She moved the company to Austin about a year later. EverlyWell has since raised $5 million in total funding.

EverlyWell had revenue of $2.5 million last year and expects revenue of $5 million this year, Cheek told the sharks. The company’s monthly run revenue rate is $400,000 and is growing 20 percent month over month, she said. The company’s burn rate, the amount of money it is losing every month because of expenses, is $150,000 a month, Cheek said.

Mark Cuban went out early saying the business would need a lot of money to scale and he thought it would face increasing competition. Sharks Robert Herjavec and Barbara Corcoran also dropped out.

Guest Shark Rohan Oza said the at-home lab testing business is hugely expensive and it would take tens of millions of dollars of investment to make it a success. He dropped out too.

But Greiner thinks because of the state of healthcare in the country right now is so precarious that EverlyWell has the right product at the right time. She vowed to use her QVC connections to market EverlyWell nationwide.

Cheek appeared pleased with the deal and decided not to make a counteroffer.

By LAURA LOREK
Publisher of Silicon Hills News

Being a woman in the technology industry is not easy.

The technology industry is male-dominated at all levels and the pay disparity can reach 50 percent for women, compared to the salary for men in similar jobs, said Lauren Hasson, founder of Develop(Her).

“I decided to own my own outcome,” Hasson said.

She learned to negotiate, and she tripled her base salary in less than two years by relying heavily on data and research. She also spent $10,000 on training materials, she said.

Hasson shared her story with more than 200 women attending the Women in Technology Summit at InnoTech Austin. Hasson was one of several speakers who shared their experiences throughout the day. Sessions ranged from talks on branding to addressing the issue of gender diversity and the “bro-code” in the technology industry.

Hasson has developed a free negotiation course for women to walk others, step by step, through how she transformed her life. Her course launches on February 3rd and she hopes to empower more than 10,000 women.

Next up, Marny Lifshen, author of “Some Assembly Required: A Networking Guide for Women” spoke on the importance of women crafting a personal brand.

For a brand to be effective, it must be authentic, distinct and consistent, Lifshen said. She thinks distinct is the most difficult one to achieve.

“How do you create a brand that separates you from all the other people who do what you do,” Lifshen said.

To achieve distinction, a person must think about what are their unique and impactful skill sets, Lifshen said.

“This is not a time ladies to be humble,” she said. “Be bold, be proud.”

Brands are based on experiences but also perceptions, Lifshen said.

And personal brand elements are both tangible and intangible and include: demeanor, your appearance, communication and your network, Lifshen said.

“Your physical brand must be professional, modern and well-groomed,” Lifshen said.

Communication is both verbal and nonverbal, Lifshen said. It breaks down to 55 percent is visual, 38 percent is tone and vocal and seven percent is words Lifshen said.

In the afternoon session, the talk shifted to how women in technology can navigate a male-dominated workplace.

In the session on Bro Code: Addressing the Issue of Gender Diversity in Tech, Barbary Brunner, CEO of the Austin Technology Council, said there is a culture in technology companies that exclude women.

The way to change the situation is to have more women in leadership positions in the technology industry, Brunner said.

In her position, Leigh Christie, senior vice president of global technology and innovation at the Austin Chamber of Commerce, seeks out opportunities to mentor other women and to provide them with opportunities for advancement.

Brunner asked the women in the room if they had been in a meeting where men had ignored their ideas or talked over them. Everyone had except for one woman.

When that happens, Brunner said she calls the men out on it. And she redirects them to acknowledge that it was her original idea.

Having rules of engagement in the workplace is one way to approach the situation, Christie said.

Virtual agents, virtual assistants, bots, and other automated technologies are supercharging workforces, said Doug Reeder, innovation leader at NTT DATA Services.

These technologies easily execute tasks that are mundane and repetitive, Reeder said.

“They allow people to do less of the mundane things,” he said.

Reeder delivered the keynote address Thursday morning at the InnoTech Austin conference at the Austin Convention Center.

Automation isn’t about displacing humans, but it’s about making them more productive by taking away labor’s most repetitive and time-consuming tasks, Reeder said.

“Don’t automate anything that isn’t highly efficient in the first instance,” he said.

The media has injected fear into most workers that these technologies are going to completely do away with their jobs, Reeder said. It may modify part of their jobs, but there are other things that most workers do in organizations at a more skilled level, he said.

One executive has more than 10,000 people in his organization and 2,000 of them are bots, Reeder said. There are people that manage those bots, he said.

This is a productivity enhancement, Reeder said. It is something to make jobs easier, he said. Some jobs will go away but that can be taken care of through attrition, Reeder said.

Virtual agents today can understand anger, inflection, emphasis, sarcasm, and nuisances in communications, Reeder said. The virtual agents use voice recognition and natural language processing, he said.

