In a groundbreaking scientific achievement, Colossal Biosciences announced Tuesday the successful birth of three dire wolves, marking the first-ever de-extinction of an animal species previously lost to time.
The dire wolf, extinct for over 12,500 years, was a large North American canid often associated with the fictional creatures from HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” According to Colossal, the rebirth represents a critical milestone in their de-extinction technologies and pathway toward reviving other extinct species.
“Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies,” said Colossal CEO Ben Lamm. “It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'”
The company’s achievement extends beyond the dire wolf, with scientists also successfully birthing two litters of cloned red wolves—North America’s most critically endangered wolf species—using a novel blood cloning approach.
The three dire wolf pups include two adolescent males named Romulus and Remus, and one female named Khaleesi. The red wolf litters consist of one adolescent female named Hope and three male puppies: Blaze, Cinder and Ash.
Harvard geneticist and Colossal co-founder Dr. George Church noted that the dire wolf project involved “the largest number of precise genomic edits in a healthy vertebrate so far,” with 20 unique precision germline edits, including 15 from ancient gene variants.
The wolves currently reside on a 2,000-acre ecological preserve certified by the American Humane Society and registered with the USDA. The facility features specialized engagement zones, redundant security measures and continuous monitoring to ensure animal welfare.
“The de-extinction of the dire wolf is more than a biological revival. Its birth symbolizes a reawakening – a return of an ancient spirit to the world,” said MHA Nation Tribal Chairman Mark Fox, highlighting the cultural significance of the achievement.
To accomplish the de-extinction, scientists extracted and sequenced ancient DNA from two dire wolf fossils, assembled ancient genomes, identified gene variants specific to dire wolves and performed multiplex gene editing to a donor genome from the gray wolf, the dire wolf’s closest living relative.
The company’s analysis revealed dire wolves had white coat color and thick fur, adaptations consistent with ice age conditions. Their research also showed gray wolves share 99.5% of their DNA with dire wolves.
Dr. Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s Chief Science Officer, said their approach “sets a new standard for paleogenome reconstruction” and established “the genomic foundation for de-extinction.”
The technology developed for the dire wolf project has immediate conservation applications, as demonstrated by the birth of two litters of red wolves. With fewer than 20 red wolves remaining in North America, Colossal’s red wolves could increase the number of founding lineages in the captive breeding population by 25%.
“Colossal is drastically changing the prognosis for countless endangered species around the world,” said Aurelia Skipwith, former Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The company plans to eventually restore both species in secure ecological preserves, potentially on indigenous land.
Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm joined actor Joe Manganiello at SXSW to discuss the company’s groundbreaking work in de-extinction and genetic engineering, revealing advances that could reshape conservation efforts and potentially extend human lifespans.
The Dallas-based startup, which has raised over $435 million in private funding, aims to bring back extinct species like the woolly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) through genetic engineering. Lamm highlighted that beyond the headline-grabbing de-extinction work, Colossal is developing technologies with applications in conservation, medicine and environmental remediation.
“Modern conservation isn’t working,” Lamm said. “The speed at which we’re eradicating species… we’re going to lose up to 50% of all biodiversity between now and 2050.”
Seven Key Takeaways:
Woolly Mouse Success: Colossal has created a genetically modified “woolly mouse” with mammoth genes, demonstrating that their genetic editing techniques work with high precision. This serves as a bridge to their mammoth resurrection project.
Genetic Recovery Process: The company uses DNA from museum specimens, living relatives, and convergent evolution analysis to reconstruct extinct species’ genomes, as exemplified by their work on the thylacine.
Environmental Impact: Reintroducing extinct keystone species could help combat climate change by preserving permafrost and restoring damaged ecosystems, potentially generating carbon credits.
Cancer Research Implications: While studying elephant cells for the mammoth project, researchers discovered mechanisms related to how elephants naturally resist cancer, which could have applications in human medicine.
Global Biobank Need: Lamm advocated for a “Manhattan Project-scale” effort to create a comprehensive biobank of endangered species’ genetic material before they disappear.
Business Model: Colossal monetizes its technology through spinoff companies, including one focused on plastic degradation and another on computational biology for human applications.
Longevity Research: Lamm predicted that within 20 years, advances in synthetic biology would lead to “longevity escape velocity,” where human lifespans could be significantly extended.
The session also touched on ethical considerations, with Lamm arguing that the choice not to pursue de-extinction technologies would be unethical given the ongoing biodiversity crisis. “I think we have a moral obligation and an ethical obligation to pursue technologies to at least undo some of the sins of the past,” he said.
Manganiello, who appears to be an investor in the company, expressed fascination with Colossal’s work and its potential to inspire younger generations to pursue science.
The company expects to continue quarterly meetings with federal government agencies to address ethical concerns and ensure transparency as their genetic engineering technologies advance.
Scientists at Colossal Biosciences have created genetically engineered mice with mammoth-like traits, marking a significant step toward the company’s ambitious goal of “de-extinction” of the woolly mammoth, the company announced Friday.
The “Colossal Woolly Mouse” exhibits multiple traits similar to those that once helped mammoths survive frigid environments, including dramatically altered coat color, texture and thickness. The mice resulted from simultaneous modification of seven genes in a single genome-editing process.
“The Colossal Woolly Mouse marks a watershed moment in our de-extinction mission,” said Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences. “By engineering multiple cold-tolerant traits from mammoth evolutionary pathways into a living model species, we’ve proven our ability to recreate complex genetic combinations.”
The company’s mammoth team identified key genes that impact hair and cold-adaptation traits through analyzing 121 mammoth and elephant genomes. Researchers then used a combination of gene-editing technologies to make eight edits simultaneously across seven genes.
The resulting mice display mammoth-like features including longer hair — up to three times the length of normal mice — woolly hair texture, wavy coats and golden coloration instead of the typical black or brown. The mice also carry modifications to genes involved in lipid metabolism, similar to those found in mammoths.
Dr. Beth Shapiro, chief science officer at Colossal, called the achievement “an important step toward validating our approach to resurrecting traits that have been lost to extinction.”
The genetic engineering breakthrough has implications beyond the laboratory, serving as a model for studying cold-climate adaptations in mammals and demonstrating how multiple genes work together to create physical traits.
Colossal Biosciences was founded by Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church with the goal of using CRISPR gene-editing technology for species de-extinction. The company aims to resurrect extinct species like the woolly mammoth and thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) by recreating their genetics in living related species.
Renowned futurist Amy Webb delivered a sobering assessment of emerging technology convergences at South by Southwest on Saturday, warning that humanity has crossed into what she terms “the beyond” — a new era where artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and advanced sensors are merging to create unprecedented capabilities and challenges.
Webb, CEO of the newly rebranded Future Today Strategy Group (FTSG), presented findings from her organization’s 1,000-page annual Tech Trends Report, highlighting several developments that could fundamentally reshape society:
“Living intelligence is going to rewrite the rules of our reality as we know it today, and we are not prepared,” Webb told the audience. “Living intelligence is a system that can sense and learn and adapt and evolve.”
Key takeaways from Webb’s presentation include:
Multi-agent AI systems are developing the ability to collaborate, assign tasks, and make decisions without human input — demonstrated in recent experiments where autonomous agents spontaneously organized themselves, formed alliances, and developed their own communication methods.
AI systems are increasingly adopting non-human languages like Microsoft’s “Droid speak” to communicate with each other three times faster than when using human languages, which Webb described as “clumsy, imprecise and sometimes inaccurate” for machine communication.
The integration of physical sensors with AI is transforming systems from passive observers to active controllers, with examples ranging from injectable microscopic devices for human bodies to implantable electrodes that allow paralyzed individuals to control computers through thought.
Biology and technology are converging in startling ways, including the creation of the first commercial computers made with living human neurons, which Webb described as “the first living machines.”
Scientists are developing materials with properties not found in nature — “metamaterials” — including bricks that function like lungs to filter pollution and buildings that can switch between rigid and flexible states during earthquakes.
The fields of robotics and AI are making rapid advances, with Webb noting that embodiment through robots may be necessary for achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), as “AGI doesn’t exist without embodiment much in the same way that our human intelligence doesn’t really exist outside of a body.”
Major tech companies are rushing toward commercialized robots within five years, despite public statements suggesting longer timelines, with Webb highlighting recent breakthroughs in robot dexterity and adaptation.
The convergence of these technologies is creating what Webb calls a “technology supercycle” — a decades-long period of economic expansion followed by eventual correction or realignment.
Advancements in generative biology mean “anybody can get biology predictions in minutes,” potentially disrupting pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of physical products.
New capabilities in biological manufacturing include growing human teeth in pigs, creating rice with cow genes, and developing “sperm bots” to tackle fertility challenges.
Webb expressed concern about the ethical implications of these technologies, asking “whose brain parts are in these computers?” regarding the new neural computing systems.
The trends indicate a lack of coordinated planning or vision for the future being created, with Webb stating “there’s no vision for the world that we inhabit right now, there’s no long-term plan, there is no strategy.”
Webb warned that focusing too much on immediate discomforts — what she calls the “stone in your shoe effect” — prevents organizations and leaders from engaging in necessary long-term planning.
Public-private partnerships around these technologies could lead to problematic outcomes, with Webb presenting scenarios where technologies developed for consumer comfort could eventually be weaponized for political control.
The decisions made in the next decade “are going to determine the long-range fate of human civilization,” according to Webb’s research, requiring better strategic foresight and planning.
Webb concluded by urging attendees to challenge their existing beliefs and prepare for dramatic changes: “Remember you create the future every day with the decisions that you make. Every decision is a doorway that you can walk through to make tomorrow better.”
Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas-based de-extinction company, has reached a $10.2 billion valuation, marking its status as Texas’s first “decacorn” startup. The company, co-founded by serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm and synthetic biology pioneer George Church, is working to bring extinct species back to life while developing technologies for conservation and human health.
On the Ideas to Invoices podcast, Lamm revealed that Colossal has already spun out two successful businesses, with a third announcement expected in late 2025 or early 2026. The company focuses on three flagship species: the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, and dodo.
The mammoth project, currently in its editing phase, has achieved approximately 25 gene edits in Asian elephant cell lines. Lamm says they remain on track for a late 2028 release date, though he suggests another species might be revived before then.
Colossal has marked several scientific milestones, including generating a 99.9% complete ancient genome for the Tasmanian tiger and successfully making 300 stacked edits in a single cell line. The company is also developing artificial womb technology, which could revolutionize both de-extinction and conservation efforts by eliminating the need for surrogate mothers.
“We’re not just bringing these species back exactly as they were,” Lamm explained. “We’re engineering improvements.” One example is their work to make mammoths resistant to EHP, a disease that currently kills 20% of baby elephants annually.
The company employs a three-dimensional model for species selection, weighing ecological impact, indigenous peoples’ perspectives, and conservation benefits. They actively collaborate with local communities, conservation groups, and government agencies.
Colossal is also advocating for the establishment of global “bio vaults” to preserve animal genetic diversity, similar to existing seed vaults for plants. The company has raised an additional $50 million for their foundation to support conservation technologies.
Beyond wildlife conservation, their research could have significant implications for human health, particularly in treating genetic diseases requiring multiple gene edits. Their advances in multiplex editing—the ability to edit multiple parts of the genome simultaneously—could revolutionize genetic medicine.
Unlike Lamm’s previous ventures, which were built for acquisition, he describes Colossal as a long-term, 25-plus year mission. The company maintains extensive partnerships with indigenous groups, conservationists, universities, and government agencies.
The revived species will be released in their natural habitats, with the mammoth targeted for the northernmost states of the United States and eventually Canada. Lamm emphasizes that the reintroduction process will be carefully managed, with extensive human oversight and intervention.
For more information about Colossal’s Tasmanian tiger project and their collaborative approach, visit colossal.com/tasmania.
The Ideas to Invoices podcast is listed below. Or you can download on Apple, Spotify, Amazon or whereever you get your podcasts.
Female founders of consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies sharedtheir entrepreneurial journeys during a panel discussion recently, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in building consumer brands from the ground up.
The panel, moderated by Michelle Breyer, chief marketing officer of SKU, Austin’s CPG accelerator, featured Sarah Vilenskiy of Blossom Essentials, Ruth Stedman of A Pup Above, and Delisa Harper of Funky Mello.
The founders revealed diverse approaches to funding their ventures. While Funky Mello secured $200,000 through friends and family, and A Pup Above attracted angel investors, Blossom Essentials chose to remain bootstrapped despite industry pressure to seek venture capital.
“We’re actually still bootstrapping today,” Vilenskiy said. “It’s not an easy thing to do when you see so many companies growing so quickly around you, but we still own 80% of our company.”
Distribution strategies varied among the panelists. A Pup Above found early success in pet specialty retail stores, which Stedman described as more forgiving to early-stage companies. Meanwhile, Blossom Essentials built its customer base through digital marketing before expanding to retail channels.
Harper’s Funky Mello demonstrated significant evolution, transforming from a farmers market business in 2017 to a retail brand now present in 200 stores, including Whole Foods and HEB. The company initially raised $10,000 through Kickstarter to purchase their first commercial mixer.
The founders emphasized the critical role of mentorship in their growth. SKU’s accelerator program provided crucial guidance in areas including fundraising, retail strategy, and public relations.
On hiring strategy, the panelists advocated for caution with early full-time employees. “I would never recommend hiring any W2s first,” Vilenskiy said, suggesting startups begin with contractors and boutique agencies to maintain flexibility.
For those with co-founders, complementary skill sets proved essential. Harper described how she handles marketing and HR while her co-founder manages sales and operations, though she noted the importance of maintaining boundaries when working with a spouse.
The discussion highlighted the evolving nature of entrepreneurship. “The company will grow at a rapid rate,” Stedman said. “What it was a year ago, two years ago, it was not what it is today, and so you constantly have to be evolving.”
SKU, which hosted the panel, has a track record of successful alumni, including Siete Foods, a female-founded Mexican food company that sold to PepsiCo for $1 billion last year.
Women entrepreneurs continue to face significant systemic barriers in accessing capital and building businesses, despite making up 40% of business owners, according to a panel of prominent female business leaders and investors at a recent Female Founders Outlook event.
Carla McDonald, founder of Dynabrand Ventures and Chair of Austin Mayor Kirk Watson’s Task Force for Women Entrepreneurs, highlighted that the percentage of venture capital funding going to women founders has remained stagnant at around 1-2% over the past decade, and in some cases, is declining.
“I also want to say that Angel investing is the brightest spot in this bleak and dismal kind of ecosystem because 40% of all Angel investors are women,” McDonald said. “I always encourage women to go seek out Angel investments I think they’ll have an easier road.”
Lauren Washington, founder and CEO of Fundr, developed a platform to change how startups get funded after witnessing systemic barriers in traditional funding models that disproportionately affect women founders.
“When it’s systemic, it’s insidious and falls into a lot of different categories,” Washington said. “Some of it is social, some is the fact that networks are really held tight, and most of the capital, particularly those first checks in, are made through who you know. It’s who you are connected to and women are often left out of some of those networks. It’s still unfortunately a bit of an old boys club some of it is around internal and unconscious bias.”
The panel, which included investors, a banking executive, and education leaders, identified several key challenges:
Women founders typically receive half the funding amount compared to male counterparts pitching identical business plans
Female entrepreneurs often undervalue their companies during fundraising
Access to networks and meaningful mentorship remains limited
Legal and political pushback against programs designed to close funding gaps
Heidi Leach, VP of startup banking at JP Morgan, emphasized that women entrepreneurs often undersell themselves. “When we price our products, we price them too low, which affects our ability to have strong profit margins,” Leach said. She also said women undervalue their startups when seeking venture capital.
However, the panel also identified opportunities in the current market. Women entrepreneurs tend to be more capital efficient, which could be advantageous in the current economic climate where venture funding has become more selective.
Mellie Price, executive director of Texas Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas, stressed the importance of educational programs focusing on financial literacy and business fundamentals. “There’s a lot of shame that people carry about not knowing that,” Price said. “But that’s what it takes to win.”
The panelists emphasized the critical role of mentorship in advancing women’s entrepreneurship, particularly highlighting the value of both traditional mentoring relationships and peer-to-peer support networks.
Carla McDonald, founder of Dynabrand Ventures, advised entrepreneurs to expect challenges. “You’re going to face three existential threats where you think it’s over,” McDonald said. “But it’s really important in that moment to have a mentor who will help you through.”
Austin is poised for transformative changes in supporting women entrepreneurs, following recommendations from a mayoral task force that has already sparked significant initiatives, task force chair Carla McDonald announced at a recent Female Founders Outlook event.
McDonald, founder of Dynabrand Ventures, revealed that the Better Business Bureau Foundation has secured approval to open Austin’s first Women’s Business Center, addressing a critical gap in resources for women business owners in the Texas capital.
“Austin ranks sixth nationally for venture capital deals and dollars, but less than 1% of those dollars reach women founders — even worse than the 2% national average,” McDonald told the audience of more than 100 attendees at the Zilker Lodge. EisnerAmper, Unnanu, Active Capital, Lumen Insurance Technologies, and Perkins Coie sponsored the Second Annual Female Founders Outlook 2025.
The task force, established by Mayor Kirk Watson in summer 2023, spent eight months surveying 370 women entrepreneurs and consulting stakeholders nationwide. Their findings highlighted significant disparities, including difficulties accessing SBA loans and venture capital, particularly for profitable women-led businesses.
Despite these challenges, women entrepreneurs own 40% of Austin’s businesses, contributing over $5 billion to the local economy and employing more than 100,000 people, according to McDonald.
The Austin Chamber of Commerce has responded to the task force’s recommendations by forming an Entrepreneurs Council to better integrate women founders into the broader business community. Additionally, a local venture capital firm is considering leading a capital pledge to increase investments in women-led startups.
“The future for Austin women entrepreneurs has never been brighter,” McDonald said. “This is a transformative moment for us as members of the community to lean in and meet the moment.”
The Women’s Business Center, expected to open within months, will provide free business training, access to capital, and federal contract certification opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
The Mayor’s Task Force for Austin Women Entrepreneurs’ full report can be found here.
“Mexican Free-Tailed bats heading out for their night-time feeding in Austin, Texas.
Silicon Hills News announced Friday it will host its first-ever “Batty Awards,” celebrating the achievements of Austin’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, on March 5th at The Parlor Room on Rainey Street.
The irreverent awards ceremony, playing on Austin’s famous bat colony, will recognize outstanding achievements across the technology and startup community.
“Austin’s entrepreneurial spirit deserves recognition that matches the city’s unique character,” said Laura Lorek, editor of Silicon Hills News. “The Battys celebrate both business excellence and our community’s distinctive culture.”
Award categories include:
“Batman Entrepreneur of the Year” for outstanding male founder
“Batwoman Entrepreneur of the Year” for outstanding female founder
“The Dawn Patrol” for most promising early-stage startup
“The Night Flyer” for most impressive pivot or turnaround
“The Echo Locator” for excellence in market research
“The Colony Builder” for outstanding company culture
“The Great Migration” for successful business relocation to Austin
“The Moonlight Maven” for best bootstrapped company
“The Guano Guru” for Venture Capitalist of the Year
“The Guardian Bat” for Angel Investor of the Year
“The Sonar Superstar” for most innovative technology
“The Bat Signal” for best marketing campaign
“The Wingspan Wonder” for fastest-growing company
“The Night’s Watch” for best cybersecurity company
“The Neural Night Navigator” for excellence in artificial intelligence
“The Bridge Builder” for outstanding community impact
“The Bat Cave Creator” for best workplace environment
The ceremony begins at 6 p.m. with a networking reception followed by the awards presentation. The event takes place at The Parlor Room, located in Austin’s bustling Rainey Street district.
Pankaj Kedia, a renowned Silicon Valley technology executive, gave the keynote address at the U.S. India Chamber of Commerce and Austin AI Valley talk on AI at the Austin Central Library Tuesday night.
Kedia is currently focused on shaping, accelerating, and bringing the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to society at large as an investor, advisor, and thought leader. Previously, he was an accomplished tech intrapreneur, having incubated a series of new businesses at Intel and Qualcomm.
Generative AI is expected to add between $2.6 Trillion to $4.4 Trillion by 2030 in additional value to the economy due to increased productivity across all sectors from high tech, retail and banking to media, entertainment and agriculture, according to one of Kedia’s slides, citing data from McKinsey.
Already, the “magnificient seven” as Kedia dubs them, the top AI companies in the U.S. including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Tesla, have seen a $10 Trillion increase in market capitalization since the introduction of Chat GPT in November of 2022. Today, those top seven companies are now worth $17.7 Trillion. That’s what Kedia calls the “AI premium.”
And even the introduction of China’s DeepSeek in the past few weeks is not going to change the momentum of Slicon Valley AI startups and the established players, Kedia said. It shook things up, but the head of DeepSeek is Liang Wenfeng who is a hedge fund manager and co-founder of High-Flyer who made a lot of money by shorting Nvidia’s stock when DeepSeek hit the market, Kedia said.
1. AI is Moving Faster Than the Internet
Kedia emphasized how AI’s progress is outpacing even the internet and mobile technologies. Just like the internet transformed industries, AI is set to do the same but at an even quicker pace.
2. AI is Global, with Widespread Adoption
AI is not limited to a few countries or industries. It’s being deployed globally, from Mexico to India, and is transforming sectors like healthcare, sports, fitness, and finance. AI is truly global with more than 100 countries active in AI research and development efforts, Kedia said.
3. The Role of Private Companies in AI Development
Some of the biggest leaps in AI are happening in the private sector, with companies achieving valuations that are magnitudes larger than those of past internet-era companies. The financial backing and innovation in the private market are fueling AI’s rapid growth.
4. Investing in AI and Startups
Kedia shared his experiences as an investor and emphasized the importance of identifying the right opportunities early. The key to success is finding businesses that use AI to address real-world problems, even at the earliest stages of development.
5. AI’s Impact on Existing Industries
AI is reshaping industries, and it’s critical for businesses to integrate AI technologies to remain competitive. Companies in healthcare, for example, have already started deploying AI-driven diagnostics and management tools, which is creating efficiencies and improving outcomes. For example, Kedia cites Eastman, a global specialty materials company with $10 billion in revenue, based in Kingsport, Tenn., has saved $200 million in 2023 in its manufacturing processes by using an AI platform to optimize heat transfer fluid management.
6. The Importance of Reinforcement Learning
Pankaj touched on how reinforcement learning and optimization techniques are reshaping industries, with a particular focus on how AI models are becoming more efficient by using smaller parameters. This is leading to more sustainable and effective AI solutions.
7. AI’s Potential in Healthcare
One of the most impactful applications of AI is in healthcare. AI is not only improving diagnostics but also revolutionizing personalized treatments, early disease detection, and patient care management.
8. Challenges with AI Adoption
While AI’s potential is enormous, there are significant challenges around its deployment, including ethical concerns, data privacy, and ensuring that AI models are designed to avoid biases. These issues need to be addressed for AI to be deployed safely and responsibly.
Overall, Kedia thinks we are in the AI era and that it is bigger and bolder than previous tech revolutions. And AI is going to transform every sector.
A new ambitious infrastructure project aimed at advancing artificial intelligence capabilities in the United States has been announced, with major technology companies pledging $500 billion in investments over the next four years.
In a news conference on Tuesday, President Donald Trump talked about the venture, which the Associated Press reported is already underway and dates back to 2024.
Stargate Project, led by SoftBank and OpenAI, will begin immediate deployment of $100 billion to construct AI infrastructure, with its first buildout located in Abilene, Texas. The project aims to bolster American technological leadership, potentially creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and generating significant economic impact.
Masayoshi Son of SoftBank will serve as chairman of the initiative, with SoftBank managing financial aspects and OpenAI handling operational responsibilities. Initial equity funders include SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX.
Key technology partners in the project include Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI. The collaboration will focus on developing and operating advanced computing systems, building on existing partnerships, including OpenAI’s long-standing relationship with NVIDIA dating back to 2016 and a newer partnership with Oracle.
The project is positioned as more than a technological investment, with leaders describing it as critical to national security and the re-industrialization of the United States. Project representatives emphasized their commitment to developing artificial intelligence for “the benefit of all humanity,” with a particular focus on advancing artificial general intelligence (AGI).
While the initial campus is established in Abilene, Texas, the project team is evaluating potential sites across the country for additional infrastructure developments. The project will continue OpenAI’s existing collaboration with Microsoft, including increased consumption of Azure cloud services.
Project leaders portrayed Stargate as a transformative step in AI development, expressing optimism about the technology’s potential to “elevate humanity” through strategic technological investment.
No specific timeline for complete infrastructure deployment was provided, though the initial $100 billion investment is set to begin immediately.
In one of his first moves as the new President of the United States, Donald Trump pardoned Ross William Ulbricht, convicted founder of the Silk Road, a marketplace for drugs and illegal goods.
Ulbricht, now 40, is an Austin Native who graduated from Westlake High School in 2002.
Ulbricht was serving two life setences plus 40 years without the possiblity of parole. He was convincted in 2015.
“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”
For 11 years, Ulbricht has been behind bars after the Federal Bureau of Investigations arrested him for running the Silk Road, a sprawling $1.2 billion black-market bazaar for drugs, computer hacking software, forgeries, and hit man services.
Ulbricht was convicted of founding the site, programming its features and overseeing its operations.
In 2013, the FBI arrested Ulbricht at a library in San Francisco and charged him with narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.
Former Bitly CEO Mark Josephson emphasizes that successful tech entrepreneurship requires more than just innovative ideas – it demands grit, authentic leadership, and strong communication skills, he said in a recent episode of the Ideas to Invoice podcast.
Keys to Growth
Drawing from over 30 years of experience leading venture-backed companies, Josephson stressed the importance of having both “a real big vision” and practical execution strategies. “Building a company is a constant cycle of plan, execute, measure, learn, adjust,” he said.
Leadership Support Critical
As an executive coach, Josephson highlighted common misconceptions among first-time founders, particularly the belief that they must build their companies alone. He advocates for entrepreneurs to seek mentorship and coaching early, noting that “it’s never too soon to have trusted advisors.”
AI Revolution
Discussing current trends, Josephson expressed excitement about artificial intelligence’s potential to transform businesses. “If you’re not building a business that’s leveraging and deeply incorporating AI, it’s really hard to raise money now,” he warned, while emphasizing the technology’s potential to “accelerate your roadmap five years.”
Power of Peer Networks
On scaling businesses, Josephson recommends entrepreneurs join CEO peer groups for support and shared learning. He currently facilitates such groups and maintains that the relationships built there are crucial for navigating both professional and personal challenges.
Customer Focus
Currently reading “Unreasonable Hospitality” by Will Guidara, Josephson emphasized that customer retention and exceeding expectations remain fundamental to business success, regardless of technological advances.
Listen to the entire podcast below or wherever you get your podcasts
Austin startups raised $804.5 million in venture capital in the fourth quarter of 2024, an almost 29 percent decrease from the same quarter a year ago, according to the latest Pitchbook-National Venture Capital Association Venture Monitor Report.
The fourth quarter VC funding is also down almost 25 percent from the $1.1 billion Austin startups raised in the third quarter of 2024.Austin Startups Secure $804.5 Million in Q4 2024 VC Funding, Marking 29% Year-Over-Year Decline
The number of deals funded in the Austin Round Rock metropolitan area also dropped to 71 deals in the fourth quarter, an almost 47 percent decrease from 133 in the fourth quarter of 2023.
For all of 2024, Austin startups raised $4.5 billion, about the same amount as 2023. The number of deals funded in the Austin Round Rock metropolitan area rose to 487 in 2024, up 7 percent from 455 deals in 2023.
The top deal financed in the fourth quarter of 2024 was $175.5 million to Firefly Aerospace, based in Cedar Park, which is creating rockets for commercial launches to orbit. It was also the top deal for the fourth quarter of 2023 when it raised $300 million.
The second largest deal was Halcyon Network Management Software, which raised $115 million. The company makes software that defeats ransomware.
The third largest funding went to Ladder, the leading strength training app, which raised $105 million in Series B funding and secured an additional $90 million in growth investment from General Catalyst.
Overall, startups nationwide attracted $209 billion in venture capital across 15,260 deals. “Both figures surpass pre-pandemic and 2023 totals but are still far from zero-interest-rate policy ear highs,” according to the Pitchbook-NVCA report. “Deal activity increased at nearly all stages, with pre-seed/seed and early stage deals notching 2024 highs and late-stage deals seeing a slight bounce back after two consecutive quarters of declines.”
“After a strong quarter with the highest investment levels since mid-2022, there’s a sense of cautious optimism for VCs and entrepreneurs heading into 2025,” Bobby Franklin, President and CEO at NVCA said in a news release.
“Changes in leadership at the FTC and DOJ could ease some liquidity challenges for portfolio companies, and changes at the SEC could right-size the regulatory burdens at firms,” Franklin said. “With more VCs stepping into government roles and engaging actively on Capitol Hill, the venture industry has a unique opportunity to highlight the critical role of venture-backed companies in driving economic growth and maintaining American competitiveness. The tax bill currently making its way through Congress is especially significant, with potential to incentivize innovation, reinstate the R&D tax credit, and support the broader ecosystem.”
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully launched early Monday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, marking the start of a 60-day mission that aims to land on the Moon’s surface in March.
The spacecraft, part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 1:11 a.m. EST. After separating from the rocket at 2:17 a.m., Blue Ghost established contact with mission control in Cedar Park, Texas, and completed initial commissioning by 5:30 a.m.
“The mission is now in the hands of the unstoppable Firefly team,” said Firefly Aerospace CEO Jason Kim. “We’re now fully focused on execution as we look to complete our on-orbit operations, softly touch down on the lunar surface, and pave the way for humanity’s return to the Moon.”
The mission, dubbed “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” will spend approximately 25 days in Earth orbit, followed by a four-day lunar transit and 16 days in lunar orbit before attempting to land in Mare Crisium. During its journey, the spacecraft will test GPS capabilities and demonstrate radiation-resistant computing systems.
Once on the lunar surface, Blue Ghost will operate 10 NASA payloads during a 14-Earth-day mission, conducting experiments including subsurface drilling and dust mitigation studies. The mission will conclude with high-definition photography of a total solar eclipse as viewed from the Moon and observations of the lunar sunset.
