Phoenix is a city built upon mythology and deep-rooted tradition, making it one of the most historically rich Southwestern cities. It’s no wonder that architect Frank Lloyd Wright was captivated by the place, given its surreal natural beauty and otherworldly aura. Phoenix has undoubtedly captured the imaginations of many, even those within the tech industry. In recent years, the city has earned nicknames like “The City of Growth” due to its flourishing tech presence, which is taking place statewide. In 2019, WalletHub ranked Arizona seventh in the nation for launching a startup due in part to its secure business environment and ample access to resources. The state also proves to be a fierce contender when it comes to economic growth. According to a 2019 report from the Arizona Technology Council, the state’s tech jobs have witnessed a 5.1 percent wage growth, with the tech industry as a whole boasting 864 million in venture capital.
Considering the significant advancements taking place in tech across Arizona, it’s no surprise many talented entrepreneurs are making the move to Phoenix. While the city’s newest startups hail from a wide range of sectors, many of them are focused on redefining healthcare, job seeking and even home maintenance and management. For Phoenix’s startup community, there seems to be a strong focus on tackling issues on an individual level, differentiating the city from other tech hubs in this sense. From helping people more easily sell their homes to matching healthcare workers with great gigs, these startups in Phoenix are making major waves in the tech space.
Startups in Phoenix to Know
- Akos
- HomeKey Systems
- Nurseio
- Dealty
- Skookii
- Happy Hired
- PowerGrow
- HardHats
- Chapter
Founded: 2019
Focus: Fintech
What they do: Valon operates as a digital-first mortgage lender, mortgage servicer and insurance agency for homeowners. Its online mortgage application process typically takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete, and applicants are provided with custom loan options to meet their needs. The company says its borrowers save more than $1,200 in fees on average.
Founded: 2020
Focus: Healthtech
What they do: Chapter connects aging seniors with the Medicare plans that cater to their needs, so they can enjoy the next stage of their lives. With the Chapter platform, patients can tailor their searches to include specific benefits, such as prescription, hearing, and vision coverages. To get started, patients simply make a few clicks on the Chapter website, and the platform extracts the best options out of all possible providers.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Food + Beverage Professionals Staffing
What they do: Qwick connects businesses with food and beverage professionals seeking on-demand work. Businesses have the ability to post a shift up to two weeks in advance, and the company sources and interviews qualified professionals. Qwick’s mission is to provide food and beverage professionals instant access to high-quality job opportunities.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Visual Analytics + AI
What they do: RadiusAI has developed an active visual analytics platform that augments and enhances computer vision technology through the use of AI. Retailers can benefit from their platform by integrating it into their existing security cameras so they can track customer behavior, purchases and dwell times, all while protecting customers’ identities. RadiusAI’s technology can also be used to create safer health environments by monitoring hand sanitization frequency, social distancing and even feverish temperatures in individuals.
Founded: 2018
Focus: Telemedicine
What they do: Nod Specialists delivers healthcare for infectious diseases, kidney disease, and allergy and immunology issues through virtual visits. The company’s telemedicine approach enables providers to use video chats to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients without geographic limitations. This allows patients to be treated from within their homes, assisted living facilities and rural area medical centers. Nod Specialists currently works with major commercial insurance providers, Medicare and Medicaid.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Cannabis
What they do: Grow Sciences cultivates and develops craft cannabis products. The company specializes in developing elite strains, which are grown indoors to full-term and are lab-tested to ensure each one is free of mold, mildew and harmful pesticides. Grow Sciences also offers solventless, all-natural extracts derived from craft cannabis flowers, which are produced without chemicals, cutting agents or thickening agents.
Founded: 2016
Focus: Telemedicine
What they do: Akos offers an intuitive and streamlined platform, which allows patients to virtually connect with healthcare specialists at any time and in any location. Care coordinators assess each patient’s symptoms to pair them with the appropriate provider, thus helping healthcare workers return to work faster and at less cost. The Akos app enables patients to receive treatment for both physical and behavioral health issues.
Founded: 2018
Focus: Home Maintenance Management
What they do: Founded by Shane Ettestad, HomeKey Systems has developed a home maintenance app that makes big pain points as simple as possible for homeowners. The app provides homeowners with immediate access to their home’s details, enabling them to manage projects and home service professionals, track expenses and eliminate paper receipts. HomeKey Systems also offers a smart shopping experience in partnership with Amazon, which provides homeowners with products specifically tailored to their home’s needs.
