They lost jobs at Bitwise. Now, these ex-employees are launching their own tech firm

The founders of Reclaim Technologies aren’t exactly sure when to mark the official start of their new company.

Was it in late June? That’s when the tech consulting company filed to become an LLC. Maybe it was when the company finally opened its business bank account? Or more recently still, when they moved into the office and started meeting potential clients.

“When did it begin?” says Alex Treas, who started Reclaim Technologies with partners Jenn Guerra and Elizabeth Gaw.

“Was it when the idea came?”

The three are former employees of Bitwise, which was the darling of the Fresno’s tech sector before it imploded in May. The company, first furloughed then terminated all of its employees, some 900 people across the U.S. and 300 to 400 in Fresno. Dozens of employees have now submitted claims to the U.S. District Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, where the company filed for bankruptcy on June 28.

These were people not without talents.

Treas helped create co-working spaces across the county as Bitwise’s director of Cowork. Guerra was a project manager working with school apprenticeship programs and Gaw did coding as a software developer with the company.

All three saw the need to continue the momentum BItwise had build over the past decade.

“We didn’t want that tech ecosystem to go away. We’ve got to keep that momentum going,” Guerra says.

“We know people right now that can use that work.”

The company specializes in mobile app and website design and database management.

It is currently in what the owners call “phase one,” working out of a high-ceiling, white walled office space inside the Hive, the former BItwise building on Ventura street near Highway 41. The space is big for just the three of them, but the hope is it will eventually fill with employees, though they’ll be contract workers at first.

The company says it has more than a dozen developers on standby.

There are Bitwise contracts that need to be fulfilled and Reclaim Technologies is looking into the legalities of taking those over, but it spent the last weeks meeting with potential clients and looking for investors.

The company has also created an in-house produce called STRFRNT. The subscription-based website design platform is made specifically for underrepresented entrepreneurs, who may may not have the technical expertise or large financial investment needed to get up and running.

While Reclaim Technologies is open to all potential clients, it would love to work with entrepreneurs in the area. The company is on a “journey to help the underdogs,” the owners say. While they are at it, they hope to reinvigorate the sense of community that Bitwise cultivated.

It was the one thing the company did right, Guerra says.

“We miss that,” Treas says. “A lot people miss that.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2023 at 5:30 AM.