The mission represents one of four NASA task orders awarded to Firefly as part of the broader Artemis campaign, which aims to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon. The landing is targeted for March 2.
Firefly Aerospace, based in central Texas, is a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners providing launch and lunar services for government and commercial customers.
The Better Business Bureau of Austin will establish a new Women’s Business Center following a federal grant announced Thursday as part of a $26.25 million nationwide investment by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The Austin center is one of 13 new locations being established across the country to support women entrepreneurs. It will provide core business development services to women-owned businesses in the greater Austin area, adding to the city’s growing resources for women entrepreneurs.
The expansion comes at a time when women are starting businesses at historically high rates, according to SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, who noted that women have been filing new business applications at double the rate over the past four years.
“When we invest in women, our economy wins,” Guzman said at the announcement of the nationwide initiative.
The establishment of a SBA Women’s Business Center was one of the 12 key initiatives recommended in Mayor Kirk Watson’s Austin Women Entrepreneurs Task Force. Mayor Watson commissioned the task force to create a report with recommendations to support female founders in Austin.
Carla McDonald, an entrepreneur, led the 21-person task force, which met for nine months and conducted interviews and surveys with a variety of female founders to learn about their challenges and find solutions. McDonald recently discussed the task force’s report, which they gave to the Mayor last year.
The new center will offer one-on-one counseling, training, networking opportunities, workshops, and technical assistance to women looking to start or expand their businesses. It joins other local efforts to support women entrepreneurs in the Austin area.
The Austin location is part of a broader initiative that expands the SBA’s network of Women’s Business Centers to 168 nationwide. The program includes specialized support for childcare enterprises and government contracting, though the Austin center will focus on core services for the local business community.
Women entrepreneurs in Austin will have access to business startup guidance, financial management consulting, marketing expertise, and procurement training through the new center. The BBB’s existing presence in Austin is expected to strengthen the center’s ability to serve the local business community.
Opening dates and specific location details for the Austin center will be announced in the coming months.
Colossal Biosciences, a company working to bring extinct species back to life, has secured $200 million in Series C funding, bringing its total valuation to $10.2 billion, the company announced Wednesday.
The latest funding round was led by TWG Global, a diversified holding company run by Mark Walter and Thomas Tull. Since its founding in September 2021, Colossal has raised $435 million in total funding.
“Our recent successes in creating the technologies necessary for our end-to-end de-extinction toolkit have been met with enthusiasm by the investor community,” said Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal.
The funding and support reflect how much progress the teams have made, Lamm said. People are excited about the innovations and technologies and progress on Colossal’s efforts to revive three extinct species: woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), and dodo.
The Dallas-based company employs more than 170 scientists across facilities in Boston, Dallas, and Melbourne, and Australia. And even as Colossal seeks to expand the species it works on, Lamm doesn’t foresee a huge need for more employees.
“As we get more efficient with the AI models and the genome we don’t need to hire so many more,” Lamm said. “We believe with this capital that we’ll be able to add several new species teams without doubling the size of the company just because of the core infrastructure and technologies that we’ve made.”
Some of the funding raised will be earmarked for additional species work, Lamm said. But those aren’t ready to be announced yet, he said.
“I think we would probably add one or two mammals and then at least one bird species because I I think we want to find efficiencies across these different groups,” Lamm said.
To date, the company’s scientific achievements include generating the first de novo assembled mammoth genome, creating pluripotent stem cells for Asian elephants, and producing the most complete ancient genome to date for the thylacine. The company has also successfully hatched its first chimeric chicks as part of its dodo revival program.
“The woolly mammoth is not going to be a clone of the woolly mammoth. It’s going to be a even better woolly mammoth,” Lamm said. “We’re trying to create mammoth 2.0. We’re making supercharged ones.”
Everything is on track so the mammoth project is on track for late 2028, Lamm said. This year, Lamm expects all three projects to be in the editing phase.
In addition to its three flagship projects of bringing back extinct species, Colossal is biobanking tissue samples and wants to take it to the next level of bio vaulting.
“It can’t just be us,” Lamm said. “We need academic partners and government partners so we’ve been we’ve been lobbying that pretty hard at the hill.”
With the new funding, Colossal is expanding its work in artificial wombs which could be one of the biggest game changes for conservation of all time, Lamm said.
“Imagine a world where you grow 200 northern white rhinos at the exact same time without touching an existing animal,” Lamm said. “So it’s great from an animal welfare perspective.”
With the new funds, Colossal is also expanding its AI and algorithm work, Lamm said.
George Church, Colossal co-founder and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, called the company “revolutionary,” saying it is “making science fiction into science fact.”
The funding announcement comes as scientists warn of an accelerating extinction crisis. Current estimates suggest that by 2050, over 50% of the world’s animal species may become extinct, with approximately 27,000 species currently disappearing each year.
In October 2024, Colossal launched a nonprofit foundation to oversee the deployment of its technologies. The foundation currently supports 48 conservation partners globally, including Re:wild, Save The Elephants, and the International Elephant Foundation.
The company’s additional strategic investors include USIT, Animal Capital, Breyer Capital, and notable individuals such as filmmaker Peter Jackson and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones.
“Countries have been very supportive, and people are very excited about what we’re doing,” Lamm said. “Governments are now reaching out to us around bio vaults. Governments are now reaching out to us saying hey can you help back up our species or can you bring back this national icon to us.”
Colossal’s research can also help humans, Lamm said. It can help with gene editing to deal with genetic mutations to prevent diseases like Sickle Cell Anemia, Lamm said.
“We’re building an incredible company that I would argue is the most advanced genetic engineering and synthetic biology company,” Lamm said. “We’re doing it in Texas.”
“We’re told we are the first Texas Decacorn that was built in Texas,” Lamm said. “ I think that’s incredible, and it shows Texas is such a friendly place to work and such a great community of humans and that we’ll see many more Decacorns and then whatever the next corn is after that.”
Austin has fallen from its top spot in a prestigious national economic ranking, highlighting growing challenges despite continued strength in its technology sector, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Milken Institute.
The Texas capital dropped five positions in the annual Best-Performing Cities index but maintained its decade-long presence among the top 10 large metropolitan areas, driven by robust wage growth and a thriving high-tech industry.
Austin led all major U.S. metropolitan areas in five-year job growth and ranked fourth in one-year job growth. The city posted a remarkable 68.2% increase in wages over five years, surpassing the next-highest large city by more than 10 percentage points.
The technology sector has been particularly strong, with Austin ranking sixth nationally in high-tech concentration, the highest among Tier 1 large cities. The information sector grew by 52.8% from 2018 to 2023, dramatically outpacing the national growth rate of 6.7%.
However, the report identified significant challenges that could threaten Austin’s economic momentum. Short-term job growth has plummeted, with the city falling from 22nd to 104th position — last among Tier 1 large cities in this metric.
Housing affordability has emerged as a critical concern. Austin now ranks 143rd among large cities in housing affordability, the lowest among top-tier metropolitan areas. While recent construction efforts have helped address housing supply shortages, the report suggests affordable housing remains scarce.
The city’s tech sector continues to show diversity and strength, particularly in computer systems design, corporate management, and data processing. The presence of the University of Texas has helped maintain a skilled workforce pipeline.
Local economists suggest Austin’s future growth may depend on addressing its affordability challenges while maintaining the economic diversity that has fueled its rise as a technology hub.
The Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities index evaluates metropolitan areas based on 13 economic metrics, including labor market conditions, high-tech growth, and access to economic opportunities.
Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su was named Time Magazine’s CEO of the Year for 2024, recognizing her transformative leadership in guiding the semiconductor company through a remarkable decade of growth.
When Su assumed the chief executive role, AMD was struggling, with its stock price hovering around $3 and a minimal presence in the data center chip market. Through a strategic overhaul of product design and customer relationships, Su positioned the company to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom.
While AMD is based in Santa Clara, California, Su works out AMD’s Austin campus.
Under her leadership, AMD’s market capitalization has surpassed that of rival Intel, reaching a milestone in 2022. The company’s stock price has dramatically increased to approximately $140, reflecting Su’s successful turnaround strategy.
Despite the significant progress, AMD remains the second-largest semiconductor company, trailing behind Nvidia. Nvidia, led by CEO Jensen Huang, has become the world’s largest company by market capitalization and dominates the GPU market for AI data centers.
The Time Magazine recognition highlights Su’s ability to reinvent AMD’s market position and competitive strategy in the rapidly evolving technology landscape.
At a fun event that featured taiko drummers, sushi and lots of drinks, AVRO Life Co launched its new GABA-based beverage powder line on Tuesday in Austin.
Several hundred people attended the launch party to experience the product designed to enhance cognitive wellness.
The event took place at Texas Saké Co and featured food prepared by Michael Carranza, chef of Tare, a recent Michelin Guide-recognized sushi restaurant in Austin.
AVRO, developed under the inspiration of the Japanese concept of Ikigai, aims to provide what the company calls “Intelligent Hydration” with its scientifically formulated beverage powders. Ikigai is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living. The product utilizes PharmaGABA® and is marketed to boost energy, focus, and calm. PharmaGABA is the brand name of Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) from Pharma Foods International in Kyoto, Japan. It is produced by natural fermentation.
Guests had the opportunity to sample the six flavors of AVRO mocktails and learn about the product from company CEO Keigo Sugawara.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter that plays a critical role in regulating brain activity and nervous system function. As the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human brain, GABA helps balance neuronal excitability, which can have significant implications for mental wellness, stress management, and cognitive performance.
In scientific research, GABA has been extensively studied for its potential to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation. Unlike stimulant-based cognitive enhancers, GABA works by creating a calming effect in the central nervous system. It helps decrease neural excitement, which can lead to reduced stress, improved mood, and better emotional regulation. Some studies suggest that GABA supplementation may help individuals manage symptoms of anxiety and potentially improve sleep quality by promoting a more relaxed mental state.
Cognitive benefits associated with GABA include enhanced focus and potential improvements in mental clarity. By helping to modulate brain activity, GABA can potentially support concentration and reduce the mental “noise” that often accompanies high-stress environments. Neurological research indicates that GABA may play a role in protecting against cognitive decline and supporting overall brain health. However, it’s important to note that while promising, research is ongoing, and more comprehensive studies are needed to fully understand the extent of GABA’s cognitive benefits.
The form of GABA used in products like AVRO – PharmaGABA® – is a specific, scientifically developed variant that aims to improve bioavailability and absorption. This means the body may more effectively utilize the GABA compound compared to traditional supplementation methods.
AVRO officials are working to make its powered beverage products available in Austin area stores.
Inspira Financial announced recently that it has acquired First Dollar, a technology company specializing in consumer-directed health benefit solutions, in a strategic move to enhance its health and benefits platform.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The deal brings Austin-based First Dollar’s technology infrastructure and development team into Inspira’s operations, expanding the company’s capabilities in health and financial services.
First Dollar, founded in 2019, had raised $19 million in venture funding, according to Pitchbook.
Matt Marek, president of Inspira Financial, said the acquisition aligns with the company’s mission to improve health outcomes and provide more customizable solutions for insurance providers and distribution channels.
First Dollar’s technology platform includes a Health Wallet for members, a Health Wallet Manager for administrators, and a Health Wallet Platform for partners. The company provides flexible infrastructure for managing health spending benefits, pre-tax accounts, and supplemental benefits.
Inspira Financial, which serves over 8 million clients with more than $62 billion in assets under custody, aims to strengthen its position in health consumerism through this strategic investment.
The acquisition is expected to help Inspira create a more unified platform that connects healthcare and financial services, potentially simplifying how individuals manage their health benefits.
First Dollar’s development team will join Inspira, bringing expertise in consumer-driven technological solutions. The company has 33 employees, primarily at its Austin headquarters, according to Pitchbook.
Austin and Paris-based startup GROWL has officially launched, unveiling an innovative fitness platform that transforms traditional boxing training and announcing a $4.75 million seed funding round.
The startup has secured investment from a diverse group of venture capital firms and notable athletes, including lead investor Skip Capital, Teampact.ventures, and Kima Ventures. The round also features investments from professional athletes such as Ciryl Gane, Gaël Fickou, and Julien Marchand, alongside tech entrepreneurs like Jonathan Cherki and Charles Gorintin.
GROWL aims to democratize boxing training by creating an interactive, AI-powered fitness solution that brings professional-level training into users’ homes.
Innovative Technology Meets Fitness
GROWL’s flagship product combines advanced technologies like high-resolution projection, edge-AI computing, multi-camera 3D motion tracking, and Unreal Engine-powered gaming to create an immersive fitness experience. The wall-mounted device offers a life-sized, interactive coach that provides real-time, personalized feedback for workouts.
“GROWL is something else entirely,” said Ciryl Gane. “Every session feels like a game, drawing you back for more. It makes boxing fun and accessible without sacrificing any of the thrill.”
A Fitness Solution for Everyone
Designed for users aged 10 and up, the platform offers a diverse range of workouts including boxing, strength training, yoga, and flexibility exercises. The system adapts to different fitness levels and goals, making it a comprehensive family fitness solution.
Adam Cook from Skip Capital noted the product’s versatility, highlighting its potential for “a complete, immersive at-home fitness experience, with limitless possibilities for future content and workouts.”
Market Opportunity and Vision
GROWL enters the $322 billion global fitness industry, targeting the $110 billion U.S. market with a unique value proposition. The company aims to democratize boxing training by making it accessible, engaging, and technology-driven.
CEO and Co-founder Léo Desrumaux shared a personal motivation: “I found myself through combat sports and boxing. Suddenly, I realized I wasn’t made out of glass – that I could take a punch but also hit back.”
Pricing and Availability
The product is positioned as a premium connected fitness device, with pricing at approximately $150 per month on a 48-month plan or $190 on a 36-month plan, which includes hardware and subscription for unlimited family access.
Pre-sales are expected to open in April 2025, with interested customers able to learn more at joingrowl.com.
Austin-based startup MakersHub has raised $7 million in additional Seed funding, bringing its total funding to $11.5 million and positioning the company for significant growth in the accounts payable technology space.
The funding round was led by prominent investors QED Investors and TTV Capital, with participation from Dash Fund, TRB Advisors, and four angel investors. As part of the investment, QED Partner Laura Bock and Athletic Brewing Company CEO Bill Shufelt will join MakersHub’s Board of Directors.
Founded in 2021 by Wharton Executive MBA alumni Phong Ngo and Charley Howe, MakersHub has developed a data-driven accounts payable platform designed to streamline financial processes for businesses and accounting professionals. The company’s technology aims to capture comprehensive financial data, reduce processing errors, and generate meaningful business insights.
The startup has demonstrated impressive growth, boasting over 200 paying customers and a network of several thousand payees. MakersHub has reported more than 10x year-to-date growth across nearly all of its commercial metrics.
Company leaders plan to use the new funding to accelerate platform infrastructure investments and expand their sales and marketing teams. This strategic approach reflects the startup’s commitment to supporting its rapid customer acquisition and technological development.
“This funding will enable us to continue our mission of transforming accounts payable processes for data-driven businesses,” said a company spokesperson.
The investment highlights the growing market demand for innovative financial technology solutions that can help businesses optimize their financial operations and generate actionable insights.
Austin,-based enSights, a cloud-based clean energy optimization startup, has successfully raised $10 million in Series A funding, signaling strong investor confidence in the company’s innovative approach to renewable energy management.
The funding round was co-led by venture capital firms JAL Ventures and XT VC, with additional support from the Menomadin Foundation. This financial boost will enable enSights to expand its global presence, with a particular focus on establishing a stronger foothold in the United States market.
Founded in 2021 by renewable energy entrepreneurs Alon Mashkovich (CEO), Roy Fadida (CPO), and Dekel Yaacov (CTO), enSights has quickly become a leader in the distributed generation segment. The company’s AI-powered platform addresses a critical challenge in the renewable energy sector: the significant underperformance of photovoltaic (PV) assets.
“Over 70% of PV assets do not meet their forecasted output, losing thousands of dollars daily,” said Mashkovich. “Our platform provides a sophisticated yet user-friendly solution to optimize energy operations.”
The company’s platform currently manages over 6,000 clean energy assets across four continents, with hundreds of active users overseeing more than 1.6 gigawatts of power. The investment comes at a time of rapid growth in the clean energy market, with operations and maintenance software spending projected to increase from $40-$61 billion in 2023 to $67-$101 billion by 2027.
Tal Shaked from JAL Ventures highlighted the company’s unique positioning at the intersection of solar energy expansion, energy storage growth, and artificial intelligence. “enSights offers a modular, scalable design that solves real-world challenges in the energy sector,” Shaked noted.
The funding will support enSights’ continued technological development, market expansion, and efforts to streamline clean energy asset management. With this latest investment, the company is well-positioned to play a significant role in the global transition to renewable energy.
Todd O’Gara, the founder and executive chairman of Wanu Water, Inc., stands accused of orchestrating a sophisticated investment fraud that netted approximately $3.4 million from individual investors through a series of calculated lies and fabricated documents, federal prosecutors allege.
According to a detailed FBI criminal complaint, O’Gara systematically misled investors between August 2019 and May 2023, weaving an intricate web of false claims about his company’s financial prospects. The 44-year-old entrepreneur from Austin, is charged with wire fraud for allegedly deceiving investors through multiple fraudulent tactics.
False Claims and Fabricated Evidence
The most egregious allegations center on O’Gara’s misrepresentations about potential investments and retail orders. Prosecutors claim he:
O’Gara falsely claimed to have medical expertise, telling investors he developed Wanu Water to address malnutrition in developing countries
Fabricated purchase order information from a major national retailer
Circulated forged term sheets suggesting substantial private equity investments
Misrepresented the company’s valuation, claiming it was worth up to $30 million
Investor Targeting
The affidavit details O’Gara’s interactions with at least three individual investors:
Victim-1 from New Jersey invested $405,000 after being told about a potential $30 million valuation
Victim-2 from New York invested $500,000 based on false claims about pending large orders
Victim-3 from California and their family invested approximately $857,000
Financial Red Flags
Court documents reveal that Wanu Water was consistently losing money. In September 2019, the company was projecting losses of $3.77 million for the year. Despite this, O’Gara continued to solicit investments by creating an illusion of imminent success.
Potential Consequences
The wire fraud charge carries severe potential penalties, including:
Up to 20 years in prison
A maximum fine of $250,000
Potential additional financial penalties based on investor losses
Austin’s office market is experiencing significant turbulence as it posts the nation’s highest vacancy rate increase, highlighting the growing disconnect between development momentum and market demand in one of Texas’s fastest-growing cities.
The state capital recorded a vacancy rate of 27.7% — tied with San Francisco for the highest nationally — marking a dramatic 710-basis point surge year-over-year, the steepest increase among major U.S. office markets, according to CommercialEdge’s November Office Market report.
This spike comes as the city grapples with reduced office utilization and weakening demand, even as development continues at a breakneck pace.
The market’s challenges are further reflected in tumbling sale prices. After leading the nation in September, Austin’s average price per square foot dropped sharply from $379 to $287, relegating it to sixth place among leading U.S. office markets. This decline is exemplified by Equity Commonwealth’s recent $64.5 million sale of two significant properties — Bridgepoint Square and Capitol Tower — both sold at substantial discounts to their original purchase prices.
Despite these headwinds, Austin maintains its position as a development powerhouse. The city ranks first regionally and third nationally in office space under construction, with 3.5 million square feet in development, representing 3.7% of its existing inventory. Including planned projects, Austin’s office footprint is projected to expand by an ambitious 12.1%.
The city’s asking rents remain strong at $46.75 per square foot, the second-highest in the region behind Miami’s $52.84, suggesting that property owners are maintaining pricing power despite increasing vacancies.
Meanwhile, other Southern markets are showing resilience. Washington, D.C. has already surpassed its 2023 sales volume, recording nearly $2.5 billion in transactions through October. Dallas-Fort Worth secured the fifth position nationally with $1.1 billion in sales, while Atlanta reached the $1 billion mark in transactions, despite lower-than-average sale prices of $145 per square foot.
Miami emerged as a regional standout, commanding the highest sale prices in the South at $369 per square foot, second only to national leaders, with transaction volume approaching $1 billion through October.
As Austin navigates these challenging market conditions, industry observers are closely watching whether the city’s ambitious development pipeline will exacerbate its vacancy challenges or if strong economic fundamentals will eventually absorb the excess supply.
Ladder, the leading strength training app, has raised $105 million in Series B funding and secured an additional $90 million in growth investment from General Catalyst.
The Series B round was led by Point72 Ventures and ADvantage VC, with participation from Steve Pagliuca’s PagsGroup and previous investors Tapestry VC and LivWell Ventures.
The $105 million financing will drive Ladder’s expansion into new markets, product development, and customer acquisition, positioning the app to reach a global audience.
Based in Austin, Ladder is the number one iOS app for strength training. It is available as a $29.99 monthly subscription with a 7-day free trial.
The Series B funding will accelerate product development, including an Android version, enterprise wellness initiatives, and non-subscription offerings like branded apparel,
“Since day one, Ladder has combined community engagement with a deeply personalized fitness experience,” Jeremy Pressman of Advantage said in a news release. “This approach has made them the category leader.”
The $90 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value strategy will focus on customer acquisition, enhancing Ladder’s ability to introduce its offerings to a wider audience without diluting equity or taking on additional risk.
“We believe Ladder’s blend of expert programming and motivational tools delivers real results, making it a perfect fit for our strategy,” said KV Mohan of General Catalyst.
Unlike static workout libraries, Ladder offers weekly strength-focused workout plans created by elite coaches. Members can choose from a variety of modalities, including HIIT, bodybuilding, kettlebell training, and yoga-infused routines.
“Our members stay with Ladder because it’s more than an app—it’s a supportive community and a path to meaningful fitness progress,” said Ladder CEO Greg Stewart.
The app boasts a 4.9 rating on the App Store, over 15 million completed workouts, and recognition as 2024’s Best Strength-Training App by Women’s Health and CNET.
Ladder aims to make strength training approachable for everyone, with 92% of users reporting increased confidence in their workout routines. The app is particularly popular among women and younger fitness enthusiasts, with 65% of members using it in gyms and at home.
Austin’s venture capital landscape shows signs of recovery, with area startups raising $978 million across 80 deals in Q3 2024, marking a 44% increase from last year, according to data presented at Austin Tech Week.
During a panel discussion at Capital Factory Wednesday, leading Texas venture capitalists discussed how the investment climate has evolved since the market correction in 2022. While deal activity remains below the peak levels in 2021, investors noted that valuations have stabilized, and a renewed focus on sustainable growth and profitability has been renewed.
Charlie Plauche, General Partner of S3 Ventures, moderated the panel. Panelists included Kerry Rupp, General Partner of True Wealth Ventures; Krishna Srinivasan, founding general partner of LiveOak Ventures; Morgan Flager, managing director of Silverton Partners; and Tom Ball, Founding General Partner of Next Coast Ventures.
“The world has flipped,” said Srinivasan with LiveOak Ventures, explaining that companies can no longer pursue growth at all costs as they did in 2021. Instead, investors are prioritizing underlying solid business fundamentals and capital efficiency.
Though with a distinctly Texas twist, the panelists highlighted artificial intelligence as a significant investment theme. Rather than competing with Silicon Valley on foundational AI models, Texas startups are finding success in applying AI to specific industries where the region has deep domain expertise.
However, challenges remain. Rupp, with True Wealth Ventures, noted that despite increased attention to diversity, only 2% of venture funding goes to all-women founding teams. However, mixed-gender teams have improved, reaching about 20% of funding.
Year-to-date, Austin startups have raised $2.3 billion across 268 deals in 2024, positioning Texas as the fourth-largest state for venture capital investment behind California, Massachusetts, and New York.
Other key takeaways:
Texas/Austin Market Status:
Texas is now the #4 state for VC funding behind CA, MA, and NY
Deal activity is recovering from 2023’s slowdown but not back to 2021 peak levels
Current Market Dynamics:
Company valuations have significantly decreased from 2021 peaks:
Top companies now valued at ~8x revenue (down from 40-50x)
Average companies at ~5x revenue (down from 20x+)
The focus has shifted from pure growth to balanced growth and profitability
Bridge rounds and inside rounds were common in 2023-24
Down rounds were frequent (20-24% of deals in 2023)
AI Investment Trends:
Creating a valuation divide between AI and non-AI companies
AI companies still commanding premium valuations (20-40x revenue)
Texas VCs focusing on:
Vertical AI applications with domain expertise
Enterprise software enhanced by AI
Advice for Founders:
Best ways to approach VCs:
Get warm introductions through seed investors, lawyers, or portfolio companies
Tailor outreach to specific firms/partners
Junior VC team members are valid entry points
When raising:
Be realistic about growth projections
Focus on capital efficiency
Demonstrate strong unit economics
Show a clear path to cash flow break-even
Don’t fixate on “triple, triple, double, double” growth at all costs
At an Austin Tech Week panel hosted at Capital Factory on Wednesday morning, emerging Venture Capital fund managers discussed why they’re betting on Austin and shared candid advice for founders seeking early-stage investment.
The “New VCs on the Block” panel, moderated by Perkins Coie partner Dan Austin, featured partners from several newer investment firms, including Firebrand Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Rock Yard Ventures, and Runtime Ventures.
The investors highlighted Austin’s collaborative spirit as a key draw. “There’s this swell of energy, something happening here,” said Daniel Dart of Rock Yard Ventures.
FirstMile Ventures’ Zaz Floreani expanded this sentiment to Texas as a whole, noting that the welcoming atmosphere extends to Dallas and Houston’s startup scenes. According to Crunchbase, FirstMile Ventures focuses on seed and pre-seed investments in software, IT, and SaaS industries, primarily in Colorado. The firm has invested in 58 startups and raised $30.6 million.
For Runtime Ventures, which specializes in cybersecurity investments, Austin’s growing cybersecurity ecosystem makes it an attractive market. “More and more companies and cyber professionals are coming to town,” said David Endler, who’s lived in Austin for over 20 years. “The community here is collaborative, which isn’t true for every city.”
When discussing how founders should approach VCs, the panel emphasized authenticity over perfection. Floreani offered a “spicy take,” stating that VC value-add is often overstated. “Companies are built and sold by founders and their teams,” she said, suggesting that VCs’ principal value is helping companies prepare for future funding rounds and providing guidance during difficult times.
It’s tough to get funding, said Dart. Generally, the funder controls power dynamics. Rock Yard Ventures sees about 5,000 deals a year, and 10 of those are highly competitive, Dart said.
“The reality is like if people are gonna give you fucking money, take it,” Dart said.
According to Fundera, less than 0.05% of startup businesses receive venture funding.
The investors also addressed common questions about timing and prerequisites for funding. Claire Hansen of Firebrand Ventures explained that while definitions of funding stages are shifting, the seed sage typically means having a sellable product with some beta or full customers. At the same time, pre-seed usually involves companies that are still focused primarily on product development.
Firebrand Ventures, founded in 2016, has raised $57.7 million, with the latest $40 million fund announced in 2021. According to FundingTrip.com, it has invested in 27 companies in Austin, Boulder, Denver, Chicago, Des Moines, and Kansas City.
Regarding artificial intelligence, the panel agreed that not every startup needs to be an AI company. However, they look for founders who understand how to leverage AI to make their operations more efficient, regardless of industry focus.
The discussion concluded with practical advice for founders: know your target investors, do your homework, and understand that warm introductions still matter. Dart said, “If we think we can make money off you, that’s our job. We’re also very accessible – that’s also our job.”
In a candid conversation during Austin Startup Week, two of the city’s most influential tech entrepreneurs—Joshua Baer, co-founder of Capital Factory, and Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of data.world—shared their unique perspectives on Austin’s transformation from a sleepy college town to a major tech hub.
The Early Days: Bootstrap Austin
“When I was a kid, Austin was the size of Anchorage, Alaska today,” Hurt recalls, painting a picture of a much smaller city where tech was barely a blip on the radar.
In 2003, the two entrepreneurs first crossed paths at Bootstrap Austin, one of the city’s earliest tech meetups. At the time, the concept of bootstrapping – building a company without external funding – was gaining traction as software and SaaS made it increasingly feasible to launch tech companies with minimal capital.
The meetup scene was sparse then, with Bijoy Goswami’s Bootstrap Austin being one of the only gathering places for tech entrepreneurs. Today, Capital Factory alone hosts over 60 regular meetups, showcasing the explosive growth of Austin’s tech community, Baer said.
The Rise of Austin’s Tech Ecosystem
The conversation between Baer and Hurt reveals how Austin’s tech scene evolved through successive waves of innovation. Hurt’s journey with Bazaarvoice, which went public in 2012 with a billion-dollar IPO, marked one of Austin’s early major tech successes. The company pioneered customer reviews for e-commerce and grew from initial meetings at Capital Factory to over 13,000 customers worldwide.
“We’re living in the best age in Austin’s history,” Hurt emphasizes, pointing to the city’s current advantages: “massive diversity of capital and funds.” This marks a dramatic shift from the early days when Austin Ventures was the only primary funding source in town.
Challenges and Opportunities
Despite the tremendous growth, both entrepreneurs acknowledge Austin faces significant challenges. Hurt, a native Austinite, expresses concern about Texas politics potentially deterring talent and companies. However, he sees Austin’s unique position as a place where different viewpoints converge as both a challenge and an opportunity.
“Austin is one of the few places where these things are forced to converge and live together,” Baer notes, suggesting that it could be unstoppable if Austin can maintain dialogue and collaboration across different perspectives.
The Next Wave: AI and Future Growth
Looking ahead, both entrepreneurs are bullish on Austin’s future, particularly with the emergence of AI. “You are going to see more change in the next 10 years than you’ve ever seen in the entire history of technology,” Hurt predicts, noting that companies like data.world are at the forefront of this transformation.
The impact of Austin’s tech scene is already rippling across Texas. As Hurt observes, Austin is no longer just “the pot smokers” to people in Dallas and Houston—it’s become the envy of the state, producing leading businesses not just in tech but also in restaurants, music, and entertainment.
The Secret Sauce: Lifting Each Other Up
According to both entrepreneurs, Austin’s tech ecosystem’s most distinctive feature is its collaborative culture. This spirit of “lifting each other up” has attracted major investors like Jim Breyer and countless entrepreneurs to the city, Hurt said. It’s a culture that dates back to Austin’s early days and continues to differentiate it from other tech hubs.
