Tech Firms Everyone Should Know About
Within 20 months, at least 70 percent of all tech companies and startups will fail. In the fast-paced world of technology, it doesn’t take very long for a brand new idea to become obsolete and outdated.
Unless a tech firm either has access to exclusive technology or provides a service that’s far superior to the competition, they will often have to pivot, adapt, and evolve their business strategies to build popular products.
Arranged in no particular order, the following is a list of tech firms that have been able to achieve success and are continuing to expand and grow their operation.
Relativity Space
Founded in 2015 by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone, Relativity Space is a tech firm that specializes in the use of robotics and 3D printing software in order to manufacture materials designed for space travel.
Despite the idea sounding like something from a science fiction novel, Relativity Space has been wildly successful with raising funds for its various projects. In fact, they recently passed $1.3 billion in funding with contributions from famous entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Academy Award winner Jared Leto, and several others.
By using the latest 3D printing technology, Relativity Space has been able to reduce the overall number of robotic needs for rockets and allows them to be built in significantly less time than traditional methods.
The ultimate goal for the company is to print and launch a 3D rocket that is capable of reaching Mars.
Zwift
Founded in 2014 by Scott Barger, Jon Mayfield, Eric Min, and Alarik Myrin, Zwift is a massive online multiplayer program that places an emphasis on having its users physically exercise. The idea is that by making exercise, training, and fitness more fun then more people will engage in a more healthy lifestyle.
The Zwift program originally revolved around its players riding their bicycles on stationary trainers and allows them to virtually join other players around the world on various rides, races, or just general workouts.
Software used in the program will also allow for an immersive experience that will reflect the specific resistance and gradient of the selected virtual course. Since its inception, Zwift has grown to include some favorite features for running and rowing in addition to cycling.
Subscription plans started as low as $10 per month in the early days, but due to the immense popularity prices have continued to increase with plans of further additions in the works. In recent times Zwift has faced tremendous competition from the wildly popular Peloton program.
However, Zwift has shown that it’s more than capable of staying relevant in the ever-expanding world of fitness-based technology.
Ad Hoc Labs
Founded in 2012 by Greg Cohn and Will Carter, Ad Hoc Labs is responsible for the creation and operation of the Burner and Firewall apps. Both of these apps were designed to help consumers possess better control of their privacy, identity, and communications.
Ad Hoc Labs is much smaller than most of the other firms on this list, but they are continuing to grow and find success with their apps. The main purpose of the Ad Hoc Labs apps is to keep their user’s personal phone numbers private from robocallers, spammers, or other sketchy unknown numbers.
Despite attempts at legislation, the overall amount of spam calls has continued to rise over the years. Cell phone providers have attempted to help their customers block these numbers and hide their numbers, but they have not been as successful as they had hoped.
Using third-party apps like Burner and Firewall have been able to succeed where they have failed. Most built-in features and other apps use a blacklist approach that bans certain numbers, but this blockage is often bypassed by spammers fairly quickly.
On the other hand, Burner and Firewall use a whitelist approach which acts in the reverse. Instead of filtering out the number to block, a whitelist filters the numbers that are permitted. The user programs in the numbers that are allowed to ring through, typically from their contact list and all other numbers will be instantly blocked and sent directly to voicemail.
Once the message is recorded, Burner and Firewall users have the option of receiving a transcription of the message via text in order to judge whether or not to respond. If the number is legitimate, then it can be added to the whitelist and permitted to ring through the next time it calls.
Despite heavy competition in the field, Ad Hoc Labs is able to thrive due to its high-quality apps that come with a low-level price.
Spatial
Founded in 2016 by Ananad Agarwala and Jihna Lee, Spatial is a tech firm that is heavily focused on augmented reality technology. The worldwide coronavirus pandemic had a significant impact on the world and how it functions today.
The overall amount of people working from home skyrocketed to new records and teleconference via computer became a normal occurrence. Spatial is taking the opportunity to push their latest augmented reality technology into the world in order to restore some normalcy to life.
Their 3D designs and lifelike avatar features will help the user to join into virtual realities with other people and allow for a much more personal experience than looking through a monitor. These holographic 3d workspaces can be used for business meetings or recreationally with friends and family. The company has seen substantial investments and fundraising success and reached over $22 million in funds.
These funds were invested before the pandemic really emphasized the need for enhanced virtual communications so it’s likely that that number has increased since then.
Snowflake
Founded in 2012 by Benoit Dagerville, Thierry Cruanes, and Marcin Zukowski, Snowflake is a cloud computing-based data warehousing company. The overall transition to cloud-based computing has been rising in the past few years, but the global pandemic dramatically shifted the need for it.
In fact, Snowflake saw its estimated value increase by nearly fivefold when it began public trading in September of 2020. For the longest time, companies and businesses would store critical data, resources, programs, and tools on servers that were generally located in their office.
Despite having a few potential drawbacks, this was largely the standard and was the regular way to operate. An employee would go to their job, log into their work computer, and perform their daily tasks. However, when the pandemic hit, this became virtually impossible.
Quarantine and social distancing meant that employees could no longer physically come into the office to complete their work. In response, cloud computing services such as Snowflake came to the rescue. By shifting their data, resources, and various programs into cloud-based services, employees no longer needed to be physically present at the office and could complete their work at home.
Seeing as how this trend has shown no signs of being reversed anytime soon, tech firms like Snowflake could become major players in the future.
Other Tech Firms You Already Know:
You'll recognize the names on this list:
Facebook/Whatsapp/Instagram
Amazon
Dell Technologies
Google
Huawei
Samsung
Sony/Playstation
Hitachi
Panasonic
Microsoft Corporation
Intel
Tesla
These companies are some of the most recognizable social media companies, big tech firms, and the top tech companies. They're located worldwide in the top financial markets of the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, and Tokyo.
These companies make up the majority of the technology industry and have their hands in everything from computer hardware, artificial intelligence, micro chips, processors, to smartphones and other devices. This includes tablets, mobile phones, your iPad or iPhone, personal computers and even consumer electronics like refrigerators and your video-game console.
The Takeaway
The world is constantly evolving and new technology is being created and implemented in order to reflect the new challenges being faced. Seemingly doomed businesses can go from the brink of bankruptcy one day and into a billionaire Forbes 500 list the next.
In a very unpredictable world that is still struggling with a global pandemic, there is no way to know what services and tech firms will hit it big next. Whether it’s an exercise program, aeronautical engineering, cloud services, augmented reality, or various apps to block spam callers, these are some of the tech firms that you should know about.
SOURCES:
378 Startup Failure Post-Mortems | cbinsights.com
Relativity Space raises $650 mln for bigger 3D-printed rocket | reuters.com.
Zwift Considering $45/Month Plans and Huge List of New Features in Latest Survey | dcrainmaker.com