At the time, he was a pre-med student at the University of Texas at Austin. He launched the company, originally called PC’s Limited, in his dorm room, offering customized PC upgrades.
Dell incorporated the company about a week before finals. He finished his freshman year as a biology major. Then he dropped out of the University of Texas and founded Dell Computers with $1,000. He relocated the company from his dorm room to a proper office.
The business grew from $6 million in the first nine months to $33 million in the next year. It grew about 80 percent per year compounded for eight years and 60 percent for the six years after that, according to Dell.
Dell’s secret sauce was the way he sold the PCs – direct to consumers.
At age 27, Dell became the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company ever.
Today, he is still CEO of the company he founded. Dell’s revenue in 2023 was $102 billion.
Round Rock-based Dell is also one of Austin’s largest technology companies, with more than 1,400 local employees.
And Dell, 59, has become the world’s 12th richest person, with a personal fortune of $104 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
And at SXSW in March, Dell said he’s looking forward to the next 40 years and he thinks Artificial Intelligence will play a big role in Dell’s future.
Austin’s coworking industry has always been turbulent, with new sites opening and closing.
In recent times, WeWork announced that it had exited its lease at the SXSW Center on Lavaca Street last October, according to an article in The Real Deal. It stopped operations at that site in January, although WeWork is still operating in the Domain, Congress, Barton Springs and University Park in Austin
The Riveter, a female-focused coworking site, shut down during the Pandemic and never reopened. Galvanize, a coworking site at Nueces and Second Street shuttered its operations in August 2022.
But Austin’s coworking supply is ticking up, with 78 sites now, according to CoworkingCafe’s recently released quarterly report on the coworking industry. The site’s researchers examined data from April and the coworking space stock availability in the nation’s 25 largest markets.
According to the report, Austin’s coworking market saw a 4 percent increase in coworking spaces in the last quarter, with three more. That ranks Austin 21st in the nation, up from 22nd at the end of last year.
In terms of square footage, Austin has a total of 1.65 million square feet, a slight increase of 0.5% compared to Q4 2023.
The average square foot in the Austin market dropped by 3% from 21,888 sqft in Q4 of last year to 21,144 sqft in Q1 of 2024.
Regarding pricing, virtual offices dropped to $109 from $119 in Q4. Dedicated desks increased to $405 from $403, while open workspaces increased to $199 from $150.
Other Texan markets in our top 25 include Dallas-Fort Worth, which logged 259 spaces in Q1 – a 4% increase; and Houston. which logs 216 spaces in Q1 – a 0.5% increase.
The national coworking supply now stands at 6,597 spaces, registering a 6% increase from Q4 2023.
in the ever-evolving software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry landscape, one event stands out as a beacon of innovation, collaboration, and growth: SaaStock USA.
Hosted in the vibrant city of Austin, this annual gathering has become a mecca for SaaS leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries from around the globe. SaaStock USA is more than a conference—it’s a convergence of minds, a melting pot of ideas, and a platform for shaping the future of the SaaS world.
SaaStock USA takes place May 13-15th at the Palmer Events Center in the heart of Austin. The event will likely sell out soon, so to secure your ticket today, click here to register.
Stepping into the bustling exhibition hall, attendees are immediately immersed in a world of cutting-edge technologies, groundbreaking solutions, and a palpable energy that permeates every corner. From established industry giants to scrappy startups, SaaStock USA attracts diverse companies, each showcasing their latest offerings and sharing their unique perspectives.
The meticulously curated speaker sessions and panel discussions are at the heart of the event. Rockstar speakers for the SaaStock USA event include Steve Rowland, president of Klaviyo, Ashley Grech, CRO of Xero, Mercelo Lebre, Co-Founder, CTO and President of Remote, Ashley Kramer, CMO and CSO of GitLab, Mary D’Onofrio, partner of Bessemer Venture Partners, Kevin Dorsey, sales leadership accelerator and consultant, Jason Fried, Co-founder and CEO of 37signals and Chris Walker, executive chairman of Refine Labs. They will share their invaluable insights and experiences. Whether delving into the intricacies of product development, exploring innovative go-to-market strategies, or dissecting the nuances of customer acquisition and retention, every session promises to challenge conventional wisdom and ignite new ways of thinking.
