If you’re a sales leader looking for your next career move, Austin should be on your radar. It’s “the home of live music,” but it’s not just the music scene that’s thriving—the city’s reputation as a tech hub continues to grow, and now may be just the right time to consider joining one of Austin’s flourishing scale-ups.
Here we look at ten up-and-coming, Austin-based tech companies that are already making waves with disruptive products and innovative positioning. They all have strong investor support and fresh, individual visions … and they’re definitely worth keeping your eye on.
Why? The city’s tech community is attracting some of the country’s top sales talent, but it is hungry for more. Hiring grew 11% in June 2018 compared to the same period just 12 months earlier.
These ten exciting Austin tech companies are contributing to the hiring landscape and the city’s tech nexus:
1. ThousandEyes
ThousandEyes empowers businesses to see, understand and improve connected experiences everywhere. The ThousandEyes cloud platform offers unmatched vantage points throughout the global internet and provides immediate visibility into experience for every user and application over any network. Companies can deliver superior digital experiences, modernize their enterprise WAN, and successfully migrate to the cloud.
Industry: Software
Industry Outlook: The cloud services market is expected to double from over $150 billion in 2017 to $302 billion by 2021, and grew 21% in the last year. Infrastructure-as-a-service is the fastest growing subcategory, and Chief Information Officers are using cloud services as basic infrastructure for new business initiatives. Enterprises are rapidly migrating applications into the cloud or simply deploying them in the cloud to begin with; 45% of applications workloads were in datacenters in 2017, down from 60% in 2016. Amazon Web Services has the largest public cloud market share, followed by Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and a long tail of providers.
Growth stage: Series C
Selling tools available:Free trial; demo request for lead generation; learning and resource center with webinars, whitepapers, tech talks; case studies in PDF and video formats; hosts an annual industry conference
Awards received:
- Named “Best Data-Driven SaaS Product” in the 2018 SaaS Awards program
- Ranked 22nd in Glassdoor and Battery Venture’s “Top 25 Places to Work in 2018”
Funding: $60.7M in 5 rounds
- 5 investors in latest round
- 3 lead investors
- 5 investors total
Employee perks:
- Health insurance, dental, and vision benefits
- Retirement plan and stock options
- Free daily meals
- Commuter benefits
Glassdoor reviews: Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars. 88% recommend to a friend. 99% approve of CEO.
View ThousandEyes Sales Careers.
“Great team, high energy, excellent resources, amazing solution offer—this company values its employees and supports as best they can (for their pound of flesh). When in, role your sleeves up and hold on! ThousandEyes is a hit and will go from strength to strength based on their unique offer.”
“The environment is really friendly, creative, young and talented. Office is full of perks such as stocked kitchen, catered lunches … and games/toys everywhere. If you’d like to try the challenges of a startup, this is definitely the place to be. Flexibility is required to fulfil the many needs of a young and quickly growing company. Very different environment (much more dynamic and fun) if compared to a corporate.”
2. New Knowledge
New Knowledge is a cybersecurity company that helps businesses monitor and defend against the viral spread of intentionally damaging misinformation. They help detect false narratives before they can make an impact, and they monitor social media to identify fake accounts, fake news, and propaganda campaigns.
Industry: Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Industry Outlook: Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to be one of the most exciting and fastest growing sectors across the tech industry. Leading CEOs in all industries agree that AI represents a significant potential business advantage to their organizations. Chief among the factors driving the market are the increasing adoption of AI-enabled products, and software solutions, both of which improve customer service. Consequently, the market is poised for growth, with a CAGR of above 35%. By 2024, the AI market is expected to reach $191 billion.
Growth stage: Series A
Selling tools available: Demo request for lead generation; resource center with ebooks, reports and whitepapers; tech podcasts
Funding: $13M in 4 rounds
- 3 investors in latest round
- 2 lead investors
- 9 investors total
Employee perks:
- Flexible spending account, dental and vision benefits
- Retirement plan and stock options
- Flexible working
- Unlimited vacation policy
- Training and conference opportunities
- Casual dress, beer on tap, and company outings
Glassdoor reviews: No ratings or reviews available.
View New Knowledge Sales Careers.
