Alexa Startups

Pegasystems, founded by Alan Treffler in 1983, is an enterprise SaaS platform for digital process automation and customer engagement. The company took 24 years to reach $100M in revenue, IPO'd in 1996 at a $32M run rate (raising over $100M), but struggled until Treffler resumed leadership in 2005. Through disciplined product development, a 2010 acquisition of predictive analytics capabilities ($160M), and geographic/market expansion, the company has grown at 20%+ annually and now operates at an $847M ARR run rate with a ~$5B market cap.

Sonos was founded in 2002 by John MacFarlane to create wireless home audio systems at a time when streaming and the iPod were brand new. The team engineered high-quality wireless sound systems and integrated them with mobile technology, eventually adding support for voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. Today, Sonos is an established player in the music hardware market with projected annual sales exceeding $1.5 billion.