To be a game-changing tech company in your industry, you need to create a market-changing product, conduct ample user research and be willing to make a substantial investment in your workforce. For the following four Austin tech companies, which represent industries ranging from retail to AI, that sweet spot has been found — and that’s why they’re known as revolutionaries. Read on to learn how they’re making magic happen.
The internet is constantly changing, as are the needs of its users. Zack Bloom, Cloudflare’s director of product, talked to us about how they are keeping up with the evolving demand for a safer, faster network.
How has Cloudflare set itself apart as a leader in your industry?
We are on a mission to help build a better internet, and we’re doing this by making it fast, secure and reliable for users worldwide. Cloudflare’s network is one of the world’s largest, which enables the company to deliver its services at scale and support internet users everywhere.
We’ve democratized technologies that were once only available to people and businesses with a lot of resources. Most recently, we launched 1.1.1.1, to give consumers the fastest and most private internet experience, and Workers, a serverless solution that allows developers to just write their code, and have Cloudflare do the rest at the edge of its network, within milliseconds of users coding around the globe.
We plan to continue to push the envelope of what we can do for the internet at a rate that continues to support the needs of developers, our customers and consumers around the world.”
What do you think will be the next big tech trend in your industry? How do you plan to stay ahead of that trend?
Cloudflare’s services are ever-evolving and that’s in part due to the ever-changing internet landscape and our mission to help make it more fast, secure, and reliable for everyone. As we advance our performance and security services, our video streaming and serverless offerings and beyond, we plan to continue to push the envelope of what we can do for the internet at a rate that continues to support the needs of developers, our customers and consumers around the world.
In addition to always being on the lookout for new ways to save people money across platforms, RetailMeNot’s CTO Vivek Sagi highlighted the impact their diverse and inclusive workforce has had within their industry.
How has RetailMeNot set itself apart as a leader in your industry?
We have long been a leader in savings, and we continue to focus on leading the way in building products that answer the demands of today’s consumer. We know technology has heightened the demand for convenience, so we’re focusing on making it easy for consumers to find and use savings on their terms through our website, mobile app or Genie browser extension. We’re also making sure to stay ahead of the curve on new methods of savings, and ensuring we’re able to provide customers savings in all areas of their life including at the drugstore.
RetailMeNot also leads through a dedication to being diverse and inclusive. We’ve long believed that inclusivity is foundational to our success and want our workforce to reflect the broad range of people we serve.
RetailMeNot has always been on the consumer’s side of privacy, and we’re leveraging these new regulations to better help our advertising partners and retailers...”
What do you think will be the next big tech trend in your industry? How do you plan to stay ahead of that trend?
A major thing we’ve been watching is the adoption and effect of CCPA and tighter regulations around cookies and customer identity within the browser and app ecosystem. We are encouraged that consumers are now in the driver seat and can control how their data is captured and shared. RetailMeNot has always been on the consumer’s side of privacy, and we’re leveraging these new regulations to better help our advertising partners and retailers simplify their data pipelines by removing redundancies and complexity.
When Juniper Square first hit the scene, they were one of only a few companies providing a much needed technical upgrade to the private markets sector. Despite others joining the space since then, Juniper Square remains at the helm. Product Operations Manager Nate Kania explains how.
How has Juniper Square established itself as a leader in your industry?
It’s rare you get the opportunity to work on a problem that has global reach, yet in a very real way that’s what we’re doing at Juniper Square. Specifically, we’re focused on improving how private markets operate – one of the best-performing, and yet most technologically antiquated, aspects of our financial ecosystem. From day one, we’ve taken the approach that if we combine people who are great at finance with people who are great at building software, and mix in anyone who has a unique perspective and wants to do the best and most challenging work of their career, we can effect incredible change. We’ve already become the clear category leader in real estate investment management, and we like to think we’re just getting started.
We’ve already become the clear category leader in real estate investment management, and we like to think we’re just getting started.”
What do you think will be the next big tech trend in your industry? How do you plan to stay ahead of that trend?
Both real estate and private markets have lagged behind other industries in terms of technology. That’s only just begun to change, and we’ve been significant pioneers in that process. It’s not easy and there are certainly growing pains, but over the long term it’s inevitable that both investors and investment managers will leverage technology and data to find new ways to raise capital, invest that capital, and interface with each other. As we grow, we have a few simple goals – continue to provide a phenomenal product to our customers, remain a place where employees can do the best work of their career, and push the envelope on how we can further transform the industry.
CognitiveScale is making AI more approachable — and accessible — for a wide group of organizations. Instead of replacing humans with machines, CognitiveScale builds solutions that partner people with technology. While their impact is felt across numerous industries, Healthcare AI Advisor Jeffrey Eyestone talked to us about CognitiveScale’s impact on healthcare.
How has CognitiveScale set itself apart as a leader in your industry?
Our software radically simplifies the design, development, delivery and management of enterprise AI applications that get smarter and better with time. In healthcare, we are leveraging AI for some of the largest payers, providers, government agencies, and healthcare information system vendors. Healthcare is so data-rich, and data is so distributed, that the scope for AI to deliver value is immense, particularly when it delivers personalized insights for patients, members and providers, as well as when it drives dynamic process improvement capabilities in areas like revenue cycle management.
There are significant challenges with the development, delivery and maintenance of healthcare AI solutions – what we call the ‘orchestration’ of AI. In healthcare, this includes everything from connectivity to EMRs and healthcare IT to stitching together the AI solution itself to then deploying solutions across a complex workflow. CognitiveScale’s Cortex software enables this level of healthcare AI orchestration, enabling organizations to realize transformative, AI-powered strategic initiatives that are practical, scalable, responsible, and valuable.
We’ve developed a responsible AI framework, an architecture that makes it possible for businesses to set ethical boundaries that reflect the core values and policies of their organizations.”
What do you think will be the next big tech trend in your industry? How do you plan to stay ahead of that trend?
A major trend in AI in general, and a need in healthcare specifically, is to build trusted and ethical AI solutions. We’ve developed a responsible AI framework, an architecture that makes it possible for businesses to set ethical boundaries that reflect the core values and policies of their organizations. This comprehensive responsible AI approach stands on five key pillars that provide the underpinnings of a reliable and trustworthy AI system: data ownership, explainability, compliance, robustness and fairness. In healthcare AI, this means evaluating everything from HIPAA compliance and personal health information radars and data traceability to data ownership and use. AI solutions and platforms that can help manage the level of trust and ethics that industries like healthcare demand will be a major trend across the AI ecosystem.
