October was a rough month for startups, from the rocky financial results for some big technology to a flurry of local layoffs. That has left many employees in the lurch, but recruiters have been actively courting recently laid-off employees on LinkedIn and elsewhere.
The month also saw at least 13 companies announce new executives that they hope will help them grow amidst some economic headwinds. Let's take a look at the fresh hires. And if you want daily updates on hirings, fundings and other Central Texas startup news, sign up for the Beat newsletter.
Illinois-based Deere & Company said Oct. 3 that it appointed Justin Rose as president of lifecycle solutions, customer support and supply management. He started Oct. 31 and will be based in John Deere's new Austin tech hub on South Congress Avenue. Rose was previously a senior partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group, where he worked with Deere on its smart industrial strategy.
Austin real estate fintech startup FirstClose Inc. said Oct. 6 that it hired Carol Crawford as chief marketing officer. She was previously senior director at ICE Mortgage Technology. Before that, she was CMO at ClosingCorp. FirstClose, which focuses on origination and closing processes for home equity lines of credit and equity loans, was founded in 2020 and is led by CEO Tedd Smith.
Publicly traded Austin auto lending and risk analysis company Open Lending Corp. (Nasdaq: LPRO) said Oct. 6 it appointed Keith Jezek as its new CEO and board member. He was previously leading the retail solutions group of Cox Automotive. Before that, he co-founded vAuto, an automotive software firm, which Cox acquired. He was on Open Lending's board from 2012 to 2020, and he was an adviser to the board after it went public in 2020. Jezek takes over as co-founder and former CEO John Flynn announced he will retire, keeping his role as board chair. Meanwhile, President and COO Ross Jessup is also retiring and shifting to an advisory role. With that, Jessica Snyder, a director on the audit committee, is becoming vice chair of the board.
Austin-based ecommerce company BigCommerce said Oct. 6 that it hired Rosie Rivel to be the company's first chief information officer, with a focus on the company's IT teams. She was previously CIO at workforce management company Kelly Services where she held several roles over the course of 13 years.
Austin-based cloud data security startup Altr Solutions Inc. said Oct. 10 that its co-founder and CTO, James Beecham, was promoted to CEO. Its prior CEO, David Sikora, became a board director, CEO adviser and investor after leading the company since 2018. Meanwhile, Chris Struttmann, co-founder and VP of engineering, became CTO.
“James and I have worked very closely together for over 4 years, and he’s more than ready to take on these new executive responsibilities,” Sikora stated. “ALTR has positioned itself as a leader in the emerging data access governance and data security space, and the future for the company is very bright."
The company has raised about $30 million since its founding in 2017, according to Crunchbase.
Robotic assistant maker Diligent Robotics said Oct. 13 that it added Gregg Springan as head of clinical informatics and Nicholas Bloom as head of client success. Springan, a former registered nurse, was most recently at Epic as a nurse executive over clinical informatics. Bloom was most recently program director at the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator and he is co-founder of LA-based FMLY Inc. Dilligent Robotics, founded in 2017 and led by CEO Andrea Thomaz, makes a robot assistant called Moxi that has been deployed in several hospitals to help with basic tasks such as getting supplies and making deliveries to labs and patient rooms. Back in April, the company raised a $30 million series B round, bringing its total funding to about $45.9 million.
Austin-based trading and investment education platform Simpler Holdings LLC, which does business as Simpler Trading, on Oct. 17 welcomed Christina Komporlis as CEO. She has a long history driving subscriber growth at Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and Barron's. She was most recently chief enterprise membership officer at Dow Jones.
Komporlis replaced interim CEO Eric Lundberg, who will continue to work with Simpler Trading founder John Carter. In January, affiliates of private equity firm ZMC invested an undisclosed amount in the company.
The Wi-Fi Alliance, an organization of networking companies, said Oct. 18 it appointed Kevin Robinson as president and CEO. He took over for the retiring Edgar Figueroa, who had held that role since 2007. Robinson was previously the Wi-Fi Alliance's VP or marketing.
Austin inventory optimization software company LeanDNA Inc. said Oct. 18 it has added long-time Austin tech executive Rod Favaron to its board. Favaron, former president at Upland Software and former CEO of Spredfast, is also a board member at Austin-based Vyopta. LeanDNA, led by CEO Richard Lebovitz, was founded in 2014 and has raised $19.5 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
South by Southwest Inc. said Oct. 25 that its co-founder, Roland Swenson, is shifting to a new role as executive chairman. Meanwhile, the organization named Chief Brand Officer Jann Baskett and Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest as co-presidents in charge of day-to-day leadership. They will also maintain their roles leading brand and programming. While the festival was founded in 1987 by Swenson, along with Nick Barbaro, Louis Black and Louis Jay Meyers, Forrest has largely been the face of SXSW in the Austin tech community in recent years.
Austin-based cancer therapy company Triumvira Immunologics Inc. said Oct. 25 it appointed Robert Williamson as president and chief business officer. He was most recently president and CEO at San Diego-based BioTheryX. The company also said Williamson orchestrated the growth, IPO and sale of Pharmasset to Gilead for $11 billion in 2011.
Triumvira, led by CEO Paul Lammers, is an early-stage clinical startup using T cell therapeutics to treat a broad range of patients with cancer. In March, the company said it had expanded its series A round investment to a total of about $100 million. At the time, the company, founded in 2015, had about 55 employees. It is based in Austin and has a research facility in Ontario.
Holly Tachovsky was Oct. 25 named CEO of SaveDay , an Austin-based company that helps other businesses set up 401(k) savings plans for employees. Tachovsky, who had previously led BuildFax through its 2019 buyout by Verisk, takes the chief executive baton from SaveDay co-founder Barry Mione, who has moved to chief product officer.
The company, which operates legally as DCP360 Inc., was founded in 2018 and employs about 20, most of whom are in Austin, a spokesperson said. The company declined to share how much investment it has brought in but noted it is currently raising a seed round. It also graduated from the Sputnik ATX accelerator in 2019, which has in the past come with a $100,000 investment. SaveDay says it offers 401(k) programs at no cost to employers and touts the stat that 40% of the country’s workforce lacks access to such plans.
Austin database platform Data.world Inc. said Oct. 25 it brought on Stephanie McReynolds as CMO, Richard Yonkers as senior VP of sales and Mineo Sakan as VP of finance. McReynolds was most recently head of marketing at Ambienti.ai. She has also been senior VP of marketing at Alation. Yonkers was previously senior VP of sales at Knoema. And Sakan is the former VP of global finance at HYCU and also was VP of go-to-market at Nutanix.
The new execs come on board about six months after Data.world raised a $50M series C funding round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The startup has raised $132.3 million since its founding in 2015.
