Nashville's tech scene is about to radically change with the arrival of Oracle and as Amazon and other firms fill their downtown hubs. But there's plenty of action right now. Tech Bytes is a twice-monthly roundup highlighting news on startups, capital raises, acquisitions and other activity in the region's tech sector.
I chatted recently with Don Piluso, who's heading the new Nashville office of Seattle-based business strategy and technology consulting Slalom LLC. He expects to have 20 employees or more here by month's end, and he's aiming to have 100 or more over the next two years. For now, he's set up in the Industrious co-working space in the Gulch.
"Every year, we go through the process of looking at the next three or four locations [for expansion]. Nashville got elevated with all the action and momentum and buzz," Piluso said, specifically citing Facebook's data center in Gallatin, Oracle's land purchase for a riverfront tech campus, and Ford's electric-vehicle announcement in West Tennessee.
Three other things I learned from Piluso:
- Slalom's business target is the middle-market and emerging-company space. "My charter isn't to go find the biggest possible deal anywhere," he said.
- He wants Slalom's relationship with the region to go both ways. "Part of our job is to make sure we help customers wherever they are. This helps us with how we service our global footprint," he said. "It's not a means to an end for us, but more like a partnership, where we're growing together. We're bringing Nashville to the rest of our company."
- He was involved with the program Girls Who Code in his former home market of Southern California, and has an eye on similar offerings here. "I'm also looking at the Nashville Software School — that's cool, something I had not seen before," he said.
In other news…
- On Dec. 8, the WeWork co-working space in East Nashville is spotlighting six local entrepreneurs who are graduating from a program run by national nonprofit Bunker Labs. These entrepreneurs either are veterans or military spouses. The free event runs from 6-8 p.m. at 901 Woodland St. The six local startups in the showcase are: Arbogast Foods LLC; Kickstarted Games; Balance Distilling Co. LLC; SOstraws LLC; Pawnix; and Handwash HQ.
- Nashville's Premier Parking announced a milestone in its rollout of artificial intelligence-powered software it's now using to run its parking lots and track customer stays. More than 600,000 people have signed up, leading to more than 1 million transactions. Premier started using the technology here in the spring and has since rolled it out to Austin, Charlotte, Cleveland, Denver and elsewhere. The company owns 130,000 parking spaces in more than 50 cities.
Tech talk
"I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished, but this success doesn’t happen overnight. It is the result of the efforts of many dedicated leaders who came before me, along with an incredibly gifted team and board of directors."
Brian Moyer, president and CEO, Greater Nashville Technology Council
• Moyer wrote an open letter to the tech community after announcing that he will leave the council next year, after its board hires a successor.
