Last week, in part one of our profile of entrepreneur, investor, advisor and tech business veteran, Julia Austin, we shined a light on the remarkable journey that took Austin through the early days and rapid growth of two industry leaders, Akamai and VMware. 

While Austin was no stranger to technology and high growth companies, she had been so heads down and hyper-focused on growing VMware that it kept her from being overly engaged with Boston’s startup ecosystem, which had blossomed over the years. 

Now, two years removed from her role as Vice President of Innovation at VMware, Austin spends her time around entrepreneurs as an investor, advisor and mentor. Her career path, track record of success, current immersion in startups and, of course, her gender, give Austin a unique and highly valuable perspective, from which those in our ecosystem can learn and benefit greatly. 

BOSTON STARTUPS: Austin’s Role and the State of our City 

Not long after Austin left the grind of VMware in 2013 she befriended a few core influencers in Boston’s startup scene including Michael Skok, Andy Palmer and Katie Rae. Rae, who was leading Techstars Boston at the time, played a large part in getting Austin immersed in startups as she quickly recruited her to become a mentor for 2014. 

The first class Austin was involved with included, among others, Mapkin, Litographs, Bevi (formerly Refresh Water) and Ecovent, all of which would become Austin’s first angel investments. 

     
            Credit: Techstars

“Getting involved with Techstars allowed me the chance to pay it forward. I was able to immediately lend my advice and expertise to these early-stage startups and entrepreneurs. I’ve become so close and remain in contact with many of the founders from that class today. It’s been a highly rewarding experience for me.” 

Dip Patel, Co-Founder and CEO of Ecovent, certainly feels the reward for his company as he speaks highly of his trusted advisor and investor: 

“Simply put, Julia is one of the most self-aware people I've ever met. Julia is amazing. She has this way of disarming you, while being blunt and supportive. Brilliant yet humble. I really had no idea who she was the first time we met at a founders breakfast - nor what an honor it was to have her come meet Yoel [Ecovent Co-Founder & COO] and I the following week for dinner. Literally hours of her time, for us, a team with no prior track record of success.”

In July of ‘14 Austin was recruited by Paul English to be Executive in Residence at his newly-launched startup foundry, Blade (Blade has since transitioned into a new travel startup), where she would serve as COO for one of Blade's portfolio companies until their product launched in September, 2014. 

Austin, still an active mentor with Techstars today, also serves as an advisor with indico and Help Scout (also both TechStars alums), Driftt, the MassTLC Education Foundation, Trill and Dunwello, of which she is also an investor. Austin’s commitment to entrepreneurs doesn’t stop there. She is an active volunteer with the local chapters of Year Up and BUILD and was recently brought on as an Entrepreneur In Residence with Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. 

An impassioned Austin illuminated on her role and involvement with entrepreneurs: 

“I am routinely blown away with the abundance of entrepreneurial spirit in Boston. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear about yet another cool company taking flight and they are all over the map in terms of industry and types of tech. There is so much potential within these early companies, their founders and their teams. It is deeply fulfilling to help them develop into future success stories.”  

With Austin’s hands in so many areas of the startup scene, we began discussing, among many other things, the current state of investing here in Boston. Two views stood out to me specifically. First - the need for larger investments. More money invested per deal. Second (the one I’d personally like to see advancements made) – many local VC’s are too risk averse when it comes to industry. Investment dollars need to be put into more verticals. 

Then we turned our attention to the gender gap.

WOMEN IN TECH 

The discussion of women in technology, entrepreneurship and venture capital is everywhere these days and something I’ve touched on quite a bit recently on VentureFizz. The controversial topic was, of course, discussed during our time together. 

Austin is a mother of three teenage daughters, one of which is active in several technology camps (usually as the only female). While this not only plays into her support and passion behind the movement to get more women into technology and entrepreneurship, it makes Austin’s success even more important to highlight. 

Our conversation covered many aspects around the subject, but Austin’s overall point was clear and powerful: 

“It needs to stop just being a discussion. People need to start taking action.” 

When I asked specifically what can be done, what actions can be taken, Austin spoke to venture capitalists, specifically, pointing out that there are plenty of women qualified to be partners at VC firms. Moreover, she too often sees under-qualified men securing partner roles over their female counterparts. 

