How 3 tech companies are navigating a complicated macro environment – TechCrunch
Appian, Amplitude, and BigCommerce are balancing growth and caution
Earnings season is winding down, with the biggest tech companies’ results now comfortably behind us. To ensure that we’re extracting the maximum from the reporting cycle, TechCrunch chatted with a handful of smaller companies after their second-quarter numbers dropped, digging into the data and working to better understand how tech companies are balancing growth and caution in the face of a possible recession.
Today we’re rifling through notes from calls with the CEOs of Appian, Amplitude, and BigCommerce, companies that we’ve spoken to and covered on a nearly quarterly basis for some time now — meaning that we have context concerning their risk postures and business results apart from the most recent data. Notably, each has a slightly different take on how to best navigate the present market conditions in terms of investment and caution.
We’ll start with Appian CEO Matt Calkins, who said he may use this period to snag market share for his workflow and automation software business. Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates had a solid second quarter but discussed a more conservative back-half of the year. And BigCommerce CEO Brent Bellm is following an investment plan detailed quarters ago, looking to continue beating analyst expectations, e-commerce slowdown be damned. Let’s dig in.
