Winter Tech Watch: 28 Austin Companies to Track

Winter is arriving in Austin. Whether you’re dusting off your Salchow at Ice Skating on the Plaza, taking a drive through the electric dreamscape of Peppermint Parkway, or savoring a toasty libation on the twinkling patio at Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden, it might also be a good time to catch up on the movers and shakers in your local tech scene — and Built In Austin has curated 28 noteworthy companies to get you started.

What’s more: Many of the city’s tech employers are developing upgrades to the breadth, depth and inclusion of their company culture, tech stacks and benefits.

The Austin-based companies we featured are special in many ways, but all 28 have one thing in common: They are innovative, people-first organizations with intriguing perks — and well worth keeping on your radar in the winter season ahead.

 

 

 

What they do: Membersy is a subscription-focused company in the dental industry. It provides dental service organizations with tech, marketing and administration infrastructure to grow modern membership experience.

 

 

Making room for growth: On the heels of a $66 million funding round, Membersy welcomed a new CEO, Michael Shuman.” It’s an incredible honor for me to step into the position of CEO and to better serve our employees and the company we have built together thus far,” Shuman told a local financial news outlet at the time. Shuman’s promotion is the next step in Membersy’s plans to continue expanding its services and partner base.  

 

 

 

What they do: Duo Security’s mission is simple: Democratize security by making it easy and effective for everyone to use. Duo Security is a part of Cisco and is a provider of multi-factor authentication (MFA) and secure access. 

 

 

Psychological safety: “We make sure there is dedicated time and space for experimentation and trying out new ideas,” Head of Data Engineering Jon Napier previously told Built In. “Research days have helped nurture the creative spark within the team and they often lead to new approaches and projects.”

 

 

 

 

What they do: EPAM Systems is a global provider of product development and software engineering solutions. Since 1993, EPAM Systems has leveraged software engineering expertise to provide global product development, digital platform engineering and digital product design.

 

 

Leading with solutions: EPAM Systems was recently recognized for its services in the industry, according to a recent press release. “With an increasing demand for Salesforce-driven digital transformation, customers need a technology partner with the vision and expertise to help get the best results,” the release read. “EPAM is positioned as first-tier in best-performing vendor overall and leader in Marketing Cloud and Revenue Cloud Services,” the release continued. 

 

 

 

What they do: Brightpearl is an operating system for retailers. Brightpearl aims to streamline and automate the full scope of business — including inventory management, order management, warehousing, fulfillment, shipping, purchasing and accounting.

 

 

Making soundwaves:  As a fast-growing company in Austin, Brightpearl is launching the newest season of its podcast, highlighting scaling e-commerce companies in the US and UK. “Online firms want to learn from other successful brands in the e-commerce-space — and with the headwinds facing retail at the moment the advice is even more essential,”  Brightpearl CMO Sara Arthrell said in a press release. 

 

 

 

What they do: Lansweeper aims to help its customers manage their IT needs. Lansweeper’s product, the Deepscan engine, discovers assets in its customers’ corporate network without installing software. The IT company is driven by the mission to tackle and simplify the modern challenges IT professionals face.

 

 

Trending upward: Lansweeper has its eyes set on continuing its upward trajectory. Chief Revenue Officer David Frignoca previously spoke to Built In Austin about Lansweeper’s plans for the future. “We are on the cusp of something great, and I’ve never been more excited about leading a team,” Frignoca said.  

 

 

 

What they do: NinjaOne is driven by its mission to simplify IT operations and empower users to be more productive. NinjaOne helps IT teams automate, manage and remediate all their endpoint management tasks.

 

 

Hybrid hubs: “NinjaOne has always been a remote-first company — with more than half of our staff working remotely full-time,” CRO Dean Yeck previously told Built In Austin. “At our Austin headquarters and regional hubs in Tampa, Berlin and Sydney, we have dedicated office space for employees that want to have an in-person experience.” 

 

 

 

What they do: Core Scientific is committed to delivering high-performing, reliable and sustainability-focused blockchain solutions. Core Scientific sees digital mining as an opportunity to reshape institutions to be more fair, inclusive and sustainable. 

 

 

Strong women leadership: CTO Lynn Burgener previously spoke to Built In about women leadership at Core Scientific. “I have witnessed a lot of my female colleagues progress in their careers within Core Scientific over the years,” she said. “The company has been supportive of talent versus gender, and that allows every individual to excel in their own field of expertise.”

 

 

 

What they do: Lendflow strives to democratize access to credit by providing infrastructure for fintechs, lenders and software companies to build, embed and launch credit products.

 

 

Human connection: “As part of onboarding, every new team member is encouraged to spend time at the Austin HQ — where they can meet our founders, members of their immediate teams and folks from other parts of the organization,” VP of Marketing Lidia Shong previously told Built In about the ways Lendflow connects its remote employees. “Lendflow also loves to use Slack to encourage team members to connect over mutual interests, such as ‘Dogs of Lendflow.’”