Austin was quick to point out this is not an across-the-board problem, noting several key players and firms in town that are actively trying to change, bring in woman partners and invest in women-founded startups. However, she feels a bigger push and more conscious effort to mentor and recruit women on all fronts is long overdue. 

Austin herself has put her money (and time) where her mouth is. 

Two years ago, she was the catalyst that helped re-launch Girl Geek Dinners in Boston and has since mentored the local chapter leaders towards rebranding the organization, now called She Geeks Out (SGO). SGO hosts monthly events in the Boston and Cambridge area and is designed to bring amazing women together and allow them to learn about and from each others’ “geeky pursuits.” 

Along with She Geeks Out, Austin is an avid supporter of The Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology, a nonprofit aimed at recruiting, retaining, and advancing women in technology, National Center for Women & Information Technology, who works to correct the imbalance of gender diversity in technology and computing, and a judge and mentor for Technovation, a program inspiring and educating girls and women to solve real-world problems through technology. She also sits on the board of CodeChix (based in CA) and recently plugged into the Girls Who Code program; serving as a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship and mobile application building at her former employer, Akamai. 

      
                                  Austin with judges and winning teams at a recent Technovation event

Each of these organizations and initiatives will help women looking to break into and grow within the technology sector not only by improving confidence, but also by providing exposure and a network. That exposure will, in part, help alleviate one element that Austin and many other female leaders in Boston have alluded to as one barrier for women – the lack of self-promotion. 
 

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD 

While clearly having a ball making an impact in the two years since she was in a full-time position, Austin is now mulling over her next move. 

As you can imagine, all options are on the table – join a startup, early-stage, growth-stage, start a company, join a venture capital firm – the list goes on. One thing all of us in Boston’s startup and tech ecosystem can hope for is that Julia Austin remains heavily engrained in our community. Even more involved, if we want to be greedy. Her wealth of knowledge and passion for entrepreneurship can only help move things forward for Boston. 

Austin didn’t give any intimation on what would be next, but she has every intention to remain involved with startups in some fashion. And she’s certainly not leaving Boston. 

I’m lucky enough to regularly have conversations with the likes of Julia Austin, and while we try to share the story and the views, it’s difficult to grasp the knowledge someone with Austin’s track record, experience and passion for entrepreneurs truly has. With that in mind, I asked Austin, as a key takeaway for our readers and tomorrow’s leaders of Boston’s startup community, to offer up one piece of advice she wishes she had when she was starting out her career: 

“While I have no regrets when it comes to my career thus far, there are definitely times where I hear myself giving advice I wish someone had given me early on - like finding appropriate mentors as I took on new roles vs. trying to figure it out all on my own. I see so much wasted time and opportunities because young leaders don't tap into our community for support and guidance. There's lots of expertise being offered out there. Just ask!”

        ---- An Unsung Leader in Boston Tech, Julia Austin’s Track Record is Tough to Top [Part 1 of 2] ----

*Be sure to check out Julia Austin's Blog, BeingFA, and follow her on Twitter @Austinfish.

Josh Boyle is Director of Community & Marketing, VentureFizz.  You can follow him on Twitter @jb_sid
 and keep up with his latest posts by signing up for the VentureFizz Weekly Email!

The Boston startup and technology scene is full of wildly successful leaders and entrepreneurs. Some have been at it for years and are big reasons why the Boston tech scene is thriving today. Others are just getting going. Those who fall in the latter aspire to walk the path of the former and build the next Endeca, Kayak, HubSpot… or Akamai. 

One name that is not often heard among the likes of Steve Papa, Diane Hessan or Dharmesh Shah is Julia Austin, who, while relatively new to the current Boston startup scene is anything but when it comes to the booming business of technology. 

GET TO KNOW JULIA AUSTIN

Julia Austin, born and raised in Massachusetts, doesn’t have the typical educational pedigree of most tech moguls. She holds an art degree from UMass Amherst and a Masters degree in Management Information Systems from Boston University. No Harvard, MIT or PhD. This, however, is only where the uniqueness of her wild career ride begins. 

Austin’s early career days were spent in IT, mainly in the healthcare industry. She had a two-year stint at PWC [Coopers & Lybrand – before PWC merger] between her time with Tufts New England Medical Center (NEMC) and Partners Healthcare. It was at Partners where she truly came to love whatever was “hot” in technology. While there, she played a key role in building out a Just in Time materials delivery system for the hospitals with PeopleSoft, which had just come on the scene at the time. 