3. CognitiveScale
Industry: Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Industry Outlook: AI is already helping businesses and their customers in meaningful ways, and as it evolves, it will become even more central to enterprises. Machine learning helps businesses harness customer information to understand digital behavior, helping ecommerce companies personalize experiences, helping financial businesses prevent fraud, helping healthcare providers automate administrative processes, and more. For AI to take a prime time seat in enterprise, says founder Ashkay Sabhiki, it needs to develop in three core ways: performance (demonstrating business improvements), assurance (data safety and guardrails for AI systems), and governance (end-to-end visibility of AI systems).
Growth stage: Series B
Selling tools available: Resource center with whitepapers, reports, webcasts and video tech talks; PDF case studies
Awards received:
- Recognized in World Economic Forum “Technology Pioneers Cohort 2018”
- Named as one of seven “Hot Vendors” by HfS Research
- Included in “Cool Vendors in Retail 2016” report by Gartner, Inc.
- 2016 Stratus Award Winner, Cloud Disruptor, Small Company
- Included in CRN’s “10 Coolest Startups of 2016”
- One of BuiltinAustin’s “Top 50 Startups to Watch in 2016”
- One of 12 companies included on Austin Chamber of Commerce’s “A-List of Hottest Startups 2015”
Funding: $40M in 3 rounds
- 1 investor in latest round
- 2 lead investors
- 7 investors total
Employee perks:
- Health insurance, dental, and vision benefits
- Retirement plan
- Unlimited vacation policy
- Free meals and stocked kitchen
Glassdoor reviews: 3.8 out of 5 stars. 79% recommend to a friend. 76% approve of CEO.
View CognitiveScale Sales Careers.
“Easily one of the best AI companies out there. Amazing vision that is being delivered with each release. Great partners and investors. Good people. Free lunches are awesome. Takes away the pain of dealing with choices and traffic during the day. Encourage social activities every week.”
“I’ve been with this company since very early on. I knew something amazing was going to happen when I saw the quality of people who were leaving high level careers elsewhere to join what appeared to me to be a ‘nice little tech startup’ … I see the passion and commitment to truly ‘changing the world’ … I feel very fortunate to be here and look forward to what the future holds for us.”
4. TrendKite
Industry: Enterprise Software, Analytics, Big Data
Industry Outlook: PR tools monitor digital, social, and print media to help companies understand their media coverage and consumer engagement in one place—as well as find actionable insights, quantify impact, and calculate ROI. The global PR tools market size in 2015 was $4.5 billion and estimated to reach $13 billion by 2024.
Big data as a broader industry category is enormously useful in helping organizations identify customer behaviors and derive useful decisions from patterns. The current market revenue for big-data-related software and services is $42 billion. According to an Accenture study, 79% of the executives of enterprise companies think that embracing big data is essential to their businesses’ survival and 83% of them have pursued big data projects to gain a competitive advantage. Worldwide big data revenue from software and services is expected to increase from $42 billion in 2018 to $103 billion in 2027—that’s a CAGR of 10.48%.
Growth stage: Venture
Selling tools available: Demo request for lead generation; resource and learning center with tech videos, reports, whitepapers, webinars, ebooks, toolkits and case studies
Funding: $47.6M in 7 rounds
- 1 investor in latest round
- 5 lead investors
- 11 investors total
Employee perks:
- Health insurance, dental, and vision benefits
- Unlimited vacation policy
- Stock options
- Stocked kitchen
- Commuter benefits
Glassdoor reviews: 3.7 out of 5 stars. 67% recommend to a friend. 82% approve of CEO.
“I started my sales career at TrendKite, and I learned more than I could have ever expected to. It’s rare that you hear of a high energy, high velocity sales environment at a company that sells a high-ACV product.”
“Great atmosphere with amazing people combined with work that is fulfilling—a winning combination.”
5. Datical
Industry: Software
Industry Outlook: Datical addresses the $22B IT Systems Management market. DevOps tools specifically help development teams, operations teams, and QA teams work together seamlessly for better software delivery. They enhance productivity, automate software development, shorten product cycles, and lower costs. The market is estimated to be worth $12.8 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 18%.
Growth stage: Series C
Selling tools available: Resource center with webinars, tech videos, and whitepapers
Funding: $17M in 7 rounds
- 2 lead investors
- 8 investors total
Employee perks:
- Flexible spending account
- Disability insurance
- Dental benefits
- Retirement plan and company equity
- Parental leave and unlimited vacation policy
- Casual dress
- Company outings
- Commuter benefits
- Training and conference opportunities
Glassdoor reviews: 5 out of 5 stars. 100% recommend to a friend. N/A approve of CEO.
