Iterate.ai is the winner of the 2022 Colorado Inno award in the AI category.
Iterate.ai has collected awards over the past several years for its patented low-code, artificial intelligence-powered software development tools used by large companies, such as Circle K, Ulta Beauty and Pampered Chef. This year, Iterate launched a new version of its platform and is seeking to expand into Asia with more Fortune 2000 customers.
Location: Denver
Top exec: Jon Nordmark, CEO
What inspired your business? In 2013, CEO Jon Nordmark and his co-founder, CTO Brian Sathianathan, were board members of an accelerator based in Kyiv, Ukraine. There, they learned firsthand that the barrier to technology innovation had shifted from capital access to brainpower. The growth of clouds, SaaS, developer-founder paradigms, code libraries and open-source technologies were enabling this shift. Jon and Brian started Iterate.ai to democratize innovation.
What was Iterate’s biggest accomplishment in the past year? We are incredibly proud of the launch of Interplay 7.0. In particular, the new version has helped our company be recognized as a world-class computer-vision platform. It is used for weapon detection in schools, inventory counting in retail stores and things like pay-with-license-plate across more than 2,500 gas stations.
What about your biggest challenge? We require top AI talent and people who write code at the kernel level to modify operating systems. We also require top UX talent. We’ve overcome that challenge so far by networking on a human level, globally. Our team is located in Denver, Silicon Valley, India, Slovakia and Sri Lanka.
What are your goals for the next year? One goal is to remain capital efficient. Another goal is to continue growing fast. We plan to add more Fortune 2000 companies to our client roster, while running profitably. As we add clients, we expect to double the number of industries we serve. That will help us diversify our income streams and isolate us from issues that could arise in any individual industry. Lastly, we expect a big expansion into Asia — from Japan to Singapore to China — with multi-billion-dollar customers.
Why did the company choose Colorado as its headquarters? CEO Jon Nordmark founded and led eBags.com in Denver back in 1998. Colorado has always been his home. More importantly, though, Colorado is home to a high density of entrepreneurial-minded people.
How does Iterate inspire its employees to innovate? Innovation at Iterate is innate. It’s natural. It’s automatic. And it’s expected. We don’t need to inspire any Iterator. We just do it. When we interview developers, they can’t expect project managers, interpreters, translators or gatekeepers. We take pride in our speed, our quality and our ability to scale software for some of the world’s largest companies.
If you had to choose a mascot for your company, what would it be? A Peregrine Falcon: the fastest hawk, totally silent, nimble and can fly.
2022 Colorado Inno Award AI category finalists:
- Cadey
- SomaLogic
