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Software Siblings Help App Developers Max Out

A Mission Viejo-based company that helps app developers understand user behavior recently launched. Hitsfu Corp. is a data science company. Its technology, dubbed “Clairvoyance,” uses artificial intelligence to make recommendations for product features and marketing campaigns to create more profit for an app. The patent-pending technology was designed to replace a data science team. It focuses on predicting—in real time—all components of business models for apps and summarizing them into a simple interface of “if you do this, your return-on-investment becomes that.”

“It’s like a crystal ball that helps developers make decisions,” Ellie Vilendrer said. “Many companies have sprung up to help app developers understand user behavior, but all, except for Hitsfu, require experts to mine through, and then pattern the data, to glean insights.”

The company makes money by charging a monthly subscription based on the number of users a customer has.

The founders are siblings Iman Khabazian, who serves as chief executive and Vilendrer, who serves as chief operating officer. When Khabazian made games for Disney—he was technical director at Disney Social in Palo Alto from 2010 to 2013—he said he found that the studios with successful apps relied on a team of analysts to manually build models to estimate the “lifetime value” of the apps. The value was the measure by which decisions around app features and advertisements were made. Later, while working with smaller app developers, he said he found that they “completely lacked the expertise to calculate (that value) and make impactful, data-driven decisions.”

That was the inspiration for Hitsfu.

It has earned $10,000 in revenue, Vilendrer said. It received a “small” investment from Shak Hossain, a former “tech evangelist” for San Jose-based Appcelerator, she said. Hitsfu is about to start raising a $1 million seed round, she added. Appcelerator is a privately held mobile technology company.

Proactive About IT

A San Clemente-based company that built software to proactively detect and resolve IT incidents partnered with a software firm that helps other companies transform into digital enterprises. Grok LLC partnered with Houston-based BMC Software Inc.

Grok created software using artificial intelligence and automation for businesses running applications via the cloud. The software, backed by more than 10 years of machine learning research and development, senses and responds to potential threats across cloud-based systems, said Tarun Gangwani, co-founder and head of product.

Financial details of the partnership cannot be disclosed, he added.

Grok charges a subscription for use of its platform. The software was designed to provide a faster response to IT incidents, Gangwani said. It does that by learning the patterns of behavior within an IT infrastructure, so it can trigger an appropriate response when an incident is detected.

The San Clemente office also houses Tribal Genius LLC, a second venture that provides consulting services to companies looking to go digital, Gangwani said. The two organizations are under parent company AVIK Partners, which is led by veteran entrepreneurs and brothers Josh Kindiger, who serves as president, and Casey Kindiger, who serves as chief executive. The brothers are equal partners in AVIK, which is the lead investor of Grok and Tribal Genius, Casey said.

Casey previously built and sold IT companies. He was the founder and former chief executive of Newport Beach-based Gen-E, which predicts, analyzes and resolves network problems. He also founded Irvine-based Resolve Systems, which created automation software for operations, including IT and security. Josh Kindiger was most recently executive vice president at Resolve.

The brothers have invested more than $1 million in AVIK and about $250,000 in Grok, Casey Kindiger said. They intend to … (do a Series A raise of approximately $4 million in 2018, Casey said.)

Grok began testing its product in January 2016 and launched to the public later that year.

Custom IT

An Irvine-based company that provides custom IT services for small and medium businesses has a new client: the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. A key member of the diocese’s IT team suffered an injury, and Greenlight Information Services LLC was able to “immediately” send someone to help the team continue with projects and support, Chief Executive Jason Makevich said. 

Since then, the company has provided the diocese with ongoing support and security services through the Greenlight GO program, a turn-key solution—a type of system that can be easily implemented into business processes—for business technology.

Makevich founded Greenlight in 2010 but only brought on his first full-time employee about 15 months ago, “so we’re in the startup-like growth phase now,” he said.

Greenlight makes money by recurring revenue from its clients through its monthly service. It also provides consulting work that’s billed hourly.

No funding has been sought or received, Makevich said.

Greenlight is now able to sustain its growth through profits, he said. 2016 revenue was $1.7 million, with $2.9 million projected for this year, Makevich said. He declined to disclose profits.

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