Hypergiant Industries on Tuesday announced it has hired Mike Betzer as its new President and CEO.
Ben Lamm, co-founder and former CEO of Hypergiant Industries will become the company’s vice-chairman.
Hypergiant Industries, founded in 2019, is bringing Betzer on as it continues to go through an aggressive period of growth, according to a company news release. The company’s customers include Sumitomo Corporation, Boeing, Schlumberger, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the United States Department of Defense. Hypergiant sells AI services, software, and solutions.
“Hypergiant’s AI Applied AI solutions and platform are on a path that will continue to show huge growth in the years ahead,” Betzer said in a news statement.
Previously, Betzer was Chief Digital Transformation Officer and Chief Product Officer at Khoros. He also was Senior Vice President of Lithium Technologies and CEO of Humanify. He also held leadership roles at Social Dynamx Inc, Convergys, and Siebel Systems.
“As Hypergiant enters this next phase of scale and explosive growth, it is critical for us to bring in additional world-class team members to help in this period of rapid scale. Mike is among the best enterprise software and SaaS entrepreneurs and leaders in the country and one of the few who can really help to guide our business to this next level of AI leadership. I could not be more excited to have him take on day-to-day operational oversight and focus on our long-term growth,” Lamm said in a statement.
In addition to his role on the board, Lamm plans to “take time to pursue what he considers the most pressing issues of our lifetime: AI for good, climate change, and the continued positive impact of technology both on the planet and on the human condition.”
“As we take our much-needed AI operations management system to a broader market, Mike Betzer’s outstanding experience in building enterprise software offerings and scaling them with large clients provides Hypergiant with a leader that knows how to get it done in the enterprise,” Mohammed Farooq, Chairman, Global CTO of Hypergiant, said in a news release.
The following is a Q&A with Lamm, Hypergiant’s co-founder, and vice-chairman, conducted via email.
Q. Was there anything that prompted this change in leadership?
Lamm: We are entering the next phase of scale for Hypergiant — so bringing in the key personnel to take Hypergiant to the next level is my role as both an entrepreneur and the founder. Many people forget that building a startup is a team sport. And, teams need to change to meet new market demands, new strengths and new opportunities. As the founding CEO of Hypergiant, my job was to set the vision for the company, help it to raise money, grow our customer base and support our shareholders and, most importantly, our team. The company is doing exactly that and I now want to focus on the next big issues of our day — specifically, where we can leverage AI for good.
Q. Why are you stepping down from your role as CEO?
Lamm: Hypergiant is growing quickly. Because of this growth, I’m finding a lot of my time spent engaging in activities that others are better suited for. As such, I would rather bring in that top talent to help us continue to scale while I direct my energies towards the next big things for the company and for the planet.
Q. What do you plan to do next?
Lamm: I will continue to be involved with the company but also I want to focus on activities that I am passionate about like climate change, AI for good, and other pressing global challenges. This is where, I believe, the world needs my time and attention — there are a few great people, like Mike, who are amazing at building, leading, and continuing to scale enterprise software companies. At my core, I’m a creator who likes to create solutions where there are none — and the day-to-day of running a successful business holds less appeal.
Q. How many employees does Hypergiant have now?
Lamm: We are 180 people strong and since the pandemic are all working remotely.
Q. What has been your biggest accomplishment as the head of Hypergiant? What are you most proud of?
Lamm: Building companies is hard but luckily you get to do it with amazing people and its a team sport. While we have built and continue to build some incredible ground-breaking technologies, I think the biggest accomplishment of not just me but the team is bringing Hypergiant from a brand and idea I had in my head to a company that is sustaining jobs for those in our community, returning value to our shareholders, and making a positive impact on the planet. All the little wins were fun but nothing is as rewarding as building these growing, real and scalable businesses.
Q. How has the pandemic affected Hypergiant’s operations?
Lamm: We have been very fortunate to navigate through the pandemic. Since Covid, the teams have all been remote and distributed. We are all currently working remotely and come together in person for client meetings or in-person needed brainstorming sessions. We were fortunate that our Chief Delivery Officer, C.K. Sample set up all our systems and processes to run remotely well before the pandemic due to the speed at which Hypergiant has been growing since its inception — so it largely minimized the impact Covid had on our day to day operations.
Q. With the new CEO, is Hypergiant changing its focus at all?
Lamm: Not at all. Hypergiant is still focused on creating great AI solutions and systems in the areas of critical infrastructure, space, and defense. The only major change is that we will roll out our enterprise AI platform – Hyperdrive — which we have been working on for the last year. Mike’s first focus will be to make sure that the platform rollout to our customers and partners goes smoothly and that we scale it across various industry sectors. Mike has a proven track record of scaling enterprise software businesses, and I can’t think of a better leader.
Q. Anything else you would like to add that I have not asked you about?
Lamm: This team is incredible. This company is the start of a vision for a long-term change in improving the industries that are the building blocks of our country. The Colonial Pipeline incident this month shows the weakness of our critical infrastructure and the failures of our country to adopt modern and resilient systems. Hypergiant has been focused on improving our sectors since day one because we believe in a better stronger America. This team is making products that are changing our future safety and resilience. I don’t know that we talk about that often enough – but I admire them and am really proud of what they have done.