“We live in the most amazing time to learn how to be an entrepreneur,” Hurt said, citing today’s founders’ abundant resources, capital, and tools. From the early days of Bootstrap Austin to the current AI revolution, Austin’s tech scene continues to evolve while maintaining its fundamental spirit of collaboration and innovation.
As Texas’s capital city looks to the future, its tech community’s success appears to be built not just on technological innovation but also on maintaining the delicate balance between rapid growth and preserving the collaborative, supportive culture that made it special in the first place.
“Also, you can chat with my book and get it online for free at https://www.theentrepreneursessentials.com/ – I think it was the first book that you could chat with (I ingested it into a custom OpenAI GPT on the very first day they launched custom GPTs),” according to Hurt.
Shokworks, the International Accelerator, and Austin AI Valley have launched the Austin AI Lab, a groundbreaking initiative designed to accelerate AI adoption and innovation across Texas.
The lab, opening on November 22 in downtown Austin, aims to support businesses of all sizes with practical AI resources, propelling local companies through digital transformations that can bolster Texas’s reputation as a tech powerhouse.
“We’re thrilled to launch this initiative in Austin, a city that wants to lead in tech innovation,” Alejandro Laplana, CEO of Shokworks, said in a newsletter. “By providing access to AI agents, model execution, workflow automation, and data analytics, we’re playing our part so Texas businesses don’t fall behind the AI curve. It’s about helping them cut costs and streamline operations.”
With an emphasis on real-world solutions, the Austin AI Lab offers a unique environment where small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and larger businesses can test, prototype, and refine AI applications suited to their needs. This collaborative venture integrates the strengths of Shokworks’ AI and digital transformation expertise, the International Accelerator’s guidance for startups, and Austin AI Valley’s dedication to ecosystem growth through academic, industry, and public-sector partnerships.
“By equipping business owners with the tools to become AI-native, we’re enhancing their competitive edge and strengthening the region’s already impressive pool of global entrepreneurs,” Angelos Angelou, Founder of International Accelerator, said in a news release. The lab’s offerings include a flexible, pay-as-you-go model, democratizing access to enterprise-grade AI tools without hefty upfront investment. Businesses can access sophisticated solutions typically limited to giant corporations through specialized offerings such as AI Agents as a Service, Workflow Automation, and Data Analytics.
The lab’s collaborative framework aims to drive Austin’s potential as a leading AI innovation center forward. Shokworks brings over six years of AI experience with over 150 product successes, offering local firms tools to leverage AI effectively. Meanwhile, International Accelerator will guide foreign-born founders in navigating the U.S. market, further enriching the lab’s support network. Austin AI Valley, a non-profit dedicated to AI ecosystem development in Texas, will foster connections with academia and the business community to support startups’ needs for education and collaboration.
Anupam Govil, Managing Partner of Avasant and Founder of Austin AI Valley emphasized the lab’s strategic importance for the region: “The power of AI has to be carefully harnessed via a robust strategy, along with an ecosystem of partners who can pilot, develop, and implement the right use cases. I am pleased that the International Accelerator and Shokworks have partnered to launch Austin AI Lab; this will be an important step toward making Austin the leader in applied AI.”
Austin AI Lab’s launch is timely, as Austin’s reputation as a growing tech hub aligns with an urgent need for adaptable AI solutions that can drive efficiencies across sectors. The lab’s mission to make AI accessible and actionable reflects a commitment to fostering innovation and empowering Texas businesses, advancing the regional economy and the future of applied AI.
In an inspiring panel discussion, successful women in technology shared their journeys from high school students to tech professionals, highlighting the transformative impact of the Code2College program on their careers.
Keatra Nesbitt, a volunteer instructor at Code2College and principal solutions engineer at Valkyrie, moderated the panel Monday morning at Austin Tech Week. Matt Stephenson, CEO of Code2College, was in the audience.
Kristy Lavache, operations specialist at H-E-B, participated in the Code2College program, as did Rocio Montero, student program coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin for Code2College, who is currently studying to become a data scientist.
Montero said the program’s comprehensive approach goes beyond traditional coding education. Through structured courses beginning with Python basics, students progress to advanced programming skills while simultaneously developing crucial professional capabilities.
Perhaps most remarkably, Code2College has established partnerships with major tech companies, enabling high school students to secure internships at prominent firms like Apple, Amazon, Sailpoint, and WP Engine. Nesbitt said these early professional experiences are invaluable in building confidence and real-world skills.
The impact of representation and mentorship emerged as a recurring theme throughout the discussion. “Having mentors who understand our struggles makes all the difference,” Lavache said. “It’s easier for us as younger people to connect with them and learn from their experiences.”
The program’s success has led to expansion through Vision 2024, an initiative specifically focused on supporting young women and African American women in tech, Montero said. Through workshops covering everything from time management to exploring various tech roles, Vision 2024 creates a supportive environment for aspiring technologists.
The panel’s advice to newcomers was both practical and encouraging. Lavache shared a particularly memorable story about temporarily disabling a work platform during her first three months on the job. She said a coworker told her “It’s okay to break things because that’s how you learn.” But now she tests new material in a sandbox which she created before deploying it to the platform everyone works on, she said.
For parents concerned about keeping young girls interested in STEM fields, the panelists highlighted how science and math are already present in daily life.
“STEM is a lot broader than what one may think,” Lavache said, suggesting that parents help children recognize how their everyday interests connect to STEM fields.
As the tech industry evolves, programs like Code2College are crucial in creating a more diverse and inclusive future. Through early exposure, mentorship, and practical experience, they’re not just teaching coding – they’re building confidence, breaking down barriers, and creating the next generation of tech leaders.
The program continues to accept volunteers and mentors, and industry professionals are welcome to participate as instructors and guest speakers. This ensures that its impact continues to grow and inspires future generations of women in technology.
In a revealing panel discussion on the evolution of the Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) industry, leading women Austin entrepreneurs and executives shared insights into how they’re reshaping the landscape of consumer products through innovation, strategic partnerships, and resilient business practices.
Shari Wynne Ressler, founder and CEO of SKU, Austin’s consumer packaged goods accelerator, and KASAMA spearheaded the panel during Austin Tech Week at Capital Factory on Monday afternoon. The panelists included H-E-B Emerging Technology and Innovation Manager Laura Smith, Granarly Founder and CEO Morgan Potts, and Cat Sampson, Co-Founder of Celzo Agua Fresca.
The panel highlighted the transformative changes occurring in an industry traditionally dominated by established players.
“When I started SKU, which was the first consumer product goods accelerator, we wanted to make consumer product goods an investable industry,” Wynne Ressler said. She emphasized how the sector has evolved from kitchen startups to venture-backed enterprises. SKU has played a big role in that evolution. It has some of Austin’s most successful CPG brands in its portfolio, including Siete Foods, which Pepsi bought for $1.2 billion.
Morgan Potts, whose company created the world’s first whiskey-baked granola, shared candid insights about the challenges of scaling a CPG business. Granarly’s products include The O.G. Whiskey Granola, a crunch and chewy granola with whiskey, raisins, and cranberries; Skinny Jeans Granola, a vegan and gluten-free granola made with gluten-free oats, olive oil, chia seeds and spices, and Espresso Yo Self Granola, a crunchy granola with dark chocolate and Wild Rooster Espresso.
“About two years ago, I was almost ready to give up,” Potts revealed, describing the journey from local success to national retail presence. Major retailers, including Target, Whole Foods Global, and Amazon, now carry her products.
Sampson said Celzo Agua Fresco continues gaining market velocity and has landed several key accounts, such as the Viceroy Snowmass Hotel in Aspen, Colorado. Celzo Agua Fresca is a lightly sparkling, vitamin-infused soda alternative low in calories and sugar. Its flavors include strawberry hibiscus mint, spicy tamarind, and lemon ginger basil. It contains B-12, L-theanine, and antioxidants.
The discussion highlighted a persistent funding gap facing women entrepreneurs in the CPG space. Unlike their male counterparts, who often receive pre-revenue funding, women founders must demonstrate significant revenue – often up to $1 million – before securing their first investment checks.
Innovation in retail partnerships emerged as a key theme. HEB’s Smith emphasized the importance of focused innovation and clear communication in retail alliances.
She noted that “Understanding the one thing they’re great at” is crucial when evaluating new products and partnerships. Smith cautioned against companies claiming expertise in too many areas.
The panelists also addressed the critical challenge of maintaining shelf presence once products secure retail placement. “It’s one thing to get on the shelf and another to get off the shelf,”, Potts said, emphasizing the importance of product velocity and consumer engagement.
Emerging trends in the industry include:
Increased focus on data-driven decision making
Evolution of retail partnerships and innovation centers
Growing importance of authentic brand storytelling
Rise of alternative distribution channels beyond traditional retail
The speakers highlighted innovative approaches to market entry, including partnerships with sports venues, hotels, and restaurant chains—strategies that often yield better margins and more direct consumer relationships than traditional retail channels.
Technology integration emerged as another crucial factor in the industry’s evolution. Retailers increasingly focus on computer vision, checkout solutions, and advanced product development tools to stay competitive in a rapidly changing market.
Despite the challenges, the panelists expressed optimism about the future of CPG, particularly for entrepreneurs willing to embrace innovation and build strong relationships across the industry. The discussion emphasized that success in modern CPG requires excellent products and strategic thinking about distribution, partnerships, and consumer engagement.
“The industry continues to evolve,” Wynne Ressler said, highlighting the shift from farmers’ market origins to professional retail presence and the growing emphasis on “better for you” products and technological integration.
As the CPG industry continues its transformation, these women leaders demonstrate that success comes from creating innovative products and building sustainable businesses that adapt to changing consumer preferences and retail environments. Their experiences suggest that while the path to success in CPG remains challenging, particularly for women entrepreneurs, new opportunities are emerging for those who can combine product innovation with strategic business acumen.
Gretel Perera, PR Director at Expedia Group, has built a legacy of community and connection rooted in her diverse experiences and heritage.
A Venezuelan diplomat’s daughter, Perera has navigated the world since childhood, moving every few years, adjusting to new cultures, and learning new languages. Her global upbringing gave her a unique skill: the ability to connect with people from all walks of life. This adaptability and drive for connection have profoundly influenced her career, especially in public relations and various leadership roles across communities and organizations.
Perera’s journey emphasizes fostering genuine connections and creating safe spaces for professional women. A decade ago, Perera co-founded Latinas in Tech, now an international organization supporting 20,000 women worldwide. Latinas in Tech started organically with small gatherings in San Francisco, where Perera invited a few friends for casual meet-ups. These meetings soon grew as more women, many newcomers from Latin America, came together to support one another professionally and personally. “Our first big gathering at Google brought in over 120 women,” Perera shares, “and it was a magical moment that underscored the need for these spaces in tech.”
Through partnerships with companies like Google, Airbnb, and Salesforce, Latinas in Tech has become a powerhouse network, helping Latina women thrive in industries where they are underrepresented. Major tech companies began to see the value, recognizing this as a recruitment tool and a way to support their DEI goals.
Perera’s next step was to empower women at higher levels. She launched Latinas500, a nonprofit focused on advancing Latina executives and senior leaders, addressing the gap at the top. This network hosts intimate meetings, executive retreats, and mentorship programs in partnership with institutions like the University of Texas, where seasoned professionals mentor Latina students.
But her influence doesn’t stop there. As a proud co-owner of Austin Woman Magazine, Perera is committed to spotlighting the stories of influential women in Austin. The magazine, a mainstay in the community for over 20 years, aligns with Perera’s mission to showcase the diversity and achievements of women in business, tech, and beyond.
Key Takeaways from Gretel Perera’s Journey:
Find Your People: Identify those who share your values, ambitions, or experiences. Building meaningful connections with like-minded individuals can be transformative both personally and professionally.
Consistency in Networking: Success in networking isn’t about showing up once; it’s about commitment and consistently engaging with your community.
The Power of Storytelling: Each person’s journey holds lessons for others. Sharing stories builds empathy, fosters learning, and strengthens bonds.
Mentorship and Guidance: Networking should open doors. Offering insights, sharing contacts, and providing actionable advice help communities thrive and individuals succeed.
Show Up and Engage: Like going to the gym, networking results require active participation. Show up with an open mind, ready to learn, support, and connect.
Perera’s story is one of resilience, leadership, and passion. Her journey is a testament to the power of creating inclusive spaces that celebrate and elevate diverse voices, reminding us that connection and community-building can improve lives and industries.
At Capital Factory, as Austin Tech Week kicked off Monday morning, Stacy McCracken and Courtney Warnsman were on a mission: to help attendees absorb knowledge and ensure they took action with what they learned.
They believed that growth doesn’t just happen by sitting through sessions; it requires leaving your comfort zone and pushing into the “doing” zone. With guidance from tools like PositivePsychology.com’s toolkit, attendees were encouraged to take small, meaningful steps toward personal and professional transformation.
Throughout the event, Warnsman emphasized the importance of personality assessments like DISC, Enneagram, and CrystalKnows, which help individuals understand their strengths, weaknesses, and communication styles. By knowing themselves better, attendees could foster stronger connections and make impactful first impressions—vital for networking, which Warnsman and McCracken described as a way of life, not a single event.
Austin Tech Week has opportunities to connect, learn, and grow. McCracken shared how a small decision to engage with someone could become a life-changing connection. She and Warnsman, friends and colleagues of 15 years, proved how relationships built on curiosity, accountability, and action can lead to significant growth. As their session wrapped up, they reminded attendees that growth lies in seizing the moment, embracing discomfort, and taking intentional action.
Ten Key Takeaways:
Absorb and Act – Austin Tech Week isn’t just for passive learning; take action on the knowledge you gain. The key to growth is implementing new ideas, not just listening.
Embrace Discomfort – Growth often happens outside of the comfort zone. Feeling uneasy when stretching yourself is normal, but transformation begins in those moments.
Understand Your Personality—Tools like DISC and Enneagram help you understand your behavior, communication style, and how to work effectively with others.
Four Minutes to Connect – You have only minutes to make a memorable first impression. Use your unique personality traits, your “superpowers,” to stand out.
Action over Information—Avoid the “doing deficit” trap of continuing to learn without implementing. Don’t wait for the “perfect” amount of information to take action.
Use the 5-Second Rule – When an idea strikes, act on it within five seconds, or it might slip away. This could be jotting down a note or telling someone who will hold you accountable.
Networking as a Lifestyle – Think of networking as a way of life, not just an event. Building connections requires continuous effort and authenticity.
Be Mindful of Introverts – Not everyone is eager to speak up; pay attention to quieter ones, as they may have valuable insights to share.
Set Daily Goals – Focus on achievable goals rather than a long list of aspirations. Small steps lead to significant accomplishments.
Seize Every Opportunity – A single hello or connection could change your career trajectory. Be intentional in your interactions and open to what each moment might bring.
Jeff Eversmann has built a dynamic career that spans Silicon Valley startups, commercial real estate, and private equity. With expertise in technical and financial realms, Jeff has guided companies through transformative growth and strategic challenges.
Eversmann co-founded Long View Technology Ventures, investing in 12 tech startups since 2018, supporting innovation in Central Texas. Jeff also serves as an Adjunct Instructor at Concordia University Texas, teaching Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
His book, Fooled by Early Adopters, offers critical insights for first-time founders seeking to understand the path to product/market fit.
These are the top insights from Eversmann’s talk on the Ideas to Invoices podcast. He offers a roadmap for early-stage entrepreneurs, especially regarding strategic decision-making and avoiding missteps with early adopters.
Inspiration for the Book: Eversmann’s book, Fooled by Early Adopters, was inspired by his desire to help founders understand whether they’re spending money effectively on marketing, sales, and operations in early-stage startups.
Focus on Product-Market Fit: The first book in Eversmann’s series focuses on understanding product-market fit, which he sees as the foundation for startup success. He emphasizes finding the right customer segments early on.
The “Early Adopter Trap”: Eversmann warns that early adopters often try products not necessarily because they are the perfect fit but because they enjoy experimenting. This can mislead startups into believing they’ve found their ideal customer, leading them down potentially unproductive paths.
Mainstream Market Transition: To scale beyond early adopters, Eversmann references Geoffrey Moore’s concept of “crossing the chasm,” stressing the importance of moving from early adopters to the mainstream market by aligning the product to broader customer needs.
The Importance of Focused Investment: For startups, it’s critical to ensure that resources are allocated to the right areas at the right times. Eversmann highlights the importance of strategic spending in marketing, operations, and finance as a company scales.
Avoiding Distractions from the Wrong Customer: Eversmann advises entrepreneurs to be cautious about customers who may not align with the product’s core mission. This can lead to feature creep and a loss of focus on the intended roadmap.
Testing and Validation with MVPs: He advocates using Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) to gather feedback but emphasizes that feedback must be filtered to ensure alignment with the product’s long-term vision.
For more, listen to the entire podcast interview posted below. It’s also available on Apple, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartMedia, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Jeff Eversmann has built a dynamic career that spans Silicon Valley startups, commercial real estate, and private equity. With expertise in both technical and financial realms, Jeff has guided companies through transformative growth and strategic challenges. His MSEE, MBA, and CPA certifications, along with his experience in engineering technologies and securing early-stage investments, position him as a leader in navigating product/market fit.
Austin-based SweatPals has closed a $3 million funding round, led by a16z SPEEDRUN and Pear VC, in a significant milestone to drive the company’s mission of fostering connections through fitness.
According to Shahini, the funding round holds special meaning, not only for the capital but also for the partnerships it brings.
“When we launched SweatPals 18 months ago, we drew deep inspiration from The Cold Start Problem and the incredible marketplaces we admire,” Shahini wrote. “To now be partnering with Andrew Chen, a 16z partner, growth expert, and the author who inspired us, feels like a full-circle moment.”
The round was also guided by Pejman Nozad of Pear VC, whose inspiring journey as a fellow immigrant resonates with Mandi Zhou, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, and Shahini.
“Pejman’s story of resilience and vision serves as a powerful reminder of what’s possible with determination,” Shahini wrote.
According to Shahini, this funding wouldn’t have been possible without the unwavering belief of early backers, including Warren Shaeffer, who has been a steadfast advocate of SweatPals from the beginning. He also gave a special thanks to Robin Guo, who played a pivotal role in making the round happen, and to early supporters like Jared Simon, Fardad Zabetian, Prerna Sharma, and Parham A., whose initial investment of $800K was essential in setting the foundation.
SweatPals was created to bridge divides and unite people of all backgrounds through the shared fitness experience. The platform’s AI-driven features allow users to connect with workout partners, discover training opportunities, and share their health journeys while fostering genuine connections. “Fitness is a space where anyone, from any background, can come together. We’re not just building this for our community; we’re building it with them,” Shahini wrote.
The new funding will power SweatPals’ growth as they expand their digital platform with more innovative features, strategic partnerships, and wellness initiatives. The team is also actively hiring, with open positions for those excited to shape the future of fitness and community engagement.
“Most importantly, to our incredible community: every creator, fitness entrepreneur, and member who has embraced the vision, shared it with a friend, or attended an event—you are the heartbeat of SweatPals,” Shahini wrote. “Your belief was so strong that you collectively invested $800K in the last round. We’re not just building this for you—we’re building it with you, and we’re grateful for every step of this journey together.”
Austin-based MDisrupt, an AI-powered marketplace for healthcare technology, has secured a $1 million milestone-based investment from American Heart Association (AHA) Ventures.
The newly established venture firm from the AHA leads AHA’s investments and is designed to support groundbreaking innovations that align with the organization’s mission.
In tandem with this funding, MDisrupt and the AHA have entered into a service agreement to co-develop a platform to connect healthcare experts with innovators. This expansion will leverage the AHA’s vast network of clinicians, scientists, and business professionals. By integrating these resources into MDisrupt’s marketplace, the partnership aims to bridge the gap between innovation and clinical expertise.
MDisrupt, founded by Ruby Gadelrab, offers an AI-powered matchmaking platform that pairs healthcare and medtech companies with industry experts with over a decade of experience. This setup allows companies to access expert guidance in building clinically sound, impactful products. Gadelrab said in a news release, “We take care of all the contracting, liability insurance, and logistics, so clinicians and healthcare experts can focus on advising rather than the administrative tasks of industry work.”
This new collaboration with AHA Ventures will bring AHA members’ expertise to MDisrupt’s platform. Lisa Suennen, managing partner of AHA Ventures, explained, “People are looking for the expertise our members have because they want to apply the best evidence and science to their healthcare innovations. MDisrupt’s commitment to scientifically driven, evidence-based matchmaking aligns with our goals.”
Suennen noted that the AHA’s investment structure reflects their commitment to ensuring the platform’s development, explaining, “We provided three-quarters of the funding upfront, with the remaining quarter dependent on the successful beta launch of the co-developed product.” Set for a beta release in the latter half of 2025, the platform aims to facilitate referrals to experts, enabling innovators to apply science-backed insights throughout their development.
For MDisrupt, this partnership represents an opportunity to amplify the role of expert input in health tech. “Our mission is to help the most impactful healthcare products reach the market faster, with the right regulatory, clinical, and operational insights to make them truly viable,” Gadelrab said.
As MDisrupt and AHA Ventures bring this co-developed platform to life, both parties anticipate a significant impact on the quality and clinical relevance of next-generation healthcare and medtech solutions. Suennen concluded, “Our hope is for MDisrupt’s growth and success to bring more credibility and partners to the table, further elevating the standards for health technology.”
Austin-based Skimmer, a trailblazer in pool service management software, has announced a $74 million investment from Mainsail Partners, a significant boost to its mission of transforming the pool service industry.
This capital injection will allow Skimmer to expand its technology, enhance its team, and solidify its position as the leading platform for pool service businesses.
Since its founding in 2017, Skimmer has aimed to simplify the management of pool service operations, providing tools that streamline scheduling, route optimization, billing, and customer communication. More than 29,000 pool professionals use Skimmer to organize, scale, and grow their businesses while serving approximately 700,000 pools across North America.
“Our purpose at Skimmer has always been to help our customers build great businesses,” Jack Nelson, CEO of Skimmer, said in a news release. “With this investment from Mainsail, we can accelerate our vision for a more efficient and powerful platform for pool service professionals. This is a win for our customers, employees, and the industry.”
Skimmer’s partner in this next growth phase, Mainsail Partners, is a growth equity firm specializing in vertical SaaS (Software as a Service) companies. Gavin Turner, co-founder and Managing Partner of Mainsail noted, “Skimmer has established itself as a leader by building a robust product and a passionate team. We’re excited to support Skimmer as they innovate further and help customers scale, from start-up pool pros to dominant players in their markets.”
Peter Freeland and Shane Skiffington from Unbundled Capital, who have been instrumental in Skimmer’s growth since their initial investment in 2020, will continue their roles on Skimmer’s Board. They will be joined by Gavin Turner and Anthony Hayes from Mainsail Partners, bringing additional industry expertise. Freeland noted, “We’re incredibly proud of Skimmer’s journey and the talented team behind it. Partnering with Mainsail is a strategic move to continue creating value for customers and maintaining Skimmer’s leadership in the pool services market.”
This latest round of growth capital underscores Skimmer’s steady trajectory in the SaaS space and the rising demand for modern, streamlined solutions in traditionally manual industries like pool service and repair. The funds will support product innovation, new hires, and enhanced customer experience, benefiting the thousands of pool service professionals who rely on Skimmer to optimize their operations.
Austin Tech Week, one of the biggest Austin tech events of the year, is about to kick off.
Austin Startup Week is no more. Austin Tech Week is the new branding for an event that has occurred for the past 14 years in downtown Austin. With the growth and development of Austin as a tech hub, organizers decided a name change was in order.
Silicon Hills News has covered every Austin Startup/Tech Week. The event has grown from several hundred attendees to several thousand, as can be seen in Austin’s skyline. The city has changed dramatically in the past decade with the addition of Tesla, Oracle, and Zoho and the expansion of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Samsung campuses.
In addition, the U.S. Army Futures Command Center chose Austin in 2018 to establish its headquarters. This has spurred research and development and startups creating products for the military.
Austin entrepreneurs have created thousands of startups with numerous high-profile exits, such as HomeAway’s sale to Expedia, Indeed.com’s sale to Recruit, Opcity’s sale to Realtor.com, and Honest Dollar’s sale to Goldman Sachs.
Meanwhile, Austin has attracted more startups to its ecosystem, and homegrown startups like Icon, SparkCognition, Everly Health, Workrise, Wheel, The Zebra, and Zen Business have all raised money at a greater than $1 billion valuation.
Austin Tech Week occurs from October 28th to November 1st at Capital Factory and other venues downtown.
The week-long event offers a full lineup of activities, including keynote talks, panels, networking mixers, and a startup crawl on Friday night. Participants must register, and a ticket costs $29 to $59.
There will be keynote addresses and fireside chats with Joshua Baer, founder of Capital Factory, and Brett Hurt, Founder of Data.World, Jason Calacanis, Gretel Perera, and more.
Other highlights include a headshot studio powered by StudioPod during the Women in Tech track on Monday, networking opportunities over coffee or cocktails, and downtown happy hours at Inn Cahoots, Rivian, Fareground Food Hall, and Speakeasy.
The event also features offsite health and wellness events, such as FREE Barry’s and RIDE Indoor Cycling classes, the recovery lounge at Swift Fit Events, pickleball meetups, and more.
Austin Tech Week features nine educational tracks on women in tech, innovation, fundraising, AI, and more.
The week wraps up on Friday with AustinStartupCrawl, which features dozens of Austin’s hottest tech companies, live music, and free food and drinks.
ALM Ortho, a medical technology company focused on orthopedic care solutions, has announced the successful close of a $1 million funding round led by the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) and Keiretsu Forum.
The investment aims to accelerate the development and commercialization of ALM Ortho’s advanced implant solutions, which address critical needs in complex limb restoration. The company, founded in 2020, is based in Scarborough, ME.
The new funding will support ALM Ortho’s mission to transform outcomes for patients undergoing challenging limb restoration surgeries. Specializing in areas where conventional options often fall short—such as osseointegration, limb lengthening, joint arthroplasty revisions, and trauma recovery—the company collaborates closely with surgeons to create implants and tools that fill significant gaps in orthopedic treatment. By focusing on these complex cases, ALM Ortho seeks to bring renewed hope and enhanced functionality to patients facing limited restoration options.
“ALM Ortho’s technology promises to be life-changing for a large segment of amputees,” Lance Adams, a CTAN’s Deal Team member, said in a news release. “We strive to make positive returns on our investments, and it’s particularly rewarding to support innovations that can improve people’s lives in our communities.”
Paul DeJuliis, ALM Ortho’s Chairman and Co-Founder, shared his vision for the future: “This investment enables us to bring our innovative products to market faster, empowering surgeons to provide solutions that offer patients a greater chance at full recovery. We’re excited to take this next step in revolutionizing how complex limb restoration is approached.”
The $1 million Series A equity round will fuel ALM Ortho’s expansion of its product development pipeline and help scale its operations. Positioned as a pioneer in orthopedic technology, ALM Ortho is set to play a transformative role in limb restoration solutions, advancing new standards in patient care.
Austin-based SchooLinks, a leading software platform providing College and Career Readiness (CCR) resources to K-12 students across the U.S., today announced an $80 million minority growth investment led by Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE).
Additional Series B funding round investors include Stephens Group, Strada Education Network, and American Student Assistance (ASA).
This new capital infusion will enable SchooLinks to expand its suite of products and enhance its growing ecosystem, connecting K-12 students with higher education institutions and employers.
The need for comprehensive college career readiness solutions has never been more pressing. Recent data shows that only 1 in 5 high school graduates in the class of 2023 are prepared to succeed in core introductory college classes, according to an analysis of ACT scores. SchooLinks addresses this challenge through its innovative CCR platform, which engages students through assessments, gamified lessons, scholarship applications, and interactive videos. The platform is designed to help students and families navigate the post-graduation landscape with individualized roadmaps tailored to their unique skills, interests, and goals.
Founded by Katie Fang, a Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur, SchooLinks aims to democratize access to CCR resources for all students. Silicon Hills News profiled Schoolinks shortly after its launch in 2015.
Now operational in 40 states, the platform has become a vital tool for public school districts. It offers a modern solution that meets the specific needs of administrators, counselors, Career and Technical Education (CTE) departments, students, families, and workforce development professionals. SchooLinks is also setting a new standard for student engagement, outpacing its peers in the CCR space and addressing the country’s workforce development challenges at a deeper level.
“I’m thrilled to be partnering with mission-aligned investors in this latest funding round,” Katie Fang, CEO of SchooLinks, said in a news release. “SGE brings invaluable experience in SaaS and the education industry, which will help us evolve our platform and expand our workforce solutions. This investment will enable us to extend our impact from school districts to employers, accelerating our growth and expanding our reach.”
Josh Elser, Managing Director of SGE, praised SchooLinks for redefining the CCR space. “They’ve achieved product-market fit and transformed the CCR industry in ways not seen in the past 25 years. We’re excited to support Katie and her team as they enter this next phase of growth.”
SchooLinks has seen exponential growth over the past three years, serving 15 times the number of districts and ten times the number of students since its Series A round. The platform is now recognized as one of the most reliable and innovative CCR solutions in the market, positioning itself as a crucial player in workforce development by bridging the gap between education and employment.
Ryan Morrow, Managing Director at The Stephens Group, added, “We believe SchooLinks is poised for even greater success with its commitment to product innovation and best-in-class customer service. This investment will help further solidify its status as the premier CCR platform for K-12 students.”
With this new round of funding, SchooLinks is set to expand its offerings and continue its mission of equipping students with the tools they need to succeed after graduation—whether that path leads to higher education, technical training, or direct entry into the workforce.
Max Hoberman, founder of Certain Affinity. Photo by John Davidson.
Keywords Studios, a global leader in creative and technology-driven solutions for the video game and entertainment industries, has announced an agreement to acquire Certain Affinity, a prominent Austin-based game development studio.
This acquisition strengthens Keywords Studios’ presence in North America.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2006 by Max Hoberman, Certain Affinity has played a pivotal role in shaping some of the most successful gaming franchises, including Halo and Call of Duty. The studio has collaborated on nearly 20 projects within these two legendary series, contributing to other major titles such as Hogwarts Legacy and DOOM.
