In the city legendary for its South by Southwest festival, seven Austin companies are riding the wave of tech innovation, expanding quickly and hiring across departments.
Austin’s emergence as a booming center for tech startups is a more recent development in the area already known for its live music, artistic culture, Tex-Mex cuisine and beautiful lakes. However, despite its newness, the tech boom is significant. According to 2021 data from the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the city ranked third among major metros for startup job creation with a startup density of 193 for every 100,000 people — a density 146 percent that of the national average.
The seven companies featured below offer products and services in a range of dynamic industries including real estate, education, gaming, finance, transportation and cybersecurity. With passion for their companies’ growth and potential, they are hiring for roles in engineering, sales, operations, design, marketing and more. In addition to great PTO and wellness benefits, some companies provide unique standout perks — notably, annual trips to Geneva, DoorDash DashPasses and work days set aside for personal interests.
Built In Austin sat down with sales and recruitment leaders to discuss the key drivers for joining their companies, along with the perks and projects that keep them excited about showing up for work every day.
Leaders at Realtor.com, an online platform for buying, selling and renting homes, are passionate about working in a fast-growing tech space that helps people find their dream homes. The real estate tech company offers a host of great health and wellness benefits, but Senior Director of Talent Attraction Mike Baron says his favorite perk is the company-sponsored DoorDash DashPass, which allows employees to order food without paying a delivery fee.
What was the key driver in your decision to join your company?
Throughout my interview process, it was evident during every conversation I had that the talent attraction function was truly valued and appreciated as a part of our people culture. Being in such a dynamic tech space and having the opportunity to be part of a company dedicated to fair housing drove my decision to come here.
All these thoughts were exponentially validated during the 10 months that I’ve been here, with an added bonus being my incredible team, colleagues and leaders whom I am fortunate enough to work with every day.
Being in such a dynamic tech space and having the opportunity to be part of a company dedicated to fair housing drove my decision to come here.”
What’s your favorite perk or benefit your company offers, and why?
We have an incredible scope of meaningful benefits in areas including lifestyle and wellness programs, caregiving support, emotional wellbeing and physical and financial health. As far as my favorite goes, there are so many to choose from, but I’d point to our DoorDash DashPass. This allows our employees to incur $0 in delivery fees. It brings a whole new perspective, and cost savings, to ordering in!
At Udemy, a global teaching and learning platform, Senior Sales Development Manager Lauren Hargarten says there is a culture of creativity and collaboration, as sales team members are motivated to sell educational solutions. In addition to great health and wellness benefits, the team participates in “UDays” — days devoted to employees’ personal development.
What was the key driver in your decision to join your company?
I joined Udemy because of our innovative, inherently interwoven product and mission. When I started at Udemy in 2014, I wasn’t sure if a sales career was right for me, but selling a learning-centric solution changed everything.
Learning is dynamic. There is so much value a learning solution can provide to a person and an organization. As a salesperson, this is incredibly motivating. You’re not stuck to a singular script or a rinse-and-repeat motion. This fosters a culture of creativity, collaboration and learning across our sales teams to serve our customers and partners best.
There is so much value a learning solution can provide to a person and an organization. As a salesperson, this is incredibly motivating.”
What’s your favorite perk or benefit your company offers, and why?
Udemy always has a human-first approach to culture. Many benefits and experiences reflect that, including a recent initiative from our fantastic people team called “UDays.” Once a month, there is a designated companywide “UDay.” Imagine a day with no meetings, notifications or output expectations, with the only agenda item being self-development.
As a manager, my schedule can get pretty full and, unfortunately, my personal learning can sometimes take a hit. “UDays” carve out time for crucial self-reflection and growth; this quarter, I am focusing on coaching skills and mindfulness and meditation topics.
Leaders say that Unity, a platform for creating and operating real-time 3D content, stands out because of its collaborative people who are passionate about the company’s potential. Amber Hayes, vice president of global recruiting, HR operations and mobility, said she was also drawn to the gaming software company for its focus on recruiting, including an initiative that hires team members from Ukraine and Afghanistan.
