Arizona's news on everything tech
adrienne 
Both Mike Roberts and Bob La Loggia have been on the podcast before, but this week we’re trying something different. We had so much fun with them that we invited them back, this time together. Mike and Bob update us on what’s been happening since the last time we talked and what they plan to … Read more
Tucson-based startup Phantom Space recently raised $5 million in seed investments in order to fund their ultimate goal to become the “Henry Ford of Space.” Talk about ambition. Remember Henry Ford? He founded Ford Motor Company and introduced the Model T, which was the first car that middle-class Americans could afford. He developed the assembly … Read more
Jamie Baxter’s company Qwick was almost a casualty of the pandemic. As an on-demand staffing startup for food and beverage contract employees, the shutdown of the food and beverage industry was nearly a death sentence. But Jamie and his team made some hard decisions, like laying off 60% of their staff and the remaining employees … Read more
Li-Cycle, the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America, has announced plans to build its third recycling facility in Gilbert. This “Spoke 3” facility will be able to process up to 10,000 tons of dead batteries and battery manufacturing scrap a year. The company’s other two “spokes,” or facilities, are located in Rochester, N.Y., where … Read more
Scottsdale-based Defendry is using technology to identify and reduce the number of mass shootings across the country. These kinds of tragedies were once fairly rare, but now there’s a news alert much too often about a gunman shooting up a school, church, movie theater or grocery store. This year, at least 104 mass shootings have … Read more
Arizona State University receives high ranks in a survey of universities without a medical school. The Tempe-based university was ranked fourth in most patents pending and number of startups launched, and third in number of inventions disclosed. These strong ratings are thanks specifically to ASU’s SkySong Innovations, the intellectual property management and technology transfer organization … Read more
Howard Lindzon has been interested in the stock market since he was a teenager. Now he’s an expert in investing and has bet on a wide range of startups, from Robinhood to Manscaped. And he created Stocktwits, which is essentially Twitter for stock market investors. Howard has come to understand the changing stock market pretty well … Read more
House Bill 2005, a bill proposed by Rep. Regina Cobb to stand up to Big Tech, was pulled in late March because it “didn’t have the votes.” Arizona would’ve taken a stand against the tech giants’ monopoly of app store purchases if HB2005 had passed. The bill had gotten further in the legislative process than … Read more
RevolutionParts, a Phoenix-based SaaS company that provides e-commerce solutions for buying automotive parts, has announced plans to increase its staff by 40% to meet the company’s accelerated growth that’s not expected to slow down. “We have significant growth plans over the next three years,” says RevolutionParts Founder and CEO Ibrahim Mesbah in a press release. … Read more
Tesis Labs, a Phoenix-based biotech company that provides genetic sequencing to healthcare providers, has announced plans to expand to Scottsdale. The new Scottsdale lab will expand the company’s presence in the Valley as Tesis headquarters are located in Phoenix. The company has three other testing labs in Denver, Lafayette, Colo. and Houston. The Scottsdale facility … Read more
Ruby, a Portland-based live virtual receptionist and chat company, is looking to expand its presence in Arizona by hiring a number of positions here. Positions range widely from virtual receptionists to sales and marketing. The company is also looking to hire account executives and a VP of revenue operations. The majority of the open positions … Read more
Global medical technology company Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) has announced plans to build a $65 million state-of-the-art facility in Tucson. The new 120,000 square-foot facility will be a hub for the company’s supply chain and will serve as a final-stage manufacturing and sterilization center. The site is 32 acres and located on the northeast … Read more
Kelly Smith is changing the way America thinks about education. He founded Prenda, a company that empowers parents to choose the learning that’s best for their children and gives students the confidence to be whatever they want to be. Kelly believes that, if you teach children to follow their passion, they will grow up to … Read more
Arizona-based DynoSafe will be featured on Shark Tank to pitch a solution to limit the increasing number of porch pirates and ruined packages. On April 2, East Valley entrepreneurs Rebecca Romanucci, DynoSafe CEO and Founder, and her husband Eric Romanucci will stand in front of the infamous Shark Tank panel in the hopes of securing … Read more
Kate Sieker loves Arizona. Like really loves Arizona. She loves it so much that she’s made it her job to convince others to love Arizona, too. Kate helps build organizations and events that bring together innovative Arizonans to convince business leaders both inside and outside of the state how great it is. Kate has always … Read more
Emerge, a Scottsdale- based logistics technology startup named #23 on Forbes list of “America’s Top Startup Employers” plans to double headcount in 2021. Emerge is looking for local people to fill a variety of roles in multiple departments, including IT, engineering and sales and operations. This move is more evidence of Arizona’s growing tech industry. … Read more
Ruminder (Romi) Dhillon believes in Arizona’s potential to produce startups that can deliver what he calls “Bay-area results.” In fact, that belief is the foundation of Romi’s mission at Sonoran Founders Fund. As co-founder and CEO of Sonoran Founders Fund, Romi is responsible for not only finding the next big venture, but also constantly evangelizing … Read more
Hownd, a tech startup based out of Tempe, announced today it will acquire PoweredLocal, a mesh WiFi platform based out of Australia. Hownd is designed to help brick and mortar businesses get more foot traffic by delivering promotional offers to existing and nearby customers through various channels, including the merchant’s social media, website and email. … Read more
Offerpad has announced plans to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal in a reverse takeover with Supernova Partners Acquisition Company (NYSE: SPNV). The Chandler-based real estate tech company will list on the New York Stock Exchange using the ticker symbol “OPAD.” Supernova is led by Spencer Rascoff, an entrepreneur who’s co-founded … Read more
We have Evercast to thank for the hours of binge-watching we did while on lockdown during the pandemic. Without Evercast, we wouldn’t have had our favorite movies and television shows to keep us from going bored out of our minds. Evercast is a remote collaboration platform that allows creatives to stream audio and video work … Read more