But SaaStock USA is more than just a series of talks and presentations. It’s a fertile ground for networking and forging meaningful connections. The bustling exhibition floor is a hive of activity, where conversations flow freely, ideas are exchanged, and potential partnerships are born. From impromptu meetups to organized networking events, attendees have ample opportunities to connect with like-minded professionals, fostering a sense of community that extends far beyond the conference halls.
One of the event’s standout features is its focus on empowering the next generation of SaaS leaders. SaaStock USA recognizes the importance of nurturing talent and fostering a culture of innovation. Through dedicated mentorship programs, aspiring entrepreneurs can glean wisdom from seasoned veterans, gaining invaluable insights into the challenges and triumphs of building and scaling a successful SaaS business.
At night, SaaStock USA transforms into a vibrant social hub. From intimate dinners to lively after-parties, attendees have ample opportunities to unwind, network, and forge lasting connections. It’s a testament to the event’s ability to seamlessly blend business and pleasure, creating an environment where ideas flourish and relationships thrive.
But SaaStock USA is more than just a fleeting moment in time. Its impact reverberates long after the final session has concluded and the exhibition halls have emptied. Attendees return to their respective corners of the world armed with a renewed sense of inspiration, a wealth of knowledge, and a network of invaluable connections.
In the fast-paced world of SaaS, where innovation is the currency and agility is the key to success, SaaStock Austin stands as a beacon of progress and a testament to the industry’s resilience and forward-thinking spirit. It’s a gathering that celebrates past achievements and charts the course for the future, ensuring that the SaaS revolution continues to shape how we live, work, and interact with technology.
Tabrez Syed, founder of Boxcar.ai, Kathryn Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer of Prosigliere, and Madhu Basu, founder of Unnanu at the Umlauf Gardens in downtown Austin.
Silicon Hills News hosted an event on Wednesday in the Crenshaw Room of the Umlauf Garden in downtown Austin to discuss tools and tips for using generative AI in the workplace. It also included some of the potential pitfalls of using the technology.
The speakers included Tabrez Syed, founder of Boxcar.ai in Austin. Syed explained what generative AI is and how it was created. He also gave an overview of its position in the Gartner Hype Cycle, which is now at its peak. Here is the link to Syed’s presentation.
Kathryn Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer with Prosigliere and founder of DMass in Austin, discussed how Generative AI has affected the demand for jobs on Upwork. It has led to a considerable decrease in writing and customer service jobs and a significant increase in website editing and development. Lewis also provided several AI-powered tools that people use today, such as copy.ai, Writesonic, Jasper, and Charlie. Her presentation is embedded below.
AI TRENDS, TOOLS AND TIPS Benefits and Drawbacks of ChatGPT and AI katie@prosigliere.com April 24, 2024
Madhu Basu is the founder of Unnanu, an artificial intelligence contextual search startup. Its flagship product is Unnanu Hire, a software-as-a-service platform with a proprietary AI and machine learning-powered resume-scoring feature. Here is a link to his presentation.
Overview of AI Tools and Uses Cases Understanding the Benefits and Drawbacks of ChatGPT and AI Presenting by Madhu Basu madhu@unnanu.ai https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhubasu/
Laura Lorek, founder of Silicon Hills News, also shared a presentation she did recently for the Ohio Northern University School of Law on the benefits and drawbacks of generative AI technology in the legal industry. The presentation is embedded below.
David Graff, Google Trust and Safety’s VP of Global Policy and Standards
This election year, generative AI poses new challenges, as cybercriminals can use it to create misleading content, such as deep fakes or fake images, videos, or audio.
Michael Kaiser, CEO of Defending Digital Campaigns, had a fireside chat with David Graff, Google Trust and Safety’s VP of Global Policy and Standards. The talk occurred Thursday morning at Google’s half-day summit on election security at its Austin downtown office.
