Austin tech and startup companies are launching rockets, sending drone submarines to the depths and are making plenty of software and falafel along the way. In September, we tracked 19 key hiring announcements that have the potential to change the trajectory of some of the city's most exciting companies.
Check out the key executive hires below, and sign up to the Beat newsletter to catch news like this in your inbox every afternoon.
Austin-based MediaTech Ventures said Sept. 1 that it appointed Sloan Foster as its head of marketing. Foster is founder of Sloan Seasonings and former CMO of ROBOAMP. She was also co-founder and CEO of AutoThink Inc. and was a fractional CMO with Calavista Software and Pitch-a-Kid. MediaTech Ventures, led by founder and CEO Paul O’Brien, helps develop curriculum-based startup incubators.
Austin-based life sciences investment firm Santé Ventures said Sept. 6 that Auriel August has been promoted to principal, and Michael Gutbrod has been boosted to senior associate. Both have been with the firm since 2021. Prior to that, August was a physician-in-residence in IDEO's Design for Health Studio. Gutbrod, meanwhile, was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory before joining Santé. Santé has raised about $800 million and has made 55 investments since its inception, according to ABJ's venture capital list.
Austin-based Infleqtion, a quantum computing company legally known as ColdQuanta Inc., said Sept. 7 that it has named Alok Gupta as CFO. He was previously CFO of medical equipment manufacturer Hyperfine. Before that, he was CFO at Halio and managing director at Mizuho. Infleqtion, founded in 2007, has raised about $185 million. The company, led by CEO Scott Faris, makes high-tech hardware and software used in quantum computing research and development. Its other offices are in Boulder, Chicago, Madison, Melbourne and Oxford.
Austin-based mobile product platform Phunware Inc. said Sept. 8 that it has hired Mike Snavely as its chief revenue officer. He starts next week. Snavely was previously GM of Vidable AI. He has also previously worked at Phunware, Mutual Mobile and Tile. The news comes after the company laid off 32 full-time employees in July. And back in June, Phunware announced Matt Aune was stepping down after a long tenure as chief financial officer. He was replaced by Troy Reisner.
Austin-based Aspira Women’s Health Inc. (Nasdaq: AWH) said Sept. 11 that it has appointed Dr. Jody Berry as its new chief scientific officer. He was previously in a similar position at OraSure Technologies Inc. Before that, he led immunochemistry research and development for Grifols Diagnostic Solutions. Berry replaces Dr. Ryan Phan, who will stay on as an advisor through the end of the year.
Aspira, led by CEO Nicole Sandford, focuses on women’s gynecological health and has developed a risk assessment for ovarian cancer. It is also developing a non-invasive diagnostic test for endometriosis.
Former Bumble Inc. President Tariq Shaukat was announced Sept. 12 as co-CEO and a board member of Sonar, a Geneva, Switzerland-based company that operates legally as SonarSource SA. The company has developed a platform that helps a wide variety of coders and businesses write and vet clean coding language to prevent bugs and privacy issues. Sonar, which had a $4.7 billion valuation when it raised a $412 million funding round last year, generates more than $200 million in annualized revenue. Its second-largest office is in Austin, which the company has called a second headquarters.
Austin-based supply chain tech startup LeanDNA said Sept. 12 it has named Olivier Gachot as CRO and Jordan Slabaugh as CMO. Gachot was previously CEO at Canada-based talent acquisition software platform Communo. Before that, he was CRO at Workspot Inc., and his resume also includes roles as CRO at Austin-based Spredfast (acquired by Vista Equity Partners) and Lombardi Software (acquired by IBM). Slabaugh was most recently CMO at Austin-based knowledge management company Bloomfire. Before that, she was a senior VP at PR firm Edelman and VP of marketing at Wayin. LeanDNA, led by CEO Richard Lebovitz, has raised $19.5 million in funding, including a $15 million round in 2019 led by Austin's S3 Ventures.