What was the key driver in your decision to join your company?
Unity stood out during the interview process for a few reasons. The first was the people I met with; they were brilliant, engaging and collaborative. I met with several people, all of whom were passionate about the company and its potential.
Then, very personal to me, was the importance the company placed on recruiting. It’s not uncommon for companies to only care about recruiting when something goes wrong. It was apparent that Unity understood the importance of recruiting and the strategic part the team plays in the company’s growth. It was an opportunity to be a partner in the growth of a dynamic company.
Now, two and a half years later, I’m continually grateful for the opportunity. My team is smart, ambitious and truly demonstrates the #inittogether attitude we're known for. I’ve been able to help the company grow by over 100 percent, and the excitement of our initial public offering was truly amazing. It’s awesome seeing my team grow, and I’ve had the opportunity to take on new challenges, as my manager is supportive of my personal growth and development.
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
The coolest project my team was part of was helping hire those in need: outstanding individuals from Ukraine and Afghanistan. These initiatives were driven by the passion of our employees, and involved teams across the company.
As of today, we’ve hired five people via these programs. Hiring is always something that is positive, but having the support of a company to take on challenges like this is special. We are providing opportunities, and hopefully making a difference in the world.
The coolest project my team was part of was helping hire those in need: outstanding individuals from Ukraine and Afghanistan.”
Innovation is a core value at SparkCognition, an AI solution provider that analyzes companies’ data to predict future outcomes and prevent cyberattacks. Senior HR Business Partner Devin Peters says that SparkCognition employees regularly get to own and deliver impactful projects, and the company recently rolled out a learning and development platform to further invest in employees’ professional development.
What was the key driver in your decision to join your company? What’s the number one reason you’ve stayed?
I chose to join SparkCognition because the applications of our technology are so impactful and the company’s growth trajectory presents short- and long-term opportunities for project work and role advancement. The reason I choose to stay at SparkCognition is what many longer-tenured employees have shared with me — the ability to own, contribute to and deliver on large, impactful projects on a regular basis, while never being pigeonholed into a small portion of the function that I work within.
For example, in the first six months in my role, I delivered the general and administrative expenses portion of the companywide compensation project; completed the annual review and goal-setting cycles; developed new templates and processes; updated and rolled out new policies; and procured, negotiated and implemented a new learning and development platform. While these examples are specific to HR, this trust, autonomy and responsibility are given widely at SparkCognition, and employees can truly see the impact they make on the business.
This group of professionals is one of my favorites that I’ve been a part of throughout my career, which contributes to my decision to remain at SparkCognition.
trust, autonomy and responsibility are given widely at SparkCognition, and employees can truly see the impact they make on the business.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
The coolest project I recently owned from start to finish was the procurement, implementation and rollout of the new learning and development platform that SparkCognition offers our employees. The company’s desire to expand the investment in our employees’ development via this platform and the enthusiasm from leaders and employees to dig into the new tool have made this project a great experience.
A hunger for learning and success is demonstrated by a majority of SparkCognition’s employee population, from regular inquiries about the new L&D tool to seeking out peer mentorships and completing higher education degrees like master’s degrees, MBAs and Ph.D.s.
This hunger for learning and willingness to develop fresh ideas shows SparkCognition’s culture in action and speaks well to our value of innovation. We encourage all employees to be lifelong learners who journey outside of their comfort zones to find the next great solutions, and to never stop asking “why?”
Enterprise Sales Manager Michael Edwards says he is drawn to Sonar because of its great products: solutions that help developers and development teams write clean code and remediate existing code. While the company provides many strong benefits, Edwards says his favorite is the opportunity and encouragement to travel internationally — including annually to Sonar’s Geneva headquarters.
What was the key driver in your decision to join your company? What’s the number one reason you’ve stayed?