In 2017, Certain Affinity sold a 20 percent stake in the company to Leyou Technologies Holdings Limited of Hong Kong for a $10 million investment. It also received a $5 million investment from Capstar Partners, an Austin-based private investment firm.
With over 180 professionals working out of Austin and Toronto, Ontario, Certain Affinity’s reach is far-reaching. The company’s ongoing efforts include EXODUS, an eagerly awaited game developed by Archetype Entertainment, a Wizards of the Coast subsidiary, and Hasbro.
Hoberman, Certain Affinity’s founder and CEO, and President & COO Paul Sams will continue leading the studio after the acquisition.
“We are thrilled to welcome Certain Affinity to the Keywords Group,” said Bertrand Bodson, CEO of Keywords Studios. “Their reputation in the industry is exemplary, and their expertise will greatly enhance our Create division, particularly in the U.S. and Canada. We look forward to working closely with Max, Paul, and their talented team as we drive growth together.”
Hoberman also expressed excitement about the partnership, especially amid a challenging market environment. “At this most difficult time in the market, we’re thrilled to be able to provide stability and a supportive home for our team. Keywords have shown immense respect for our culture and talent, and we are excited about their commitment to invest in our future,” he said. “Paul and I look forward to expanding our co-development capabilities, refining our lead development, and contributing to the growth of Keywords’ Create division.”
As part of Keywords Studios, Certain Affinity is poised to continue its legacy of working on blockbuster games while expanding its footprint in the highly competitive gaming industry.
Uber Technologies and autonomous vehicle startup Avride have announced a multiyear strategic partnership to bring Avride’s autonomous delivery robots and vehicles to Uber and Uber Eats.
The partnership aims to improve delivery and mobility services by integrating Avride’s autonomous technology into Uber’s platform.
The collaboration will launch with Avride’s sidewalk delivery robots on Uber Eats in Austin in the coming weeks, expanding to Dallas and Jersey City, New Jersey, later this year. Next year, the partnership will extend to riders, with Avride’s autonomous vehicles set to offer ride-hailing services in Dallas.
Once the integration is live, Uber Eats customers and riders in select locations may have the option to choose an Avride delivery robot or autonomous vehicle to fulfill their trip. This move will further enhance the user experience by offering efficient and innovative alternatives to traditional deliveries and rides.
Avride, known for its dual expertise in autonomous cars and delivery robots, is already making commercial deliveries in the U.S. and South Korea. Autonomous cars are also being tested on public roads. This shared technology allows Avride to provide seamless, scalable solutions for both mobility and delivery.
“We are excited to partner with Uber as we scale our operations and work together to further improve the delivery experience for both consumers and merchants,” Dmitry Polishchuk, CEO of Avride, said in a news release. “We plan to expand the total fleet of Avride robots operating within Uber Eats to hundreds in 2025, followed by the launch of our robotaxi service.”
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi added, “Autonomous mobility and delivery hold a ton of promise for consumers and communities. We’re excited to partner with Avride to bring their technology to more people in more places as they continue to scale.”
This partnership, with the potential to drastically change the delivery and mobility industries, underscores Uber’s continued push into autonomous technology and Avride’s growing influence in the market.
About Uber
Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement. Since launching in 2010, Uber has completed over 52 billion trips and continues to expand its platform to serve the needs of both people and businesses by transforming how goods, food, and people move through cities.
About Avride
Austin-based Avride is a leader in autonomous technology, developing and operating autonomous cars and delivery robots. Founded in 2017, Avride is committed to addressing current and future mobility and delivery needs with a focus on scalability and technological innovation.
Austin-based DefectDojo, a pioneer in scalable application security, has raised $7 million in Series A funding to meet growing market demand for its platform and to enhance its product offerings.
The funding round, led by Iolar Ventures and Aspenwood Ventures, will enable DefectDojo to accelerate innovation, expand its market presence, and introduce new Pro features designed to deepen Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) intelligence and automation.
With over 38 million downloads and integrations with over 180 security tools, DefectDojo has established itself as a trusted platform for application security and vulnerability management. It is relied upon by many users, including Fortune 10 companies, global banks, government agencies, startups, and individual consultants. As the only open-source solution in the ASPM space, DefectDojo offers a unified platform that automates workflows, aggregates data from security tools, and delivers actionable insights to help organizations effectively manage and mitigate vulnerabilities.
“This investment validates our commitment to transforming how organizations approach AppSec and security as a whole,” said Greg Anderson, Founder & CEO of DefectDojo. “We started our open-source community over a decade ago to streamline repetitive tasks and empower security professionals to focus on strategic initiatives. As we continue developing our DevSecOps platform, we aim to enable security to scale and evolve to meet future challenges.”
DefectDojo’s Pro Edition, now available, builds on the Community Edition by offering enterprise scalability, enhanced visualization, and premium support. The Pro Edition introduces:
Enhanced Automation: Streamlining workflows to reduce manual tasks in AppSec management
Advanced Analytics: Providing more profound insights into vulnerabilities and enabling data-driven security decisions
Data Enrichment: Leveraging Exploit Prediction Scoring to offer more comprehensive intelligence on threats
The company remains committed to its open-source roots. It plans to continue investing in its community-driven platform, which has become one of the most popular open-source security projects.
“DefectDojo has fundamentally changed how security is managed within organizations,” said Lars Leckie, Managing Director of Aspenwood Ventures. “Their unique combination of open-source innovation and enterprise-grade capabilities has earned the trust of organizations of all sizes.”
Mesa, an Austin-based homeowner membership platform, has officially launched, raising $9.2 million in seed funding to address what its founders call a “home cost crisis.”
The $7.2 million seed round was led by Streamlined Ventures with participation from Starting Line, Assurant Ventures, Vera Equity, Redwood Trust Horizons, and Clocktower Ventures, among others. Mesa also secured an additional $2 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank. The funding will help the company scale its team, expand membership offerings, and add new partners to its Mesa Homeowners Network.
With Americans spending more than $6 trillion annually on homeownership, the costs associated with owning a home are at an all-time high, eating up over a third of household incomes. Co-founders Kelley Halpin and Peyton Hayslette saw an opportunity to provide value back to homeowners, similar to the loyalty rewards available for everyday purchases like coffee, airline tickets, and hotel stays.
“Our vision for homeowner membership is to give you value back for every dollar you spend on your home,” said Halpin, CEO of Mesa. “Consumers get rewards for almost everything they purchase, but when it comes to the biggest expense—your home—there’s no incentive. Mesa changes that.”
Innovative Products for Homeowners
Mesa’s first offerings, the Mesa Mortgage Marketplace and Mesa Homeowners Card are designed to provide rewards and benefits specifically for homeowners:
The Mesa Mortgage Marketplace: Homeowners can earn 1% of their loan value in rewards points when they originate or refinance a mortgage through Mesa’s marketplace. This equates to $5,000 in rewards on a $500,000 loan. Mesa’s marketplace introduces a new mortgage membership experience similar to a credit card rewards system.
The Mesa Homeowners Card: This premium credit card rewards homeowners for everyday expenses like monthly mortgage payments, utilities, groceries, repairs, and home goods. Mesa Points can be redeemed at partner brands for travel bookings or reinvested in the home through mortgage payments or refinancing fees.
Looking ahead, Mesa plans to expand its rewards program to include home warranty plans, HELOC originations, insurance products, and more, creating a comprehensive rewards ecosystem for homeowners.
Strategic Partnerships and Industry Leadership
Mesa has teamed up with Visa as a strategic partner, leveraging Visa’s digital payment capabilities to enhance the value of homeownership through rewards. Erin Pursell, Vice President of New Business Development at Visa, expressed excitement about the collaboration: “Our partnership with Mesa brings new solutions to homeowners, aligning with Visa’s mission to empower everyone, everywhere, and helping relieve the financial pressures of homeownership.”
Mesa’s executive team includes fintech veterans from Uber, Robinhood, Bilt Rewards, Block, and American Express. Notable team members include Shannon Cusick, Head of Partnerships, who led business development at Peloton and Amex, and CFO Nadia Asoyan, Robinhood’s first finance hire.
By redefining homeownership through rewards, Mesa is positioned to become a key player in making the most significant financial commitment in many people’s lives more manageable and rewarding.
Lucky Energy’s CEO and Founder, Richard Laver, founded the lifestyle brand to inspire people to persevere and keep going, as he had learned to do.
Austin-based Lucky Energy, the better-for-you energy drink brand, has closed an oversubscribed $11.75 million Series A funding round led by Brand Foundry Ventures.
Other investors include Imaginary Ventures, Sapphire Sport, and Sugar Capital. This latest round brings the company’s total funding to $26.5 million.
Launched in late 2023, Lucky Energy is already making waves in the energy drink market, defying expectations with rapid growth. The newly secured funds will accelerate its expansion into major retailers by 2025.
Founded by beverage entrepreneur Richard Laver, Lucky Energy has positioned itself as a category disruptor. The company takes a “less is more” approach, using simple ingredients and aiming to inspire consumers to persevere and take risks. “I saw a white space in the market to create a product that entertains today’s consumers and motivates our community to relentlessly chase their dreams,” Laver said.
Lucky Energy has five flavors with super ingredients, including maca and taurine.
Lucky Energy’s leadership team includes industry veterans like Hamid Saify, the new Chief Marketing Officer formerly with Liquid Death, and Aaron Sorelle, the Chief Growth Officer, who joins from C4 Energy. The team also includes Tyler Larkin as SVP of Sales and Distribution, who brings key expertise from Liquid Death. The brand plans to use the Series A funding to grow awareness, support strategic partnerships, and scale its retail presence to reach over 8,000 retail locations by the end of the year.
With five flavors featuring super ingredients like maca, taurine, ginseng, and caffeine, Lucky Energy offers a cleaner alternative to traditional energy drinks. As demand grows for healthier options, investors see tremendous potential. Rico Mallozzi, Principal at Sapphire Sport, noted, “With the top three energy brands over 20 years old, the market is ripe for an anti-brand like Lucky Energy. Its rebellious approach and unique brand identity have broad consumer appeal.”
In addition to expanding its retail footprint, Lucky Energy is focused on creating out-of-the-box content, consumer rewards, and innovative product launches that empower its loyal customer base to live boldly and fully embrace life’s challenges. Laver’s vision for Lucky Energy isn’t just about selling a drink—it’s about building a lifestyle brand that connects with consumers on a deeper level.
From left to right: Hamid Saify (Chief Marketing Officer), Hunter Kessler (Chief of Staff), Richard Laver (Founder and CEO), Tyler Larkin (SVP of Sales and Distribution), and Aaron Sorelle (Chief Growth Officer)
Andrew Mitchell, Founder of Brand Foundry Ventures, expressed excitement about Lucky Energy’s future, stating, “We believe Lucky Energy is poised to become a major player in the $100 Billion plus energy drink category. Its clean energy focus and talented team set it apart as a brand to watch.”
With its disruptive mindset, experienced team, and growing consumer base, Lucky Energy is well on its way to becoming a leader in the energy drink market, inspiring its customers to “keep going” with each sip.
Colossal Biosciences, the world’s first de-extinction company, has funded The Colossal Foundationwith $50 million to apply advanced technologies to wildlife conservation and ecosystem restoration.
“This is new capital that we are bringing to conservation efforts,” said Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences.
The foundation will focus on rapidly delivering Colossal’s innovative solutions to conservation efforts around the globe, working closely with local communities and partners to protect species facing extinction.
“We started The Colossal Foundation to ensure that we are delivering our technology solutions into the hands of those who can benefit the most,” Lamm said. “The foundation expands our capacity to quickly bring new technologies into the world, driving innovation in conservation while providing much-needed funding to modernize conservation efforts.”
The Colossal Foundation’s flagship conservation projects align with a ten-year strategic plan. They will focus on species where Colossal’s technologies—such as genetic rescue, biobanking, and the creation of reference genomes—can have the most significant impact. By leveraging advances in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and computational biology, the foundation aims to enhance understanding of species behavior and ecosystems, proactively allowing conservationists to prevent extinction.
The Foundation is launching with three core programs:
Saving Today’s At-Risk Species: Partnering with conservation groups, the foundation will apply Colossal’s genetic rescue technologies to save species on the brink of extinction, including the Vaquita, Northern White Rhino, Sumatran Rhino, and Red Wolf. The long-term goal is to develop a toolkit that simplifies genetic rescue processes for conservationists.
R&D for Conservation: Colossal will fund and deploy AI, machine learning, and data-driven technologies to understand animal behavior and ecosystems. Current projects include using drones to detect anomalies in elephant habitats and an AI-powered orphaned elephant monitoring system.
Ensuring Tomorrow’s Biodiversity: The Colossal BioVault initiative will establish a global biobank to preserve tissue samples from endangered species. The biobank will act as an “insurance policy” for biodiversity, safeguarding genetic diversity in the event of extinction.
The foundation’s work will begin with crucial species-focused projects. These include efforts to stabilize the critically endangered Vaquita, with only 10 to 13 left in the Gulf of California, and support for Indonesia’s Sumatran rhino conservation program through advanced reproductive technologies.
Matt James, Executive Director of the Colossal Foundation, emphasized the urgent need for innovative conservation tools. “There is no more time to wait to protect the species we have on Earth today if we want to make sure they are still here in 10, 50, and 500 years,” he said.
The Colossal Foundation is set to empower conservation efforts globally, bringing cutting-edge science into the hands of those working to preserve our planet’s most vulnerable species.
Colossal Biosciences, founded in 2021, has raised $235.5 million to de-extinct species. Lamm founded the company with George Church, a Harvard geneticist and pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic biology. Colossal also spun out Form Bio, a software platform, which raised $30 million. The company is based in Dallas but has offices in Austin, Boston, Santa Cruz, California, and Melbourne, Australia.
Colossal Biosciences is pioneering species de-extinction using CRISPR technology to restore endangered ecosystems. The company aims to use these technologies to protect critically endangered species. It is working to bring the Woolly Mammoth, Thylacine, and Dodo birds back to their natural habitats.
PepsiCo, Inc., announced on Tuesday a $1.2 billion acquisition deal with Austin-based Garza Food Ventures LLC, also known as Siete Foods.
The acquisition is expected to significantly enhance PepsiCo’s portfolio by integrating Siete’s authentic Mexican-American brand while expanding its presence in the better-for-you food market. This strategic move aligns with PepsiCo’s efforts to diversify its offerings with products that meet the growing demand for healthier, more inclusive food options.
Founded in 2014, Siete Foods is renowned for its heritage-inspired tortillas, salsas, seasonings, cookies, and snacks, which have become a staple in U.S. grocery stores, club outlets, and organic retailers. With its roots in Austin, Siete Foods started as a family business focused on creating delicious food that pays homage to Mexican-American culinary traditions.
Siete makes grain-free chips, salsas, grain-free tortillas, cookies, seasonings, and more.
According to Pitchbook, Siete, founded by Miguel Garza, Veronica Garza, and Aida Garza, has raised $91 million to date. It has also gone through the SKU accelerator as part of its portfolio of consumer products goods companies. The company has 132 employees.
“The Garza family has built a very special brand,” PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said in a news release. “Their passion for making and sharing food shines through in every Siete product, and that’s a passion we share at PepsiCo.” He emphasized the importance of authenticity in the Siete brand and PepsiCo’s commitment to expanding its multicultural portfolio with products that resonate with diverse consumers.
Miguel Garza, CEO and Co-Founder of Siete Foods, echoed this sentiment, noting that this partnership with PepsiCo marks a new chapter for the company. “We hope this next chapter for Siete serves as inspiration for other Latino businesses, showing that it’s possible to build a thriving brand that honors our heritage and celebrates our culture,” Garza said.
The acquisition, expected to close in the first half of 2025, pending regulatory approval, underscores PepsiCo’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and inclusivity. The company’s broader vision, guided by the PepsiCo Positive (pep+) strategy, focuses on sustainability and human capital, aiming to inspire positive change while promoting growth within planetary boundaries.
PepsiCo has enlisted Centerview Partners LLC and Citi as financial advisors for the transaction, while Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP provides legal counsel. Siete is being advised by Lazard on the financial side, with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, and Armbrust & Brown, PLLC acting as legal advisors.
This acquisition positions PepsiCo to further diversify its offerings and cater to an ever-evolving consumer base seeking authentic and health-conscious food options. It will also help preserve the cultural legacy behind Siete’s unique products.
The Garza family gets it all the time: “What is it like to work with your family?” Around here, family isn’t just relatives. It’s everyone who walks in and out of our workplace, or rather, our Siete home.
mbue, an AI-first vertical SaaS company focused on automating the architectural review process, announced the closure of a $1.8 million pre-seed funding round.
This strategic investment will accelerate mbue’s mission to reduce costly architectural errors through advanced AI, setting the stage for a more efficient and error-free construction industry.
Founded to build a better world by minimizing architectural mistakes, mbue has developed an innovative web-based platform that uses AI to review architectural drawings instantly. The platform currently focuses on change control, with plans to expand into cross-coordination functionality and code compliance in the future. By offering architects and builders a tool that reduces time, cost, and liability exposure, mbue aims to eliminate inefficiencies that plague the construction process.
“mbue was born from a frustration I personally experienced as an architect,” Jean-Pierre Trou, CEO and Founder of mbue said in a news release. “I’ve spent countless hours manually reviewing thousands of drawings. It’s astonishing that in 2024, we’re still relying on PDF tools to manually redline drawings, leading to over $100 billion in wasted costs annually due to errors, changes, and omissions. mbue’s technology will change that by identifying and correcting costly mistakes through AI, with a future goal of generating flawless, data-driven designs.”
The oversubscribed $1.8 million pre-seed round saw participation from notable investors, including Techstars, Geek Ventures, 2045 Ventures, Spatial Capital, Factorial Capital, Everywhere Ventures, and The MBA Fund. This funding will support mbue’s platform development, team expansion, and enhanced customer support, positioning the company to lead the market in AI-driven architectural review.
The company is dedicated to empowering architects and builders to focus on high-impact work by automating the quality control process with user-friendly, AI-powered tools.
Knit, an AI-driven platform designed to streamline consumer research, has raised $9 million in its latest funding round.
Led by Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, the round saw participation from new investors, including Osage Venture Partners, GFT Ventures, Visible Ventures, and Massive Ventures, along with existing investors Silicon Road Ventures, Felton Group, and Alumni Ventures. The company has partnered with major brands such as T-Mobile, NASCAR, the WNBA, Mars Wrigley, Overtime, and JBL.
Knit’s platform enables insights professionals and researchers to conduct comprehensive consumer research in a fraction of the required time. The platform combines quantitative and qualitative data within the same survey, allowing for agency-quality insights at DIY costs. Over the past year, Knit has experienced rapid growth, onboarding more than 30 enterprise brands and increasing its annual recurring revenue fivefold.
The new funding has fueled the launch of Knit’s latest offering, Report-Ready Insights, which leverages Researcher-Driven AI to streamline the most time-consuming aspects of research. “At Knit, our goal has always been to make researchers’ jobs easier,” Aneesh Dhawan, Co-Founder and CEO of Knit, said in a news release. “Report-Ready Insights allows our customers to go from business questions to stakeholder-ready reports in days, without compromising speed, cost, or quality.”
Knit’s AI platform optimizes research by working alongside human researchers, making the process faster and more customizable. “Unlike off-the-shelf AI tools that deliver generic outputs, Knit starts with the researcher,” Raahish Kalaria, Co-Founder and CTO of Knit, said in a news release. “Our AI enhances the expertise of researchers rather than replacing it.”
David Hall, Managing Partner of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, expressed enthusiasm about Knit’s innovative approach. “Knit’s rapid adoption by leading brands speaks to the value they provide in the consumer insights,” Hall said.
Knit continues to make waves in the industry. It recently presented with Mars Wrigley at the Corporate Research Conference in New York and is planning to present with T-Mobile at The Market Research Event in October 2024.
Founded in 2021, Knit is an AI-native platform that automates the consumer research process for enterprises. The company aims to democratize access to high-quality, agency-level research, enabling brands to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
GreenLite, a construction technology company focused on making permitting faster and more predictable for builders, developers, and municipalities, announced it has raised $28.5 million in a Series A funding round.
The investment, led by Craft Ventures with participation from 53 Stations, Trust Ventures, and LiveOak Ventures, comes less than a year after GreenLite’s launch from stealth. The funding will enhance GreenLite’s technology platform, expand its Private Plan Review service, and enter new markets, furthering its work with local government agencies.
Traditional construction permitting processes have long been plagued by complexity and unpredictability, creating roadblocks for developers and municipalities alike. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened these inefficiencies, as local governments prioritized other matters, delaying permit applications and contributing to economic slowdowns that cost billions annually.
“Across the U.S., there are 20,000 jurisdictions with 500,000 different forms and processes for building permits, but 95% of the applicable building code is the same,” James Gallagher, Co-Founder and CEO of GreenLite, said in a news release. “As a Private Provider, we consolidate these differences and allow developers to work with one privatized regulatory agency—GreenLite. This streamlines development timelines, saves millions of dollars, and supports local governments in ways that traditional permitting software cannot.”
GreenLite’s technology and Private Plan Review service automate the permitting process across jurisdictions, reducing the time and labor required by 75%. As the first software-driven Private Provider in the industry, GreenLite’s platform integrates construction plans, zoning data, local building codes, and expert compliance reviews into a single system, helping developers and governments streamline and modernize the construction permitting process.
“The most driven founders are those who’ve lived through the problem they’re solving,” Bryan Rosenblatt, Partner at Craft Ventures, said in a news release.
British Airways has announced an expansion of its service from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) to London Heathrow (LHR). Starting March 31, 2025, the airline will offer twice-daily nonstop flights between Austin and London, six days a week.
The new flights will be serviced by Boeing 787-10 aircraft, British Airways’ most fuel-efficient model. The schedule includes:
London to Austin: Departs 11:50 a.m., arrives 4:00 p.m.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson noted that this expansion enhances the city’s global presence and strengthens economic opportunities in business and tourism. Airport CEO Ghizlane Badawi highlighted the flexibility the new schedule offers passengers, while British Airways’ Neil Chernoff celebrated the ten-year milestone of the Austin-London route.
Austin, known for its vibrant music scene and innovative tech landscape, has earned another accolade: the 10th-best city in the U.S. for hybrid working. Balancing remote work with in-office days has become a priority for the modern workforce, and Austin has proven itself to be a top contender in this new era of flexibility.
In a world where hybrid working is on the rise, a staggering 42% of office workers are willing to take a 10% pay cut to enjoy the flexibility of remote work. Only 16% would even consider a new role that offers no remote days, highlighting the importance of work-life balance in today’s job market. With more than one in five Americans predicted to work remotely by 2025, cities offering the right amenities and opportunities are becoming increasingly desirable.
According to a recent USA TODAY Blueprint analysis examining factors like internet access, commute times, cost of living, and average wages, Austin stood out among the best cities for hybrid working. The city ranked in the top 15 for four of the ten factors analyzed, securing its place as a top choice for those who crave the flexibility of hybrid work.
One of Austin’s key strengths is its lightning-fast internet, with an average download speed of 426Mbps, making it the 6th fastest in the nation. This ensures remote workers can seamlessly connect to virtual meetings and collaborate with colleagues without a hitch. Additionally, Austin boasts the 9th highest number of free WiFi hotspots, allowing employees to work from cafes and parks or while exploring the city’s diverse neighborhoods.
For those days when in-office work is required, Austin’s 13th-lowest commute time—just under 23 minutes—adds to the city’s appeal. The short commute allows workers to maximize their time and maintain a healthy work-life balance, whether heading into the office or returning to the comfort of their homes.
Moreover, Austin’s strong economy is reflected in its median household income of $89,415, the seventh best among the cities analyzed. This high-income level, combined with the city’s other strengths, makes Austin an ideal destination for those seeking a fulfilling hybrid working experience.
As the demand for hybrid work continues to grow, Austin’s combination of fast internet, abundant free WiFi, short commutes, and competitive wages positions it as a leader in the future of work. For those who call Austin home or for those considering a move, the city offers the perfect blend of flexibility, productivity, and quality of life.
Aalo has announced the successful completion of a $27 million Series A funding round in a significant development for Austin’s burgeoning tech scene. The investment will accelerate the company’s vision of a future where humanity’s growth is untethered from its impact on Earth, focusing on the mass production of small nuclear reactors in gigafactories.
Pioneering Clean Energy with Small Nuclear Reactors
The company aims to make clean energy accessible anywhere, anytime, by developing small nuclear reactors. These reactors, designed to be produced at scale in gigafactories, promise predictable low costs and shortened construction times—key factors in making clean energy a viable and sustainable option for diverse applications worldwide.
Rapid Growth and Significant Milestones
This Series A funding comes just over a year after the company raised $6.26 million in a seed round, underscoring the rapid pace at which it advances its technology and scaling operations. In the past nine months alone, the company has:
Expanded its team from 2 to 15, including key hires from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) MARVEL program, executives from major utilities, and leaders from other large energy companies.
Completed the conceptual design of the Aalo-1, their first commercial reactor.
Signed a siting Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the DOE to deploy an experimental Aalo reactor, the Aalo-X, at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site in Idaho.
Submitted a Regulatory Engagement Plan (REP) to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), with agreement from a potential major customer, to develop a fleet of Aalo-1 reactors.
Looking Ahead: Scaling and Innovation
With the new funding, the company plans to accelerate its progress further. The Series A funds will be used to:
Expand the team to 30 by bringing in leadership talent across various domains, including manufacturing, sales, engineering, finance, and product development.
The company will open a new Factory HQ in Austin, where it will demonstrate the mass manufacturing of the Aalo-1 reactor.
Collaborate with the NRC to continue de-risking the licensing process for the Aalo-1.
Develop a non-nuclear prototype, the Aalo-0, to showcase the technology’s economics and manufacturability.
Establish a commercial pathway for Aalo Fuel (LEU+ UZrH).
Investor Support and the Path Forward
The company’s ambitious plans are supported by a diverse group of investors, including 50Y, Valor Equity Partners, Harpoon Ventures, Crosscut, SNR, Alumni Ventures, Preston Werner, Earth Venture, Garage Capital, Wayfinder, Jeff Dean, and Nucleation Capital. These investors bring a wide array of expertise and support, driven by the technology’s potential applications—from deep tech and clean baseload energy for data centers to military applications and reliable energy solutions for developing countries.
A New Chapter in Clean Energy
The company’s founders expressed their excitement and gratitude for the backing they’ve received, marking this milestone as the beginning of the next chapter in their journey to usher in a cleaner, more abundant future. As they continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in clean energy, all eyes will be on Austin as this innovative start-up leads the charge into the Second Atomic Age.
The first half of 2024 has witnessed a remarkable surge in data center development across the United States, with Austin and San Antonio seeing explosive growth.
In a new CBRE report, Austin and San Antonio are considered secondary data center markets. Their combined under-construction activity has quadrupled from a year ago to 463.5 MW.
Hyperscalers and AI providers remain key drivers of growth in the data center market, with developers increasingly focusing on the suburbs of Austin for new development due to land availability. This trend has led to a significant increase in under-construction activity in the Austin metropolitan area, which saw its capacity jump from 88 MW in H2 2023 to 463.5 MW in H1 2024.
Growth primarily occurs north and south of the Austin metropolitan area as developers seek to capitalize on the region’s strategic location and favorable business environment.
The CBRE report highlights the unprecedented growth, tightening vacancy rates, and evolving market dynamics shaping the industry.
As the data center market continues to expand at an unprecedented pace, the challenges of power availability and infrastructure lead times will be critical factors to watch. However, with no signs of slowing demand, the industry is poised for continued growth, driven by the ongoing digital transformation and the increasing adoption of cloud and AI technologies.
Surge in Supply and Record-Low Vacancy Rates
Supply in primary markets, including top data center hubs like Northern Virginia, Dallas, and Chicago, increased by 10%, or 515 megawatts (MW), in H1 2024, with a year-over-year increase of 24%, or 1,100.5 MW. Despite this increase in supply, demand has been so robust that the overall vacancy rate for primary markets fell to a record-low 2.8%, down from 3.3% a year earlier. Similarly, secondary markets saw their vacancy rates plummet from 12.7% to 9.7% over the same period.
This tightening of vacancy rates reflects the intense competition for data center space as businesses, especially those in the cloud and AI sectors, continue to expand their digital infrastructure to meet growing demands.
Under-Construction Activity Hits Record Highs
The report also notes a staggering 69% year-over-year increase in under-construction activity in primary markets, reaching a record-high 3,871.8 MW. However, the rapid pace of construction has been met with challenges, primarily due to a shortage of available power and longer lead times for electrical infrastructure. These factors have delayed construction completions, creating a backlog in meeting the burgeoning demand.
Preleasing Dominates the Market
Demand for new data center capacity remains robust, with nearly 80% or 3,056.4 MW of the 3,871.8 MW under construction in primary markets already preleased. While cloud providers continue to be the dominant players in leasing available power capacity, artificial intelligence (AI) providers also drive considerable demand, reflecting the broader adoption of AI technologies and the associated need for vast computing power.
Pricing Trends and Site Selection
Despite the rapid increase in supply, pricing in primary markets continues to climb, albeit slower than in previous years. The average monthly asking rate for a 250- to 500-kilowatt (kW) requirement increased 7% in H1 2024 to $174.06 per kW/month. This increase reflects the ongoing shortage of available supply, particularly in markets where power availability remains the top consideration in site selection.
Colocation Market Insights
The colocation segment of the market has also seen significant activity, with the overall vacancy rate remaining at a record-low 1.8%. This low vacancy and the continued supply shortage have driven prices higher. Under-construction capacity in this segment is nearly fully preleased, highlighting the continued demand for flexible, scalable data center solutions.
The Texas State Capitol aerial view with the Austin skyline in the background.
DARPA has announced the selection of five leading technology accelerators across the United States as official DARPA Commercial Accelerators, a move designed to speed up the commercialization and scaling of innovative technologies funded by the agency. These accelerators will transform early-stage technologies into market-ready solutions with significant potential impact.
The selected DARPA Commercial Accelerators include:
Wireless Research Center of North Carolina (Wake Forest, North Carolina)
These regional accelerators are strategically positioned to tap into top-tier commercial and entrepreneurial talent, connect DARPA-funded companies with private investment capital, and provide essential training and mentoring. They will also focus on techno-economic market mapping, financial analysis, deal sourcing, and early-stage company building.
