Federal Contractors | Technology 2023: MATT CALKINS

FOUNDER AND CEO, APPIAN, McLEAN

Published August 30, 2023 by Virginia Business

In 1999, Calkins co-founded cloud computing and enterprise software firm Appian, which reaped $236.9 million in cloud subscriptions revenue in fiscal 2022, up 32% from 2021. The company’s total 2022 revenue was $468 million, up 27% from the prior year.

Calkins expects cloud subscription revenue to continue climbing and anticipates total 2023 revenue to be between $530 million and $535 million, he said during Appian’s February earnings call. A graduate of Dartmouth College and a world board game champion, Calkins worked for MicroStrategy in the late 1990s.

In April, addressing widespread worries that artificial intelligence bots will take human jobs, Calkins told Yahoo Finance that AI can’t exist without humans to correct, edit and improve its output, and that soon people will see it as a digital co-worker. Some of Appian’s products are AI-enabled and “low code,” making it easy for the average user to design, automate and optimize complex processes.

Last year, Appian was awarded more than $2 billion in damages — estimated to be the largest award in Virginia state court history — after a Fairfax County Circuit judge ruled a competitor had gained access to Appian’s trade secrets.

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