 

 

 

What they do: Indeed Flex strives to fix the current staffing model. Indeed Flex aims to provide job seekers with control, ownership and choice — so employees can find the working patterns and scenarios to suit their lifestyles. 

 

 

Partnership-driven: “The key to success at Indeed Flex is to focus on strong relationships with every partner we come across — and to keep our mission of helping people get jobs at the forefront of our daily work,” Enterprise Sales Manager Max Hutson previously told Built In about Indeed Flex’s culture.

 

 

 

 

What they do: SparkCognition’s AI solutions are designed to predict future outcomes, prescribe best actions and help ensure worker safety. SparkCognition aims to analyze, optimize and learn from data, augment human intelligence, drive profitable growth and achieve operational excellence.

 

 

Choose your own work-life balance: Built In previously spoke to an HR team member about work-life at SparkCognition. “We provide employees the flexibility to work remotely as well as on site in a collaborative space,” they said. “Being dynamic means trusting our employees to manage their work environment to best suit their personal needs and offering the freedom to create a strong work-life balance.”   

 

 

 

What they do: Muck Rack’s public relations management (PRM) platform is designed to enable PR teams to work together to find the right journalists for their stories, send customized pitches, build meaningful relationships with the media, monitor news and quantify their impact.

 

 

A bright future: Muck Rack continued its upward trajectory when it received a $180 million Series A investment. “We’ve seen rapid, profitable growth in recent years, with 75 percent year-over-year revenue growth in 2021, and more than 300 percent revenue growth over the three-year period,” a PR statement from the company read.

 

 

 

What they do: Saatva is a DTC mattress e-commerce company that was founded on the principle that everyone deserves quality sleep. Saatva’s mattresses are eco-friendly.

 

 

Analyzing growth:  “Saatva’s analytics team has addressed pain points uncovered in analysis, which resulted in increased visibility of certain key elements of the website by 30 percent higher engagement —  with the increase to conversion rate per hover from five to seven percent,” Saatva announced in a recent press release. 

 

 

 

What they do: Passage believes that everyone should simply log in to apps and websites with Face ID, Touch ID or the technology built into their devices. Passage aims to empower developers to make this simplicity a reality. 

 

 

Combating burnout: “We request that employees take at least one week of PTO per quarter and actively seek to foster an open dialogue with all employees,” Co-founder and CTO Anna Pobletts previously told Built In. “People enjoy their jobs more when they are able to have balance between work and personal life.”

 

 

 

What they do: WP Engine is a technology company that is committed to cultivating innovation and open source resources in the WordPress community. 

 

 

Remote possibilities: “With our remote-first model, employees have been able to be where they’re needed most, without having to leave or miss a beat at work,” CPO Annette Alexander previously told Built In. “We’ve also been able to expand the reach of our talent pool, hiring amazing people from all over the world.” 

 

 

 

 

What they do: AffiniPay is a fintech company in professional services payments and project management software. 

 

 

Cross-functional collaboration: Senior Director of Sales Diandra Ford-Wing, a senior director of sales, previously spoke to Built In about collaboration between sales teams. “Sales really is a team sport, and it takes multiple people doing a variety of things to make a sales organization successful,” Ford-Wing said. “Marketing plays a key role in sales’ success, and if it weren’t for their efforts, leads would not end up on the other line of the phone.” 

 

 

 

What they do: Khoros provides digital-first customer engagement software and services. It aims to build enterprise software and offer expert services for digital customer service, messaging, chat, online brand communities and social media management. 

 

 

Professional development for all: “Khoros offers a variety of professional development resources for all employees,” Anastacia Darby, director of strategic development, recently told Built In. “Women make up 77 percent of our strategic services senior leadership team, and support comes through in big and small ways — from creating a culture of empowering people to speak up to advocating for the advancement of peers and direct reports.” 

 

 

 

What they do: ePayPolicy is a fintech company that aims to help simplify, streamline and modernize payments for the insurance industry. 

 

 

Hybrid-forward culture: Mark Engels, CEO of ePayPolicy, previously sat down with Built In to discuss the company’s hybrid model. “It provides our employees with the flexibility to determine which days they need to work from home in a given week, while also providing the company the benefit of in-person collaboration and team building,” he said.

 

 

 

What they do: Elevate Brands buys consumer-leading Amazon brands and strives to elevate them to their full potential by operating them internationally. 

 

 

Employee empowerment: Category Director Shaun Rubenstein previously spoke to Built In about the culture of empowerment at Elevate. “My vision is to create an environment where my managers feel empowered to fully own the brand performance,” he said. “Our CEO has done a great job of clearly defining the company’s mission with all employees, so it’s been easy to align my vision with his leadership strategy.”

 

 

 

 

What they do: Iodine Software is an enterprise AI company that strives to rethink how to create value for healthcare professionals, leaders and their organizations by automating complex clinical tasks, generating insights and empowering intelligent care. 

