Software Company

FloQast, A Software Company That Simplifies The Accounting Process.

FloQast is an industry leader in accounting process automation. The company, which was founded in 2013, offers a close management system to accounting departments in companies to assist them in the better balancing of the accounts each month. FloQast’s automating of routine accounting processes, streamlines and increases the efficiency of the accounting process.

About The Company

FloQast is a provider of accounting software with headquarters in Los Angeles, California. The company provides one of the best Financial Close Management workflow optimization tools enabling businesses to implement accounting excellence. Over 1,600 financial accounting teams trust FloQast, which was created by accountants for accountants to improve the efficiency of accounting teams. The company’s clients include Roblox, Zoom, Twilio, Snowflake, and Los Angeles Lakers. Customers may automate workflows like automated reconciliations, requests for documentation, and other procedures that affect the closing process at the month’s end with the help of FloQast. Since its founding, the company has received numerous mentions in major magazines as one of the finest places to work in the LA tech scene.

History

Chris Sluty, Mike Whitmire, and Cullen Zandstra established FloQast. Whitmire was a senior accountant at Cornerstone OnDemand when he first had the idea for the business. Whitmire set out to develop a product that would aid finance and accounting teams during the frantic financial close process after personally experiencing the difficulties accounting teams faced when closing the account books each month, including ineffective procedures, out-of-date workflows, and flawed organizational structures. Whitmire selected Zandstra to serve as the CTO and co-founder after coming up with the idea. The two created a minimal viable product (MVP), which led to their acceptance into the esteemed Amplify.LA accelerator program. Whitmire enlisted Sluty, to join the team as co-founder, COO, and head of customer success after the company received its initial funding. In 2014, the company received $1.3 million in seed funding from Amplify.LA and Toba Capital. In 2017, FloQast received $25 million in Series B funding after a period of expansion during which the business tripled its revenue. In 2021, the firm raised $110M in Series D financing. With this, FloQast has now received $203M in funding overall.

Product

FloQast is a SaaS application. The month-end closure of an organization’s financial books is automated by the financial close management software, which integrates with Microsoft Excel and makes use of process management, reports, and collaboration. By providing accounting departments with checklists and tie-outs connected to Excel workbooks and the client of firms’ enterprise resources planning (ERP) system, the software automates reconciliations and, as a result, speeds up the financial closure process. FloQast ‘s AutoRec is a technology that uses artificial intelligence to aid in the automation of the reconciliation process. FloQast works with cloud-based file storage platforms like Google Drive, Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. The easy and simple configuration products from FloQast improve the way accounting departments now operate so they can work more efficiently.

Founder – Mike Whitmire; Chris Sluty; Cullen Zandstra

Chris Sluty and Mike Whitmire, former corporate accountants, and seasoned software programmer Cullen Zandstra established FloQast. Whitmire was a senior accountant at Cornerstone OnDemand when he first had the idea for the business. Cullen Zandstra later joined them as the co-founder of the company.

CEO – Mike Whitmire

Mike Whitmire is the CEO of FloQast. Mike worked on the finance and accounting team at the quickly expanding Cornerstone OnDemand before starting FloQast. Mike started his auditing career with Ernst & Young, where he concentrated on the media and entertainment industry. He carried out public business audits, opening balance sheet audits, cash to GAAP restatement, etc at EY. Mike earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Syracuse University.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Blackline, A Leading Tech Company Providing Accounting Software.

BlackLine cloud-based finance operations management software, drives accountability through visibility, unifies data and processes for businesses, automates repetitive tasks, and provides industry-leading customer support.

About the Company

Blackline is an American software company that offers cloud-based services to automate and manage the complete financial closing process. Numerous clients depend on BlackLine to deliver thorough and precise results quickly. The company established the cloud financial closing market, and customers at reputable end-user review websites like Gartner Peer Insights, TrustRadius, and G2 have named it the best. Large enterprises and small businesses across all industries benefit from BlackLine’s solutions for managing and automating financial close, accounts receivable, and inter-company accounting operations. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and has 11 offices around the globe.