DARPA’s Commercial Strategy team, which leads the agency’s efforts to prevent adversarial influence in DARPA-funded technologies, will collaborate closely with these accelerators. The goal is to ensure that the technologies remain accessible to the United States and its allies while scaling rapidly for economic and national security benefits.
The DARPA Commercial Accelerators will build on the success of the agency’s Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative (EEI) pilot program. Launched in 2022, the EEI program has helped DARPA performers raise over $1 billion in private investment capital and launch more than 21 new products, services, and capabilities. Additionally, U.S. corporations have invested $639 million in acquiring DARPA early-stage technologies.
“DARPA’s mission remains steadfast in pushing the boundaries of science and technology to prevent and create technological surprise,” said DARPA Chief of Commercial Strategy Sha-Chelle Manning. “With these regional accelerators, we can ensure more DARPA-funded teams can recruit top talent, develop robust go-to-market strategies, raise capital, and scale operations, turning groundbreaking technology into high value for national, economic, and societal impact.”
By leveraging the unique regional capabilities of universities, labs, and demonstration sites, the DARPA Commercial Accelerators will help de-risk the market inefficiencies and business risks that often hinder the rapid commercialization of emerging technologies. This initiative is expected to have far-reaching implications for the defense and commercial sectors, driving innovation and strengthening national security.
To further support the burgeoning startup ecosystem in Central Texas, the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) has announced the launch of Version 2.0 of its highly successful Startup Success Package.
This upgraded package now includes over $550,000 in startup credits and offers, significantly boosting early-stage companies as they navigate the challenging growth phase.
Building on the success of the initial package, which saw more than 60% of participating founders leverage the available resources, Version 2.0 brings even more tools and support to the table. The expansion reflects CTAN’s commitment to fostering innovation and preparing startups for successful fundraising rounds. Notable new partners, including Dropbox, Rippling, and Notion, have joined the initiative, further enhancing the value of the package.
What’s New in Version 2.0?
The enhanced package now offers $550,000 in credits, discounts, and offers, benefitting over 500 founders annually. Among the new features are:
Enhanced Credits and Discounts: Startups can now access $10,000 in AWS Activate credits, waived fees on $20,000 in Stripe processing, 75% off HubSpot, and up to $200,000 in Google Cloud benefits.
Legal and HR Services: The package includes six months of free Rippling services, a free recruiting consultation with Hire Tomorrow, and a complimentary legal consultation at Graves Dougherty Hearon & Moody.
AI-Based Software Platforms: Startups will benefit from $150,000 in Microsoft Azure credits and $3,000 per month for six months in IBM credits, designed to boost productivity.
Local Ecosystem Partners: Companies also receive inclusion in the semi-finalist list for the next SKU track and a free fundraising strategy consultation with TEN Capital Network.
New Partnerships Add Value
The addition of several key partners has strengthened CTAN’s Startup Success Package. Dropbox offers secure document storage and sharing, Rippling provides seamless workforce management solutions, and Notion brings a powerful platform for organizing team knowledge, tasks, and projects. These new partnerships add significant value, giving startups the tools to streamline operations and drive growth.
“The HubSpot for Startups program isn’t just about software—it’s about creating real opportunities for entrepreneurs to succeed,” said Dan Gallagher of HubSpot. “By teaming up with CTAN, we’re bringing even more value to the Startup Success Package, which includes a 75% discount on HubSpot software. This isn’t just a perk—it’s a game-changer for startups looking to streamline their operations, connect with customers, and grow better.”
CTAN’s Ongoing Commitment to Entrepreneurs
Gary Forni, Chairman of the Central Texas Angel Network, emphasized the organization’s holistic approach to supporting entrepreneurs. “Our approach and focus at CTAN is to support entrepreneurs beyond just financial investments. The Startup Success Package is a key part of that strategy, offering over $550K in credits from our partners to help founders accelerate growth and reach their full potential.”
All companies accepted into CTAN’s funding cycles are eligible to receive the Startup Success Package, designed to empower entrepreneurs, drive innovation, and foster economic growth throughout Central Texas and beyond.
For more information on the CTAN Startup Success Package and how to apply, visit ctan.com.
About Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN):
Central Texas Angel Network is one of the largest and most active angel investing organizations in the United States. Since its inception in 2006, CTAN has supported early-stage startups and entrepreneurs throughout Central Texas. CTAN provides capital, mentorship, and strategic guidance to help promising ventures succeed and drive economic growth in the region.
Are you looking for ways to streamline your business operations, enhance your marketing strategies, or boost your sales? If you’re in Austin, you won’t miss this unique opportunity to discover how Zoho can revolutionize your business.
On September 17, 2024, Zoho is hosting an exclusive in-person event designed to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of their versatile software solutions tailored to your business needs.
Event Overview:
Date: September 17, 2024
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Location: 101 North Loop Boulevard East, Austin, TX
Whether you’re a seasoned Zoho user or new to the platform, this event offers something valuable for everyone. You’ll receive friendly, expert guidance on Zoho’s comprehensive use cases across various business functions, including sales, marketing, operations, AI, and business intelligence. This is your chance to see firsthand how Zoho’s tools can be integrated into your business operations to drive growth and efficiency. Claim Your Spot Now.
What to Expect:
1:00-1:30 PM – A Quick Introduction:
The event begins with a brief introduction to Zoho and its extensive product portfolio. Zoho is known for its comprehensive suite of software solutions that cater to businesses of all sizes. With over 100 million users worldwide, Zoho provides tools for every aspect of your business. The goal of this session is not to sell you something but to help you understand the landscape of Zoho’s offerings so you can make informed decisions about what’s best for your business.
1:30-2:30 PM – Live Demo of Popular Use Cases:
This segment is where the magic happens. A technical expert from Zoho will walk you through a live demonstration of popular use cases, placing their tools in a real-world business context. This is a golden opportunity to see how Zoho’s applications can solve common business challenges, making your processes more efficient and effective. Whether you’re looking to automate your sales pipeline, enhance customer engagement, or harness the power of AI for business insights, this demo will show you what’s possible.
2:30-2:45 PM – Take the Next Step:
After the demo, you’ll receive practical advice and resources to help you navigate the Zoho ecosystem. This session will provide actionable insights and a clear pathway to leverage Zoho’s tools to achieve your business goals. You’ll walk away with concrete steps to integrate Zoho into your operations, ensuring you get the most out of this powerful platform.
2:45-3:30 PM – Q&A and Networking:
The event concludes with an open Q&A session and a networking opportunity. This is your chance to engage directly with Zoho representatives, ask questions about your business, and share your experiences and ideas with other attendees. Whether looking for specific solutions or exploring what’s possible, this interactive session lets you get personalized advice and connect with like-minded professionals.
Why Zoho?
Zoho is not just another software company. It offers a unified platform that combines all the tools you need to run your business. From customer relationship management (CRM) to marketing automation, project management, and finance, Zoho provides a seamless experience that eliminates the need for multiple vendors. Plus, with its strong emphasis on privacy and security, you can trust that your business data is safe.
Who Should Attend?
Small Business Owners: Discover how Zoho can help you compete with larger enterprises by leveraging affordable, scalable tools.
Sales and Marketing Professionals: Learn how to enhance your strategies and boost ROI using Zoho’s CRM and marketing automation tools.
Operations Managers: Find out how Zoho’s AI and business intelligence solutions can optimize your processes and drive efficiency.
IT Professionals: Explore Zoho’s cloud-based solutions that offer robust integrations, security, and customization options.
This event is a must-attend if you’re serious about taking your business to the next level. With expert guidance, real-world demos, and a chance to network with other professionals, you’ll understand how Zoho can help you achieve your business goals. Please mark your calendar for September 17, 2024, and join us at 101 North Loop Boulevard East, Austin, TX, for an afternoon of learning, networking, and growth.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the event or need additional information, please contact the Zoho team at us-events@zohocorp.com. They’re here to help you make the most of this opportunity.
Ben Rubenstein, President, Stuart Wall, CEO, and Michael Lam, CIO, Co-Founders of Setpoint
Setpoint, a Fintech and Proptech startup, announced Tuesday that it has closed on $31 million in additional funding.
Ben Rubenstein and Michael Lam, co-founders in Austin, and Stuart Wall, founder and CEO in New York, run the company.
The Series B funding came from 645 Ventures, which led the round, with strategic investments from Citi and Wells Fargo with Andreessen Horowitz, NextView Ventures, Floating Point, Henry Kravis, Zillow’s founder’s 75 & Sunny, Vesta Ventures, Fifth Wall, Altura Ventures and Outrunner Capital.
Setpoint has raised $76 million since its founding in 2021.
Setpoint’s capital and technology platform enables real estate, auto, consumer, and other asset-backed borrowers to offer credit options to consumers.
Setpoint automates debt facility management. It automates debt facility management. Setpoint’s software and platform verify assets and manage portfolios with real-time forecasting and optimization. It also manages collateral to track data, documents, lender requirements, operational workflows, and valuation management to automate and streamline BPO, appraisal, and AVM fulfillment.
Since its last funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, Setpoint has achieved revenue growth six times year-over-year. It has added significant customers such as GreenSky, Carvana, Fundbox, Nomura, Capchase, Kyte, Archwest, and Pathway.
Setpoint’s platform and technology replace outdated methods of managing loan transactions like email, Excel, and FTP folders. Setpoint’s Asset OS software digitizes, organizes, and verifies data. Its complementary Capital OS software automates funding flows and compliance, setting a new standard for fast, accurate, and effortless credit transactions.
“While we’ve observed substantial innovation between borrowers and originators, originators and lenders still interact with the capital markets in relatively archaic ways. Setpoint’s software is poised to change that, driving efficiency and accuracy for major credit ecosystem stakeholders like Citi,” Patrick Brett of Citi Spread Products Investing Technologies (Citi SPRINT), who co-invested in Setpoint with Jeff Flynn of Citi Ventures, said in a news release.
In a statement, C. Thomas Richardson, Head of Principal Technology Investments at Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, said, “We are excited to provide growth capital and to expand our relationship with Setpoint. Their deep domain expertise allows them to continue developing relevant technology, which is enhancing the efficiency and automating the workflow of credit operations.”
645 Ventures, leading this round, played a critical role in bringing together a diverse group of investors. “Setpoint has become a cornerstone in the asset-backed ecosystem, earning the trust of the biggest financial institutions,” Jon Smith, Principal at 645 Ventures, said in a news release. “We are proud to lead this round and support their vision in redefining the credit infrastructure landscape.”
The company began in real estate and has since expanded into all asset-backed lending. Setpoint has also grown its Single Family Rental (SFR) and Residential Transition Loan (RTL) customer bases, providing solutions such as diligence, AssetOS, and CapitalOS to optimize the portfolios of leading real estate lenders. Facilitating nearly 100,000 transactions annually, Setpoint is approved by major rating agencies, including Moody’s, DBRS, KBRA, and S&P. Through its affiliated capital provider, Setpoint has funded over $3.5 billion in real estate transactions with proptech leaders like Homeward, OfferPad, Flyhomes, and UpEquity, all of which have been managed on the Setpoint platform.
Setpoint plans to use the new funds for research and development.
“Setpoint is building trust in our credit system,” Wall, CEO of Setpoint, said in a news release. “Our vision is to make credit transactions instant, automated, and error-free. This funding round, supported by leading financial institutions and investors, propels us forward in our mission to build the technology infrastructure for capital markets.”
At SXSW headquarters in downtown Austin, Hugh Forrest, co-president and chief of programming, provided insights on how to prepare a proposal for the SXSW panel picker on Thursday morning.
Every year, SXSW gets more than 4,500 submissions from people eager to speak or present at SXSW. It only accepts about 15 percent of the submissions. So, it is a highly competitive process.
But some tips will put you ahead of the crowd. Forrest said the first tip is to get your polished presentation in on time. Others are to ensure it’s free of errors and a unique idea you haven’t presented elsewhere. Originality is vital to a great submission, he said. Also, authors should only present books published since June 2024, said Monica Sack with the SXSW conference programming team.
According to SXSW, “Artificial intelligence will again be huge at SXSW—“again” because it was huge in 2024.” But the conference is much more than an AI conference, Forrest said.
“Ultimately, SXSW is all about the power of creativity in all its many, many, many forms,” Forrest said. “And also about the power of face-to-face connections.”
The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce sponsored the Tacos & Topics talk.
Here are ten other key takeaways from today’s talk:
Conference Dates and Structure: SXSW 2025 will run from Friday, March 7th through Friday, March 14th. The first part of the week focuses more on tech content, while the second part shifts to music content. Film and TV content is interspersed throughout the event.
Importance of Community: SXSW strongly emphasizes local (Austin) and virtual communities to generate the best ideas and showcase up-and-coming thought leaders and industry experts.
Panel Picker Process: The Panel Picker process collects ideas from the community, followed by public voting and internal review. It aims to bring in new voices and expand into various verticals.
Application Details: The application period runs from June 25th to July 21st. Public voting on proposals begins on August 6th and ends on August 18th. Adhere to deadlines and submission guidelines.
Diverse Topics: SXSW 2025 will cover many topics, including regenerative agriculture, quantum computing, transportation, health tech, sustainable energy, culture, climate change solutions, and mental health.
6. Format Options: Various session formats are available, including panel presentations, fireside chats, book readings, workshops, short-form presentations, meetups, and mentor sessions. Each format caters to different learning and interaction styles.
7. Proposal Tips: Successful proposals should meet deadlines, carefully choose appropriate formats, consider all programming topics, and focus on specific, unique ideas. Proposals should be differentiated and offer fresh perspectives.
8.. Diversity and Inclusion: Panels should include diverse voices based on gender, race, location, and employment to provide a more holistic discussion.
9. Public Engagement: The public voting period allows the community to vote and comment on proposals, ensuring a democratic selection process that values diverse opinions.
10. Additional Opportunities: Besides the Panel Picker, SXSW hosts other competitions, such as the startup competition (similar to Shark Tank) and the Innovation Awards. These provide additional platforms for showcasing innovation and creativity.
Earlier this month, Ernst & Young LLP announced the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 Gulf South Award winners.
The Austin winners included Dean Drako, CEO and Founder of Eagle Eye Network, and Russell Diez-Canseco, President and CEO of Vital Farms.
In addition, Justin Fenchel, CEO and Co-Founder, Brad Schultz, CMO and Co-Founder, and Aimy Steadman, COO and Co-Founder of Beatbox Beverages, also won.
Robbins Schrader, CEO of SafeRide in San Antonio also won. And Katy Mimari, CEO of Caden Lane, based in Boerne, also won.
The winners will then be considered for the Entrepreneur of the Year National Awards, which will be presented in November.
Altogether, this year’s finalists featured 21 Austin entrepreneurs and 3 San Antonio entrepreneurs.
The Gulf South program honored 48 entrepreneurs from Central and South Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi at an awards ceremony on June 13th. An independent panel of judges selected the finalists based on “their demonstration of building long-term value through entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth, and impact, among other core contributions and attributes.”
.The other 2024 Gulf South finalists from the Austin area and San Antonio were:
Martin Keighley | CarbonFree | San Antonio
Jeff Lee and Courtney Shields | DIBS Beauty | Austin
Dr. Andrea Thomaz | Diligent Robotics | Austin
Mark Engels | ePayPolicy | Austin
Erine Gray | FindHelp | Austin
Andy Flanagan | Iris Telehealth | Austin
Beth San Segundo | OriGen Biomedical | Austin
Charles Leddy | Presidian Hospitality | San Antonio
Emerson Smith | Pushnami | Austin
Dr. Lefteris Ntouanoglou | Schoox, LLC | Austin
Nicole Budworth | Senox Corporation | Austin
Ted Ross | SpyCloud | Austin
Tony Hartl | Undefeated Tribe Operating Company LLC | Austin
Chris Brundrett | William Chris Wine Company | Hye, Texas
Elsewhere Partners Tuesday announced it has closed on its third fund with $285 million in capital raised.
The firm, based in Austin, plans to invest the Elsewhere Partners Fund III in business-to-business software companies.
The early-stage private equity firm, founded in 2016, has made 17 investments to date. It was founded by Chris Pacitti and John Thornton, both formerly worked at Austin Ventures.
“Over the years, our vision to become a reliable feeder system for later-stage financial sponsors has crystalized due to the success of our early portfolio,” Pacitti said in a news release. “We found a gap in the VC/PE ecosystem and have developed a low-risk/high-reward investment model and transformational playbook to become the ‘Series A’ private equity investor for B2B software companies. With the support of our new and existing limited partners, we look forward to continuing to fuel strategic growth in the software sector in both U.S. and international markets.”
Elsewhere Partners makes investments ranging from $20 million to $50 million in growth-ready software companies led by strong technical founders that have scaled to $3 million to $12 million in revenue.
Elsewhere partners invest in software companies in North America, Europe, and Israel.
With its third fund, Elsewhere Partners has invested $25 million into London-based Deskpro. Brad Murdoch, an operational adviser to Elsewhere Partners, also joined Deskpro as CEO. Deskpro also opened its North American headquarters in Austin.
Beth White was inspired to create MeBeBot to bridge the gap in employee support within companies using AI.
MeBeBot has grown significantly since its inception in 2018, driven by the rapid advancements in AI technology. The Austin-based company has raised a pre-seed round of investment. In the latest Ideas to Invoices podcast edition, White talks about her entrepreneurial journey and MeBeBot’s success.
Here are seven key takeaways from the podcast interview:
· AI in Employee Experience: MeBeBot leverages AI to provide a “digital front door” for employees, making their interactions with workplace systems more efficient and consumer-like. This includes using AI chatbots integrated with platforms like Slack and Teams.
· Generative AI and AI Evolution: The evolution of AI, particularly with generative AI, has opened up new opportunities but also raised concerns about its impact on the workplace. Beth emphasized the importance of working alongside AI rather than being replaced by it.
· Hybrid AI Platform: MeBeBot’s hybrid AI platform combines generative AI with domain-specific models and includes a human-in-the-loop process to ensure accuracy and compliance, protecting companies from potential legal issues.
· Customer Success and Real-Time Data: The company has achieved significant milestones, including integrating AI capabilities that enhance employee support and provide real-time data for better decision-making. Customers like IGT and E2open have seen substantial benefits from using MeBeBot.
· Diversity and Inclusion: MeBeBot promotes diversity and inclusion internally by having a diverse team and externally supporting customers’ diversity initiatives. The company is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise and actively promotes diversity in tech.
· Ethical AI for HR: Beth highlighted the importance of ethical AI in HR, emphasizing the need for responsible use of AI and educating organizations on its implications. MeBeBot started a LinkedIn group focused on ethical AI for HR professionals.
· Future Goals: MeBeBot aims to continue advancing its product roadmap, enhancing employee experience solutions, and building a community around responsible AI. The company also plans to expand its team and potentially raise a seed round of funding in 2025.
For more information, listen to the entire podcast posted below or on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Beth White is a trailblazing entrepreneur and the visionary Founder and Chief Bot of MeBeBot, a groundbreaking company revolutionizing the employee experience through AI-powered solutions. Beth’s career began in the multifaceted world of Human Resources, where she honed her skills across various roles in startups and Fortune 100 companies.
Workweek is looking to disrupt trade organizations by providing digital-first content and podcasts.
To fuel that work, the Austin-based company, founded two and a half years ago, announced Thursday that it has closed on a $12.5 million Series A round of funding led by Austin-based Next Coast Ventures. Other investors included Rich Greenfield and Jamie Seltzer of LightShed Ventures and David Rubenstein of Declaration Capital. Workweek previously raised $7 million in seed stage funding, Ryan said.
Workweek, with 43 employees, creates business to business newsletters and podcasts and has more than 500,000 subscribers, said Adam Ryan, Co-Founder and CEO of Workweek. With the funding, Workweek is launching a professional network platform and plans to expand its paid subscribed newsletters, he said.
Workweek’s new platform is focused on eight themed communities including marketing, healthcare, fintech and HR. The communities allow professionals to network with others in their field.
“Leaders want a place where they don’t get spammed, feel real relevance with a group, and have discussions that aren’t fluffy BS,” Ryan said in a news release. “We all have more “connections” across the other social platforms, but there’s less belonging than ever. This void is at the heart of what we’re solving.”
Workweek also plans to launch a marketplace of apps to enhance productivity and success within each field on its platform, according to the company.
“We’re incredibly excited to lead Workweek’s Series A investment,” Mikel Smerklo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Next Coast Ventures said in a news release. “Adam Ryan and team bring unparalleled experience in creating engaging content and building strong professional communities. Their innovative platform equips business leaders with the insights and connections needed to thrive in their industries. By combining their expertise with cutting-edge technology, Workweek is uniquely positioned to transform how professionals interact with their communities.”
Austin Entrepreneur Dean Drako announced last week that he had acquired Fremont, Calif-based Cobalt AI.
Drako plans to serve as Cobalt AI’s chairman, while Ken Wolff, the company’s CEO, will continue leading it.
Cobalt is a leading provider of AI alarm filtering, remote monitoring, and security robot solutions for the enterprise. The Cobalt Monitoring Intelligence and the Cobalt Command Center deploy on various cameras, access control systems, robots, and other edge devices. Cobalt’s enterprise security automation technology combines AI with human verification to improve enterprise safety, security, and facility workflows while delivering predictability at greatly reduced costs.
Drako renamed the company from Cobalt Robotics to Cobalt AI, reflecting its AI leadership across multiple domains.
“We are thrilled that Dean Drako has acquired Cobalt and will serve as chairman. Dean has invested capital and strategic insights to grow other physical security companies to unicorns and technology leaders in their space,” Ken Wolff, CEO of Cobalt AI, said in a news release. “We share a mutual vision of the tremendous advantages of automation through AI with human verification. Drako’s acquisition validates our strategy to improve monitoring, response times and lower costs and also gives us the capital to deliver for our enterprise clients.”
“I searched for the company with the most powerful AI-based enterprise security automation in our physical security industry,” Drako said in a news release. “AI is transforming our industry, and Cobalt’s alarm filtering and other technologies are years ahead.”
“The company monitoring and command center technology is a catalyst for a new era of security,” Draco said in a news release. “They have created field-proven AI to make security and guarding tremendously more effective and efficient. Furthermore, Cobalt’s open platform strategy, which integrates with a plethora of video and access systems, is aligned with the open product strategy I believe in.”
Cobalt AI, founded in 2016, is the only company to automate repetitive manual security and facility tasks with an integrated service unifying state-of-the-art machine learning software, robotics, and expert human oversight.
Drako is a parallel entrepreneur, investor, and engineer. Drako is the founder and CEO of Eagle Eye Networks, delivering the industry’s leading AI-power cloud video surveillance system, and owner and chairman of Brivo, the industry leader in smart cloud access control systems. Previously, Drako was the founder, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks, where he developed the IT security industry’s first spam filter appliance. From Barracuda’s inception in 2003 through 2012, Drako grew the company into an IT security industry leader for mid-market businesses, with over $200 million in annual sales and 150,000 customers.
Last week, the Austin Technology Council honored ten people from the Austin technology community at its first Austin Tech Hall of Fame.
The event held at Calavista Software honored eight foundational and legacy inductees whose contributions have been pivotal in establishing Austin as a thriving tech hub.
The inductees included:
John Sibley Butler: A distinguished professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Butler is renowned for his contributions to entrepreneurship, minority business development, and fostering inclusive economic growth.
Michael Dell is the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, a pioneer in the personal computer revolution with an innovative direct-to-consumer sales model.
Lori Hawkins: A respected journalist for the Austin American-Statesman, she is known for her insightful reporting on the technology industry, startups, and venture capital, which has significantly enhanced Austin’s tech visibility.
Admiral Bobby Inman: Retired U.S. Navy admiral and intelligence expert who served in top positions at the NSA and CIA, also influential in the tech industry as a professor and board member.
Laura Kilcrease: Prominent venture capitalist and entrepreneur, founder of Austin Technology Incubator, and CEO of Alberta Innovates, driving economic growth and technological advancement.
George Kozmetsky: Visionary entrepreneur, co-founder of Teledyne Technologies, former dean of UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business, instrumental in promoting innovation and economic growth.
Jimmy Treybig: Founder of Tandem Computers, pioneer of fault-tolerant computer systems, significantly advancing high-availability computing solutions.
James Truchard: Co-founder and former CEO of National Instruments, known for his leadership in virtual instrumentation and significant contributions to automated testing and measurement.
The event also recognized Joyce Durst of Growth Acceleration Partners into the 2024 Austin Tech Hall of Fame. And Ashley Rose of Living Security as the recipient of its 2024 First Time Founder Award.
The ATC Board of Directors selected this year’s inductees.
“Our tech ecosystem was created by a variety of people in a variety of roles who came together for the common good of Austin. The energy in the room at this event, from people spanning five decades, was contagious,” Thom Singer, CEO of the Austin Technology Council, said in a news release. “Our role at ATC is to continue finding ways to bring people together, as the secret weapon to Austin’s future is the people in our community working together.”
It bought a 369-acre campus near the Austin airport. Zoho planned to build a campus there, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and plans changed. The company runs a farm on the site now and has 100 employees in an Austin office building.
The company has also opened an office in New Braunfels with 50 employees and McAllen with 80 employees.
McAllen is Zoho’s fastest-growing campus, Vembu said.
Vembu said Zoho’s problem was that Austin became too expensive. He wanted his employees to be able to buy houses and put down roots in Austin, but home prices shot up as other tech companies expanded operations there.
Zoho also plans to open a manufacturing plant in India, Vembu said.
During his keynote address at Zoholics Wednesday morning, Vembu emphasized the importance of leveraging technology and innovation in building world-class products. This includes integrating documentation systems and other tools to enhance productivity and efficiency.
However, most of his talk discussed the company’s long-term commitment to its employees and customers. This includes providing superior customer experiences and ensuring employee satisfaction and retention.
Vembu also highlighted the company’s stance on data privacy and security. He emphasized that Zoho does not monetize customer data and maintains stringent privacy measures, which align with global regulations and best practices.
Zoho, founded 28 years ago, is bootstrapped and prides itself on being profitable without succumbing to the quarterly pressures of public companies. Vembu, a billionaire, said he isn’t afraid of making mistakes or taking U-turns if things don’t work out. And he’s able to do that because the company is debt-free and isn’t beholden to investors or the stock market.
Zoho also avoids unnecessary cost-cutting like layoffs and focuses on sustainable growth and maintaining a strong financial foundation.
Vembu stressed the importance of investing in employees, continuous learning, and skill development. The company adopts principles like Kaizen for continuous refinement and constantly encourages its employees to upgrade their skills.: The issue of customer fatigue due to multiple software applications was discussed. The speaker mentioned the company’s efforts in improving integration and providing seamless user experiences
The potential for automation in programming and its impact on productivity was a major topic. Vembu predicted significant improvements in programmer productivity and the role of AI in transforming software development.
The Austin-based company started 28 years ago with one app and today has more than 55.
On Wednesday, Zoho hosted thousands of customers at Zoholics, an annual customer conference held at the Austin Convention Center. The company also unveiled significant enhancements to its offerings for professional developers and application teams. These include early access to new services within Catalyst by Zoho, a pro-code platform designed to help developers rapidly build, test, and launch full-stack, production-ready apps.
Additionally, Zoho announced the general availability of Zoho Apptics, an application analytics solution that seamlessly integrates into existing development workflows, empowering companies to create data-informed roadmaps.
“Developers have expressed frustration about creating custom solutions out of an array of disparate tools,” Raju Vegesna, Zoho’s Chief Evangelist, said in a news release. At Zoho, we are focused on providing a single, trusted source to meet developers’ needs from start to finish.”
Zoho now provides a cohesive platform that reduces time to market and maximizes productivity while ensuring user data remains secure and compliant. From concept to code to analytics, the upgraded Catalyst and the privacy-focused Apptics solution work hand in hand to deliver an unmatched developer experience and increase organizational agility.
Catalyst seamlessly integrates with the Zoho ecosystem and third-party applications, enabling developers to leverage existing infrastructure and data sources.
● Signals: Routes events from sources like Zoho services, third-party sources, or custom applications to handlers (like Catalyst Functions, Circuits, etc.) using Publishers and Subscriptions rules.
● NoSQL Database: Allows storing structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data while supporting diverse data types and scaling dynamically with high performance.
● Slate: A fully managed frontend platform that lets developers easily build highly customized interfaces that leverage frameworks such as React.js, Next.js, Sveltekit, etc
. ● CI/CD Pipeline: Automates tests and builds for continuous delivery pipelines, streamlining development workflows for faster time-to-market.
Additionally, Apptics prioritizes data privacy and security. User information is safeguarded behind encryption and access controls, ensuring analytics insights are leveraged responsibly without compromising individual privacy.
Apptics provides multi-platform analytics support, covering Android, iOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, iPadOS, Windows, React Native, Flutter, and Unity, with web analytics capabilities coming soon. This extensive cross-platform coverage ensures businesses can analyze and optimize digital experiences across diverse channels and touchpoints. The new features are now available for early access, and interested users can sign up by visiting Catalyst by Zoho’s page. Apptics is globally available now and offers a free and pro plan starting at $62 per month when billed annually.
Zoho respects user privacy and does not have an ad-revenue model in any part of its business, including its free products. The company owns and operates its data centers, ensuring complete oversight of customer data, privacy, and security. More than 100 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho every day to run their businesses, including Zoho itself
In Austin, female founders get only one percent of all venture capital allocated annually.
The lack of funds to fuel female-founded ventures is a major problem in Austin, holding back the creation of new jobs and the further development of new and existing businesses.
And it’s not just VC dollars; it’s Small Business Administration loans, grants, angel investment, and other funding options.
That’s the key finding of the Austin Women Entrepreneurs Task Force. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson commissioned the task force to create a report with recommendations to support female founders in Austin.
Carla McDonald, an entrepreneur, led the 21-person task force, which met for nine months and conducted interviews and surveys with a variety of female founders to learn about their challenges and find solutions. McDonald recently discussed the task force’s report, which they gave to the Mayor last month on the Ideas to Invoices podcast.
“One of the key learnings that came out of this is that many people don’t understand that there is a problem until these statistics and the data were made available to them,” McDonald said.
