The speaker for the April 8th Association for Corporate Growth luncheon in Austin was to be Alan Knitowski, CEO and co-founder of Phunware. Because of the COVID-19 situation, ACG Austin/San Antonio had to cancel their live events for the short term, but they wanted to ensure they could still provide quality local content to their members and extended community.
This interview with Alan is an hour long masterclass in success. In this conversation he talks about his career path, the building of Phunware and taking the company public, plus he shares his advice for business leaders on how to handle crisis and uncertainty.
.
ACG Austin/San Antonio is grateful to Alan for taking the time to do this interview. His support of the business community in Austin, Texas, the US, and the world is clearly evident in the message he shares. ACG ASA looks forward to having Alan speak in-person at a future event, but in the meantime, please enjoy this podcast interview.
.
***Disclosure: Thom Singer, host of “Cool Things Entrepreneurs Do” is the husband of Sara Singer, the Chapter Executive of the ACG Austin/San Antonio Chapter.
About Alan Knitowski, CEO & Co-Founder, of Phunware
Alan is a successful serial entrepreneur with multiple exits over a 15 year period to companies including Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) and Internet Security Systems (now NYSE: IBM). He is a 2014 Finalist for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award for Central Texas and has been a Founder, Executive, Angel Investor and Fund Manager throughout his career in the private sector after serving in the United States Army as an Airborne, Air Assault and Ranger qualified Captain in the Corps of Engineers.
Alan has also built and managed companies that have won both regional and national awards for growth, including # 4 on the 2014 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for North America, # 82 on the 2014 Inc. list of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States (and # 40 on the 2013 list), # 36 on the 2014 Forbes list of America’s Most Promising Companies, # 1 on the 2013 ABJ Fast50 list of the 50 Fastest Growing Companies in Central Texas and # 2 on the 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 for Orange County.
As a mobile and multiscreen industry expert, Alan is frequently quoted in trade publications, serves as a panelist at industry events and writes for the Wall Street Journal’s Accelerators Blog.
Previously, Alan was President of Alternative Investments for Curo Capital LLC and Managing Director for Trymetris Capital Management LLC. In the past, he was a Co-Founder and Director of Telverse Communications, a next-generation advanced services ASP focused on wholesale communications services for carriers and service providers, which was acquired in July 2003 by Level 3 Communications.
Before this time, Alan was Director of Marketing for the Voice Technology Group at Cisco Systems and was responsible for business, market and community development, including business planning and strategy for Cisco’s global packet communications initiatives. In November 2000, Alan joined Cisco as part of the Vovida Networks acquisition, where he served as Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer and led the company from idea conception through its eventual acquisition by Cisco.
Alan Knitowski holds an MSIE degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MBA degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a BSIE degree from The U. He lives in Austin, Texas, and serves on the President’s Council at the University of Miami (FL).
About ACG
Founded in 1954, the Association for Corporate Growth has chapters worldwide representing 15,000+ members. ACG serves 90,000 investors, executives, lenders and advisers to growing middle-market companies. ACG’s Mission is to drive Middle Market growth with content, access to capital, & connections in the Middle Market.
ACG Austin/San Antonio would like to thank their annual sponsors:
Diamond:
Weaver
Insperity
Dykema
.
Platinum:
HireBetter
About Thom Singer