 

 

Inspirational leadership: VP of Advisory Services Allyson Davis previously spoke to Built In about the motivating management she’s experienced at the company. “I have taken that same approach as I have built a team of experts with extensive knowledge and experience,” Davis said at the time. “I have worked diligently to be a mentor, a trusted resource and advocate for my team’s continued professional growth and success — remembering that together we can achieve far more than we ever could individually.” 

 

 

 

What they do: ThousandEyes, a part of Cisco, aims to empower enterprises to see, understand and improve digital experiences for their customers and employees. The ThousandEyes cloud platform offers vantage points throughout the global Internet, delivering immediate visibility into the digital experience.

 

 

Gearing up: ThousandEyes technical support and engineering teams are quickly growing. Managing Engineer Gabe Garcia recently spoke to Built In about the onboarding processes the company has in place. “Within the ThousandEyes engineering team, we have the buddy program where one of our engineers will pair with a new hire for their first month in the role,” he said. “This initiative has been a huge success, providing very helpful assistance to new team members and fostering collaboration — which is especially important in a hybrid work environment.”

 

 

 

What they do: Bonterra is a social good software company. Formed through the combination of CyberGrants, EveryAction, Network for Good, Social Solutions and their respective entities, Bonterra strives to enable connectivity between social good organizations and their community of supporters and constituents. 

 

 

Doing good for the community: A Bonterra employee previously told Built In about the company’s mission-driven values. “The outcomes are reflected through the communities our nonprofit organizations serve,” they said. “For example, one organization we work with provided a record number of service donations during Covid-19 that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.” 

 

 

 

What they do: BluePallet is an end-to-end industrial commerce platform with solutions designed for search, logistics and transactions. BluePallet has purposefully built a suite of products that help producers, distributors and end-users buy and sell chemicals.

 

 

People as a priority: “People are the core of our values and we practice what we preach,” Head of People Alyssa McKinley previously told Built In. “The most important aspect of centering our people is a leadership team who values candid communication about everything from the state of the business to the importance of taking mental health days,” she said at the time. 

 

 

 

What they do: MongoDB is a community that aims to transform industries and empower developers to build apps that people use every day. 

 

 

Never stop upskilling: “You can show up as your genuine self, and you’re given the tools to succeed,” Regional Director of Corporate Sales Patrick Chan previously told Built In of the company’s professional growth mindset. “More importantly, you’re challenged and supported to become better each day.”

 

 

 

What they do: SecureLink aims to provide security, privacy, data governance and compliance solutions for companies across multiple industries — including healthcare, critical infrastructure, manufacturing, government, legal and gaming.

 

 

Sprinting to the finish: Data Scientist Dicy Adams sat down with Built In earlier this year to discuss SecureLink’s development processes. “The feature developers handle most of the front-end implementation, so we work in two-week sprints — staggered with the feature dev team — to easily pass off any front-end work to them,” she said. “We meet with stakeholders at the end of each sprint so we’re always getting good feedback.”

 

 

 

 

What they do: Billd is aiming to take on one of the biggest pain points in construction by offering commercial subcontractors financing terms that align with their payment cycles. 

 

 

Hiring for skill: Earlier this year, Talent Acquisition Recruiter Tori Pontiff spoke with Built In about Billd’s inclusive hiring practices. “We have a very strategic interview process where every employee we bring into our organization has different skills and strengths that bring value to our company,” Pontiff said. “I was hired because of my skill set, opinions and knowledge of the recruitment industry — as a woman, I have a different perspective than others on my team, and differing opinions are valuable to a growing organization.”

 

 

 

What they do: Findhelp strives to connect people in need with the social care programs that serve them at findhelp.org. Findhelp launched 10 years ago in Austin and has helped millions of people find food, health, housing and employment programs in seconds at findhelp.org.

 

 

Building trust: VP of Business Development Art Lopez recently connected with Built In about how Findhelp builds rapport with its clients. “When you truly understand a client’s goals and needs, you can be honest and realistic about meeting their expectations and become a trusted source,” Lopez said. 

 

 

 

What they do: Luxury Presence is a SaaS provider for luxury real estate agents and companies. The company serves realtors and companies who purchase template-based luxury websites, content marketing tools, SEO, lead generation and online advertising. 

 

 

Adaptability wanted: A director of customer success at Luxury Presence recently spoke to Built In about Luxury Presence’s intentional approach to hiring as it scales. “The most successful members of our go-to-market team are able to specialize and adapt,” they said. “As we continue to grow, we’ll be looking for more teammates who can do the same.” 

 

 

 

What they do: Studio X aims to help accelerate innovation in the energy industry by reducing the time it takes to solve complex challenges. It strives to empower geoscientists and industry experts with innovative tools, workflows and a virtual workstation.

 

Maximum impact: “The energy industry is an exciting place to work because there is so much to discover and many areas where we can innovate,”  Lead Embed Geologist Nate Suurmeyer recently told Built In about Studio X’s impact. “Whether it’s developing algorithms, providing remote resources so geologists can work anywhere in the world or accelerating startups with innovative ideas, there’s no better time to be in the industry,” he said.