History

In 2001, Therese Tucker, a former CTO at SunGard Treasury Systems, established BlackLine. The initial objective was to assist clients in switching from using Excel to a set of accounting systems. The company operated without any outside funding up until 2013, when Silver Lake Partners, a private equity group, invested over $200 million in the firm. In 2015 a strategic partnership was made between Blackline and McGladrey, a financial consultancy firm. The companies started providing a business process as a service (BPaaS) framework as a consequence of the deal. In 2016, BlackLine went public and is represented by the ticker BL on the NASDAQ. In 2016, Blackline paid over $34 million to acquire Runbook, a competitor in Europe Before being bought by Blackline, Runbook sold a dashboard application software package for SAP. The “automation of recurrent financial activities” by the software improve “internal control systems and compliance paperwork” and increases “visibility and transparency” of data kept by SAP. In 2018, BLackline and SAP entered into a contract with SAP to “resell BlackLine’s cloud-based accounting and finance solutions” as a component of “SAP Solution Extensions.” In 2020, the company acquired UK-based accounts receivable automation startup Rimilia. In 2016, Forbes’ Cloud 100 list included BlackLine at number 43. The company, which has a market worth of $3.5 billion, is the biggest tech company with a single female founder.

Operations

More than 3,100 organizations, including Netflix, Costco, Coca-Cola, JetBlue Airways, Kraft Heinz, Google, Sirius XM Holdings, and Under Armour, use Blackline’s software. In contrast to simple general ledger software, the company develops stronger financial controls. A technique referred to as continuous auditing is used by BlackLine’s software to manage financial data, reconcile balances from sub-systems, assure correct and thorough closings, and keep an eye on regulatory controls. The business uses cloud-based software that complies with ISO 27001 standards and is predominantly run on the Cloud Platform from Google.

Founder – Therese Tucker

BlackLine was founded by American entrepreneur Therese Tucker. Tucker’s first role was as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft. Earlier she was the CTO at SunGard Treasury Systems. In 2016, she made BlackLine public. Tucker held the positions of CEO and Chairman until 2020 when she resigned. Her worth was estimated to be $140 million after BlackLine’s IPO. based. In 2020, Forbes placed her net wealth at $370 million. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science.

CEO – Marc Huffman

A veteran of the cloud accounting software sector Marc Huffman has an outstanding track at various prosperous software firms. He began working with BlackLine in 2018 as COO before being elected as the company’s President in 2020. As President, he oversaw all customer-facing sales, marketing, and technology organizations globally. Early in 2021, he was elevated to the role of CEO. Since his hiring, BlackLine has expanded its sales and client success teams strategically realigned its go-to-market strategy, finalized a global reseller deal with SAP, set up a subsidiary in Japan, and formed several collaborations with the top consulting and advising firms around the globe.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Forcepoint – A Leading Provider Of Cybersecurity Services.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

Forcepoint is a human-centric cyber security firm that recognizes behavior and adjusts security enforcement and responsiveness to risk. Risk-Adaptive Protection is provided by the Forcepoint Human Point system to continuously ensure the trustworthy use of vital systems and data.

About The Company

Forcepoint is an Austin, Texas-based American multinational software firm that develops firewalls, data security, cloud security brokers, and cross-domain services and solutions. Originally known as NetPartners, Forcepoint was established in 1994 as a reseller of IT services. In 1999, the firm changed its name to Websense, and at the height of the dot-com bubble, in 2000, it went public.

History

In 1994, Phil Trubey established Forcepoint as NetPartners in San Diego. The company started off as a distributor of network security products before creating software to regulate employee Internet access. In 1999, NetPartners became Websense. At the height of the dot-com boom in 2000, the company raised over $72 million through an IPO. On the first trading day, the stock price increased twofold. In 2006, Websense acquired the fingerprint security firm PortAuthority. In 2007, it acquired an email security provider SurfControl. In 2009, it bought Defensio, a social media-focused spam and virus startup. In 2011, Facebook used Websense to examine every link people posted on the platform. In 2013, Websense was acquired by Vista Equity Partners. That year, Websense’s headquarters were relocated to San Diego, then in 2014, they were moved to Austin, Texas. Raytheon bought the company in 2015 from Vista and merged it with RCP, a former component of its IIS division, to become Raytheon|Websense. In 2015, Raytheon paid $1.9 billion for an 80% stake in Websense. Stonesoft, a provider of network security, was purchased by Websense in 2015 from Intel. In 2016, the business changed its name to Forcepoint.In 2019, Raytheon purchased the remaining 20% of the business from Vista Ventures Partners. In January 2021, Francisco Partners acquired Forcepoint from Raytheon.

