Austin Inno – Sputnik’s new startup lineup

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Brent: Good afternoon and happy Friday, y’all. We built it. The weekfinish is upon us.

But before you start mixin’ margs, please take a moment to believe of any entrepreneurial rockstars in your orbit who are age 25 or younger. Nominations for our Inno Under 25 list close on Tuesday.

Alright, let’s kick a Beat and greet the weekfinish with open arms…

A breakdown of the day’s largegest local story.

Sputnik’s new cohort draws from Austin and beyond

Brent: Austin startup accelerator and investor Sputnik ATX released a list of its new cohort companies, which includes a couple Austin-based startups and mix of founders from as far away as Australia.

The six startups will be part of the 13-week accelerator, and Sputnik typically invests a $100K in pre-seed funding in each startup with potential to follow on with up to $400K.

This is Sputnik’s 10th cohort since it was co-founded by Oksana Malysheva and Joe Merrill in 2017.

“We’ve noticed over the last 5 years that when you objectively see for quality and the highest potential for growth, you finish up with a portfolio of diverse talent doing economic and social good with exceptional returns to investors,” Merrill stated.

For this summer’s program, Sputnik stated it had 900 applicants. Here’s a quick see at the six they selected, along with descriptions provided by Sputnik.

Swoovy, founded by Brooke Waupsh in Austin: In the era of the Great Reshuffle, companies are focapplyd on strategies to attract and retain top talent. Employee volunteer programs are an effective strategy in assisting employees feel more connected to each other and to their company values. Founded by experienced founder Brooke Waupsh, Swoovy builds it simple for companies to book volunteer events, connect colleagues through shared interests, and track impact while reducing turnover and achieving higher profitability.
M Aerospace, founded by Juan Carlos Munguia in Austin, and Jose Comparan and Arturo Reyes in Mexico: The traditional manufacturing process of industrial metal is a notoriously expensive and lengthy process. 3D metal printers have the potential to build metal manufacturing far simpler, yet no cost effective solutions exist for industrial applications. M Aerospace’s team (previously at Honeywell, Safran and Collins Aerospace) has created the world’s first affordable large scale metal 3D printer. Their beachhead product, the Armdust 2.0, builds large metal parts cheaper and quicker with the same or higher quality compared to parts built applying traditional methods. The Armdust 2.0 can be placed on-site to build parts on-demand, eliminating supply chain and shipping constraints.
The Savimbo Project, founded by Drea Burbank in California: With global warming on the rise, the number of carbon offsets sold has doubled in the past two years and is expected to grow 18X by 20301. The Savimbo Project works with tropical farmers to preserve and earn extra income from their land while assisting corporations meet requirements to offset their carbon emissions. Started by 2X founder Dr. Drea Burbank, Savimbo creates fair trade carbon offsets, then validates, bundles, sells and securitizes them internationally for shared profits. Farmers are paid directly on the Blockchain, allowing them to participate in the $260B carbon credit market with no middlemen.
Cognitive View, founded by Dilip Mohapatra in Australia: Of the trillions of customer-employee conversations that take place daily at regulated firms, each carries a risk of being fined, on average, $10M for non-compliance, creating a multi-billion-dollar problem. Cognitive View monitors customer-employee interactions over video, voice and written content with AI to assist firms meet compliance, reduce risk and improve customer experience. Cognitive View’s founder, Dilip Mohapatra, previously built products for cybersecurity startups and advised Fortune 500 companies on application security & identity governance. The company has won numerous global awards, including Regtech 100, Fintech 100, IBM Beacon and more.
Bright Pay Health, founded by Shielvonda Haith and Archie Otu in Georgia: Finding out-of-pocket cost estimates for medical services on the phone wastes time for both medical and insurance providers, and often doesn’t even produce accurate information for patients. With Brightpay, medical providers can quickly check insurance eligibility in real-time and proactively inform patients of their out-of-pocket financial responsibility before their service. Patients can either pay the provider directly through Brightpay’s platform or request financing. The founding team at Brightpay Health comes from deep experience in both healthcare and insurance, with multiple startups and 3 successful exits under their belt.
Silabuz, founded by Alonso Mujica and Alejandra Puente in Peru: As companies spfinish time and money recruiting new tech hires, the talent they’re seeing for might be on-site already. Silabuz assists companies see the potential in their existing employees and upskill tech talent to meet their necessarys. With Silabuz’s skill testing and upskilling solutions, companies can reduce turnover while saving up to 70% on recruiting and retention. In turn, tech job seekers without access to traditional higher education are elevated to higher career trajectories.