Both of these questions can be answered in the same way: the products. SonarQube, SonarCloud and SonarLint are best-in-class solutions with nearly unlimited market opportunity. Already, hundreds of thousands of instances are being used by millions of developers, in large part due to the core functionality being open source. After nearly 15 years of offering these amazing products and our unique approach to clean code, we’re privileged to have earned mass familiarity and a stellar reputation, all built on trust within developer communities.
Having been in sales for 10-plus years, I know selling can be hard even if you have the best people and processes in place. Without a great product, selling is very difficult. Our products give us an edge and make selling at Sonar more efficient and fun. It was a key driver why I joined, and continues to be a primary reason that I’ll stay.
Our products give us an edge and make selling at Sonar more efficient and fun.”
What’s your favorite perk or benefit your company offers, and why?
Without question, my favorite perk is the ability to travel internationally to visit other offices. Even better, this travel is encouraged by leadership to ensure we are continuously and effectively collaborating and creating with all of our colleagues.
Once a year, we are invited to spend one to two weeks working in the Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters. During this “Grand Raout” event, Sonar also takes the entire company to a surprise location in the surrounding countries. In my five years here, we went up in the French Alps and visited the Burgundy wine region, to name a few.
In addition to this planned trip, we can schedule a trip or two throughout the year, as individuals or in smaller groups for a more personal experience with our international colleagues. We just opened up an office in Singapore, our first presence in the Asia-Pacific region, and I expect to plan a trip later this year to meet and work with our newest team members there.
Leaders at Mothership, a platform for booking and tracking same-day freight deliveries, say the company is bolstered by amazing people who work to solve difficult problems. Recently, the team focused on an initiative that involved sending out personal reminders to carriers — an effort that resulted in a 3 percent increase in on-time pickups.
What was the key driver in your decision to join your company?
Every great company is built by great people; so the reasons why I decide to join every company start with the people and end with solving the hardest problems. I was excited to work alongside a great team, even in the very early days. Once that box was checked, I asked myself, “Is the problem hard enough, and will our solution have a meaningful impact?” Making last-mile logistics seamless and efficient, while lowering the cost, proved to be one of the hardest challenges, and I can see the impact we are making on our customers’ lives and the carriers on our platform.
Additionally, making the move from consumer marketing to B2B marketing is a whole new challenge and presents many opportunities to learn and develop completely new strategies for this audience. Mothership provides me with so many opportunities to learn, sharpen my skills and continue to grow at the company. I am excited to take on my new role as the director of product marketing, and to bring new products and features to market that enhance the daily business operations of our carriers and customers.
Mothership provides me with so many opportunities to learn, sharpen my skills and continue to grow at the company.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
In the last few quarters, our team became hyper-focused on messaging and personalization. We recently onboarded a new messaging platform called Braze, which was a huge undertaking involving almost every team at the company. It opened up a whole new range of functionality to our team. We focused on how timely messaging can help create and influence our customer or carrier behavior.
Recently, we’ve been A/B testing to send out load confirmations to a subset of carriers. We simply reminded them of the time they must arrive and nudged them to ensure they arrived at pickup on time after they accepted a load or haul with Mothership. This reminder influenced a 3 percent increase in on-time percentage for pickups versus the control. We increased the on-time percentage for carriers and, in turn, created a better experience for our customers.
Additionally, carriers who perform better on our platform in the long run are eligible for more loads in their area. It’s great to see how one simple message sent at the right time can impact carrier behavior and ultimately benefit both sides of our marketplace. We look to continue to experiment, and that is exciting!
At 8fig, an e-commerce platform for funding and planning businesses, leaders emphasize the positive, passionate energy of its team, along with the company’s inclusive environment for different ideas.
What was the key driver in your decision to join your company?
8fig has an open environment to share and implement one’s ideas. The freedom to initiate new ideas, implement them and see the immediate impact makes my work challenging and interesting.
8fig has an open environment to share and implement one’s ideas.”
What’s your favorite perk or benefit your company offers, and why?
I can’t believe my eyes when I look at everyone who works at 8fig; they’re all positive, energetic people who love what they do. The zeal is so infectious that everyone is driven by the same purpose to make 8fig a true funding partner for e-commerce sellers.
