Lucid Motors looks to grow workforce from 600 to 1500 employees in Arizona in 2021

Lucid, a Tesla-like EV startup, plans 1,500 jobs in Arizona by the end of this year. The Silicon Valley company currently has three buildings in Arizona, including the main manufacturing facility in Casa Grande.  Arizona provides close proximity to Lucid’s headquarters in Newark, California. The company employs 600 people in Arizona now, but plans to … Read more

Arizona makes workhorses—not unicorns—and that’s a good thing

Guest Blog by Hamid Shojaee, founder Axosoft, Pure Chat & AZTB The Bay Area is overrun with horses—unicorns to be exact. And while I wish I was referring to the horned, majestic creatures of lore, I’m actually talking about privately-held startups that have $1 billion or higher valuations. Venture investor Aileen Lee coined the term … Read more

Infant medtech startup awarded scholarship to Draper University

It’s back-to-school for one Arizona startup. Draper University (Draper U), founded by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, is partnering with Michael Hool of Hool Coury Law and Arizona Collegiate Venture (jointly funded by Hool Coury Law and MAC6) to fund scholarships for select Arizona start-up entrepreneurs to attend their program in Silicon Valley. The first … Read more

Infusionsoft attracts new CPO from Silicon Valley

Infusionsoft, the leading sales and marketing software for small businesses, added Chief Product Officer (CPO) to their executive team and attracted former executive of Intuit Terry Hicks to fill its shoes. “One of the reason I joined Infusionsoft is because the team here is so passionate about small businesses and uses this passion to help … Read more

Zenefits $500 million raise means growth in Arizona

After launching in April 2013, Zenefits, the leading cloud HR platform, has raised a jaw-dropping amount of $500 million in a Series C round of funding led by Fidelity Management and Research Company and TPG-putting their valuation at $4.5 billion. This round is considered the largest private or public (IPO) financing round of any SaaS … Read more

Impactful Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference sparks international conversation – Wrap Up

When choosing a new site for the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, founder and CEO Adriana Gascoigne settled on Phoenix as their first conference outside of Silicon Valley because of the thriving tech community found in Arizona. Influential women from around the world came out in droves to downtown Phoenix to attend the conference dedicated to encouraging … Read more

Raising capital is more like a marriage – TIE AZ Roundtable wrap up

Photo contribution from Thomas Hawthorne, co-written with Tishin Donkersley The Tempe Center for the Arts was buzzing as investors, entrepreneurs and TiE AZ members networked and threw back a few cold ones at the TiE AZ Venture Capital Roundtable. The event included a panel of venture capitalists (VCs) from Silicon Valley and the Southwest who shared … Read more