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To say Upland Software is on fire would be an understatement. After going public in November and acquiring several companies along the way, this cloud services company is poised for success in their Austin hometown. In 2011, the company had three employees. Now, it employs over 300 people, with thousands of clients using their cloud-based enterprise software, which businesses use to plan, manage, and execute projects. Sean Nathaniel joined Upland Software this summer, leading their tech team as the CTO. Nathaniel had served as CIO of Enterprise Software Developer Marex Group, Inc previously and has a strong background in cloud services. Throughout his more than 15 year career, he has held various technology leadership roles in manufacturing, telecommunication, e-commerce and enterprise software industries. Built In Austin caught up with him to learn more about what's powering Upland today.
What technologies power your business?
Upland Software has grown through acquisition and today boasts 8 built-for-purpose, cloud-based software solutions. Our technologies span Java, .NET, PHP and Ruby on Rails.
What are the biggest tech projects your team is working on this year?
Integration of acquired companies, standardization of tools and processes used within the organization, and consolidation of data centers (currently 14 data centers).
What are the biggest technology challenges you've faced in the past? How did you overcome them?
The above three. We’ve overcome and continue to work at them by uniting behind a shared mission to deliver a great experience to our customers.
What trends do you see happening in cloud software over the next three years? How are you driving those trends?
From a business strategy perspective, we are all in on cloud. Our customers demand it and we deliver all our software solutions as cloud offerings. From an internal enterprise systems perspective, we are a cloud first company. We look to cloud solutions for all of our software needs.
Over the next three years, we believe organizations can gain unprecedented productivity and performance gains through the use of cloud solutions. It is an exciting time to be a provider and consumer of cloud technologies because, as CIOs, we can deliver extraordinary outcomes to our stakeholders like never before.
What are lessons you've learned about working in Austin that other local entrepreneurs can learn from?
Austin is a well networked community, with many experienced individuals who go out of their way to help. The key is to take the bold step to ask, and be open to the help.
Austin is known for having a large talent pool of thirsty, young workers. What are the top characteristics you look for in a potential hire?
For tech talent, we look for individuals who express a strong desire to continually learn and adapt. The pace of technology change keeps accelerating, so the ability to learn and adapt is a critical key to success.
How would your team describe working with you?
Collaborative and driven to helping the team deliver extraordinary outcomes.
What else do you want the Austin startup community to know about Upland's technologies?
Upland is a great example of how cloud technologies are changing the way work gets done. This is true for our customers and for ourselves. It is an exciting time to be developing and deploying cloud technologies, because there is so much room for creativity and innovation that ultimately delivers great outcomes for customers, team members and shareholders.
Have a tip for us or want to recommend a CTO for this series? Email us via [email protected]