Austin- and San Francisco-based speech-to-text startup Rev said Sept. 12 that it named Fernando Trueba as chief marketing officer. He's co-founder of Austin-based data analytics startup Zuno and startup growth firm True Growth Co. He's also an investor and advisor for a couple Austin-based startups, and he was CMO at Austin-based on-demand delivery company Favor from 2019 to 2021. Rev, led by founder and CEO Jason Chicola, has raised about $30 million since its founding in 2010, according to Crunchbase.
Marc Nathan, who is highly active in organizing startup events, has been hired as a senior director of market development with Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, a Milwaukee-based law firm that works with startups and Fortune 500 companies. His new role will be somewhat similar his position as VP of client strategy at Egan Nelson LLP.
Nathan will continue to publish his Texas-Squared Startup newsletter, as well as the Texas-Boxed CPG newsletter. He said he even plans to expand both his work organizing events and newsletter publishing.
Green Park & Golf Ventures, more commonly known as GPG Ventures, said Sept. 26 that it has brought on former Central Texas Angel Network Executive Director Claire England to lead its Austin office. England, who led CTAN from 2014 to 2019, is also a Kauffman Fellow and was most recently a partner in Portfolia's food and agtech fund, which has invested in companies including Partake Foods and Omsom.
GPG, founded in 2011 by Carl Soderstrom and Dr. Clay Heighton, has invested in more than 100 startups. Its initial investments typically fall in the $100K to $1M range, and the firm partakes in seed through series B rounds, with additional follow-on funding for successful companies. While its focus is health, the firm has also invested in other technology, including AI.
Austin legal tech company CS Disco said Sept. 11 that its founder and CEO Kiwi Camara had stepped down from both his role as chief executive and his spot on the company's board of directors. The company's board named Scott Hill as interim CEO. He was previously chief financial officer at Intercontinental Exchange. Hill joined Disco's board in 2021 and has served as chair of its compensation committee.
The company said Camara's resignation from the board "is not the result of any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company's operations, policies or practices." A follow up report by the Wall Street Journal said Camara quit after the company’s board began investigating allegations that he groped a young female employee during a Sept. 6 dinner with staff where he also allegedly pushed roasted meat into the face of one young employee and told her to eat it “like an animal.”
Austin-based Care.com, which has an online platform to find and manage family care, said Sept. 27 it has named John Buchanan as CMO, Elizabeth Sartin as chief product officer and Naaz Nichols as chief customer experience officer.
Buchanan was most recently CMO at LegalZoom, and before that was senior VP of marketing stragegy, technology and sciences for the National Football League. Sartin was most recently head of shopping product at Pinterest, and she was a senior director of product at Slack before that. Nichols, meanwhile, was most recently senior VP of retention and editorial at HBO Max. Before that, she held senior roles at Avantax Wealth Management and Expedia Group.
Jasper AI Inc., which snagged a $125 million series A funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation about a year ago, said Sept. 28 that its founding team picked former Dropbox president Timothy Young to take over as CEO. He takes the helm from co-founder and former CEO Dave Rogenmoser, who will stay with the company as chairman of the board.
Young joined Dropbox in 2019 as senior VP and GM of products before becoming president in 2020. He left the role in 2023. Before that, he was VP of product and engineering at VMware, in addition to his role as founder of early-stage investment firm Hidden Hand Capital, which remains active. Earlier in his career, he co-founded about.me, which was acquired by AOL in 2010, and Socialcast, which was scooped up by VMware in 2011 for over $100 million.
Austin-based fintech firm Praxent, said Sept. 29 it has appointed Robin Smith as its new CRO. He was previously VP of North America at cloud banking firm Mambu. Before that, he was VP of sales at Oracle. Praxent, founded in 2020, is led by founder and CEO Tim Hamilton.
Austin-based HR software company Asure Software (NASDAQ: ASUR) said Sept. 28 that it has named Patrick McKillop as VP of investor relations. He was most recently VP of investor relations at NAPCO Security Technologies. Asure, led by Chairman and CEO Pat Goepel, was founded as Forgent Networks in 1985. It became Asure in 2007. Back in August, the company sold 3.3 million newly issued shares of its common stock at $12 per share, generating about $40 million.
