The latest from the frontlines of the world’s fastest growing companies and the teams doing the work. 

Meet The Team

This week, Microsoft elected a new Chairman, Instacart found its new top marketer, and Lordstown Motors lost both its CEO and CFO amid a scandal.

top 10 exec moves by Jenny Nilsson

The 10 Most Important Tech Moves This Week

Funding for digital health companies has also grown significantly over the past year, reaching an estimated $21.6B in 2020. Reports show that six companies in the healthcare category filed for IPO and raised over $6B. In addition, ten companies received record amounts in funding as investors poured cash into digital healthcare. The Org has identified five digital healthcare providers to keep an eye on as we transition to the new normal.

Virtual health is becoming increasingly popular. Image courtesy of Daniel Frank via Unsplash.

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Five Companies That Are Shaping Virtual Healthcare in 2021

Julian Torres is a startup founder, author and contributor to Forbes Colombia. His latest venture, Ontop, has already raised upwards of $6M and is backed by Y Combinator. The Org sat down with Torres to hear more about his surprising career journey — from musician to entrepreneur.

Julian Torres is a startup founder and contributor to Forbes Colombia. Courtesy of Torres. 

Julian Torres

How Musician Julian Torres Ended Up Rocking the Colombian Startup World

Instacart has a new top marketer, Laura Jones, who joins as the grocery delivery platform’s VP of Brand & Marketing. 

Laura Jones

Instacart Fills Marketing Vacancy With Uber Exec

Lina Khan has officially been sworn in as the new Chair of the US Federal Trade Commission.

Lina Khan. Image courtesy of Columbia University

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Big Tech Critic Sworn in as FTC Chair

Microsoft has given its CEO, Satya Nadella, even more responsibility by unanimously electing him as its new Board Chair.

Satya Nadella

Microsoft Appoints CEO Satya Nadella as Chair

GameStop has capitalized on their moment from a meme stock trading frenzy earlier this year by switching gears to an e-commerce operation. We recapped all the drama at GameStop in the past six months and took a closer look at the strategic new C-suite that soon-to-be chairman Ryan Cohen has assembled to lead the video game retailer into its next chapter. 

GameStop / Amazon 

All the Former Amazon Employees That Now Work for GameStop

Boston-based AI unicorn DataRobot has selected Elise Leung Cole as its people chief and promoted Michael Schmidt and Nick King to serve as its new CTO and CMO, respectively.

CMO Nick King (L), CPO Elise Leung Cole (M), and CTO Michael Schmidt (R). Images courtesy of DataRobot.

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Boston AI Unicorn DataRobot Names CMO, CPO, and CTO

Since its founding in March 2009, the global transportation company has been plagued with controversy -- from underpaying drivers to sexual assault allegations, and the list goes on. But despite the criticism, the company is extremely well funded by private and public investors and has undeniably made our lives simpler. The Org took a look into the executive team at Uber and the key players who will be leading the changes and determining the future of the ridesharing giant.

Uber advanced technologies group. Image courtesy of Uber.

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The Executive Team Driving the Future of Uber

Redesigning the banking experience from the ground up has driven interest amongst both entrepreneurs and investors, with a new generation of young digitally savvy founders emerging over the last decade to take on the old incumbents. The Org talked to the founders of banking startups Qonto and Kards to understand how these newcomers have managed to thrive in a highly regulated and concentrated market.

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Qonto and Kard Have Set Out to Revolutionize the Banking Experience in France

Cockroach Labs has experienced rapid growth in the cloud data market over the past year. In January, the company raised $160 million in a Series E round led by Altimeter Capital, fueled by the adoption of its database CockroachDB.

Lorenzo Montesi, a former exec at tech companies like Cohesity and VMware, will join Cockroach Labs as its new CFO. Courtesy of Cockroach Labs. 

Lorenzo Montesi Headshot

Cockroach Labs Names Former VMware Exec as CFO

Algolia has hired its first-ever Chief Product Officer, Bharat Guruprakash, to fuel its growth beyond search and cement its status as the leading API Platform for Dynamic Experiences. 

Editorial credit: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com

Algolia

Algolia Selects Ex-Twilio Exec to Lead Product

Pitch Intelligence Platform, Nytro AI, has named Mike Stone as its Chief Executive Officer. With extensive experience in SaaS partnerships and sales, Stone will bring the emerging technology company into the next stage of growth.

 Mike Stone is named Chief Executive Officer of Nytro AI. Image Credit: PRNewswire.

Mike Stone

Former Partnerships Lead at Google Hired as CEO of Pitch Intelligence Platform, Nytro AI

Remote video creation platform, OpenReel has hired Jeffery Kuo as its top lawyer. Kuo will be leading all legal affairs and risk management activities at the startup that has recently raised $19 million in its Series A funding.

Jeffery Kuo joins OpenReel as Senior Corporate Counsel. Image Credit: OpenReel LinkedIn. 

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OpenReel Hires Jeffery Kuo as its Senior Corporate Counsel

Digital behavioral healthcare company Talkspace has hired Dr. Varun Choudhary as Chief Medical Officer to help scale its clinical practice and network of providers.

Dr. Varun Choudhary. Image credit: Good Neighbor

Dr. Varun Choudhary

Talkspace Appoints a New Chief Medical Officer

Lordstown Motors has announced that its CEO and CFO have both stepped down from the company after a new special report from a board committee found inaccurate disclosures about its truck preorders.

Editorial credit: rafapress / Shutterstock.com

Lordstown Motors

Lordstown CEO and CFO Step Down After Special Report

Disney’s Brenda O’Kane has joined Target as VP of Infrastructure and Production Engineering, according to The Information.

Image Credit: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com

Target Store

Target Recruits Disney's VP of Technology

Food tech startup CookUnity has made a big hire as it looks to expand its unique tech-infused meal delivery platform to new locales with the hire of Hew Loyd as its Chief Marketing Officer.

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CookUnity Adds Hew Loyd to Lead Marketing

When IBM sold the bulk of its Watson marketing portfolio to a private equity firm in 2019, all 3,500 customers and 1,100 employees went with it. But all internal processes, structures and company culture had to be built from scratch. One year into the job, The Org spoke with Acoustic CEO Dennis Self on how he's building the marketing cloud platform in reverse. 

Dennis Self, the former CEO of Acxiom, started as CEO of Acoustic on June 1, 2020. Courtesy of Acoustic. 

Dennis Self

How CEO Dennis Self Helped Grow His Company By Building It Backwards

This week, Ferrari selected an unlikely CEO, GameStop found its CEO and CFO at Amazon, and Facebook lost its second major executive this year.