In 1999, Austin was introduced to a young company out of MIT called Akamai, who at the time had roughly 50 employees. After a few weeks in discussion, Austin, who had just had her second child, joined Akamai as one of the first 200 employees, just weeks before the company’s IPO. 

Sitting with Austin inside a quaint coffee shop near her Cambridge residence, she recalled her early days at Akamai: 

“Early on, I was constantly seeking out new ways to add value to demonstrate that I could strengthen the business without losing our agility and startup culture.” 

As Akamai’s very first Release Manager, Austin had been harping on the company to implement an “agile like” process to ensure they “didn’t break the internet.” Well, eventually they did break the Internet (well, a big chunk of it, anyway) and the founding team turned to Austin to implement her plan. This eventually led to her assuming the role of VP of Engineering and managing 400 people across four offices, including three in California. 

Then, on September 11, 2001, tragedy struck the United States, and Akamai, directly, as co-founder Daniel Lewin was killed on American Airlines Flight 11. This, of course, was a difficult time for the entire company. 

For Akamai, and much of America, things took a turn for the worse after 9/11. The company went through massive layoffs, going from close to 2000 employees down to just hundreds. Austin herself had the unfortunate task of executing much of those layoffs. The company, of course, rebounded and is still thriving today. 

After having her third child, Austin left Akamai in October of 2002 and took some time off to, as she put it, “spend time with my children and pay it forward.” She served on various school boards and consulted with several organizations.  

RETURN TO TECH

In January of 2004 Hopkinton-based, EMC acquired Palo Alto-based, VMware. Approximately a year later the company, struggling to hire top tech talent, lured Austin in to open a VMware office in Cambridge. After nearly three years away from a true workforce, Austin was back in action leading a technology company. 

“At the time, VMware had about 800 employees mainly in CA, but we launched in Cambridge with just myself, an IT guy and a recruiter.” 

Boston’s tech scene in 2005 was nothing like it is now. VMware quickly became the place-to-be for students coming out of MIT and other local universities. “We were the only Silicon Valley game in town,” Austin said. In a matter of a few months they added 20 people and the rapid growth continued from there. 

     
                                                      The early days and team of VMware East

As VMware began to establish a strong east coast presence, Austin was tasked with leading the company’s academic program, mainly investing in research. In addition, VMware began to expand their engineering organization globally. To support various international research programs and ensure consistency across all global engineering sites, Austin was promoted to head of Global R&D. She traveled to VMware’s global offices and international university campuses. “I got to see some incredible parts of the world I would never had seen otherwise.” 

Being engrained in the company’s research initiatives, Austin began to push more innovation internally. Given some capital by VMware co-founders Diane Green and Mendel Rosenblum, she co-founded the Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP) solution – “a startup within the company,” Austin described it, which was a thin layer of software embedded on a mobile phone that enabled enterprises to support “BYOD” for employee phones and make corporate phones easier to manage.  

Continuing down the path of intrapreneurship, she would also go on to launch RADIO - R&D Innovation Off-Site conference - that gave engineers the opportunity to show off their ideas and creations to each other and the executive team at VMware. The conference still takes place today and Austin says a lot of significant projects have stemmed from this annual event. 

     

After eight years with VMware, and with the company on their third CEO since her arrival, Austin decided to step down from her role as Vice President of Innovation in June 2013. 

“We grew from 800 to 15,000 in those eight years. It was an incredible run and I was happy with what we accomplished, but for me, it was just the right time to move on.”  

THE NEXT CHAPTER - STARTUPS

Having left VMware without any specific ambitions, let alone a plan, Austin immediately plugged into the startup community and met Katie Rae, then the Managing Director of Techstars Boston, Andy Palmer (Koa Labs and CEO of Tamr), Micahel Skok (formerly of Northbridge Venture Partners) and several other key players in the tech scene. These connections led Austin into a world, a part of Boston, she hadn’t realized had exploded while she was heads down at VMware. 

Next week, in part two of this profile, we’ll look at Austin’s move into the Boston startup ecosystem, her role as an advisor and mentor, investments she’s made as well has hear her thoughts on the current state of venture capital in Boston and the omnipresent topic of women in tech. 