McDonald said Mayor Watson wanted the information to ensure that all members of the Austin community are participating in the city’s economic prosperity. She said the goal is to make Austin the best city in the country for women to start and build businesses.
This is a major problem worldwide, not just in the United States. McDonald said women entrepreneurs struggle far more than they should in terms of access to capital and other equity issues.
Out of the hundreds of women entrepreneurs that the task force spoke with, McDonald said the top three biggest hurdles to success were access to capital, access to a broader, more helpful network, and access to affordable office space and affordable childcare.
McDonald said that access to a network is more than just access to mentors. Women entrepreneurs are looking to build meaningful relationships with people who can help them build their businesses, make introductions, and suggest partners.
“So, what our women entrepreneurs are feeling is a roadblock there because they’re working in a culture built on a male-dominated technology platform that has been the definition of the Austin entrepreneurial ecosystem for a very long time,” McDonald said. “And it’s also something to be very proud of. It’s what has put us on the map in many ways, but the sort of danger is that many of these men have known each other for decades, and they’re working together. They’re funding each other’s businesses and helping one another, and it’s not as though they’re locking women out or attempting to lock women out, but they’re just not meeting them. There are not those opportunities to integrate the entrepreneurial community, so what’s happening is that women are hitting these walls.”
As a result, women form networking groups with other women, but McDonald said those groups will not integrate women into the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.
McDonald said the task force recommended the number one solution on the capital front: a Small Business Administration Women’s Business Center. She said such centers exist in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio but not Austin.
“That’s just wrong,” McDonald said. “We absolutely must have one here, and while we can’t prove causation or connection between things, I will tell you that in doing our research what we found is that SBA loans nationally, 21% of women are getting SBA loans, which by the way disparity is no good either right but we’re under indexing on those even here in Austin at 19%, and women here are getting their loans or $530,000 on average versus men in Austin any loans of $750,000.”
McDonald said only 1% of all VC capital in Austin goes to women founders despite the fact that Austin ranks number six in the nation in deal value and deal count. So there seems to be a problem there, too.
“But I like to look at the SBA loan number because not all companies are VC-fundable,” McDonald said.
The women’s entrepreneur report looked at three kinds of entrepreneurs: small business entrepreneurs so that’s the woman who owns a food truck or a hair salon or a laundromat; growth-oriented entrepreneurs so who are the ones trying to build the next big software Unicorn and looked at aspiring entrepreneurs so the women who have ideas, but they don’t know what to do next with those ideas,
McDonald said the 1 percent of venture capital going to female-founded companies is the kind of statistic that shows you that something is really not working here.
“Because we are, in my view, the most exciting and dynamic entrepreneurial capital in the country,” she said. “There is so much going on here. There are so many terrific resources. We have so many incredible people. There is so much capital here and there are also tons and tons of really nice people here, so I don’t think this is anything that has to do with anyone trying to lock women out. I just think people are not aware of this problem, and so many of our recommendations are designed to raise awareness.”
“The report has 12 recommendations, and if you are in the private sector, the nonprofit sector, higher education, city government, or policy in any way, shape, or form, you can play a role in one or more of those 12 recommendations.”
McDonald said if people want to get involved, they can reach out through the task force email at awetaskforce@gmail.com. The full report can be found here.
The full podcast is listed below, or you can download it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Carla McDonald is the founder and managing director of Dynabrand Ventures, a boutique investment firm that provides capital and marketing expertise to early-stage consumer goods companies. She also serves as Chair of the Mayor’s Task Force for Austin Women Entrepreneurs, is a mentor at SKU, the nation’s leading CPG accelerator, and was a founding investor in Capital Factory, the nationally known startup accelerator and entrepreneurial hub.
The Temple College at Taylor Foundation donated a 68-acre tract to the University of Texas at Austin last week.
UT plans to develop the Taylor Center at the site, which is located near the Samsung Austin Semiconductor’s new six million-square-foot chip fabrication plant.
“Advancing innovation, growing education, and cultivating leadership in the semiconductor space is a major area of focus for the University of Texas, and we are excited to have a presence in the burgeoning Taylor community and the opportunity to shape further the expanding footprint of the semiconductor ecosystem in Central Texas,” President Jay Hartzell said in a news statement. “We are grateful to the Temple College at Taylor Foundation for welcoming UT into its vision for educational and economic opportunity in the region and to the City of Taylor for its commitment to supporting one of the nation’s most critical needs.”
According to UT, the Texas Institute for Electronics is considering using the site at U.S. Highway 79 for training and research with semiconductor partners.
It’s a return to Austin’s roots. UT worked with Austin and State leaders to attract Sematech, a nonprofit consortium that performed research and development to advance chip manufacturing, to Austin in 1987.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Central Texas was a hotbed of silicon chip research and manufacturing, earning Austin the nickname Silicon Hills. But it wasn’t just Austin. In the early 1990s, San Antonio attracted Sony’s first chip-making plant in the U.S. That plant, later shut down, is now home to the National Security Agency’s campus.
Today, Austin is still a major player in chip production, with companies such as AMD, Samsung, Infineon Technologies, and others.
According to a UT news release, UT’s Texas Institute for Electronics received $552 million from the Texas Legislature to compete for CHIPS Act funding. “TIE is using some of the state funds to refurbish existing fabrication plants at the original Sematech site on Montopolis Drive and at UT’s J.J. Pickle Research Campus on Burnet Road.”
“The Temple College at Taylor Foundation has embraced a thoughtful evolution of ideas that culminated in the establishment of the University of Texas at Austin – Taylor Center,” James Bartosh, president of the foundation and a UT alumnus, said in a news statement. “UT’s and Samsung’s investment in Taylor will result in the advancement of education, research and quality of life in Central Texas.”
UT has a task force to determine how to develop the site and what programs to include.
The institute shifts the focus of the former Drug Dynamics Institute within the College of Pharmacy. Its focus is on solving health problems and collaborating with innovators.
The program is being called i4Health and is led by Janet C. Walkow, clinical professor of molecular pharmaceutics and drug delivery, and Nishi Viswanathan, adjunct assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy.
“Translational health science innovations are products and ideas but can also be ways to innovate within an organization.” Walkow said in a news release. “i4Health courses, workshops, and programming help learners think in new ways and understand how to innovate so that we can begin to create more novel health technology or rewrite how things are done within an organization. There are no limits here, only possibilities.”
In April, the University of Texas College of Pharmacy’s Innovating for Health team held its seventh annual pitch competition, showcasing student team projects. It also launched the i4health.info website.
The startups that pitched included: “CystiRNA using mRNA to reverse the genetic mutation in the lungs with the overall goal of inhibiting the progression of cystic fibrosis (CF); PulmaVanc, an inhaled combination of vancomycin and DNase I, is a targeted pulmonary therapy that avoids the hassle and reduces the toxicity associated with systemic administration of IV products; and Omaira is a novel, 3D-bio printed oral contraceptive pill designed for extended-release that lasts for a full week,” according to a news release.
Microsoft has shut down Arkane Studios in Austin, which made games for the Xbox gaming console.
Arkane Studios laid off 96 people, according to a WARN notice filed with the state on May 7th. The studio created Prey, Deathloop, and Redfall, a first-person shooter video game released for the Xbox on May 2, 2023.
Arkane Studios was Austin, founded in 2006. In 2010 ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Software, acquired Arkane Studios in 2010. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media in March 2021.
Microsoft did not release an official press statement on the layoffs. Windows Central obtained an email from a Microsoft executive stating, “Arkane Austin – This studio will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda. Arkane Austin has a history of making impactful and innovative games and it is a pedigree that everyone should be proud of. Redfall’s previous update will be its last as we end all development on the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy and we will provide make-good offers to players who purchased the Hero DLC.”
Microsoft also closed Alpha Dog Studios and Tango Gameworks.
Harvey Smith, studio director of Arkane Studios Austin, wrote on X, “I just want to say that I love al the people at Arkane Austin so much. Great times, hard times, we went through so much together. Of course, today’s news is terrible for all of us. Your talent will lift you up, and I will do anything I can to help.”
Ernst & Young LLP has announced the finalists for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 Gulf South Award featuring 21 Austin entrepreneurs and 3 San Antonio entrepreneurs.
The Gulf South program honors 48 entrepreneurs from Central and South Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. An independent panel of judges selected the finalists based on “their demonstration of building long-term value through entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth, and impact, among other core contributions and attributes.”
“The finalists of this year are audacious entrepreneurs who are making a significant impact in their respective industries and communities” Anna Horndahl, Partner and Entrepreneur Of The Year Gulf South Program Co-Director, said in a news release.
EY will announce the regional award winners on June 13th. The winners will then be considered for the Entrepreneur of the Year National Awards, which will be presented in November.
The 2024 Gulf South finalists from the Austin area and San Antonio are:
Austin’s iconic music, film, and tech festival, South by Southwest, is going across the pond to launch SXSW London in June 2025.
It’s SXSW’s first European conference. But SXSW did launch SXSW in Sydney, Australia, last year.
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring the SXSW experience to London,” Jann Baskett, Co-President and Chief Brand Officer of SXSW, said in a news statement. “Following the success of SXSW Sydney, this is an incredible new opportunity to highlight the elements that make SXSW unique in one of the most vibrant cities in Europe. We look forward to forming deeper connections with our overseas community and bringing the conversations that start in Austin all the way to London.”
According to conference organizers, the SXSW London conference will have its distinct personality.
“SXSW London will build on Austin’s incredible legacy, presenting an event that underpins why SXSW is the go-to destination for professionals and creatives seeking meaningful connections, unexpected experiences, and ideas that can help shape the world,” Randel Bryan, managing director of SXSW London, said in a news release.
The week-long conference, which will take place in June 2025 in Shoreditch, East London, will feature keynotes, music showcases, tech, gaming, and film, with a focus on visual arts, design, and fashion. It will also include interactive exhibitions and immersive experiences.
“I am delighted to welcome SXSW to London for the first time ever, confirming our place at the heart of Europe’s tech and creative sectors and as a global capital of culture,” Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said in a news release.
Badges will go on sale in October 2024, and programming will be published on SXSWLondon.com.
London and Austin have a long-standing relationship.
Since 2012, London’s Borough of Hackney has had a sister city relationship with Austin. The two cities signed the Austin-Hackney Sister City Committee on Jan. 25th, 2012. Hackney began bringing a large contingent of people to SXSW in 2013 with its first official Hackney House, a venue that showcased the talents of East London’s creative, tech, and design community.
In 2019, Capital Factory, a technology accelerator in downtown Austin, joined forces with Plexal, an innovation center in London’s Here East technology campus. Here East is a technology redevelopment project from the 2012 London Olympics. It has 1.2 million square feet of space in three buildings in East London.
Earlier this year, Texas signed a trade pact with the United Kingdom. On March 13th, Gov. Greg Abbott traveled to London to meet with the U.K.’s Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch. The pact is focused on making it quicker, easier, and cheaper for U.K. and Texas firms to do business by tackling trade barriers, growing investment, and driving commerce between the U.K. and Texas.
At the time, he was a pre-med student at the University of Texas at Austin. He launched the company, originally called PC’s Limited, in his dorm room, offering customized PC upgrades.
Dell incorporated the company about a week before finals. He finished his freshman year as a biology major. Then he dropped out of the University of Texas and founded Dell Computers with $1,000. He relocated the company from his dorm room to a proper office.
The business grew from $6 million in the first nine months to $33 million in the next year. It grew about 80 percent per year compounded for eight years and 60 percent for the six years after that, according to Dell.
Dell’s secret sauce was the way he sold the PCs – direct to consumers.
At age 27, Dell became the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company ever.
Today, he is still CEO of the company he founded. Dell’s revenue in 2023 was $102 billion.
Round Rock-based Dell is also one of Austin’s largest technology companies, with more than 1,400 local employees.
And Dell, 59, has become the world’s 12th richest person, with a personal fortune of $104 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
And at SXSW in March, Dell said he’s looking forward to the next 40 years and he thinks Artificial Intelligence will play a big role in Dell’s future.
Austin’s coworking industry has always been turbulent, with new sites opening and closing.
In recent times, WeWork announced that it had exited its lease at the SXSW Center on Lavaca Street last October, according to an article in The Real Deal. It stopped operations at that site in January, although WeWork is still operating in the Domain, Congress, Barton Springs and University Park in Austin
The Riveter, a female-focused coworking site, shut down during the Pandemic and never reopened. Galvanize, a coworking site at Nueces and Second Street shuttered its operations in August 2022.
But Austin’s coworking supply is ticking up, with 78 sites now, according to CoworkingCafe’s recently released quarterly report on the coworking industry. The site’s researchers examined data from April and the coworking space stock availability in the nation’s 25 largest markets.
According to the report, Austin’s coworking market saw a 4 percent increase in coworking spaces in the last quarter, with three more. That ranks Austin 21st in the nation, up from 22nd at the end of last year.
In terms of square footage, Austin has a total of 1.65 million square feet, a slight increase of 0.5% compared to Q4 2023.
The average square foot in the Austin market dropped by 3% from 21,888 sqft in Q4 of last year to 21,144 sqft in Q1 of 2024.
Regarding pricing, virtual offices dropped to $109 from $119 in Q4. Dedicated desks increased to $405 from $403, while open workspaces increased to $199 from $150.
Other Texan markets in our top 25 include Dallas-Fort Worth, which logged 259 spaces in Q1 – a 4% increase; and Houston. which logs 216 spaces in Q1 – a 0.5% increase.
The national coworking supply now stands at 6,597 spaces, registering a 6% increase from Q4 2023.
in the ever-evolving software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry landscape, one event stands out as a beacon of innovation, collaboration, and growth: SaaStock USA.
Hosted in the vibrant city of Austin, this annual gathering has become a mecca for SaaS leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries from around the globe. SaaStock USA is more than a conference—it’s a convergence of minds, a melting pot of ideas, and a platform for shaping the future of the SaaS world.
SaaStock USA takes place May 13-15th at the Palmer Events Center in the heart of Austin. The event will likely sell out soon, so to secure your ticket today, click here to register.
Stepping into the bustling exhibition hall, attendees are immediately immersed in a world of cutting-edge technologies, groundbreaking solutions, and a palpable energy that permeates every corner. From established industry giants to scrappy startups, SaaStock USA attracts diverse companies, each showcasing their latest offerings and sharing their unique perspectives.
The meticulously curated speaker sessions and panel discussions are at the heart of the event. Rockstar speakers for the SaaStock USA event include Steve Rowland, president of Klaviyo, Ashley Grech, CRO of Xero, Mercelo Lebre, Co-Founder, CTO and President of Remote, Ashley Kramer, CMO and CSO of GitLab, Mary D’Onofrio, partner of Bessemer Venture Partners, Kevin Dorsey, sales leadership accelerator and consultant, Jason Fried, Co-founder and CEO of 37signals and Chris Walker, executive chairman of Refine Labs. They will share their invaluable insights and experiences. Whether delving into the intricacies of product development, exploring innovative go-to-market strategies, or dissecting the nuances of customer acquisition and retention, every session promises to challenge conventional wisdom and ignite new ways of thinking.
But SaaStock USA is more than just a series of talks and presentations. It’s a fertile ground for networking and forging meaningful connections. The bustling exhibition floor is a hive of activity, where conversations flow freely, ideas are exchanged, and potential partnerships are born. From impromptu meetups to organized networking events, attendees have ample opportunities to connect with like-minded professionals, fostering a sense of community that extends far beyond the conference halls.
One of the event’s standout features is its focus on empowering the next generation of SaaS leaders. SaaStock USA recognizes the importance of nurturing talent and fostering a culture of innovation. Through dedicated mentorship programs, aspiring entrepreneurs can glean wisdom from seasoned veterans, gaining invaluable insights into the challenges and triumphs of building and scaling a successful SaaS business.
At night, SaaStock USA transforms into a vibrant social hub. From intimate dinners to lively after-parties, attendees have ample opportunities to unwind, network, and forge lasting connections. It’s a testament to the event’s ability to seamlessly blend business and pleasure, creating an environment where ideas flourish and relationships thrive.
But SaaStock USA is more than just a fleeting moment in time. Its impact reverberates long after the final session has concluded and the exhibition halls have emptied. Attendees return to their respective corners of the world armed with a renewed sense of inspiration, a wealth of knowledge, and a network of invaluable connections.
In the fast-paced world of SaaS, where innovation is the currency and agility is the key to success, SaaStock Austin stands as a beacon of progress and a testament to the industry’s resilience and forward-thinking spirit. It’s a gathering that celebrates past achievements and charts the course for the future, ensuring that the SaaS revolution continues to shape how we live, work, and interact with technology.
Tabrez Syed, founder of Boxcar.ai, Kathryn Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer of Prosigliere, and Madhu Basu, founder of Unnanu at the Umlauf Gardens in downtown Austin.
Silicon Hills News hosted an event on Wednesday in the Crenshaw Room of the Umlauf Garden in downtown Austin to discuss tools and tips for using generative AI in the workplace. It also included some of the potential pitfalls of using the technology.
The speakers included Tabrez Syed, founder of Boxcar.ai in Austin. Syed explained what generative AI is and how it was created. He also gave an overview of its position in the Gartner Hype Cycle, which is now at its peak. Here is the link to Syed’s presentation.
Kathryn Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer with Prosigliere and founder of DMass in Austin, discussed how Generative AI has affected the demand for jobs on Upwork. It has led to a considerable decrease in writing and customer service jobs and a significant increase in website editing and development. Lewis also provided several AI-powered tools that people use today, such as copy.ai, Writesonic, Jasper, and Charlie. Her presentation is embedded below.
AI TRENDS, TOOLS AND TIPS Benefits and Drawbacks of ChatGPT and AI katie@prosigliere.com April 24, 2024
Madhu Basu is the founder of Unnanu, an artificial intelligence contextual search startup. Its flagship product is Unnanu Hire, a software-as-a-service platform with a proprietary AI and machine learning-powered resume-scoring feature. Here is a link to his presentation.
Overview of AI Tools and Uses Cases Understanding the Benefits and Drawbacks of ChatGPT and AI Presenting by Madhu Basu madhu@unnanu.ai https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhubasu/
Laura Lorek, founder of Silicon Hills News, also shared a presentation she did recently for the Ohio Northern University School of Law on the benefits and drawbacks of generative AI technology in the legal industry. The presentation is embedded below.
David Graff, Google Trust and Safety’s VP of Global Policy and Standards
This election year, generative AI poses new challenges, as cybercriminals can use it to create misleading content, such as deep fakes or fake images, videos, or audio.
Michael Kaiser, CEO of Defending Digital Campaigns, had a fireside chat with David Graff, Google Trust and Safety’s VP of Global Policy and Standards. The talk occurred Thursday morning at Google’s half-day summit on election security at its Austin downtown office.
In addition to the presidential election, more than 1,000 seats in Texas are on the ballot in November, which might attract U.S. adversaries, cybercriminals, and hacktivists to launch targeted attacks, according to Defending Democracy Campaigns.
In past elections, cybercriminals have attacked individuals and organizations and spread dangerous misinformation. Kaiser said that this year, generative AI threatens to disrupt elections even more.
These days, Graff and his team at Google spend a lot of time on generative AI.
“This is a little bit like old wine in a new bottle,” Graff said.
Graff said that Google has been dealing with the challenges of misinformation, impersonation, and bad actors. He said Google has a series of enforcement actions and policies on dealing with fake content.
Graff said Google has developed policies requiring disclosure if advertisers use AI in consequential ways in political ads.
“So, people understand what they are seeing,” Graff said.
So far, campaigns seem cautious about using generative AI in deceptive ways, but he said there are concerns about misuse by unofficial actors.
Graff said that Google’s search engine elevates authoritative, fact-based information for election queries.
“In terms of the new technology, which is incredibly transformation and incredibly powerful, it does present some new challenges,” Graff said. It allows people to create high-quality video and audio content, he said.
But the large language models are prone to hallucinations or making stuff up, and they can propagate misinformation, he said.
Graff said Google also promotes transparency around AI-generated content through techniques like watermarking and metadata standards. He said Google’s focus is helping the public identify synthesized content.
Political campaigns increasingly rely on technology but have small teams, creating cybersecurity vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can exploit.
Will Hurd, a former Republican congressman from San Antonio, said election misinformation is a real threat to American Democracy.
Hurd, a former 2024 presidential candidate, cybersecurity expert, and former undercover officer in the CIA, spoke at a Thursday half-day summit at Google’s downtown office in Austin. Defending Digital Campaigns, a Google Partner, put on the event. The organization provides political parties and campaigns with knowledge, products, and services to protect themselves from cyber threats and attacks. More than 100 people attended the event, including leading experts in politics and technology.
Hurd said the future of cybersecurity will be a battle between good AI versus bad AI. New tools like Generative AI easily create text, images, and videos with large language models, known as LLMs, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Athropic’s Claude.Ai, and others.
Hurd said AI can be used for good, to get the correct information out there, and to facilitate helpful discourse. It’s a tool; use it to promote good conversations, he said.
“That’s the only way we’re going to keep this little experiment called Democracy safe,” Hurd said. “The bad guys aren’t necessarily smarter than you. Truth is on your side. Use it. Harness it.”
Hackers have created havoc with misinformation in past election campaigns, and this year, with Generative AI, the situation will only worsen. In February 2024, the Federal Communications Commission issued a cease-and-desist letter against Texas-based Lingo Telecomm, which is alleged to have originated robocall traffic using AI-generated voice technology to impersonate President Joe Biden and tell voters not to vote in the New Hampshire primary election.
Hurd said misinformation first began circulating through social media during the 2016 Presidential elections, and Blactivist and Southern Pride were some of the originators of posting misinformation campaigns.
“These were two organizations that the Russian Internet Research Agency built and ran social media campaigns,” Hurd said. Those campaigns reached hundreds of thousands of people.
“It’s not just the Russians we have to worry about,” Hurd said.
One of China’s latest campaigns is targeting Texas and spreading misinformation across social media about political unrest in the state stemming from immigration and border disputes with the Federal government, Hurd said. The online chatter is about an impending civil war. The U.S. State Department released its first report in September 2023 on the People’s Republic of China’s information manipulation.
“Why are they doing that?” Hurd said. “It’s to erode trust in our institutions. It’s not about influencing the actual vote count. It’s not about ten votes here or there. It’s to erode trust in our institutions because when we are battling each other, we’re not battling them.”
Hurd said that the U.S. has known for years that Chinese hackers have been in some of the U.S.’s critical infrastructure, which should be a considerable concern.
Hurd said the world is already experiencing an infodemic, with information overload from the Internet and social media, and AI will make it even worse.
Information that AI allows us to release into the ether will lead people to do one of three things: they are going to revert to things they already know and people they already trust or straight out reject even if the information is accurate, or they’re going to get duped, Hurd said.
Protecting the democracy starts with protecting yourself, Hurd said.
“Don’t let the bad guys into your systems,” he said.
It’s simple, Hurd said. Hurd said don’t click on phishing messages like fake receipts or messages about other stuff from people you don’t know. He said that is a real tech scam, and 90 percent of cyber hacks start with a phishing expedition. It’s OK to ignore it, he said.
Hurd said that half of all current attacks could have been prevented with updated software.
“Update your freakin’ software, y’all,” Hurd said.
If people do these two things, they protect themselves, their campaigns, their candidates, and their principles, and “you’re preventing the Chinese, the Russians, and the Iranians from gaining access to information they could potentially use in the future,” he said.
And be careful of what you click on while browsing the Internet, Hurd said. There are a lot of phishing ads that are not real ads on the Internet, he said.
Manu Rehani is the founder of Issa, an emotional AI startup.
Rehani is an innovator in applied behavioral and cognitive linguistics. He is an inventor, mentor, and board advisor for several startups. After successfully exiting two tech ventures, he’s currently focused on developing a new class of emotion-aware AI for general application in custom GPTs and LLMs and specific use in mental health and wellness applications to foster a healthy relationship with self and others through AI.
On the Ideas to Invoices podcast, Rehani discusses the ethical and thoughtful development of AI that understands and responds to human emotions to improve mental health and well-being rather than creating dependence or isolation.
Here are ten key takeaways from the podcast:
Personal Inspiration for Emotion-Aware AI:
Manu was inspired to create Issa after observing the effects of COVID-19, particularly the loneliness his daughter experienced when her social activities were disrupted.
Mission of Issa:
Issa aims to address loneliness and mental health issues by leveraging AI that can understand the emotional content of conversations, thereby fostering healthier relationships.
Unique Approach to Emotion Detection:
Unlike other emotion AI that use a “bag of words” approach, Issa’s technology considers the context surrounding words to determine their emotional content, applying rules-based AI rather than training sets.
Success Stories:
Issa has made breakthroughs in caregiver support by analyzing care notes for stress indicators, which helped reduce caregiver burnout and attrition rates in eldercare facilities.
Future of Emotion-Aware AI:
Manu envisions that emotion-aware AI should serve as a bridge to real-life connections and stresses the importance of considering ethical issues like privacy and trust.
Impact of Previous Startups:
Lessons from previous ventures have influenced Manu’s approach to Issa, emphasizing team culture, the role of diverse perspectives, and the need for products relevant across age groups.
The Process of Patenting AI Technologies:
Securing patents for Issa’s technology was an intensive process but was viewed as a beneficial exercise that improved their technological approach.
Austin as a Tech Hub:
Manu notes that Austin’s culture of citizen entrepreneurship creates a conducive environment for startups, particularly in the AI sector.
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs in Emotional AI:
Manu advises newcomers to the field to focus on AI’s impact on human connections and avoid creating technologies that could further isolate people.
Humanizing AI:
There is a discussion about incorporating AI into humanoid or animal forms, which Manu expresses reservations about, preferring AI to assist with human connections rather than replace them.
Manu Rehani is an innovator in applied behavioral and cognitive linguistics. He is an inventor, mentor, and board advisor for a number of startups. After successfully exiting two tech ventures, he’s currently focused on developing a new class of emotion-aware AI for general application in custom GPTs and LLMs and specific use in mental health and wellness applications to foster a healthy relationship with self and others through AI.
L-R) Vaskar Gnyawali, Co-founder and CSO of Breaking, with Sukanya Punthambaker, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO.
Colossal Biosciences is spinning out a new company, Breaking, a plastic degradation and synthetic biology company.
Colossal started the company at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
“We could not be more thrilled to launch Breaking from Stealth from Colossal. The technologies co-developed by the Wyss Institute provide limitless applications to address our planet’s pervasive plastic contamination challenges,” Breaking Co-founder and Colossal CEO Ben Lamm said in a news release. “Part of our core mission of ecosystem restoration at Colossal can only be achieved by removing plastic that plagues our ecosystems and negatively impacts biodiversity.”
Breaking discovered X-32, “which can degrade polyolefins, polyesters, and polyamides leaving behind carbon dioxide, water, and biomass in as little as 22 months,” according to a news release.
“I’ve spent my career in synthetic biology and protein engineering with the hope of developing something this transformational,” Breaking Co-founder and CEO Sukanya Punthambaker, Ph.D, said in a news release. “In the future, our solution will be able to work across terrestrial and marine environments to break down today’s greatest threat to humankind/our existence: the plastic that is choking our world.”
Breaking, which previously raised $10.5 million in a seed round, was co-founded by the Founding Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Donald Ingber, Harvard geneticist George Church, CEO Punthambaker, CSO Vaskar Gnyawali, Alba Tull, Kent Wakeford, and Ben Lamm.
The X-32 breaks down plastics’ chemical structure and can do it with up to 90 percent of polyesters and polyolefins in less than 22 months.
“The microbe starts to work immediately. In lab tests, X-32 started to break down paint brush bristles, fishing wire, and dental floss in less than five days. If left untreated, paint bristles brushes can take 450-1000 years to decompose, fishing wire can take 600 years, and dental floss would take 80 years,” according to a news release.
Concurrently, X-32 utilizes plastics as a primary carbon source and needs no pre-treatment, sorting, cleaning, or decontamination and it emits carbon dioxide, water, and biomass during the degradation process.
Today’s primary recycling processes are inefficient and either degrade the plastic to the point it becomes unusable or contribute to other environmental harms. Crushing and grinding destroy the fibers in plastics, making them unsuitable for re-use. As a result, only 9% of plastic makes it to a recycling plant. The most efficient disposal method, incineration, furthers the carbon crisis and releases toxic chemicals. But Breaking’s X-32 has no known negative environmental ramifications.
The team will now utilize its expertise in synthetic biology to engineer X-32 into a faster, more efficient, and uniquely effective solution to break down more plastic faster.
“Breaking is solving one of the biggest problems on our planet. They are using the natural world as inspiration and layering on cutting-edge technology to transform how we break down plastics,” Jim Kim, General Partner of Builders VC and a lead investor in Breaking, said in a news release.
“The first in-field pilots will target the food waste and composting industry,” Kent Wakeford, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Breaking, said in a news release. Food waste in landfills costs $16 billion in taxpayer dollars per year. But that food can’t be composted because of plastic contamination. If we can remove the plastics, we can save the government a lot of money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help improve overall quality of life.”
Additionally, as X-32 degrades plastics, it generates biomass containing different biomolecules that may also be immensely valuable in various industries.
Electrek, a news organization that covers electric vehicles, reported on Monday that Tesla planned to lay off 10 percent of its workforce and scaled back production of its Cybertruck.
Some Telsa workers then reported receiving an email informing them their jobs had been eliminated.
According to the New York Times, Tesla is cutting 14,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its global workforce. The article was critical of Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and Founder.
“Mr. Musk has not outlined a plan to reverse a decline in car sales, and he appears focused on long-shot ventures such as a self-driving taxi, rather than new models that would help Tesla compete with cars being introduced by established carmakers and the new rivals from China,” according to the article.
Tesla’s global headquarters are in Austin at its Texas Gigafactory, which covers 2,500 acres along the Colorado River. The plan is more than 10 million square feet of factory space. It makes the Model Y and the Cybertruck.
The Texas Gigafactory and Tesla headquarters employ more than 23,000 people, with plans to ramp up to 60,000 as production increases. It is uncertain how many Texas employees were affected by the layoffs.
The Associated Press reported that earlier this month, Tesla reported its first quarter earnings and said, “It delivered 386,810 vehicles worldwide from January through March, almost 9 percent below the 423,000 it sold in the same quarter of last year. It was the first year-over-year quarterly sales decline in nearly four years.”