Controversies

Although Forcepoint has a stance against doing business with government agencies and ISPs that restrict the Internet, the company has come under fire for having a “perceived relationship to repression of freedom of speech and the transmission of knowledge”. In 2009, it was found that the Yemen government was utilizing Forcepoint’s products to track internet usage by the general public and to block applications that let people hide their online activity from the government. In response, Forcepoint disabled the country’s ability to access the company’s database updates. However, Yemen’s government continued to limit access to platforms like Tumblr, which many newsagents used to disseminate news. In 2009 due to one of Cisco Systems’ IP addresses being listed on a hacker website, Forcepoint briefly classed Cisco Systems’ website under “hack sites”. Later the IP was verified, and it was determined to be safe. Forcepoint announced in 2011 that it would join the Global Network Initiative, an organization dedicated to internet freedom and privacy. In 2014, the company however left this initiative.

Founder – Phil Trubey

Websense, Inc., which is now known as Forcepoint, was founded by Phil Trubey. The company is a market leader in defending businesses against data theft and cyberattacks.

CEO – Manny Rivelo

At Forcepoint, Manny Rivelo serves as the company’s CEO. As CEO of Forcepoint, Rivelo directs the company’s strategy to hasten the adoption by businesses and government organizations of a contemporary security paradigm that incorporates the newly developed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework. Rivelo has over 30 years of expertise in leadership, corporate development, customer service, and sales roles. Rivelo previously worked as a Senior Operating Partner at the international investment company Francisco Partners Consulting.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Spiceworks, An Online Networking Platform For IT Professionals.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

Spiceworks was established in 2006 with the goal of making IT workdays simpler. The business operates a global IT platform that links millions of buyers and sellers of technology so they can accomplish their daily tasks. It assists tech companies in creating, promoting, and supporting better services and products while also assisting tech workers in locating, using, and managing the most recent technologies.

About The Company

Spiceworks is a professional networking platform for the information technology sector. Jay Hallberg, In 2006, Scott Abel, Francis Sullivan, and Greg Kattawar, established the company intending to create IT management software. Spiceworks is an online platform where users can communicate and share advice while also shopping for IT-related services and goods in a marketplace. Over six million IT experts and 3,000 technology providers use this network. The company only supports Microsoft Windows in its free proprietary software, which is coded in Ruby on Rails. The software finds IP-addressable devices and has integrated knowledge bases and help desk features. Users can access Spiceworks’ professional software and network for free. The majority of the company’s revenue comes from the sale of the advertisements that are seen on its network. A tiny portion of its income comes from sales of IT goods and services made via the Spiceworks portal.

History

In 2006, former Motive executives Jay Hallberg, Scott Abel, Greg Kattawar, and Francis Sullivan founded Spiceworks. The group had first come together in 2005 with the goal of developing a social approach to IT. In 2019, Ziff Davis closed the takeover of Austin, Texas-based Spiceworks. They teamed up to combine Spiceworks’ community and product experience and knowledge with Ziff Davis B2B’s rich content, information, and performance marketing skills. As a result, new insights for technology professionals improved intent-driven market, account intelligence for technology brands, and new experiences that connect both parties at crucial times will be produced. In 2006, it launched a public beta. Four months later, Spiceworks’ 1.0 release was made public. It concentrated on streamlining the procedure for inventory collecting, network monitoring, and report generation for IT experts at small and midsize businesses. In 2007, the company introduced the 2.0 edition of its software. Subsequent versions came after, and version 7.0 was released in 2013. In 2014, the company launched a free network management product. In 2021, Spiceworks Desktop 7.5 stopped being accessible for download and was discontinued later. The company introduced a Cloud Help Desk service. It inaugurated its European main office in London, England, in 2012.

