One of the first things you may notice about serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm's latest startup is that it carefully tailored its retro-futuristic image ahead of its public launch and that its name -- Hypergiant -- hints at its large-scale ambitions.
While a startup with 24 employees is hardly giant, the startup's sprawling, three-prong business model shows it really wants to be a hypergiant -- one of the biggest stars in the universe -- in the AI sector.
Hypergiant is three things:
- Hypergiant Space Age Solutions, which builds customized AI software solutions for large companies, such as the mixologist it has built for TGI Fridays.
- Hypergiant Applied Sciences: A lab where employees build original products based on the team's experience building customized, industry-specific AI solutions.
- A venture capital firm set up as a single LP fund that uses Hypergiant profits to invest between $100,000 and $1 million in promising new AI startups, including Austin's Pilosa, Cerebri AI and ClearBlade.
It's an ambitious venture, even for Lamm, who is now CEO of Hypergiant and his previous startup, Conversable, and who was a co-founder and CEO at digital creative studio Chaotic Moon, which sold to Accenture in 2015.
Lamm is joined by two co-founders who also worked with him at Chaotic Moon -- Chief Revenue Officer Will Womble and Chief Strategy Officer John Fremont. The startup is based in Austin at 8th and Brazos, which is also home to Conversable. It also has offices in Dallas and Houston.
Lamm didn't disclose how much money Hypergiant has raised. But he said its seed round includes investment from Align Capital, Mythic Ventures, Beringer Capital and Capital Factory.
Lamm said his insiders view of what Fortune 500 companies need helped set him on the course to launch Hypergiant. He said there's mass confusion in the market.
"AI is currently a drug that nobody knows what it does but everybody's trying to get it," he said.
Later in our interview, he said: "Everyone feels they need it... but nobody knows exactly what to do in terms of how to get there and who to hire."
Meanwhile, there's an army of AI startups promising major innovations and efficiencies. Hypergiant hopes to be one of the most pragmatic ones -- a place for big companies to find simple solutions with tangible results. It promises business outcomes to customers instead of a particular product or traditional consulting.
The company has been in stealth mode since it formed in August, but as it launches today it has six partnerships, including General Electric and Adobe. It also has 11 customers, including TGI Fridays, Bosch, Wingstop and HarperCollins Publishers.
The project with TGI Fridays' mobile app, which is being tested in five restaurants, is an example of Hypergiant's pragmatic -- and even playful -- approach. It uses TGI Fridays' loyalty program to track user preferences. The program, named Flanagan after Tom Cruise's "Cocktail" character, learns from users' purchase history and other data to suggest cocktails you might want. It can also ask for additional input about your mood and other factors to help craft custom drinks, which, one day, might end up on the menu.
Hypergiant's other customers include a race car company, a home improvement company and oil and gas ventures. And the products range from smart inventory management to biodata insights for athletes.
Hypergiant's website is an exploration in retro futurism, complete with typewriter-style fonts and CIA-like redactions. The design is part of Lamm's story about how tech has promised so many amazing advances but often fallen short of the vision.
"We were promised flying cars. Where is that shit?" Lamm said. "We were promised a massive techtopia... There'd be no poverty and we'd transcend racism. Where is this wonderful world?”
We're a long way from that kind of tech-enabled dreamscape. But Lamm has made a career out of taking cutting-edge tech ideas and finding places for them within some of the most recognizable brands out there.
Now he, his co-founders and the rest of their team have an infinitely complicated mission.
"Our brand is tomorrowing today," Lamm said, sneaking in a company slogan. "We're delivering the world we were promised."