                         

Josh Boyle is Director of Community & Marketing, VentureFizz.  You can follow him on Twitter @jb_sid
 and keep up with his latest posts by signing up for the VentureFizz Weekly Email!
 

One of my favorite business success stories is that of former ESPN President, George Bodenheimer, who started his career at the sports media conglomerate in the mailroom. 17 years later, he was running the “Worldwide Leader in Sports.” 

I was reminded of this story last week when I sat with Charles Teague, the co-founder and CEO of Lose It!, one of Boston’s most promising consumer tech companies (and another example of Boston’s ability to “do” consumer). 

While the story isn’t exactly the same, the start of Teague’s professional career and the journey he took resembles that of Bodenheimer. Even the time from graduation to head of their respective company is eerily similar (~17 years). 

Charles Teague graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota with a degree in Political Science. 

“I got out and said to myself, ‘What do I do now? What am I going to do for a living?’” 

Not an uncommon thought or fear for college grads. However, the difference with Teague was his love, and skill set, for computers. He purchased his first computer at age nine and has been perfecting those skills ever since. 

Why didn’t Teague go to school for computer science rather than political science? “I have no idea… It just never crossed my mind,” he said to me. Well, it didn’t stop him from making a successful career of it. 

Soon after graduating, Teague got introduced to JJ Allaire, a technology entrepreneur who was working on a dynamic web application. Allaire (also the company’s name) needed someone to answer his phones. At $12 an hour and the opportunity to work in technology, Teague was in. What stands out even more, he turned down grad school in favor of the role. 

In at the ground level (he was Allaire’s first employee), Teague worked his way up the organization, as it grew, step-by-step, role-by-role, adding value wherever possible. He became an integral part of Allaire, ultimately leading the product team for ColdFusion, a pioneering product that helped shape and define the practice of dynamic web application development. 

In 1997 they raised funding from Polaris Partners and moved the company to Cambridge (the start of Teague’s career in Boston). Allaire went public in 1999 and was purchased by Macromedia in 2001 (Adobe Systems later purchased Macromedia in 2005). 

After both had left Macromedia, the duo reconnected and embarked on another venture, Onfolio. This time around, they built software for discovering, capturing, organizing, and sharing information around the web. Three years later, in 2006, Onfolio was acquired by Microsoft and their main product became what is now known as Windows Live Writer. 

After the acquisition, Microsoft moved the team to Redmond, CA and Teague assumed the role of Principal Development Lead, responsible for Windows Live Writer. Come 2008, Teague knew he wanted to get back into the startup world and left Microsoft for a return to Boston. He was brought on as a Technologist in Residence with General Catalyst Partners, at which David Orfao, formerly CEO of Allaire, was a Managing Director. 

Teague said he was in part driven back to startup life by the release of the iPhone. When he initially read about the iPhone, he expected it to be a bust. But he was fascinated once he got his hands on an iPhone and ultimately came to realize what the future held. 

Part of his strategy behind joining General Catalyst, Teague explained to me, “was to find out what, specifically I wanted to work on.” He referenced Mark Andreessen, who once said he would choose market timing over people. Teague believed his time at GC would help in identifying a dynamic opportunity.

There’s An App For That! 

While Teague was at General Catalyst, he once again reconnected with his longtime friend and business partner, JJ Allaire, who was working on a health app with designer Paul DiCristina. “JJ was just doing it for fun and to explore the iPhone as a platform. He didn’t have long term plans for it when he started. I saw this as the dynamic market I was looking for,” Teague said. 

Allaire and DiCristina released the first version of Lose It! late in 2008, which at the time, was mainly used to track calories. As Teague continued his work to find the right opportunity at General Catalyst, Lose It! gained popularity and become a highly successful free application on the iPhone. After a conversation with JJ about the future of Lose It!, Charles logged into the Lose It!’s feedback gmail account, which had been sitting untouched. The inbox was full of thousands of messages; most of them gushing thanks and explaining how Lose It! had changed user’s lives. Motivated by the impact that Lose It! was already having on people across the country, Teague took the leap, and left General Catalyst to take over Lose It!. 

Being a product guy through and through, Teague didn’t subscribe to the theory that you need to create a brand new product in its own market, but rather capitalize on an existing opportunity by doing things better than the competition. 