Machine learning algorithms are beginning to understand the context better than ever before, Reeder said.

Virtual agents can also do analysis on large numbers of customer service inquiries that can provide a business with better insights, Reeder said.

“And it’s very objective,” he said.

The other thing about virtual agents is they don’t get sick, they don’t go on smoke breaks, and they don’t have bad days, Reeder said.

“They’re very helpful,” he said.

Some of the areas robotic process automation can be used in a business include customer engagement, information technology support such as resetting a password, finance for order status consultation, procurement, payment posting and human resources for background checking, employment validation, personal data update and management, payroll claims and more.

By LAURA LOREK
Publisher of Silicon Hills News

Opcity’s staff moved this week into new headquarters at the Bergstrom Tech Center in Southeast Austin.

The high-tech company occupies 50,000 square feet in Building 312, a two-story, glass and brick building built in 1985 for Lockheed Martin.

“We wanted a big home for our headquarters,” said Ben Rubenstein, Opcity’s co-founder, and CEO. ” We have been growing incredibly fast and having a centralized place where we can have our culture and really showcase our culture was really important to us and commutability as well.”

Opcity plotted where all its employees lived on a map and wanted to understand how long it took them to get to work, Rubenstein said.

“Getting downtown was super congested and parking was really hard,” Rubenstein said.

Opcity’s new building boasts lots of natural light and high ceilings and hundreds of free parking places, something that became a big issue for Opcity at its former downtown headquarters at 200 W Cesar Chavez. The company had to lease parking spaces from the Austin American Statesman, several blocks away so its employees could have a place to park downtown.

In May, Opcity, which has created data and analytics-driven technology platform for real estate agents and brokers, officially launched with the announcement of its $27 million Series A funding. Since then, the company has gone from 100 employees to 225 employees. It expects to more than double in the next year and has an option to lease another 50,000 square feet at its new headquarters, Rubenstein said. Opcity is hiring for “pretty much everything” including engineers, product, marketing, finance, accounting, customer service representatives, sales representatives, Rubenstein said.

Opcity is in 30 states right now and plans to be in all 50 by early 2018, Rubenstein said.

“This is actually our fifth office in two years,” said Michael Lam, Opcity co-founder, and chief financial officer. The company started in Rubenstein’s house and they worked out of Galvanize for awhile too.

“We have a model that better aligns to what brokers and agents are looking for,” Lam said.

Opcity makes a technology platform that matches home buyers and home sellers with the best real estate agents in their neighborhoods with no upfront costs. The company uses proprietary data and applied analytics to increase sales.

In addition, the company has gone from 350 broker partners to 1,000 and from 4,000 real estate agents to 13,000 real estate agents.

“Our matching algorithm has done a great job at connecting the right consumer to the right agent at the right time,” Rubenstein said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Opcity held an official opening event with members of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, Austin Community College and the Central Texas Food Bank.

Opcity’s new headquarters include an onsite gym with showers, a patio for work, relaxation and gatherings, a courtyard with ping-pong and other games, an onsite disc golf course and it also includes free lunch for all employees.

“Company culture is a top priority at Opcity,” Jill Dwyer, Opcity’s head of culture, said in a news release. “With a track record of building award-winning office cultures, it’s clear Opcity’s executive leadership kept its employees in mind throughout the new headquarters’ design and development phases.”

Opcity is Rubenstein ‘s second startup. He co-founded Yodle, which Web.com acquired in 2016 for $342 million.

Austin’s homegrown fresh baked cookie delivery company, Tiff’s Treats just closed on $25 million in funding to accelerate its national expansion.

Tiff’s Treats, started by former University of Texas at Austin students Leon and Tiffany Chen in 1999, now has more than 700 employees at 34 stores in Texas and Atlanta. They will soon open a Nashville store in Tennessee.

Although Tiff’s Treats makes cookies, at its heart, the company is a tech company using its custom-built sophisticated proprietary ordering and delivery platform combined with tools like Slack, Asana, Intacct, HotSchedules and more, according to a spokeswoman.

To date, Tiff’s Treats has raised $50 million in funding. The company’s latest investment round is led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital.

Tiff’s Treats plans to use the funds for continued national expansion, investment in its technology platform and to hire key senior managers. As part of the investment rounds, Lincoln Isetta, managing director of Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, will join Tiff’s Treats’ board of directors.

“Seeing our brand take off like it is, and be so warmly received into new markets validates what we’ve believed for nearly two decades now,” Tiffany Taylor Chen said in a news release. “Our warm cookie delivery service is unique, special, and in demand. Our company continues to grow, but each of our new locations is as committed as our very first to ensuring the Tiff’s Treats experience: a quality product delivered fast, fresh, and warm, by our team of dedicated employees.”