Scott Harmon and Mike Maples are synonymous with Austin tech. They co-founded software developer Motive, which went public in 2004, and before that worked together at Tivoli Software, which was bought by IBM in 1996 for almost $750 million.
Maples — who's since become a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist with early investments in Twitter, Cruise
According to a filing with the SEC on Friday, Maples has invested $1 million in a Harmon-led project called Poquito. It's Maples second investment in the company, as he previously invested $850,000, according to a filing in November.
Harmon didn't respond to a request for comment, and Maples — co-founder of Floodgate — said that his former co-worker is staying stealthy at the moment, though he did say that Poquito was a code name for Swivel. Harmon's LinkedIn profile says he's been
Swivel calls itself a "
WeWork has catapulted to a valuation approaching $20 billion by opening up co-working locations in 23 U.S. cities and 15 other countries. Unlike earlier versions of the shared office, WeWork has focused on creating community-oriented spaces with a start-up feel that offer everything from on-demand workstations to private offices for teams.
WeWork's model carries heavy costs associated with office leases and operating the units. Swivel is using existing space at other offices and even coffee shops to make excess capacity available to workers on the move.
For Harmon, who's spent over three decades in technology, Swivel is his latest Austin-based
Maples left Austin for Silicon Valley and started his own early-stage venture firm in 2006. He remains a popular figure in the Texas capital's burgeoning tech scene and is still searching to find the city's top talent.