Controversy

In 2016, the company marked its tenth anniversary, and it also made intentions to hire an additional 100 people this year. However, those intentions were altered, and the company declared that it was dismissing roughly 12% of its workers. Additionally, a number of Spiceworks executives left the company to work with former CEO Scott Abel on the founding of a new startup called Resly Labs. Later, Resly Labs changed its name to Umuse.

Events

Since 2008, Spiceworks has held SpiceWorld, an annual user conference in Austin. Spiceworks established a London branch in 2012 in response to the expanding global community. In 2012, Vinopolis in London’s Bankside played host to the inaugural SpiceWorld London event. To combat the pandemic threat, Spiceworld held its inaugural conference in a virtual mode in the years 2020 and 2021.

Founders – Jay Hallberg, Greg Kattawar, Francis Sullivan, Scott Abel

In 2005, former IT professionals Jay Hallberg, Scott Abel, Greg Kattawar, and Francis Sullivan started talking about how they could create an online social networking site for IT experts where users might assist one another in resolving typical technological issues. This idea resulted in the foundation of Spiceworks in 2006.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Zendesk, Founded By Three Friends that Revolution Customer Support Experience.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

Zendesk ignited a revolution in the customer experience arena. The company Zendesk facilitates billions of interactions, bringing together more than 100,000 businesses and millions of customers via phone, chatting, mail, texting, social media, communities, review websites, and help desks. Zendesk improves customer support by creating software to fulfill customers’ requirements, empower teams, and maintain company synchronization.

About The Company

Zendesk is an American company offering software-as-a-service items for customer communications, sales, and customer support. The company has its main office in San Francisco, CA. In 2007, the business was established in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before the public offering in 2014, It raised around $86 million in funding from venture capitalists.

History

Morten Primdahl, Alexander Aghassipour, and Mikkel Svane, three friends, founded Zendesk in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2007. The co-founders of Zendesk initially contributed to the company funding while working as consultants. In 2007, the SaaS product had roughly 1,000 trial users within a few months of its release. At first, the software’s popularity grew gradually through word-of-mouth referrals primarily among several other startups. Due to a greater interest in handling complaints from customers on social networks and when Twitter began utilizing, its popularity skyrocketed in 2008. Venture capitalists were only ready to fund Zendesk if the firm relocated to the USA where the majority of their clients were located. Zendesk relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, in 2009. They relocated again around six months later, to San Francisco, CA. As Zendesk expanded globally, offices were opened in Australia, Ireland, Denmark, and Singapore. In 2012, It launched its first app store for third-party Zendesk software. Zendesk filed for an IPO in 2014 and had a $1.7 billion valuation. The software from Zendesk was first designed to help small firms, but over time it evolved to help bigger businesses. Additionally, It changed its emphasis from responding to inbound customer inquiries to proactive customer communication based on online comments. Zendesk relaunched in 2016 with a new logo that emphasized proactive customer communication. In 2016, it launched features that convert online testimonials and comments into customer support tickets, and in 2017, it bought Outbound.io, a service that aids companies in responding to online complaints. In 2018, It generated $500 million in revenue annually. In 2019 Zendesk acquired Smooch, a Montreal-based company that provided live customer assistance messaging. In 2020, the company announced additional customer support tools for web-based media. In 2022, it was revealed that a group of private equity investors fronted by Permira and Hellman & Friedman will acquire it for $10.2 billion.

Business

Zendesk Support allows you to have an efficient and effective work process by bringing all of your client relationships together in one location. No matter how a client contacts you—via email, social media like Facebook, social messaging services like WhatsApp, Twitter, WeChat, Direct, etc.—the experience will be the same. Additionally, It offers a cloud-based chatbot that is designed to grow with a company or group’s demands. The product works well for both major companies and various fair-sized businesses. Zendesk Chat is already being used by many companies since it enables them to communicate with customers directly. Etsy, Dropbox, Kickstart, and League of Legends are just a few of Zendesk’s well-known clients.

