Austin continues to attract global tech talent, meanwhile local universities are churning out ambitious new innovators who are ready to make a big impact. This abundance of people with big ideas and in-demand skills means there’s a lot of movement within the tech community — from executive hires to layoffs.
We’ve rounded up the the most interesting moves of September below. And you can get this type of information as it emerges by subscribing to our daily newsletter, the Beat.
Alright, let’s see who’s settling into a new office.
KUNGFU.AI, an Austin AI consulting startup, announced Steve Meier will take on the newly-created role of chief creative officer. He was perviously VP of sales and marketing.
Favor, an Austin on-demand delivery company that was acquired by H-E-B, added Fernando Trueba as CMO. He was most recently co-founder and CEO of Luv.it, a mobile commerce platform for ethical and sustainable fashion designers. Before that, he led eBay‘s Marketplaces expansion in Latin America.
LiveOak Venture Partners hired David Stewart as a venture partner. Stewart has been an investor and advisor to 30-plus software companies, mostly recently through his work as an advisor at Trinity Ventures. Before that, he was chief business officer at Turo, which had acquired a company Stewart founded, SocialStudio.
Kazoo, a locally based employee experience platform company that was formerly known as YouEarnedIt, announced several recent executive appointments -- Jo Williams is now CFO, Tony Capasso is CCO, Mike Couvillion is CTO and Casey Carey is CMO. All joined in the last six months.
Cedar Park-based rocket company Firefly Aerospace added two new advisory board members. They are Terry Boardman, former chief engineer for the space shuttle program at Alliant Techsystems, and General James Cartwright, who retired in 2011 and had served as Commander, U.S. Strategic Command and 8th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Firefly also said that Robert Lightfoot has left its advisory board to become VP of strategy of business development at Lockheed Martin.
Locally based media, entertainment and gaming company Rooster Teeth said in a blog post that it laid off 13% of its staff — or about 50 people. “This decision is not reflective of anyone’s individual performance, and we’re thankful for all that our former colleagues have contributed,” Rooster Teeth CEO Matt Hullum wrote. “We will be doing everything we can to ease their transition, including helping them find their next opportunities.” Later in September, the company announced Hullum would become chief content officer and the company is being led by General Manger Jordan Levin, who reports to Otter Media CEO Tom Pickett. Levin previously ran AwesomenessTV, which was acquired by Viacom in 2018.
Austin venture capital firm Next Coast Ventures added Sarah Puil as an entrepreneur-in-residence. She was perviously senior VP at Civic Entertainment working with top national brands on growth strategy and marketing. Before that, she was senior VP of product development at Stayer Education, and she has also worked with Suzan Orman as a co-host on her podcast Women & Money.
Santé Ventures, an Austin VC firm focused on healthcare and life sciences, brought on Diane Brouillard as head of talent and networks, a new position. She’ll help recruit and oversee strategic hiring in Santé’s portfolio companies — and she’ll be based in Austin. She was previously at PricewaterhouseCoopers, most recently leading its West Region executive networking and careers group. The firm also appointed Eric Epstein as a senior associate on the investment team. Epstein was previously engagement manager at McKinsey & Company.
Dell Technologies Capital, the VC arm of Dell, picked up Tyler Jewell as managing director and Chris Hillock and VP of business development. Jewell was previously CEO of WSO2 and founded Codenvy, which was acquired by Red Hat. He’ll lead investments in DevOps. Hillock was GM of one of Dell’s largest accounts, and he’ll lead go-to-market partnerships with portfolio companies and connect them with Dell’s business entities. Dell Technologies Capital has made 97 investments in early-stage startups since 2012 — it emerged publicly in 2017.
CynergisTek, a publicly traded IT security startup in Austin, appointed Benjamin Denkers as senior VP of security and privacy services. He was previously VP of North America consulting for Cylance, Inc., an endpoint security and services company, which was acquired by BlackBerry for $1.4B.
Local serial entrepreneur Whurley (Chaotic Moon, Honest Dollar, Strangeworks, Ecliptic Capital) is taking on a new role. He has been named the the first formal ambassador for The CERN & Society Foundation in Switzerland. Whurley first visited CERN in 2016 and advocated for STEM education and equal opportunities in STEM disciplines — he also helped fund the first edition of the CERN Entrepreneurship Student Programme in 2018.
