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11 Dec, 2024
Dave Clark isn’t fooling around.
Auger, the supply chain technology startup founded by the former Amazon Worldwide Consumer CEO, named its initial 11-person executive team this week, two months after announcing $100 million in Series A funding.
There’s a common thread among many of Auger’s new executives: Most of them have worked at Amazon, either recently or at some point in the past, in a variety of executive, operational, and technical leadership roles.
Clark told GeekWire that he didn’t set out to hire fellow Amazon alumni, but it was a natural result of factors including the supply chain and data infrastructure expertise among Amazon veterans. He moved back to the Seattle area from Texas to launch the startup out of Bellevue, Wash., due to the regional talent pool.
In several cases, Clark hadn’t worked with some of the new executive hires during his own 23 years at the company, but met them through the extended Amazon network. Ultimately, he said, Auger plans to hire people from a variety of companies and backgrounds. But he also acknowledged the benefits of shared Amazon roots.
“We come from the same family,” he said, and “speak the same language.”
The new hires include:
Clark pointed out that Lent joined Amazon via an acquisition and worked there for a couple of years in the 1998-2001 timeframe, but has a much broader range of experience.
In addition, Parikshit Savjani, Auger’s new vice president of customer success, has not worked at Amazon, having spent 15 years at Microsoft experience, including work building cloud solutions to streamline database management.
Those two hires give Auger’s technical leadership team a broader set of experiences, beyond Amazon. Clark said the company hasn’t yet decided which cloud technology platform it will use to build its products and services.
Auger’s $100 million Series A round came via an investment from venture capital firm Oak HC/FT. The startup plans to offer an AI-powered system that unifies data, targets inefficiencies, provides real-time insights and automation.
Clark said Auger plans to start showing product demos in the late February or early March timeframe, aiming to start offering its product to its first partners and customers in the late spring or early summer.
The company debuted last month at #194 on the GeekWire 200, our ranking of the Pacific Northwest’s top technology startups. It’s unusual for a company so young to crack into the top 200 of the startup index.