“Datical has a great community of talented, results-driven individuals who are genuine and fun to be around! It’s a healthy culture that’s good about recognizing and celebrating individual and collective success. There is a lot of opportunity to have an impact on the business and leadership is very receptive to new ideas that would add value to the business.”
“Great office, lots of snacks, experienced management, legit core values, good comp, customers love the product.”
6. OneSpot
OneSpot is a content marketing personalization platform that helps brands bring customer journeys to life. They help brands and publishers deliver individualized content experiences through technology and strategic support. OneSpot uses machine learning and natural language processing algorithms to understand website visitors’ consumption patterns and then deliver relevant content across websites, email, and other channels.
Industry: Machine learning and marketing technology
Industry Outlook: Savvy marketers are already harnessing the power of AI to understand customer behavior, automate routine tasks, and help them be proactive instead of reactive planners. The human touch is still required to create great content, but AI can make personalization recommendations that humans may not see, cut production times, and automate laborious tasks.
AI is the technology that most marketers feel unprepared for—a recent report indicates that 34% of global marketing executives felt ill-prepared to implement the technology. AI SaaS businesses are here to change that. According to Salesforce, just over half (51%) of marketers are currently using AI, but a further 27% expect to implement the technology by 2019. Of all leading technology that marketers expect to rise in implementation in the next year—including the Internet of Things and marketing automation—AI shows the highest anticipated year-on-year-growth.
Growth stage:Venture
Selling tools available: Demo request for lead generation; resource center with whitepapers and guides, case studies, webinars and infographics packages
Awards received:
- Winner inaugural Advertising Week StartUp Pitch Competition 2017
- Named in the EContent 100 List of “Companies That Matter Most in the Digital Content Industry”
- 2016 Silver Edison Award winner for “Innovative Services, in the Digital Management & Marketing” category
Funding: $17.9M in 7 rounds
- 1 investor in latest round
- 2 lead investors
- 11 investors total
Glassdoor reviews: 4.3 out of 5 stars. 83% recommend to a friend. 73% approve of CEO.
“The best thing about OneSpot is the great people. They’re not just friendly, but very capable and experienced in each domain from development to marketing. They’ve held true to the “no jerks” hiring policy … Management expects the best from you while you’re working, but respects the fact that you have a life to live outside of work as well …”
“Great working environment, smart experienced co-workers, quality work/life balance, transparent executive team, ability to reach above and beyond your role, lots of voice/input for mid-level employees, great snacks … Because it’s a startup, it can be challenging at times without working processes in place.”
7. Brightpearl
Brightpearl is a cloud-based ERP (enterprise resource planning) for retailers and wholesalers, based in Bristol, UK in addition to Austin, Texas. Their mission is to automate the back office so merchants can spend their time and money growing their businesses.
Industry: Software and ecommerce
Industry Outlook: It’s not surprising that ecommerce increasingly accounts for a larger proportion of retail sales in the US than ever before. Global ecommerce markets are projected to grow to $4 trillion in 2020, so it’s clear why small and mid-sized businesses are migrating some—or even all—of their operations to online platforms. Online operations improve efficiency and transparency, and give retailers scalable access to new audiences. Cloud-based services drive this all; the market for ecommerce-specific software is currently around $4 billion. ERP software as a larger category—not retail-specific—is projected to grow to around $63 billion by 2025, propelled by demand from small and mid-sized companies and growing acceptance of mobile and cloud-based infrastructure.
Growth stage: Venture
Selling tools available: Demo request for lead generation; resource center with articles
Awards received:
- Named “Best SaaS Company to Work For in the UK” at the SaaS Growth 2018 Awards, ahead of companies like Microsoft, Adobe, LinkedIn, Slack and Hootsuite
- Named “Venture-backed management team of the year” at the 2018 British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) awards
Funding: $54.5M in 7 rounds
- 3 investors in latest round
- 4 lead investors
- 8 investors total
Employee perks:
- Health insurance, dental, and vision benefits
- Retirement plan and stock options
- Casual Dress
- Company outings
- Some meals provided
Glassdoor reviews: 3.9 out of 5 stars. 77% recommend to a friend. 76% approve of CEO.