In addition to the presidential election, more than 1,000 seats in Texas are on the ballot in November, which might attract U.S. adversaries, cybercriminals, and hacktivists to launch targeted attacks, according to Defending Democracy Campaigns.
In past elections, cybercriminals have attacked individuals and organizations and spread dangerous misinformation. Kaiser said that this year, generative AI threatens to disrupt elections even more.
These days, Graff and his team at Google spend a lot of time on generative AI.
“This is a little bit like old wine in a new bottle,” Graff said.
Graff said that Google has been dealing with the challenges of misinformation, impersonation, and bad actors. He said Google has a series of enforcement actions and policies on dealing with fake content.
Graff said Google has developed policies requiring disclosure if advertisers use AI in consequential ways in political ads.
“So, people understand what they are seeing,” Graff said.
So far, campaigns seem cautious about using generative AI in deceptive ways, but he said there are concerns about misuse by unofficial actors.
Graff said that Google’s search engine elevates authoritative, fact-based information for election queries.
“In terms of the new technology, which is incredibly transformation and incredibly powerful, it does present some new challenges,” Graff said. It allows people to create high-quality video and audio content, he said.
But the large language models are prone to hallucinations or making stuff up, and they can propagate misinformation, he said.
Graff said Google also promotes transparency around AI-generated content through techniques like watermarking and metadata standards. He said Google’s focus is helping the public identify synthesized content.
Political campaigns increasingly rely on technology but have small teams, creating cybersecurity vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can exploit.
Will Hurd, a former Republican congressman from San Antonio, said election misinformation is a real threat to American Democracy.
Hurd, a former 2024 presidential candidate, cybersecurity expert, and former undercover officer in the CIA, spoke at a Thursday half-day summit at Google’s downtown office in Austin. Defending Digital Campaigns, a Google Partner, put on the event. The organization provides political parties and campaigns with knowledge, products, and services to protect themselves from cyber threats and attacks. More than 100 people attended the event, including leading experts in politics and technology.
Hurd said the future of cybersecurity will be a battle between good AI versus bad AI. New tools like Generative AI easily create text, images, and videos with large language models, known as LLMs, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Athropic’s Claude.Ai, and others.
Hurd said AI can be used for good, to get the correct information out there, and to facilitate helpful discourse. It’s a tool; use it to promote good conversations, he said.
“That’s the only way we’re going to keep this little experiment called Democracy safe,” Hurd said. “The bad guys aren’t necessarily smarter than you. Truth is on your side. Use it. Harness it.”
Hackers have created havoc with misinformation in past election campaigns, and this year, with Generative AI, the situation will only worsen. In February 2024, the Federal Communications Commission issued a cease-and-desist letter against Texas-based Lingo Telecomm, which is alleged to have originated robocall traffic using AI-generated voice technology to impersonate President Joe Biden and tell voters not to vote in the New Hampshire primary election.
Hurd said misinformation first began circulating through social media during the 2016 Presidential elections, and Blactivist and Southern Pride were some of the originators of posting misinformation campaigns.
“These were two organizations that the Russian Internet Research Agency built and ran social media campaigns,” Hurd said. Those campaigns reached hundreds of thousands of people.
“It’s not just the Russians we have to worry about,” Hurd said.
One of China’s latest campaigns is targeting Texas and spreading misinformation across social media about political unrest in the state stemming from immigration and border disputes with the Federal government, Hurd said. The online chatter is about an impending civil war. The U.S. State Department released its first report in September 2023 on the People’s Republic of China’s information manipulation.
“Why are they doing that?” Hurd said. “It’s to erode trust in our institutions. It’s not about influencing the actual vote count. It’s not about ten votes here or there. It’s to erode trust in our institutions because when we are battling each other, we’re not battling them.”
Hurd said that the U.S. has known for years that Chinese hackers have been in some of the U.S.’s critical infrastructure, which should be a considerable concern.