Founded: 2015
Focus: Community Integrated Healthcare
What they do: Solera Health provides an integrated benefit network that securely connects patients, payers and physicians with community organizations and digital therapeutics providers. Patients can be referred to the company, which matches them to the right program provider, tracks their activity and provides dashboards and regular reporting. In addition to submitting patients’ payments to network partners, Solera Health monitors these partners to ensure each one meets certain outcomes.
Founded: 2016
Focus: Operations Management + Optimization
What they do: Established by Brad Jannenga, Chassi helps operations leaders reveal bottlenecks and optimize their sales order process. Their Workflow Navigator enables leaders to visualize highly complex workflows while offering real-time insight into work volume and velocity so managers can immediately address problems in their process area. By monitoring employee output and accuracy, Chassi allows leaders to correct problematic behaviors and improve operational compliance.
Founded: 2019
Focus: Nurse Staffing
What they do: Nurseio serves as a staffing platform that helps nurses easily find work and get paid on demand. Facilities in need of nurses can post available shifts on the platform, matching each nurse with the opportunity that suits their needs. Nurseio also enables nurses to review the facilities they work at.
Founded: 2018
Focus: Home Buying + Selling
What they do: Founded by Gary T. Stringer and Renee Tulliani, Dealty offers an online site for buying and selling homes. The site gives users the tools they need to buy or sell their homes while determining each home’s value, setting a price and putting the property on the market. Dealty allows homeowners to sell their homes without an agent, communicating directly with them to ensure they’re getting the best deal with a price comparison map of listings.
Founded: 2016
Focus: School Payments
What they do: Skookii aims to make collecting, sending and tracking school payments simple and free. The platform is designed specifically to help K-12 school parents manage children’s in-school or out-of-school payments, allowing them to pay for any expense item from the comfort of their homes. Skookii’s mission is to easily connect parents with other parents, teachers and school administrators.
Founded: 2016
Focus: Digital Health
What they do: Mindset Medical offers a digital health platform that turns data into clinical information for physicians. The company’s platform creates a digital health portfolio to track acute and chronic pain conditions while administering patient-reported outcomes. Each patient’s smartphone is connected to the platform with a HIPAA compliant, cloud-based practice solution that integrates into the provider’s existing electronic medical record software.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Credit Repair
What they do: Founded by Nirit Rubenstein and Tedis Baboumian, Dovly has developed a fully automated credit repair platform that helps improve people’s credit scores. The company is dedicated to helping people make the right decisions before ruining their credit, providing an affordable, transparent and effective range of solutions that help detect inaccuracies and monitor credit progress. Dovly aims to free people from the burdens of financial instability and provide them with cost-effective solutions.
Founded: 2018
Focus: Healthcare Staffing
What they do: Happy Hired is dedicated to connecting employers with quality healthcare workers. Workers can choose the type of job they are looking for, and the company will match them with the roles that suit them according to their skills and personality. Once organizations receive potential candidates through Happy Hired, they have the option to request an interview or contact them directly.
Founded: 2019
Focus: Furniture Installation Staffing
What they do: Steady Install offers an online marketplace platform that allows commercial furniture dealers and facilities to hire contract installers on a project-to-project basis. Dealers and facilities can post open projects according to skill level on the company’s platform so installers can sign up for certain projects. Steady Install aims to allow users to directly and more efficiently source surplus installers at lower rates.
Founded: 2017
Focus: Sustainable Farming
What they do: Established by John P. Lyle, PowerGrow designs and builds renewable-powered commercial greenhouses, which they lease to produce growers worldwide. The company’s greenhouses are made with thermal energy storage applications that reduce operating expenses and improve growing performance while using 95 percent less water than standard outdoor farming. PowerGrow aims to enable growers to deliver healthier, locally grown produce in a way that optimizes land use, reduces carbon emissions, conserves natural resources, increases profits and creates permanent local jobs.
Founded: 2019
Focus: Construction Staffing
What they do: Launched by Kassidy Hazelton, HardHats provides a platform that facilitates on-demand hiring for the construction workforce. Construction companies and workers can sign up on the platform to be matched with local jobs, giving them the option to find work at the exact time that works best for them. HardHats is dedicated to curbing the construction labor shortage, helping fill in the gaps when laborers or tradesmen are out of work due to weather impacts, downtime between projects and delayed schedules.
Founded: 2002
Focus: Productivity
What they do: BigTime Software specializes in building digital solutions that professional services firms rely on to efficiently manage their operations. For example, the company offers project management tools that allow users to visualize timelines as well as oversee budgeting and resource allocation.