View Brightpearl Sales Careers.
“Cool product! Solid UI, and overall pretty easy to use. Flexible enough for most SMB e-tailers to take advantage of, and gain some clarity into sales.”
“Cutting edge sector. Very lucky to have joined this company as I now know they are about to become a major player due to the leadership of the CEO and management. A lot of opportunities to progress your career here if you are willing to work hard and be imaginative… Like any company on the verge of major success, you have to be able to move fast so that means putting in a lot of time and being adaptable but the big decisions the CEO has made are being proven to be right.”
8. SpyCloud
Industry: Software and security
Industry Outlook: As the digital world expands into every aspect of life, cybersecurity has become increasingly important and prominent in the consciousness of the public as well as businesses. Companies and governments routinely collect enormous amounts of confidential data—and it sometimes seems as if data breaches have become commonplace occurrences. Companies are allocating more and more resources to secure their data, as awareness of high-profile cyber attacks and data losses grow. Venture capital firms have invested approximately $13.6 billion in cybersecurity since 2013:
Predictions: The global market for information and security products and services is expected to grow to $124 billion by 2019 — an 8.7% increase.
Growth stage: Series A
Selling tools available: Free trial; resource and learning center with whitepapers, webinars and ebooks; case studies; tech videos
Awards received:
- Winner of the “Best of Show” award at Finovate Fall 2017
- Winner of NATO’s Defense Innovation Challenge 2017
Funding: $7.5M in 2 rounds
- 2 investors in latest round
- 2 lead investors
- 2 investors total
Employee perks:
- Health and dental benefits
- Company equity options
- Generous PTO and flexible working
- Stocked kitchen and catered lunches
Glassdoor reviews: No ratings or reviews available.
9. Mineralsoft
Industry: Management information systems and business analytics
Industry Outlook: The oil and gas industry has seen a massive influx of capital into mineral interests over the last decade, bringing the market for this asset class to an estimated $1 trillion. But oil and gas investors struggle with managing their portfolios, as most processes are based on paper and outdated technology. There’s a growing need for new technology to help investors manage portfolios at scale, track ROI, and identify new investment opportunities.
Growth stage: Series A
Selling tools available: Case studies
Funding: $9.2M in 4 rounds
- 3 investors in latest round
- 1 lead investors
- 7 investors total
Employee perks:
- Comprehensive benefits package
- Flexible time off and paid sick leave
Glassdoor reviews: 5 out of 5 stars. 100% recommend to a friend. 100% approve of CEO.
View MineralSoft Sales Careers.
“This is a startup that has done a lot of things right. They have created a great environment that values collaboration and respect. The work is interesting and we’re solving big problems. There are no big egos here. There are just people getting the job done in an inspiring environment.”
“MineralSoft has a great product and a great team that cares about that product. They are focused on the right aspects of growing a business. They truly care about their customers’ satisfaction and feedback, they’re scaling and processing appropriately for forecasted growth, proactively improving their product, and building a solid employee support”
10. Worksmith
Industry: Enterprise software
Industry Outlook: The local on-demand industry had an estimated market value of $34 billion in the United States alone in 2016, which includes rideshare services like Uber and Lyft. The commercial clients that Worksmith serves are a portion of this market. The local on-demand services sector has grown more rapidly than ecommerce when comparing market penetration in the US over time.
Growth stage: Later-stage VC
Selling tools available: Demo request for lead generation
Funding: $20.64M in 4 rounds
Employee perks:
- Company outings
- Flexible leave and sickness policy
Glassdoor reviews: 4.0 out of 5 stars. 65% recommend to a friend. 65% approve of CEO.
“Fast paced work environment where your work is valued and makes a difference everyday. Coworkers are goal oriented, hardworking, & bring a high energy. Management team has experience and makes it easy to learn from them.”
“They are constantly looking to improve their product, which provides a lot of opportunities to contribute ideas, implement processes, and provide feedback. They try to do frequent Q&A’s with the CEO so people can bring up questions or concerns. There are frequent team outings like ping pong tournaments or happy hours.”
These are a few of the most eye-catching new companies in Austin, a city world-renowned for its music and gorgeous landscape—and perhaps soon for the opportunities it holds for talented sales leaders. If you’re looking for a new career challenge, look no further than Austin, where the sun keeps shining—and the innovation never stops.
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