Hurd said the world is already experiencing an infodemic, with information overload from the Internet and social media, and AI will make it even worse.
Information that AI allows us to release into the ether will lead people to do one of three things: they are going to revert to things they already know and people they already trust or straight out reject even if the information is accurate, or they’re going to get duped, Hurd said.
Protecting the democracy starts with protecting yourself, Hurd said.
“Don’t let the bad guys into your systems,” he said.
It’s simple, Hurd said. Hurd said don’t click on phishing messages like fake receipts or messages about other stuff from people you don’t know. He said that is a real tech scam, and 90 percent of cyber hacks start with a phishing expedition. It’s OK to ignore it, he said.
Hurd said that half of all current attacks could have been prevented with updated software.
“Update your freakin’ software, y’all,” Hurd said.
If people do these two things, they protect themselves, their campaigns, their candidates, and their principles, and “you’re preventing the Chinese, the Russians, and the Iranians from gaining access to information they could potentially use in the future,” he said.
And be careful of what you click on while browsing the Internet, Hurd said. There are a lot of phishing ads that are not real ads on the Internet, he said.
Manu Rehani is the founder of Issa, an emotional AI startup.
Rehani is an innovator in applied behavioral and cognitive linguistics. He is an inventor, mentor, and board advisor for several startups. After successfully exiting two tech ventures, he’s currently focused on developing a new class of emotion-aware AI for general application in custom GPTs and LLMs and specific use in mental health and wellness applications to foster a healthy relationship with self and others through AI.
On the Ideas to Invoices podcast, Rehani discusses the ethical and thoughtful development of AI that understands and responds to human emotions to improve mental health and well-being rather than creating dependence or isolation.
Here are ten key takeaways from the podcast:
Personal Inspiration for Emotion-Aware AI:
Manu was inspired to create Issa after observing the effects of COVID-19, particularly the loneliness his daughter experienced when her social activities were disrupted.
Mission of Issa:
Issa aims to address loneliness and mental health issues by leveraging AI that can understand the emotional content of conversations, thereby fostering healthier relationships.
Unique Approach to Emotion Detection:
Unlike other emotion AI that use a “bag of words” approach, Issa’s technology considers the context surrounding words to determine their emotional content, applying rules-based AI rather than training sets.
Success Stories:
Issa has made breakthroughs in caregiver support by analyzing care notes for stress indicators, which helped reduce caregiver burnout and attrition rates in eldercare facilities.
Future of Emotion-Aware AI:
Manu envisions that emotion-aware AI should serve as a bridge to real-life connections and stresses the importance of considering ethical issues like privacy and trust.
Impact of Previous Startups:
Lessons from previous ventures have influenced Manu’s approach to Issa, emphasizing team culture, the role of diverse perspectives, and the need for products relevant across age groups.
The Process of Patenting AI Technologies:
Securing patents for Issa’s technology was an intensive process but was viewed as a beneficial exercise that improved their technological approach.
Austin as a Tech Hub:
Manu notes that Austin’s culture of citizen entrepreneurship creates a conducive environment for startups, particularly in the AI sector.
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs in Emotional AI:
Manu advises newcomers to the field to focus on AI’s impact on human connections and avoid creating technologies that could further isolate people.
Humanizing AI:
There is a discussion about incorporating AI into humanoid or animal forms, which Manu expresses reservations about, preferring AI to assist with human connections rather than replace them.
Manu Rehani is an innovator in applied behavioral and cognitive linguistics. He is an inventor, mentor, and board advisor for a number of startups. After successfully exiting two tech ventures, he’s currently focused on developing a new class of emotion-aware AI for general application in custom GPTs and LLMs and specific use in mental health and wellness applications to foster a healthy relationship with self and others through AI.
L-R) Vaskar Gnyawali, Co-founder and CSO of Breaking, with Sukanya Punthambaker, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO.
Colossal Biosciences is spinning out a new company, Breaking, a plastic degradation and synthetic biology company.
