Startup Spotlight: Aira

Jul 05, 2019 - Jasmine Rezai

Named one of Glassdoor’s top 15 coolest startups to work for and one of Time Magazine’s best inventions for 2018, Aira is a San Diego-based tech startup with a software app that connects blind/visually impaired individuals to trained, professional agents dedicated to further enhancing their everyday experiences. The company was founded in 2015 by UC San Diego alums who were inspired by one of their friends who is blind.

Headquartered in beautiful La Jolla, Aira is walking distance from the newly remodeled UTC Mall, an ideal backdrop for team happy hours. But even beyond fun happy hours with airy outdoor seating, San Diego’s culture is is also ingrained in the way this company works. Weekly Q&A sessions with new CEO Mike Randall allows employees to hear key company updates, while reaching into their stocked fridges (plural), full of local craft brews.

Aira provides experiences for its own customers everyday, while also working with high-profile businesses that also believe in equal access for everyone. Through Aira’s technology, businesses can support their customers with human connection in real time. That human connection is Aira’s Agent workforce.

Co-founder and president Suman Kanuganti says, “Aira is on a fantastic run since we started our journey. We have created beautiful and memorable experiences for our [customers] Explorers. We have built a group of extraordinary super humans in the form of Aira agents. We have a team that is making possible what most of the world views as impossible.”

The Aira Agent team is committed to hiring 100 military spouses in 2019. Why? As a San Diego-based organization, Aira is embedded in a region with a strong military workforce and history, and it wants to support the community it works in through jobs that fit their lifestyle. The agent role is a remote and flexible position, a benefit highlighted by Aira Agent Emily as an important consideration for her. She heard about Aira while in the process of her first military move to Sheppard Air Force Base. Once she found out that the agent role was a remote position that wouldn’t impact her move, she immediately applied. Emily now credits Aira for her newfound “sense of satisfaction in work that I really never expected to have while launching into this new role as a military spouse who wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.”  To learn more about the meaningful impact Aira Agents have on daily lives, watch this short video.

Aira Agents bring Aira’s mission of providing instant access to visual information for anyone, anytime, anywhere to life. They do so through Aira’s custom-built technology, frequently updated by its skilled development team to support the agent experience. They’re part of a close team who, for example, even put the extra effort into making team meetings fun! We know. Crazy, right?!

To find out more about this new Aira initiative and to apply today visit: aira.io/our-agents or watch this video.

Special perk for San Diego #AiraAgents only – this is a remote role but if you choose to work from their San Diego Headquarters, Aira will cover lunch cost once a week!

Meet the people behind Aira’s technology by checking out their employee videos on: www.aira.io/careers.