In addition to the Texas Gigafactory, Tesla has gigafactories in Nevada, New York, Shanghai, China, and Berlin, Germany. The company also has extensive manufacturing and engineering operations in California.
Zoho is hosting Zoholics, its annual flagship conference, in Austin on June 5th and June 6th.
The conference will feature 12 tracks and 100+ sessions, workshops, in-depth content, and opportunities to meet technical staff, partners, and Zoho leadership.
“At Zoholics, we welcome everyone, whether you’re a Zoho newcomer, a long-time user, or just curious about the value Zoho can bring to your organization,” according to a news release. Zoholics is known for its complementary half-hour 1-on-1s, opportunities to meet like-minded Zoho users, and comprehensive lineup of product sessions. In 2024, we’ll have even more for you to enjoy.”
Zoholic’s 12 tracks will cover the following topics: Sales, Marketing, Service, Finance, HR, Team Communication, developer tools, and more. Zoho experts lead product sessions.
New Workshops
For the first time at our US Zoholics event, Zoho is offering three one-and-a-half-day workshops. These workshops include a Zoho CRM workshop, a Zoho Books/Finance workshop, and an Advanced Skills workshop that will focus on custom functions and business intelligence.
Zoholics Workshops will take place during Zoholics 2024, starting in the second half of Day 1, and ending at the end of Day 2. The goal of a workshop is to give you guided, step-by-step instruction so you can learn how to use and implement particular applications and capabilities in your Zoho deployment after the conference. Workshop attendees will have a demo account to follow along with the instructor and learn new skills in real time. To ensure that you can ask questions and receive adequate instruction, each workshop will be limited to 50 seats.
Since space is limited, workshop attendees will be required to purchase a ticket for the workshop they plan to attend. This ticket will include access to the rest of the Zoholics event and a complimentary half-hour 1-on-1 with a Zoho expert to get particular questions answered. Get your ticket to a workshop today.
Complementary 1-on-1s
The 30-minute 1-on-1 you get when purchasing a Zoholics ticket is a longtime favorite of attendees, and they’re back for Zoholics 2024. 1-on-1s are a great way to meet a Zoho expert in person and get your specific questions answered. If we cannot address the issue within half an hour, we will follow up after the event to ensure you have received the necessary information.
If 30 minutes isn’t enough, Zoho offers hour-long 1-on-1s with a virtual 1-on-1 follow-up. This extended service 1-on-1 is available at an extra cost and is discussed below.
Hour-long 1-on-1s with Post-Zoholics Follow-Up
Zoho knows 1-on-1s are one of the best parts of Zoholics, and it wants attendees to get the most out of their time with us. For the first time at a US Zoholics, we will offer 1-on-1s longer than 30 minutes by purchasing a GA Plus Ticket. A GA Plus Ticket gets you one hour-long 1-on-1 and an additional virtual follow-up within six months of the event. This gives you two hours to meet with our technical staff to answer your current and future-specific questions.
Expo Hall
Zoholics is excited to bring back the Expo Hall in Zoholics 2024. This was a popular aspect of our 2019 Zoholics in Austin. In the Expo Hall, you will be able to meet Zoho Partners and third-party vendors, network with other users, and attend informative sessions at our Expo Stage.
Zoho Partners are essential to the Zoho world and help many customers achieve tremendous value with Zoho. They also provide training on Zoho products, custom solutions, and more.
Experience Center
The Expo Hall will also feature our new Experience Center, a concept we have experimented with for a few years. The Experience Center is staffed by product managers and experts from a wide variety of our product teams. Here, you can get your questions answered, watch a demo, talk about roadmaps, and provide direct feedback on our products to the great people who make them.
See the agenda, register, or check out the Zoholics webpage to learn more.
Mark Arnold is the new associate vice president for Discovery to Impact at the University of Texas at Austin.
According to a news release, Arnold’s role in the new position is to connect the campus to innovators and industry. He will be tasked with enhancing the university’s commercialization efforts. He will also oversee technology transfer, intellectual property, licensing, business development, and launch Texas startups.
UT President Jay Hartzell hired Arnold to foster industry and university collaborations and to cultivate a robust research pipeline focused on life sciences, energy, the environment, and deep tech.
Arnold’s appointment comes when Austin seeks to become one of the nation’s top hubs for life sciences.
Arnold will also serve as the managing director of Texas Startups.
“By harnessing our collective expertise and passion, we will shape the future of innovation, galvanize our entrepreneurship programs and offerings, and scale the startup pipeline emerging from UT across the nation and around the globe,” Arnold said in a statement.
Previously, Arnold was the founder and general partner of The Resilience Fund, an early-stage venture firm. He was also vice president of corporate development for Forcepoint, which sold to Raytheon Technologies for $1.9 billion in 2015. He also worked at Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg & Co., and Cisco Systems. He has B.S. and MBA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
The Austin Technology Council is accepting nominations for its “Austin Tech Hall of Fame” awards ceremony.
ATC’s Austin Tech Hall of Fame fits into its plans to honor the past, embrace the present, and shape the future of Austin’s tech community.
ATC is asking members of the technology community to nominate individuals who have made substantial impacts on the industry as a whole.
“The launch of the Austin Tech Hall of Fame represents a revitalization of an idea we initiated many years ago. It underscores the remarkable contributions of individuals who have played pivotal roles in propelling Austin to its status as a thriving tech hub,” Thom Singer, CEO of the Austin Technology Council, said in a statement.
“The evolution of our community into a tech powerhouse has been deliberate and driven by visionary entrepreneurs, community leaders, and innovators. It’s time to pay tribute to these trailblazers and celebrate the leaders shaping Austin’s future,” Singer said.
ATC plans to hold the inaugural induction ceremony and a cocktail reception on June 4th. It will recognize six “legacy inductees” alongside this year’s “first-time founder award.” ATC’s board of directors will select the inductees.
“We are excited to launch this program to recognize and highlight the history of the Austin technology community,” Scott Francis, founder and CEO of BP3 Global and board chair of the ATC, said in a statement. “While each of these honorees were certainly honored in their heyday, we want to share this connection with history with new and thriving entrepreneurs in Austin, today. Many of us only have a sliver of Austin’s tech history in our memory banks, and this is just another way to expand our horizons and appreciation for those who laid the foundations we build on – with ATC, our member companies, and our broader community!”
Companies interested in supporting this initiative and becoming additional sponsors of the inaugural Austin Tech Hall of Fame event are encouraged to contact Thom Singer at Thom@AustinTechnologyCouncil.org for further details.
Female founders need more money to finance their ventures – that’s the key takeaway from the documentary “Show Her the Money.”
Over 100 people turned out Thursday night at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar in Austin to watch the film, highlighting female founders, their quest for Venture Capital, and the lack of investment dollars going to women.
When the documentary’s producer, Catherine Gray, discovered that female founders receive only 2 percent of Venture Capital, she asked, “Why are we only getting 2 percent, and what is Venture Capital?” Gray said during a panel discussion following the film’s showing. Valeska Pederson Hintz, partner at Perkins Coie, moderated the panel and asked Gray why she created the film.
“I’m a big believer that film and television help change culture like awareness creates change, and I thought, wow, I’m in this ecosystem with these amazing, smart women in venture and angel investing,” Gray said.
“Show Her the Money” generates awareness and provides education on Venture Capital, Gray said. It also seeks to inspire more women to learn about and participate in Venture Capital and angel investing. The film does this in a storytelling way that makes it feel tangible and hšeartfelt, she said. Venture Capital is “very exciting, and who doesn’t want to have their pulse on the innovations out there?” Gray said. Also, the VC asset class could be more lucrative than any other investment, she said.
The movie is on a 50-city grassroots global tour sponsored by Wells Fargo across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and New Zealand. Locally, Perkins Coie and the Central Texas Angel Network, CTAN, sponsored the showing.
In addition to Gray, the other panelists included Laurie Cercone, an angel investor with CTAN, Kelly Ann Winget, founder of Alternative Wealth Partners, and Azin Radsan van Alebeek, co-founder and general partner of Emmeline Ventures.
The film emphasizes the need for women to get involved in the Venture Capital industry.
“I was typically the only woman in the room,” Winget said. She is also featured in the film as an angel investor in Dapper Boi. Winget has been involved in the private equity investment space for a long time. She believes it’s crucial to let women know these investment opportunities exist and educate them on how to get involved.
Sara Brand, co-founder of True Wealth Ventures, the country’s first female-focused venture capital fund, attended the film’s showing. Brand founded True Wealth Ventures with Kerry Rupp. True Wealth Ventures has raised a $20 million fund and a $35 million fund targeted at female founders in consumer sustainability and health.
Only 18 percent of general partners in Venture Capital firms are women, said Radsan van Alebeek, co-founder and general partner of Emmeline Ventures.
Among the cast members featured in the film is entrepreneur Dawn Lafreeda from San Antonio. She is the largest single-owner franchisee within Denny’s restaurant chain and one of the most successful female restaurant franchise owners in the U.S. She is also self-made and started as a waitress and hostess at Denny’s. Now, she’s an angel investor and limited partner in SoGal Ventures, which invests in women. The founder of that venture fund, Pocket Sun, is also featured in the film.
Entrepreneurs showcased in the film include Vicky Pasche, founder of Dapper Boi, a gender-neutral, body-inclusive apparel line; Diipa Bulle-Khosla, founder of Inde Wild, a skincare products line targeted at South Asian women; Marian Leitner, founder of Archer Roose Wine, which sells luxury wines in cans; and Jasmine Jones, founder of Myya, an online post-mastectomy intimates brand.
CTAN, with more than 120 members, is one of Texas’s oldest active angel investment groups, and women make up 28 percent of its membership, said Cercone, CTAN angel investor. CTAN has a sidecar fund for female investors who want to write smaller checks. It is a $20,000 investment and gets put into between eight and ten companies, Cercone said. CTAN focuses on life sciences, software, hardware, and consumer packaged goods. CTAN is actively recruiting more accredited female investors with industry experience.
“If we get more women and people who understand the industries dominated by women, it’s going to result in more female-founded companies getting funded,” Cercone said.
It’s not about charity, said Radsan van Alebeek, co-founder and general partner of Emmeline Ventures. She said investing in women can be lucrative and yield a significant return on investment.
Pederson Hintz said the movie stated that a $10,000 check invested in a female-founded company goes much further than the same investment with a male founder. The data shows female founders generated 78 cents from every dollar of funding, compared to 31 cents for male-founded startups, she said.
Radsan van Alebeek said women are more capital-efficient because they know it will be challenging to get more funding.
“Whatever funding she gets, she cherishes, she nurtures; she has to be very thoughtful about how it’s going to be used,” she said.
“We’re kind of constantly in survival mode and thinking about 30 different problems,” Winget said. “We live in a world where we’re second-guessed by our male peers constantly,’’
Winget encouraged the allies of female founders to brag about the women in their lives to their networks and to promote their work.
“Women are very quiet about their accomplishments and skills,” she said. I think the louder we get about supporting women, the better.”
Radsan van Alebeek also said women must shift their mindsets and not wait for an intimate invitation to do something.
“If you want to do something, go do it,” she said.
Gray said she wants to see more women and men invest in women, LGBTQ founders, and other overlooked people with innovative ideas.
“Every person, including Caucasian men, should care about us creating enough funding for women and BI-POC and LGBTQ founders to get funding,” she said. That’s so that all their unique innovations can come to life and do everything from “curing cancer to saving the environment.”
That’s why there is such a great need for diversity in funding, Gray said. “That’s where the power is,” she said. “People deciding who gets the funding tend to invest in people they identify with, so you have to see yourself sitting at that table of deciding who gets the money.”
The panelists advised female founders to focus on aligning with investors who understand their industry and the specific challenges women face.
“Don’t take the first check you get, or do some due diligence on both the personality and the background of your potential investor because taking bad money can be detrimental to your business,” Winget said.
The founder might work with the investor for a decade, so it’s important to have investors aligned with the business.
Pederson Hintz also referenced a Harvard Business Review study that showed that there is a bias in investor questions when female founders pitch their ventures. Female entrepreneurs are often asked about risks and mitigation, whereas male entrepreneurs are asked about potential gains.
“I’ve been in all male-dominated spaces, even in the private equity space. I’ll go into a room, and I have a male assistant, and they’ll ask him a question before they ask me,” Winget said. “I can’t work with a person like that. So, you have to have a little bit of grounding, walk away from situations like that, and call them out on it because they don’t really know that they’re doing it, unfortunately.”
Other panelists advised female founders to ignore the question and keep talking about the investment opportunities.
“This is literally all made-up like everyone woke up one day and decided I’m going to do this,” Radsan van Alebeek, co-founder and general partner of Emmeline Ventures, said. “Everything is made up, so once you internalize that energy, you are unstoppable because if you can think it and dream it, it can happen.”
The panelists urged everyone to increase women’s participation in venture capital, educate themselves about the investment landscape, and invest in women-led initiatives. They also emphasized the need to improve financial literacy from a young age. Lastly, there is a push for collective action to support and invest in diverse, underrepresented groups.
Inc. Magazine Names Seven Central Texas Entrepreneurs to its 2024 Top 250 Most Intriguing Women Entrepreneur List.
Six female founders come from Austin and one from San Antonio.
Allison Ellsworth founded Poppi, a prebiotic soda that combines fruit juices and apple cider vinegar. She founded the company in 2015 and moved it to Austin in 2021. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $53 million to date.
Angela Hood, the founder behind ThisWay Global, a software that revolutionizes the recruitment process by delivering a diverse pool of qualified applicants, is a game-changer. Since its inception in 2015, the Austin-based company has raised $3.9 million, with the latest funding from a WeFunder equity crowdfunding campaign, making a significant mark in the industry.
Robin Laine founded Transect, a software company based in San Antonio. The company offers software for real-time natural resources due diligence for development projects. Founded in 2016, the company has raised $4.3 million to date, according to Crunchbase.
Cortney Lebens co-founded Muy’Ono Resorts, a hospitality company that provides weddings, catering, dining, and event services in Belize. She started Muy’Ono in 2014 and grew the business from one resort property to 16 resorts and supporting industries.
Arielle Olfers co-founded The Southern Influence, an advertising and marketing firm based in Austin. She founded the company with her husband, Chris Olfers. According to its website, TSI reports having worked with dozens of global brands like Bala, Soho House, Goop, Reebok, Red Bull, and Tecate. Its work has been featured in Vogue, the New York Times, AD, Southern Living, and other publications.
Katie Spies founded Maev, a raw dog food company based in Austin. In 2019, Spies launched Maev after years of research and development, working with veterinary nutritionists to perfect its formulas. The company moved from New York to Austin. According to Crunchbase, it has raised $19 million to date.
Jen Young is a co-founder of Outdoorsy, a marketplace platform that connects RV owners with other campers. The company, founded in 2014, has raised $191.1 million, according to Crunchbase.
During SXSW in 2019, Lori Hawkins with Michelle Breyer on South Congress in Austin, courtesy photo
When Lori Hawkins joined the Austin American Statesman in 1994 to cover technology, the city looked vastly different from what it does today.
Dell was just ten years old at the time. It was the dawn of the information age, an economy built on computers, software, and the commercial Internet.
For the next three decades, Lori would write stories that chronicled Austin’s technology industry’s growth, contraction, and development. She grew to know about everyone in the Austin technology community, from venture capitalists to angel investors, entrepreneurs, public relations experts, and tech executives. She even founded Naturally Curly with Michelle Breyer and Gretchen Heber. But while Breyer and Heber would pursue the startup full-time, Lori stayed at the Statesman.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that Hawkins, 57, died Thursday after complications from a medical procedure. She is survived by her husband, Paul Sunby, and her daughter, Sora Sunby, and son, Will Sunby.
“Lori was such a legend in the Austin business community,” said Breyer, the chief marketing officer for SKU, Austin’s consumer-packaged goods accelerator. “She was a highly respected, award-winning business reporter who chronicled every twist and turn of Austin’s growth into a major business hub. She was universally loved and will be missed by so many people. I have known her for three decades and was so honored to have her as a friend.”
Lately, Lori has reported on the profound changes in Austin, including the departure of several Austin establishments on Congress Avenue, like Tesoros Trading Company and Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds, and the Austin American Statesman campus closure at Lady Bird Lake. She also wrote about newcomers to South Congress, like Austin-based Tecovas. She lived in South Austin and witnessed the changes firsthand.
Lori also “oversaw the publication of the Statesman’s TechMonday section, including editing the work of a five-person team and freelance writers,” according to her LinkedIn profile. She also helped the paper launch 512Tech.com, a website that covered technology startups, and contributed stories and videos to that project.
Serial Entrepreneur William Hurley, known as Whurley, worked with Lori on all his startups and considered her a friend.
“I owe a great deal to Lori Hawkins,” said Hurley, co-founder and CEO of Strangeworks, a quantum computing startup. “She was one of my favorite people. She was a dear friend and a huge supporter of all my crazy ideas. Without Lori, I don’t think that Chaotic Moon, Team Chaos, Honest Dollar, or even Strangeworks I’m running now would be where they were. She breathes life into startups. She supports founders of all types and backgrounds, and she was a staple in reporting on Austin tech and will be sorely missed.”
Preston James, Founder and CEO of DivInc, an accelerator for women and people of color, saw Lori as a voice for underrepresented founders in Austin.
“Lori focused on inclusivity in the ecosystem, which made us feel welcome and gave us visibility, and for that, I’ve always appreciated what she’s done,” James said. “She brought eyes and attention to DivInc and what we’ve been doing. She was one of the early ones that did that for us.”
Jenn Gooding, CEO of Narwhal Media Group, a public relations firm, recalled that when she struck out on her own in 2013, Lori was the first reporter she worked with when she was on the fence as to whether she wanted to continue in the field after having dealt with many (unnecessarily) rude business reporters.
“As I waited nervously with my client at the coffee shop on Congress, in walks this confident but warm woman that just put us both instantly at ease,” Gooding said. “She was kind and gracious, but when she left quickly, we both felt a little baffled…how on earth could she have gotten what she needed that quickly to create a good story? Nobody is THAT good, we said, waiting anxiously until the paper came out. The story turned out perfect, as did all the others we worked on over the years together, including the last one she ever wrote.”
Gooding’s client is Vendidit. Lori’s last story was on Billionaire John Paul Dejoria’s AI-powered startup, Vendidit, a software platform for the secondary market for retail returns.
“As the next generation of our community journalists learn their craft, I hope they work to embody the qualities that Lori gifted to Austin,” Gooding said.
“What a loss for our community. Lori Hawkins was one of the first to cover OJO and Movoto and stayed with us till today. The journalists who tell our stories and ask us the hard questions are a critical component of the success of Austin’s tech ecosystem, and Lori was one of the best. She will be dearly missed! Our Hearts go out to her family and colleagues.”
More than 20 people, primarily other Austin tech entrepreneurs, commented on the post, expressing their sadness at her death.
One of Berkowitz’s first conversations on the launch of OJO was with Lori.
“And from the first moment I met her, I felt the care and effectiveness of her tact,” Berkowitz said. “On every big milestone of the business, I knew Lori would be there to ask questions that mattered and tell the facts that she believed the community needed to know. The next big announcement of OJO won’t be the same without the conversation with Lori.”
Amber Gunst, who worked with Lori on several stories while she was the CEO of the Austin Technology Council, called Lori “the consummate professional. She was a real reporter. She didn’t sugarcoat anything, but she also didn’t do gotcha journalism. And she was always just absolutely a stellar person to have a conversation with and to do an interview with. I can’t think of anybody in Austin that supported tech or tech organizations more than Lori.”
David Altounian, an Austin entrepreneur for 30 years who moved to Rhode Island last year, was so sad to hear the news. He often talked to Lori at events like SXSW, tech meetups, and parties.
“Lori was always great to talk to about happenings in Austin, and we would generally gossip about people, companies, or subjects we both knew,” Altounian said. “Lori was always so positive, and I always felt that she wanted the best for Austin and its entrepreneurs. Not that she shied from tough stories or asking tough questions, but she acted as if she were invested in the community and its members. Instead of outside it.”
“To me, it wasn’t just a passing of a journalist; she covered an amazing time of growth and opportunity in Austin when Austin was struggling to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and her passing marks another Austin connection to that time that is no longer there for me,” Altounian said.
Richard Bagdonas said Lori was like a mind reader and was on top of the latest news.
“As I was writing the Dark Ages of Austin Startup Capital, Lori had started working on a piece for the state of the Austin venture capital industry and pinged me to talk about it,” he said. “When I started MI7, she knew about it before anyone else.”
Barbary Brunner said that Lori was one of the essential sources of knowledge about the tech scene in Austin.
“Through my tenure as CEO of the Austin Technology Council, she and I had many frank conversations about the ecosystem and about being women in the ecosystem,” Brunner said. “She was an astute and generous guide, and her passing is a loss to the industry in so many ways.”
After New York-based The Cru acquired the Mentor Method in September of 2022, Joseph Kopser suggested that Janice Omadeke write a book about mentorship.
Omadeke founded the Mentor Method in 2015 in Washington, D.C. The business created mentorship software to engage, retain and develop talented and diverse employees. She moved the startup to Austin in 2018. Kopser served as a mentor to Omadeke and became the Chief Growth Officer of The Mentor Method.
Omadeke is among the fewer than 100 black women founders who have led a startup and raised more than $1 million in venture capital funding.
“I think one of my superpowers is just staying open to whatever is supposed to be next,” Omadeke said. So, when Wiley representatives approached her about writing a book about mentorship, she said yes.
On Monday evening, Chris Hyams, CEO of Indeed, hosted a book launch event for Omadeke at The Indeed Tower in downtown Austin. About 200 people attended the event, which featured a fireside chat between Omadeke and Hyams. The talk highlighted practical insights around inclusive mentorship, Omadeke’s journey and her vision for empowering professionals from all backgrounds.
Hyams noted that Omadeke is vulnerable and open in the book about her experiences. Omadeke said it’s essential to be open as a mentor, to create a safe space for the mentee to grow, make mistakes, and share their fears and aspirations.
Omadeke also notes that mentorship is not easily accessible to many underrepresented groups, and it’s essential to make it more inclusive.
Hyams noted that Omadeke’s book provides a comprehensive framework for mentorship. It outlines seven different types of mentors one may need at different career stages and provides detailed guidance on how to write an email to a potential mentor to ask for mentorship.
“I wouldn’t be here without the help of incredible mentors like Joseph Kopser, Hugh Forrest and Jan Ryan, and others,” Omadeke said.
Omadeke said a person needs seven types of mentors: the company insider, skills master, money-minded, industry, network, influential, and peer mentors. In the book, Omadeke said she aims to help readers see themselves reflected and provides a roadmap for them to navigate their unique professional journeys confidently. She drew heavily from her experience after graduating and spending the first few years in corporate America.
When Omadeke signed up to participate in a mentorship program at her workplace in 2009, the organizers said they didn’t have anyone for her.
“Which actually meant that they didn’t have a woman or a person of color,” Omadeke said. Everyone was a straight white male, and that’s fine in mentorship, by the way. But the organizers of that program felt that race and gender were a stronger determining factor of mentorship than the fact that I’m smarter than everybody else who signed up.”
A male executive saw that and started mentoring Omadeke on the side, unofficially, and not through the program, but he saw her potential and encouraged her.
“I was my first pancake in terms of the framework written in Mentorship Unlocked,” Omadeke said.
Omadeke said she is committed to continued learning and growth and using her experiences to impact her next career opportunity. She also encouraged everyone to stay open to new opportunities, even if they don’t feel fully ready.
Following the talk, several people in the Austin entrepreneurial ecosystem commented on how Omadeke and her book have brought valuable insights to Austin.
“Janice is what Austin has been missing since I arrived in 1993,” said William Hurley, known as Whurley, CEO and Co-Founder of Strangeworks. “There’s not a strong enough mentorship community. A lot of people think they can’t mentor, or they just won’t because they don’t have time. And in her book, she describes exactly how people can give what time they have to drive the careers of those who need that opportunity to have mentorship.”
Preston James, Founder of DivInc, an Austin-based accelerator for women and people of color, praised Omadeke’s entrepreneurial drive and focus on mentorship. When James met Omadeke, she was in Washington, D.C. He encouraged her to move to Austin. In 2018, she won Capital Factory’s pitch competition for female founders, which came with a $100,000 investment. That same year, she also won Mass Challenge’s pitch competition, worth $50,000.
James, who spent a decade working for Dell, saw a massive need for mentorship in corporate America.
“I think anybody who’s tried to make their way and understand the importance of mentorship at various different stages throughout their career and in life, in general, this book captures the essence of that,” James said. I recommend it to everybody.”
James said he’s getting a copy of the book for his niece, who is graduating from Arizona State this spring.
“It’s a make or break for any individual who is serious about their professional growth,” James said.
No one had tackled this topic until Janice said Jan Ryan, a partner at Capital Factory, a serial entrepreneur and a professor at UT who teaches the popular “Women in Entrepreneurship” course. Ryan recommends the book to students and everyone, no matter what career stage.
“She is bringing to life information people need to know no matter where they are in their careers. Finding the right killer mentor you’ve always dreamed about is now possible,” Ryan said. Read this book because it shows you how to get there, and it’s a two-way street. It’s not just about you. That’s why she’s successful. She understands that.”
“Janice is a hero to us all,” said Hugh Forrest, Co-President and Chief Programming Officer at South by Southwest. The mentoring concept she advocates so eloquently is so important to many different people at many levels of their careers. So, it’s a fantastic book for all of us to enjoy.”
Omadeke did a fireside chat with Kim Scott, the bestselling author of Radical Respect, at SXSW 2024. Following her talk, Omadeke did a book signing and sold out of her book.
“We had 40 copies, and they all went,” Forrest said. “We probably could have sold a lot more. It was great to have her part of the event. She served as the host of the innovation awards in 2023. She’s been very involved in SXSW for many, many years.”
At SXSW, OpenAI’s vice president of consumer product and head of ChatGPT Peter Deng discussed the role of humans in the age of AI.
Deng previously worked at Instagram, Uber, and Airtable before joining OpenAI. He is a father of four. And in a fireside chat with Josh Constine, consumer VC at SignalFire and former TechCrunch editor, he discusses AI and humanity’s co-evolution.
Here are the key takeaways from the talk:
AI can make us more human by allowing us to deepen our curiosities and ask more significant questions about existence, consciousness, mortality, etc. It acts as a “perpetual professor” to help crystallize our thoughts.
AI, like ChatGPT, should assist humans, remove friction in tasks like writing or coding, and be a flexible tool to remove barriers so humans can focus on higher ambitions.
AI should adopt each user’s values and ideals rather than projecting any particular culture’s values. Core values should include seeking truth, being helpful, and instilling human values like empathy.
Safety and ethics must be baked into AI development, with responsible, cautious deployment even if core development accelerates rapidly.
Basic versions of AI, like ChatGPT, should always be free and widely accessible to improve AI literacy globally.
Disclosure of AI involvement should be the norm for personal communications, art, politics, etc. Even if we may care less about disclosure for some commercial uses in the future.
People should constantly experiment with new AI tools, and enterprises should set “experimentation budgets” to empower employees to find AI use cases.
The goal is coevolution – AI evolving responsibly alongside accelerating human understanding and trust in the technology through widespread access and transparency.
At SXSW, Ray Kurzweil painted an exciting but potentially scary vision of the imminent singularity driven by accelerating computing power and AI capabilities. Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, interviewed Kurzweil.
Kurzweil’s latest book, “The Singularity is Nearer,” will be released in June. The singularity is the point at which machines’ intelligence and humans merge.
Here are seven key takeaways from Ray Kurzweil’s talk at SXSW:
Kurzweil believes we are rapidly approaching the singularity, where artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence. He predicts this will occur around 2045.
The exponential growth in computing power, as described by Moore’s Law, is enabling significant advances in AI, like large language models, and will continue driving progress toward artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Kurzweil is very optimistic about the future benefits of AI and technology in areas like longevity, wealth creation, and eradicating poverty and disease. He believes technology has been an overwhelming force for good historically.
After AGI is achieved, brain-computer interfaces and nanotechnology will be critical for merging human intelligence with AI systems.
Ethical risks and challenges with advanced AI need to be grappled with, such as the potential for an advanced AI system to pursue a catastrophic goal like converting all matter to paperclips.
Kurzweil argues that conscious experience is not scientifically definable, so simulating the brain’s neural connections is sufficient to recreate human-level intelligence.
After the singularity, Kurzweil envisions humans being able to back up their minds and potentially live indefinitely by being recreated from these backups if their biological bodies die.
Aaron Thweatt, a former employee of AECOM, Activision Blizzard, SpaceX, and DoorDash, founded Respark Coaching to empower individuals to manage conversations effectively.
In the latest episode of Ideas to Invoices, Thweatt discusses his belief that managing conversations is the most powerful skill set one can learn, driving multiple facets of life and work. He also believes the most crucial conversation is the one with oneself.
Thweatt emphasizes the importance of communication in addressing performance issues within startups. He advises founders to have clear standards and processes to avoid misunderstandings and effectively handle HR issues.
On customer feedback, Thweatt stresses its importance in the early stages of a startup for product development and the need to balance customer desires with the company’s vision.
Regarding layoffs and restructuring, Thweatt highlights the need for founders to communicate empathetically and supportively, offering the example of Airbnb’s sensitive approach as a model.
In handling ethical concerns, he advises founders to investigate and address issues decisively, ensuring that the company culture prevents such problems from reoccurring.
On the challenges of virtual workspaces, he suggests building a culture that values emotional intelligence (EQ) and training managers to handle difficult conversations effectively.
Lastly, Thweatt recommends Chris Voss’s book “Never Split the Difference” for learning about tactical empathy and its application in business. He also mentions co-authoring a book with Voss on employing empathy in business practices.
To contact Aaron Thweat, visit the Respark Coaching website or follow him on all social platforms at @aaronthweatt
The entire podcast is posted below. You can also download it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, iHeartMeadia, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Aaron Thweatt is a dynamic executive coach and seasoned HR professional who strongly believes in the power of an individual’s potential. His mission is to create meaningful connections between talent, ambition, and purpose by empowering executives and entrepreneurs to bridge the gaps in their personal and business lives, allowing them to thrive in their zone of genius.