Colossal started the company at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
“We could not be more thrilled to launch Breaking from Stealth from Colossal. The technologies co-developed by the Wyss Institute provide limitless applications to address our planet’s pervasive plastic contamination challenges,” Breaking Co-founder and Colossal CEO Ben Lamm said in a news release. “Part of our core mission of ecosystem restoration at Colossal can only be achieved by removing plastic that plagues our ecosystems and negatively impacts biodiversity.”
Breaking discovered X-32, “which can degrade polyolefins, polyesters, and polyamides leaving behind carbon dioxide, water, and biomass in as little as 22 months,” according to a news release.
“I’ve spent my career in synthetic biology and protein engineering with the hope of developing something this transformational,” Breaking Co-founder and CEO Sukanya Punthambaker, Ph.D, said in a news release. “In the future, our solution will be able to work across terrestrial and marine environments to break down today’s greatest threat to humankind/our existence: the plastic that is choking our world.”
Breaking, which previously raised $10.5 million in a seed round, was co-founded by the Founding Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Donald Ingber, Harvard geneticist George Church, CEO Punthambaker, CSO Vaskar Gnyawali, Alba Tull, Kent Wakeford, and Ben Lamm.
The X-32 breaks down plastics’ chemical structure and can do it with up to 90 percent of polyesters and polyolefins in less than 22 months.
“The microbe starts to work immediately. In lab tests, X-32 started to break down paint brush bristles, fishing wire, and dental floss in less than five days. If left untreated, paint bristles brushes can take 450-1000 years to decompose, fishing wire can take 600 years, and dental floss would take 80 years,” according to a news release.
Concurrently, X-32 utilizes plastics as a primary carbon source and needs no pre-treatment, sorting, cleaning, or decontamination and it emits carbon dioxide, water, and biomass during the degradation process.
Today’s primary recycling processes are inefficient and either degrade the plastic to the point it becomes unusable or contribute to other environmental harms. Crushing and grinding destroy the fibers in plastics, making them unsuitable for re-use. As a result, only 9% of plastic makes it to a recycling plant. The most efficient disposal method, incineration, furthers the carbon crisis and releases toxic chemicals. But Breaking’s X-32 has no known negative environmental ramifications.
The team will now utilize its expertise in synthetic biology to engineer X-32 into a faster, more efficient, and uniquely effective solution to break down more plastic faster.
“Breaking is solving one of the biggest problems on our planet. They are using the natural world as inspiration and layering on cutting-edge technology to transform how we break down plastics,” Jim Kim, General Partner of Builders VC and a lead investor in Breaking, said in a news release.
“The first in-field pilots will target the food waste and composting industry,” Kent Wakeford, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Breaking, said in a news release. Food waste in landfills costs $16 billion in taxpayer dollars per year. But that food can’t be composted because of plastic contamination. If we can remove the plastics, we can save the government a lot of money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help improve overall quality of life.”
Additionally, as X-32 degrades plastics, it generates biomass containing different biomolecules that may also be immensely valuable in various industries.
Electrek, a news organization that covers electric vehicles, reported on Monday that Tesla planned to lay off 10 percent of its workforce and scaled back production of its Cybertruck.
Some Telsa workers then reported receiving an email informing them their jobs had been eliminated.
According to the New York Times, Tesla is cutting 14,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its global workforce. The article was critical of Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and Founder.
“Mr. Musk has not outlined a plan to reverse a decline in car sales, and he appears focused on long-shot ventures such as a self-driving taxi, rather than new models that would help Tesla compete with cars being introduced by established carmakers and the new rivals from China,” according to the article.
Tesla’s global headquarters are in Austin at its Texas Gigafactory, which covers 2,500 acres along the Colorado River. The plan is more than 10 million square feet of factory space. It makes the Model Y and the Cybertruck.
The Texas Gigafactory and Tesla headquarters employ more than 23,000 people, with plans to ramp up to 60,000 as production increases. It is uncertain how many Texas employees were affected by the layoffs.