The people, companies and organizations building shifts in Austin.

Kazoo adds 3 VPs

Austin-based employee engagement and HR company Kazoo, Inc., which does business as Kazoo + WorkTango, stated Aug. 11 it has added three new execs to its team. Lindsey Fine, who was most recently VP of sales at Minneapolis-based Dyspatch, is joining as senior VP of sales. Merrily McGugan, who was most recently senior director of global brand and communications at LogicMonitor, joins as VP of brand and communications. And David Sin, who was most recently head of demand generation and operations at Orchatect, is becoming Kazoo + WorkTango’s VP of demand generation and growth.

Kazoo, which was built out of a combination of YouEarnedIt and HighGround, acquired WorkTango back in April. Kazoo is backed by Austin-based PE firm Vista Equity Partners.

New data guru at Markaaz

Markaaz Inc., an AI-powered fintech startup that shiftd from L.A. to Austin last year, stated Aug. 11 that it brought on David Clarke as chief data officer in residence. He was part of the Mastercard Track team, and he was previously president of sales and marketing solutions at Dun & Bradstreet. Markaaz has raised $8M in funding since its launch in 2019.

Disco stock slumps on revised 2022 outsee

CS Disco, one of the Austin tech scenes most recent IPO success stories, is going through one of its toughest moments yet, at least in terms of stock price. After the legal tech company’s Q2 earnings call Thursday, its stock price launched a steep descent, hitting its lowest point ever at $12.78. At around 1:30 p.m. today it was at $13.46 per share. That’s down from $28.66 on Wednesday. The falling price appears to stem from the company lowering its 2022 revenue guidance to the range of $132M to $136M. The company had previously tarreceiveed $149M to $153M.

“Our revised 2022 revenue guidance is primarily attributed to the volatility in our Review business and conservatively incorporates the potential for incremental headwinds that may materialize in the back half of the year,” CFO Michael Lafair stated on the earnings call.

The slump came as Disco announced it has 1,255 customers, which is a 27% year-over-year increase.

Brewing up a storm

Here’s a fun Friday bit… ABJ’s Sahar Chmais reports that Meanwhile Brewing Company LLC is spanning beyond the tap and will soon be available on store shelves.

Last year, Meanwhile Brewing produced 2,572 barrels of beer and hopes to reach approximately 4K this year, Jaquiss stated. The craft brewer, which opened in October 2020, sells beer on tap and by the can at its brewery and taproom at 3901 Promontory Point Dr. in Southeast Austin. Now, for the first time, Meanwhile beer will be available in a handful of retailers launchning Aug. 31, including Royal Blue Grocery on Rainey Street, Sunrise Mini Mart on Anderson Lane, The Meteor on South Congress Avenue, Turnstile on Burnet Road, WhichCraft Taproom & Bottle Shop in Mueller and Wright Bros. Brew and Brew on San Marcos Street.

Bottoms up, y’all!

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Keeping Austin Weird & Wired

Keeping cool before school

With kids going back to school and temps still scorching, KXAN hit up local ed leaders to see how they keep the young ones safe at the bus stop. It’s something I really hadn’t considered, I guess in part becaapply I grew up in Minnesota and it was the extreme cold that kept us just inside the front door until we saw the yellow tube coming over the hill.

These days, some schools apply a “SMART tag” to provide almost real-time alerts to students and parents if a bus is delayed. That way, they can perhaps hang out in the AC until its time to board.

Another surprise, at least to me, is that not all Austin ISD bapplys have AC. The district, according to KXAN, is expecting to raise the percent of total bapplys with AC from 60% to 70% by the finish of October.

I believe I’d carry a super soaker for the ride home 😉