He saw the weight loss market as ripe for disruption, where the value in the market should be shared with consumers, instead of just reaped in by multi-billion dollar companies. Teague saw the opportunity to change the market and deliver value back to people through great products, services and programs that help people lose weight and live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
                            
Lose It! saw millions of downloads upon its debut and became so popular it was featured in one of Apple’s first “There’s an App for that” ads. 

Teague and Lose It! were officially off and running. 

In order to keep up with the early demand, Teague left General Catalyst in early 2009 and spent much of the year continuing to develop Lose It! on his own before growing the team late ’09 early 2010 by adding engineers, community managers and a business development team.

Fast Forward to 2015 

Following the company’s growth in 2010, Lose It! continued to add features, build its member base, implement a premium offering and bring on more talent. 

Lose It!, available on iOS and Android, offers both offers free and paid options, both of which will also be available once launched internationally, and boasts over 24 million members and growing. 

As a user of the free version, you’re able to track your food (simple search function as well as barcode scanning capabilities) and exercise (manual entry plus sync with other fitness apps and HealthKit), track weight loss progress, engage with friends and community members for social support and challenges as well as access valuable data around your health and fitness habits. Teague is “passionate about delivering the very best tracking and community experience possible” in the free version. 
   
  

The premium offering, which runs $39.99 per year, takes things a step further offering meal planning, custom challenges, detailed insights and trend reports and much more.  I’m told hundreds of thousands are using the premium version of the app, taking advantage of the next level of health and fitness guidance.. 

Teague pointed out a specific premium member who was able to get detailed insights into which food in her regular diet (salsa) was attributing to her high sodium metrics. He also alluded to his own wasted calories on craft beers, with Lose It! suggesting a move to a light beer. 

Essentially, the premium offering provides a more long-term, sustainable support system to those who need and want the extra motivation and help.

What’s Next? 

The team is now seventeen strong and growing. Teague told me, “Finding great talent is our biggest priority right now. We are disrupting the weight loss industry, building innovative products and on the cutting edge of the latest technology. We’re looking for A players who want to be part of a dynamic, collaborative team and who want to help us achieve our vision as the leader in the digital health and fitness space. It’s an exciting time to join our team.” 

That statement comes from the CEO of a company that just announced they’re taking their product over seas. With more than 24 million users in the US and Canada, “we’re now ready to deliver a great product - up to our standards - in other countries,” Teague said. “The move to international markets goes beyond localization (meters vs. yards or language). There are important cultural aspects we had to ensure we could cover as well,” he added. 

Lose It! will continue to look to add new features like the recently launched, Ascend, which is a platform geared toward fitness professionals to help them better serve their clients. Ascend works similarly to Lose It! in that it tracks and analyzes nutrition and fitness regimens, but this product allows personal trainers, nutritionists, and health coaches to oversee their clients’ habits and provide feedback in real-time, generate reports, and engage with their clients directly within the app (helping to minimize off-hour communication (something many trainers will embrace) - all for just $3 per client. 

Even with the expansion to international markets Teague has no plans to raise funding - a clear indicator that their premium offering is succeeding. The company raised its Series A in 2012 from General Catalyst and UnitedHealth group. 

For now, Teague, who takes pride in the fact that he and his team are proving consumer tech can be built successfully here in Boston, is focused mainly on growing his team and attracting the very best talent around: 

“Here, you have the ability to build something that is helping millions of people lose weight and live healthier lives. Our members give us feedback all the time and we listen and incorporate what we hear into our products. Being customer-focused is paramount to our culture and something every  member of the team embraces. Our employees are part of one of Boston’s largest consumer tech companies, working on the forefront of technology at a scale that is hard to achieve. We work hard, love what we do and have a great time doing it.” 

Charles Teague started as an office assistant to an entrepreneur in Minnesota some 19 years ago. The two have since partnered on three different companies - the first two of which realized very successful exits. The third… well the final verdict is still out. And while Lose It! is already a Boston success story, if Teague’s track record remains intact, this the story is far from over.

Josh Boyle is Director of Marketing & Community, VentureFizz.  You can follow him on Twitter @jb_sid
 and keep up with his latest posts by signing up for the VentureFizz Weekly Email!