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May 3, 2024
May 3, 2024
In the past month, Mission North clients commented on trends and news making waves through the technology industry, from tariffs negotiations and healthcare’s spending problem to the importance of brand integrity. Read on to learn how our clients have weighed in on these topics and more.
The Trade War
As the trade war between the U.S. and China continues to escalate – with President Donald Trump raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods last month – many companies find themselves caught in the volatility of global markets. Incorta’s field chief information officer advises companies such as Broadcom, Starbucks and Apple on scenario planning amid this uncertainty. In an article in The New York Times, he weighs in on the challenges businesses face while planning in the face of dynamic trade negotiations.
Healthcare’s Spending Problem
Healthcare is a multi-trillion-dollar industry with a huge spending problem, but it’s also a sector that has been remarkably slow to overhaul its systems, as healthcare companies rely on outdated, manual processes to collect payments. This inefficiency leads to issues like claim denials and surprise medical bills, which frustrate both hospitals and patients.
Enter Waystar, a Bain Capital-backed tech company that aims to automate and streamline the healthcare payments process for hospitals and healthcare organizations. In a Q&A with Forbes, Waystar CEO Matt Hawkins discusses how Waystar reduces the resources and time providers must spend to collect payments, freeing up time for them to focus on what really matters: caring for patients.
The Department of Defense’s Cloud Provider
Sixty-nine percent of businesses are pursuing a multi-cloud strategy, but the U.S. Department of Defense has announced a plan to go with a single cloud provider, narrowing its search last month to Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. In an op-ed for The Hill, Portworx Co-Founder and CEO Murli Thirumale joins a chorus of protests against the DoD’s decision, emphasizing the technical pitfalls that come with a single cloud solution.
“Microsoft and Amazon are both highly capable companies, but it’s a mistake for any organization to assume they can know who will deliver the best technologies to meet their needs five years from now, never mind 10,” Thirumale says. “If the DoD wants to move at the speed of relevance, that’s precisely why it should enlist more than one cloud provider for its contract.”
More Clients in the News
- Series B funding rounds used to be about establishing a product-market fit, but the process seems to be accelerating for some startups, including Harness. The continuous delivery startup, which just announced $60M in Series B funding, already has a half-billion-dollar valuation, a topic that TechCrunch’s Ron Miller notes is not typically part of a Series B discussion.
- Ginkgo Bioworks, the organism company, was named to CNBC's Disruptor 50 list for the fourth year in a row for its work to design and print DNA, the building blocks that support all living things. Ginkgo CEO Jason Kelly joined CNBC’s “The Exchange” to discuss how the company’s made-to-order microbes are disrupting the industry.
- Rothy’s, a direct-to-consumer brand that makes shoes out of recycled bottles, was all set to debut a highly anticipated new product. But one day before the release, Rothy’s pulled the shoe, a move that Pendo’s chief product officer told Adweek was essential to maintain brand integrity.
- Agriculture has seen a massive boost in crop yields in the last 50 years, and synthetic fertilizers are a major part of that increase. But the growth comes at a cost, as synthetic fertilizers can harm soil’s health. Joyn Bio recently announced it will open a research facility to speed up the development of its engineered microbes and create a possible alternative to chemical fertilizers.
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