Founder – Mikkel Svane, Alexander Aghassipour, Morten Primdahl

Mikkel Svane, Alexander Aghassipour, and Morten Primdahl created a software platform in 2006 in a spacious loft in Copenhagen to assist businesses in handling customer support demands. Companies needed a method to handle complaints quicker than they could be submitted online because social media platforms like Facebook were empowering the voices of irate users. Zendesk is a tenacious little startup founded to appease discontent.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Veritas Technologies – Started Creating A Computer System Using The Concept Of “Shoe Box”.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

Veritas Technologies is a market leader in the area of multi-cloud data management. The company offers its services to over 80,000 clients, including several Fortune Global 500 companies, to support their data’s security, compliance, and reusability.

About The Company

Founded in 1983 as Tolerant Systems, Veritas is an American company in the international information/data management business. The company is headquartered in California, USA. In the past 30 years, Veritas has assisted corporate clients in navigating every disruptive technology shift. The company’s integrated data protection and management strategy offer unparalleled versatility, efficiency, and cost benefits. Some of the company’s popular products and services include Access, VxFS, VxVM, NetBackup, NetBackup Appliances, Backup Exec, Cluster Server (VCS), Enterprise Vault, and Enterprise Vault. cloud, Enterprise Administrator, Volume Replicator (VVR), SANPoint, eDiscovery Platform, APTARE IT Analytics, etc.

History

In 1983 Tolerant Systems was formed with the goal of creating a fault-tolerant computer system using the concept of “shoe box” building components. The “Eternity Series” was the name given to this computer system. This shoe box contained two 320xx processors. The OS processor ran on TX( version of Unix) while the I/O processor supported Tolerant’s Real Time Executive. The company initially collaborated with AT&T to supply the disc management and file management software for the latter’s UNIX operating system and cooperatively supported and promoted the products to System OEMs. Veritas received royalties on the sales of the OEMs. In 1993, the company launched its IPO, and its business was valued at $64 million. In 2001, the sector saw a significant decline as the internet bubble burst. Despite this, Veritas expanded its revenue by 25% to $1.5 billion and maintained 25% operating margins. In 2004, the company merged with Symantec( now NortonLifeLock). Prior to this, the company was listed on NASDAQ-100 and S&P 500. Later in 2014, in order to concentrate on security, Symantec de-merged its data management business as Veritas Technologies. As part of this de-merger, Carlyle Group, a private equity company, acquired Veritas for $8 billion.

Acquisitions

Veritas generated $36 million in revenue by the end of 1996. For $4.2 million in equity, the company bought Tidalwave Technologies, which specialised in the High Availability of cross-platform software. Veritas entered the backup industry in 1997 when it purchased OpenVision Technologies, including NetBackup, a comparable-sized public company. In 1998 it acquired Seagate NSMG. In 2000, the company generated 1.2$ billion in revenue and was included in the S&P 500 and Fortune 1000. Veritas rose to the world’s tenth-largest software company by revenue and third-largest by market cap. In 2003, for a total of about $609 million, it purchased Israel’s Precise Software Solutions, a leading company in Application Performance Management (APM).

Founder – Mark Leslie

Veritas Technologies was founded by Mark Leslie, who also served as its CEO. As the CEO and Chairman, Veritas expanded to rank among the ten leading independent software companies and earned the distinction of joining the Fortune 1000. Mark Leslie is an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, and professor. He also teaches management courses at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also serves as managing director of the private investment firm Leslie Ventures. In 1996 Leslie received a Bachelor of Arts degree from NYU. He participated in the Harvard Business School’s management development program in 1980. Leslie started his first firm, Synapse Computer Systems, in 1980.

CEO – Greg Hughes

Greg Hughes is the current CEO of Veritas. He has over twenty years of executive experience in enterprise software. Before joining Veritas, he developed and oversaw the Software Practice at McKinsey & Company. Greg has degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Follow Us