The Associated Press reported that earlier this month, Tesla reported its first quarter earnings and said, “It delivered 386,810 vehicles worldwide from January through March, almost 9 percent below the 423,000 it sold in the same quarter of last year. It was the first year-over-year quarterly sales decline in nearly four years.”
In addition to the Texas Gigafactory, Tesla has gigafactories in Nevada, New York, Shanghai, China, and Berlin, Germany. The company also has extensive manufacturing and engineering operations in California.
Zoho is hosting Zoholics, its annual flagship conference, in Austin on June 5th and June 6th.
The conference will feature 12 tracks and 100+ sessions, workshops, in-depth content, and opportunities to meet technical staff, partners, and Zoho leadership.
“At Zoholics, we welcome everyone, whether you’re a Zoho newcomer, a long-time user, or just curious about the value Zoho can bring to your organization,” according to a news release. Zoholics is known for its complementary half-hour 1-on-1s, opportunities to meet like-minded Zoho users, and comprehensive lineup of product sessions. In 2024, we’ll have even more for you to enjoy.”
Zoholic’s 12 tracks will cover the following topics: Sales, Marketing, Service, Finance, HR, Team Communication, developer tools, and more. Zoho experts lead product sessions.
New Workshops
For the first time at our US Zoholics event, Zoho is offering three one-and-a-half-day workshops. These workshops include a Zoho CRM workshop, a Zoho Books/Finance workshop, and an Advanced Skills workshop that will focus on custom functions and business intelligence.
Zoholics Workshops will take place during Zoholics 2024, starting in the second half of Day 1, and ending at the end of Day 2. The goal of a workshop is to give you guided, step-by-step instruction so you can learn how to use and implement particular applications and capabilities in your Zoho deployment after the conference. Workshop attendees will have a demo account to follow along with the instructor and learn new skills in real time. To ensure that you can ask questions and receive adequate instruction, each workshop will be limited to 50 seats.
Since space is limited, workshop attendees will be required to purchase a ticket for the workshop they plan to attend. This ticket will include access to the rest of the Zoholics event and a complimentary half-hour 1-on-1 with a Zoho expert to get particular questions answered. Get your ticket to a workshop today.
Complementary 1-on-1s
The 30-minute 1-on-1 you get when purchasing a Zoholics ticket is a longtime favorite of attendees, and they’re back for Zoholics 2024. 1-on-1s are a great way to meet a Zoho expert in person and get your specific questions answered. If we cannot address the issue within half an hour, we will follow up after the event to ensure you have received the necessary information.
If 30 minutes isn’t enough, Zoho offers hour-long 1-on-1s with a virtual 1-on-1 follow-up. This extended service 1-on-1 is available at an extra cost and is discussed below.
Hour-long 1-on-1s with Post-Zoholics Follow-Up
Zoho knows 1-on-1s are one of the best parts of Zoholics, and it wants attendees to get the most out of their time with us. For the first time at a US Zoholics, we will offer 1-on-1s longer than 30 minutes by purchasing a GA Plus Ticket. A GA Plus Ticket gets you one hour-long 1-on-1 and an additional virtual follow-up within six months of the event. This gives you two hours to meet with our technical staff to answer your current and future-specific questions.
Expo Hall
Zoholics is excited to bring back the Expo Hall in Zoholics 2024. This was a popular aspect of our 2019 Zoholics in Austin. In the Expo Hall, you will be able to meet Zoho Partners and third-party vendors, network with other users, and attend informative sessions at our Expo Stage.
Zoho Partners are essential to the Zoho world and help many customers achieve tremendous value with Zoho. They also provide training on Zoho products, custom solutions, and more.
Experience Center
The Expo Hall will also feature our new Experience Center, a concept we have experimented with for a few years. The Experience Center is staffed by product managers and experts from a wide variety of our product teams. Here, you can get your questions answered, watch a demo, talk about roadmaps, and provide direct feedback on our products to the great people who make them.
See the agenda, register, or check out the Zoholics webpage to learn more.