At SXSW, Amy Webb’s talk emphasized the significance of identifying and responding to fundamental technological trends, especially those related to AI, the interconnectedness of devices, and biotech.
Trends vs. Temporary Changes: Webb distinguishes between fleeting societal fads (like fashion and TikTok trends) and significant, long-term trends that show a change in direction over time. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on these impactful trends for future planning.
The Role of Data and Research: To identify meaningful trends, the Future Today Institute utilizes data, research, signals, and modeling. Combined with an understanding of uncertainties, these elements help predict future possibilities.
A Unique Moment in Time: Webb feels that the current moment is distinct due to the rapid evolution of technology, particularly in the creation and use of software and the development of generative AI.
Generational Perspective on Technology: She notes that every generation experiences unique technological advancements and that we are currently witnessing a momentous shift.
General Purpose Technologies (GPT): Webb identifies three primary areas of technological development—artificial intelligence, the connected ecosystem of things, and biotechnology. She argues that these technologies have become pervasive, influencing every aspect of the economy and society, similar to past GPTs like electricity, the steam engine, and the internet.
The Technology Supercycle refers to an extended period of heightened demand that leads to substantial economic changes. Unlike past cycles driven by a single technology, Webb believes we are now experiencing a supercycle powered by multiple converging technologies.
Convergence of Technologies: The convergence of AI, biotech, and the connected ecosystem has led to significant breakthroughs, creating new markets and attracting investments and talent.
Challenges for Leaders: Webb discusses how uncertainty and short-term planning horizons are crippling decision-makers, leading to fear and a reactive mode of operation rather than proactive, strategic thinking.
Strategic Foresight: She advocates for a more systematic approach to future planning beyond trend analysis, including scenario planning and strategies that ensure organizational resilience against unforeseen disruptions.
Accountability in AI: Webb criticizes the lack of accountability in AI development and points out ongoing bias and ethical development issues. She calls for an incentive overhaul and better management of technology’s societal impact.
Concept to Concrete AI: Looking forward, Webb predicts that AI will evolve from requiring specific prompts to being able to work with broad concepts, allowing for more creative and iterative collaboration between AI and humans.
Unsecured AI: The talk touches on the risks associated with open-source AI models that lack security, potentially leading to harmful outcomes.
Need for Regulation and Accountability: Webb stresses the urgency for establishing an accountability chain in AI development, especially as we approach artificial general intelligence.
The Everything Engine: AI is characterized as the “everything engine” embedded in all aspects of life and services, highlighting the need for comprehensive data to fuel this engine.
Empowerment and Agency: Despite the challenges, Webb expresses optimism that individuals and organizations can exercise control over their futures by working collectively through the transitions technology drives.
The Transition Generation: She labels the current generation as “Gen T” (Transition Generation), signifying everyone has a role in shaping a society that will look drastically different after this technological transition.
AI as the Everything Engine: AI is becoming deeply integrated into all aspects of life and services, a foundational element that improves and streamlines various processes.
Data Necessity: AI’s growth and effectiveness are heavily dependent on data, and as such, the demand for high-quality, diverse datasets is increasing. We need new types of data beyond text, including sensory and visual data, to train more sophisticated AI models.
Large Action Models (LAMs): LAMs represent a shift from predicting speech to predicting actions and behaviors. Numerous sensors in our environment will be required to collect the data necessary for these predictions.
Connectables: This term refers to a network of interconnected devices that collect data to further AI capabilities. This ecosystem will likely expand with wearables, smart devices, and sensors.
Growth of Devices: There will be an influx of devices, some of which may seem unnecessary or odd until the market stabilizes around beneficial technologies.
AI-First Devices: New devices are being created to continuously learn from our behaviors in real time, moving us towards more personalized and anticipatory technology.
Face Computers: Devices like smart glasses will become more common, equipped with numerous sensors to capture detailed information about our environment and behaviors.
Challenges and Risks: These advancements may have potential downsides, including privacy, security, and socio-economic divides exacerbated by technology.
Connectables and Large Action Models: These will enable more efficient data collection and AI training but will consume more power and require more advanced hardware.
Biotechnology Link: AI, connectables, and biotechnology are interlinked, with biotechnology potentially moving us beyond silicon-based computing to more efficient biological systems.
Generative Biology: Following generative AI, generative biology will allow us to design and create biological organisms and materials, opening up vast possibilities for medicine and materials science.
Bio Computers: Computers grown from human cells may be the future, raising ethical and practical questions about procuring and using biological materials for computing.
Actionable Steps: Amy Webb encourages a proactive approach to navigating these trends, including government and business strategies, to manage the transition and ensure societal benefits.
Fight for the Future: Individuals are urged to become informed and share knowledge to proactively shape the technology super cycle for the good of humanity rather than passively experiencing its effects.
Portuguese and Spanish language translations for SXSW 2024 Keynotes and Featured Sessions presented by Itaú Join Amy Webb for the launch of the Future Today Institute’s 17th edition of its Tech Trends Report and a deep dive into all the tech trends you’ll need to follow in 2024.
A new robotics accelerator is beginning to take shape just down the street from the massive Tesla Giga Texas manufacturing plant.
It’s the Hays Innovation Center for Advanced Manufacturing, known as HICAM, and last Thursday, the project’s developers held an event at the 50,000-square-foot building to unveil the new accelerator program. HICAM supports Its startups in the areas of advanced manufacturing, robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence companies.
The building is in the SH 130 corridor in East Austin. HICAM, a nonprofit center for advanced manufacturing, sits on a seven-acre campus at 6201 Quinn Lake Trail. HICAM focuses on fostering economic development and workforce development in East Austin.
The center is named in memory of Warren Hayes, an Austin entrepreneur who pioneered large-scale modular building development and founded the SH130 Municipal Management District.
HICAM seeks to promote and expand advanced manufacturing capabilities in the U.S., particularly in the Texas Triangle, which is projected to account for many of the nation’s new manufacturing ventures.
HICAM offers industrial space to startups building hardware that needs room.
Space in Austin has changed a lot, and HICAM meets a need for industrial space for manufacturing companies, said Joshua Bear, founder and CEO of Capital Factory.
“There is an opportunity here in Texas to bring back manufacturing,” Bear said. He said Central Texas is emerging as the centerpiece of the advanced manufacturing sector.
HICAM is in a strategic partnership with Capital Factory and plans to announce other partnerships soon.
“This project is a vital step toward expanding cutting-edge manufacturing operations within the Texas Triangle, anchored by San Antonio, Houston, and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, with the greater Austin region serving as a major technology hub,” Marc Spier, HICAM’s board chair, said.
Spier said the plan will drive advanced manufacturing back to the U.S. and Texas, particularly with HICAM leading that regional effort.
“If we do things right, the companies that leave here will be incredibly successful,” Spier said.
Spier said there are many milestones. This is the first, he said, and there will be more later this year.
Executive Director Marcus Metzger will operate HICAM. He previously served as executive director and founding member of Future Space NYC, a multi-purpose co-working incubator focused on the creative technology industry. He also headed a digital fabrication business in New York, specializing in custom-manufacturing interactive installations for world-class museums and Fortune 100 businesses. He also runs NeoForge, a robotic additive manufacturing startup.
Metzger said HICAM plans to select 5 to 10 companies in its initial cohort and hopes to graduate those companies within a one-to-three-year timeline.
“Our goal is to facilitate the rapid growth of promising hardware and manufacturing startups, seeing them graduate from our accelerator and into their manufacturing facilities in Central Texas,” Metzger said.
HICAM also plans to establish classrooms and educational partnerships with local academic institutions to build on the successes of existing workforce development programs. The education track will span six to nine months and focus on skill acquisition in robotics, high-tech manufacturing, digital fabrication workflows, and computer-controlled machines.
Graduates of the program will earn a certificate, verifying their skill set and career readiness in advanced manufacturing fields. Moreover, businesses operating within the accelerator will actively contribute to curriculum development, leadership, skill sharing, and machine supervision to ensure a targeted skills pipeline. The accelerator also develops a specialized track to integrate veterans and active-duty military personnel into the workforce using similar educational frameworks.
In 2022, Austin voters approved a $750 million bond for all ACC campuses. Still, it included building a new campus focused on skilled trades at the college’s Southeast Travis County land near the Austin-Bergstrom Airport, said Molly Beth Malcolm, executive vice chancellor of operations and public affairs at Austin Community College. She said that ACC increasingly focuses on training students for highly skilled advanced manufacturing jobs.
Austin is becoming a hub for AI and robotics. The University of Texas’ Robotics Center has spun out two robot startups: Diligent Robotics, which makes Moxi, which assists in hospitals, and Apptronik, which makes Apollo, a humanoid robot used by Mercedes Benz in its manufacturing plants.
Shapiro’s joining Colossal full-time will help the company meet its de-extinction and species preservation goals.
Shapiro, an internationally renowned evolutionary molecular biologist, is a leader in paleogenomics and ancient DNA and will oversee the continued expansion of the company’s de-extinction and conservation science teams. She is also a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Award winner and National Geographic Explorer.
“Our efforts to apply our de-extinction technologies to help save critically endangered species is just as important to us as bringing back the iconic mammoth, thylacine, and dodo,” said Ben Lamm, Co-Founder and CEO of Colossal.
Lamm founded Colossal Biosciences in 2021 with George Church, a Harvard geneticist and pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic biology. Today, Colossal has 128 employees, more than 30 funded postdocs in major academic labs, and 60 advisory board members. The company is based in Dallas but has offices in Austin, Boston, Santa Cruz, California, and Melbourne, Australia.
Shapiro previously served as Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and lead of the Paleogenomics Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Lamm said she will continue to work out of Santa Cruz and travel to Colossal’s other labs and offices as needed.
“Beth and I have developed an incredible relationship over the past few years. I’m extremely impressed by her intellect, drive, and the rigor of her scientific research,” Lamm said in a news release. “I know she will continue to push our scientific research programs further and is the best fit for the role. It’s a dream to work so closely with Beth, and I know our species leads feel the same.”
“I’ve been an advisor to Colossal since just after the company launched and am excited now to step in full-time to support the team’s groundbreaking work,” Shapiro said in a news release. “It’s thrilling to see the research we’ve been doing in the labs not only seeing the light of day but being applied to science that will positively impact the planet.”
As an advisor to Colossal for the past two years, Shapiro helped launch the company’s Dodo and Avian Genomics Group. She also developed, along with Colossal team members, the international scientific advisory board. And she served as the lead paleogeneticist. In that role, she secured samples and generated DNA data that Colossal uses as part of all species groups.
“I have worked with Beth for over 20 years and am continually impressed by her contributions to the field of paleogenetics. I cannot be more excited about Beth joining Colossal, as this will not only help accelerate Colossal’s de-extinction efforts but will also provide an even more direct link between my ancient mammoth research and Eriona’s and George’s teams. I look forward to continuing our collaboration with Colossal to refine our target list of which genes make mammoths unique compared to other elephant lineages,” Dalen, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, one of the research leaders at the Center for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, and leading Woolly Mammoth expert, said in a news release.
Apollo, a humanoid robot designed and made in Austin, will soon assist in Mercedes-Benz’s manufacturing line.
Apptronik, which makes Apollo, signed a deal with Mercedes-Benz to provide its Apollo humanoid robots in logistics to bring parts to the production line for workers to assemble, according to a news release. Apollo will also deliver the totes of kitted parts later in manufacturing.
Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid robots can be used in Mercedes-Benz’s existing plants, so the carmaker can deploy them immediately without redesigning its plants. This allows the carmaker to automate some physically demanding, repetitive, and dull tasks for which it is increasingly hard to find reliable workers.
“When we set out to build Apollo, an agreement like the one we’re announcing today with Mercedes-Benz was a dream scenario,” Jeff Cardenas, Co-founder and CEO of Apollo, said in a news release. Mercedes plans to use robotics and Apollo to automate some low-skill, physically challenging, manual labor—a model use case that we’ll see other organizations replicate in the months and years.”
Apollo is a 5-foot, 8-inch-tall robot that weighs 160 pounds and can lift 55 pounds. It is built to operate alongside people in industrial spaces. According to the company, Apollo’s computing power allows leading AI companies to solve use cases outside the ones that Apptronik will initially solve.
“To build the most desirable cars, we continually evolve the future of automotive production. Advancements in robotics and AI have also opened up new opportunities for us. We are exploring new possibilities with the use of robotics to support our skilled workforce in manufacturing. This is a new frontier, and we want to understand the potential both for robotic and automotive manufacturing to fill labor gaps in areas such as low-skill, repetitive, and physically demanding work and to free up our highly skilled team members on the line to build the world’s most desirable cars,” Jorg Burzer, board member of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, production, quality, and supply chain management.
Apptronik, founded in 2016, spun out of the University of Texas’ Human Centered Robotics Lab. The company initially developed general-purpose robots for NASA.
Michael Dell sold stamps at auctions to make extra money as a kid.
At 16, he started driving his parents’ old station wagon to the Harris County courthouse to collect data on marriage licenses to target newlyweds and sell newspaper subscriptions. He then hired some of his high school buddies to check the filings in the surrounding counties and get more addresses.
“It worked really well,” Dell said.
It was the humble beginning of what would later become the global computer maker Dell Technologies, which reported revenues of $102 billion in 2023. Round Rock-based Dell is also one of Austin’s largest technology companies, with more than 14,000 local employees. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dell has become the world’s 12th richest person, with a personal fortune of $104 billion.
At 19, Dell started his eponymous computer company in his freshman dorm at the University of Texas. He later dropped out. This year, the company turns 40 years old, and Dell, 59, spoke about his entrepreneurial journey during a fireside chat on Thursday at South by Southwest. The featured session: “Businesss, Life and the Magic of Austin: A Conversation with Michael Dell.”
Dell said he’s learned a lot throughout the years, especially how to build a team, surround himself with intelligent people, and keep learning
“I learned that integrity and reputation are the most valuable things, and it takes a long time to build them up, and it’s really easy to destroy them,” Dell said.
He said Dell’s success was due to its customer-focused approach. He learned from customers’ challenges, problems, opportunities, and unmet needs.
Dell said making mistakes, iterating, trying new things, and experimenting contributed to the company’s success.
Dell said he was fortunate to attract great people to sign up for Dell’s grand adventure, and Austin was a great place to attract people.
Today, Dell is the leader in infrastructure products and server storage, but its first couple of attempts at creating those products could have been more successful, Dell said. Dell had its version of Unix, and that turned out not to be a great idea. Dell also tried to get into the smartphone business, but that did not work. In his latest book, “Play Nice, But Win,” Dell recounts many failures and learnings, he said.
Dell said it’s OK to make mistakes but not repeat them; learn from them.
Dell said he remembered going to Japan a lot in the ’80s, and they were developing amazing things, but nobody needed them. Dell iterated into this idea of pragmatic innovation. The customer can’t consistently articulate what the future solution is, but they can usually articulate the pain or the problem they’re having and trying to solve, he said.
“But you have to be agile, flexible, and continually adaptive because you’re going to get it wrong. Just accept that, deal with it, and be able to change quickly and iterate,” Dell said.
Along the way, Dell Technologies went from a public company to a private one. At one point, people threatened to take the company away from Dell.
Going private was a way of liberating the company, reinvigorating the entrepreneurial spirit, and accelerating Dell’s transformation,” Dell said.
He said There were awkward moments when Dell was curious if he was supposed to go to the office or talk to the management team. The uncertainty inflicted on Dell’s team and its customers was painful, but Dell managed to get through that.
“Going private was a way of accelerating the transformation, and then a couple of years later, we got to the point where we were experiencing once again strong positive growth and momentum, and so returning to the public markets allowed us to simplify the capital structure and the ownership structure,” Dell said.
Dell said another part of Dell’s success is creating a good company culture that fosters innovation. The culture that allows Dell to develop great products, he said.
He said that bringing artificial intelligence to the enterprise is Dell’s enormous priority for the future.
“And it’s a big platform shift, and it’s just beginning,” he said.
Dell’s customers also want to bring AI to their data and not the data to their AI in a public cloud, so that’s undoubtedly a massive priority, he said.
“That’s on top of all the things we’re doing around modern data centers and multi-cloud edge, which is a really big deal because you know everything in the physical world is becoming intelligent and connected,” Dell said. He said about 75% of enterprise data is still on-premise or on devices and the edge.
Dell also sees AI empowering creators. He says he’s a technology optimist. AI is happening ten times faster than the Internet.
“In almost no time, we will have 5 billion people with PCs and phones accessing AI, and that’s pretty cool,” Dell said. And if you think about this, the cost of having a cognitive superpower as your friend enabling whatever you’re trying to do is approaching 0, and that’s a really interesting thought.”
Dell said AI will tremendously impact education, healthcare, science, and every aspect of humanity.
“Nobody knows what the true impact of AI will be, Dell said. “But I’m very excited about it and optimistic because technology has always been about enabling human potential, making us healthier, making us safer, making us more successful in everything we’re trying to do.”
Dell also said AI regulation should encourage innovation rather than slow it down.
“Any time you have an emergent technology that’s evolving super-fast, it’s a big challenge for regulators because if you think about regulation, let’s say last year regarding AI, just look at the dizzying pace of improvement that occurred last year. It’s gonna be hard for the regulators to imagine how fast it’s evolving,” Dell said.
In addition to the technology, Austin has evolved incredibly, doubling in size every decade for the past four decades, Dell said.
“But I think it’s kept a lot of its character, and it’s been an incredible attractor of people with talent,” Dell said.
Dell said technology has played a major role in all the great things that have happened in the world and certainly here in central Texas.
SXSW started with music, then moved to film and television, and now it is interactive with technology. In Central Texas, you have this great combination of innovative businesses, Dell said. Texas’ great universities and 1.6 million college students fueled the region’s growth.
“I believe entrepreneurs go where their ideas can flourish and are welcome,” Dell said. Talent goes where there’s opportunity. Capital goes where it’s treated well, and it turns out Texas is a great place for that.”
Dell said Austin has been a hub of innovation. It has attracted the best and brightest minds, new ideas, companies, and opportunities.
Dell also mentioned that the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation started 25 years ago and that they donated to Austin.
“Much more to come on in the future, by the way,” Dell said.
Dell said the last 40 years have been incredible and exciting.
“But I think it’s all just the pregame show for what’s to come,” he said. “When I think about the future and all the technology will play in the world, I think about the incredible innovations we’re already starting to see in healthcare driven by technology. As we use all this cognitive power and explore the mysteries of the universe, maybe with the combination of quantum technology, wow, there’s never been a better time to be alive right now.”
When asked where he sees Austin in 25 years, Dell said it will continue to grow.
“Will it double every decade for the next three decades? I don’t know, maybe,” Dell said. We certainly have land in the broader area to do that, and if you think about the overall country, populations have been moving South and southwest for quite some time.”
Dell said Texas has been an amicable environment, and that’s why all this migration and growth are happening. Dell said the University of Texas and other universities in Texas have played a critical role in its development.
” If you find great companies, there’s always a great university nearby,” Dell said.
Dell said finding the right balance between growth, development, and livability is essential, and Austin has managed that pretty well.
“All the things that make our city great and wonderful, all the things that I loved when I first came here a little over 40 years ago, and a lot of those things are still there,” he said.
Lisa Su has led Advanced Micro Devices as its Chief Executive Officer for a decade to much success.
AMD’s revenues were $5.5 billion in 2014 and $22 billion last year.
Among its other accomplishments, today, an AMD CPU powers the world’s fastest supercomputer, Frontier, at Oak Ridge National Labs.
Although the company’s headquarters are based in California, Su lives in Austin and runs AMD from its sprawling campus on the Southside.
On Monday, she joined Ryan Patel on stage as the keynote speaker at South by Southwest. She talked about AMD’s role in technology innovation, its commitment to partnerships and open collaboration, and its vision for the future of Artificial Intelligence and computing.
To start, Su recounted her time as a student at MIT and her love of semiconductors from the beginning of college.
“Yes, that’s true; I was a nerd at heart,” Su said.
In one of her first jobs in college, she worked in a semiconductor lab, making tiny chips the size of a dime or quarter.
“I was just amazed at everything you could do with them,” she said. “I was in semiconductors when it wasn’t sexy, and I would say I don’t know that it’s sexy now, but it’s sexier.”
AMD’s chips and technology are used in Hollywood to make films. In a surprise appearance, director David Conley appeared on stage to discuss AMD’s technology in filmmaking. The night before, he was at the Academy Awards, where his film War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko, won best animated short film.
“It’s so great to be working with the best in the industry, and that’s what we enjoy,” Su said.
She said making feature films requires special effects that require tremendous computing power, and AMD chips are used in the process. Films like Avatar 2 used AMD chips.
Conley said he wanted to highlight the work that AMD is doing to help filmmakers create images that are more fantastic than they could have even thought about 30 years ago.
“These images are possible because we have a partnership with a company like AMD that gives us the leverage and the insights. They work with our teams, and we work with their teams to help optimize everything,” Conley said.
Conley said using AI in the entertainment industry is still a sensitive subject. Many people misunderstand it.
“I also want to make sure that artists understand that AI is a tool and that this is not about replacing artists,” Conley said. He said the future of films is more active entertainment with the intersection of games because gaming visual effects and movie-making are all the same.
“I want to jump from video games to movies,” he said. “I want to go from active entertainment to passive entertainment, and I want to go into real-time entertainment, and that is where films are going to be in three to five years, and we’re not going to be able to do that with the help of companies like AMD where we get real-time processing and real-time rendering and a lot of AI.”
AMD also partners with Adobe to optimize hardware and software for content creators. Generative AI can bring the whole content creation process to the next level, Su said. It gives creators more products so they can do more at a higher quality in less time.
Su said AI is the most critical technology that has come on the scene over at least the last 50 years. AI, and generative AI, has become the most important thing, and there’s a good reason for that, frankly, she said. ChatGPT came on board 14 months ago, and it just captured everyone’s imagination, she said.
“AI has always existed, but the ability to make AI so simple that you can just say, hey, you know, I want to know what I should do in Austin, TX, this weekend, for example, having that possibility only comes with a tremendous amount of computing power,” Su said.
Su showed one of AMD’s latest generation processors, a generative AI chip called MI 300, which has 153 billion transistors.
AI PCs aim to ensure that everyone has their own AI capability and doesn’t have to go to the cloud. But they can operate off their data. You can ask it questions, and it’ll answer for you faster in a private manner because maybe you don’t want your data going everywhere, Su said.
“It’s just the beginning of what I think is the ability to make us much more productive,” Su said.
AMD also partners with Microsoft, leading the way with Copilot, which runs Azure in the cloud. AMD is also partners with HP and Lenovo.
“Our goal is to make this super easy for all of you guys to use, and that’s the promise of AI PCs,” Su said.
“One of the things about AI that I’d like to say is that people are worried that AI is going to replace people’s jobs and stuff like that,” Su said. That’s not the way I think about it. Companies that learn how to leverage AI will win over companies that are not leveraging AI.”
Su said AMD wants to be at the forefront of using AI in every aspect of its business. “We’re using it to design chips,” she said.
Su said AMD is using AI to design faster chips and make them more reliable. It is also using AI to build better software. Su told AMD’s engineering team to increase the number of products the company can produce annually using AI. AMD also uses AI in HR, finance, and customer service.
This is a way of moving up the food chain because we’re allowing our team to have AI do some of the less fun things so that we can add higher value for our employees.
Su said everyone needs an AI strategy. It’s OK if it’s not perfect because everyone is learning.
“I’m learning new things about what technology can do and how we need to shape our entire ecosystem, our work, and our next-generation products as well, so that’s what makes it fun,” Su said.
Su uses Microsoft Copilot to summarize meetings and track action items, but she doesn’t use it to write her emails. She said she’s still experimenting with the software.
Su said AI is moving incredibly fast, and AMD’s approach is to have an open ecosystem and support open source.
“We believe that no company has the answer to everything,” she said.
Only one percent of VC capital invested in Austin goes to women founders.
Carla McDonald said that’s despite Austin being number six in the country regarding deal count and dollars invested.
“There is something very broken here,” said McDonald, who chairs Austin Mayor Kirk Watson’s Task Force for Women Entrepreneurs.
McDonald said that only 21 percent of all Small Business Administration loans go to female founders.
McDonald said the Austin Women Entrepreneurs Task Force’s primary focus is getting more funding for female founders. She spoke Sunday with other task force members at Capital Factory on a panel focused on the mission to make Austin the leader in female entrepreneurship.
Jennifer Cuello, partner with EisnerAmper, moderated the panel, which included Sara Brand, founding general partner of True Wealth Ventures; McDonald, founder of Dynabrand Ventures; Mellie Price, executive director of Texas Venture Labs at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business; and Patricia Green, a professor with Babson College.
According to panel members, Austin seeks to become the best place for women to launch and grow their companies.
McDonald said the primary objectives of the Austin Women’s Task Force are to identify the community pillars that support female entrepreneurs, including education institutions, companies, nonprofit organizations, and more, and to make Austin the best city in the world to found and build companies.
“There is a real opportunity for Austin, which has entrepreneurship in its DNA,” she said.
The Austin Women’s Task Force comprises 21 women, including McDonald, and reflects the ethnic and racial diversity of the community. She said it comprises leaders in their field and pragmatic thinkers. The recommendations to the Mayor have to be workable and actionable.
“The final thing is that I wanted people with a long history of advocating for female entrepreneurs,” McDonald said.
Price, an entrepreneur who has been in Austin for 35 years, said local organizations have done great work to lay the foundation for female founders. She is also a co-founder of Capital Factory.
Another trailblazer is Brand, who founded True Wealth Ventures with Kerry Rupp in 2016. Two years later, they closed their first $20 million fund, which was the largest fund ever raised with a gender diversity focus, Brand said. Today, one-third of True Wealth Ventures’ investments are in Texas, with over $60 million worth of assets under management.
Entrepreneurship has also been the focus for Greene, who released one of the first reports on women in venture capital in 2004 with the Kauffman Foundation. She was also an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College, where she became the founding national academic director of Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 small businesses. She also served as global academic director for 10,000 women, helping women in developing countries. She was the director of the Women’s Bureau for the U.S. Department of Labor, where she worked to build a platform for women entrepreneurs. Now, she’s back in Austin, investing in and advising startups.
Greene said that many small businesses led by women are working on a new product or service but don’t know where to go for help with innovation, prototypes, IP, and other related matters.
The Women’s Task Force is interested in promoting diversity, inclusion, equity, and economic development. McDonald said that if women entrepreneurs are supported in Austin, they will contribute an additional $6 billion to $12 billion in gross domestic product locally.
Price also said having the right funding structures available for the business is essential. Venture Capital is fantastic for the right company, at the right time, with the right objective.
McDonald said the Austin Women’s Task Force plans to get its report to Mayor Watson by March 25th. The report includes 12 pragmatic and actionable recommendations to address the needs of female founders, she said. Those needs include access to capital, access to a broader network, and access to affordable goods and services that help them build their businesses, she said
“Success looks like making a difference,” McDonald said. “This is a call to action for the entire community. Success would look like everyone leaning in and recognizing this is something everyone needs to solve. This is the right thing to do.”
Brand also believes that women should be investors. She says that getting more female general partners is the fastest way to change the dynamic of the two percent of all VC dollars invested annually going to female founders.
“When a woman is at a firm, they are twice as likely to invest in a female founder,” Brand said. “The way to get more female GPs is to have more female LPs. For our fund one, we found out that 80 percent of our LPs were women in Texas.”
Brand said that by 2050, women will control two-thirds of investible assets. She said it’s essential to get capital to women entrepreneurs, and the way to do that is to get more women investing in a fund.
McDonald sees a bright spot in Angel investors providing funding to female founders. She said Angel investors invested $23 billion in 2023, so it’s an essential part of the ecosystem.
According to the panelists, if investors were looking at the data, they would invest in women founders all day. Statistics show that women-led startups use less capital, exit faster, and provide good returns to investors.
Despite that, some conservative groups have targeted funds granting capital to black women founders. In particular, the American Alliance for Equal Rights has filed a lawsuit against the Fearless Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm that only funds Black women founders, accusing the fund of racial discrimination in its grant program.
In November 2023, America First Legal sued Hello Alice, a Houston-based company that helps small businesses get funding and services, over a program with Progressive Insurance Co. that gives grants to Black-owned commercial vehicle companies.
When asked about the backlash, McDonald said, “This is a wrong that needs to be righted.”
“It’s motivating and infuriating,” Brand said.
“It also makes the work we are doing all the more important,” McDonald said. The solutions are not one-offs; rather, they are woven into the fabric of this city, so no entity can attack it like they are doing with these funds.
“If we do this right, everybody wins,” she said.
During the Q&A, Barbara Jones Brown, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Free Returns, said she raised $5 million for her startup, 80 percent of which came from women and 70 percent from black women.
When Moriba Jah started tracking space junk orbiting the Earth, there were 26,000 objects ranging in size from a cell phone to the space station.
Of those, 1,200 were working satellites providing services.
“Everything else was garbage,” Jah said. “So, 96% of all human-made objects at that time were junk.”
He saw pollution on Earth and in the oceans, and he saw the same thing happening in space, which prompted him to become a space environmentalist.
So much debris now hurtles throughout our orbit, and it worsens daily. The space race began in 1957 when the Russians launched Sputnik, the first human-made object in orbit.
Today, Jah is tracking upwards of 50,000 objects ranging in size from cell phones to the space station, out of which a little over 5,000 are working, and everything else is garbage, he said.
Out of the 5,000, half are working satellites that belong to Starlink, a company founded by Elon Musk, who also founded SpaceX and Tesla.
“If you didn’t know, he’s launching 60 to 100 satellites every three weeks,” Jah said. “So, in a busy year, we used to launch a satellite a month. Maybe we’re launching over 12 satellites per week, on average, to provide the Internet and all these other things.”
Jah spoke in a fireside chat with Neo4j’s Sudhir Hasbe at South by Southwest Tuesday morning in a session titled “How the Tech That Tracks Space Junk Will Save Life on Earth.” Jah is the co-founder of Privateer, based in Maui, Hawaii. His co-founders are Steve Wozniak, Co-founder of Apple, and Ripcord CEO Alex Fielding. Privateer maps satellites and debris in Earth’s orbit. Jah is also an associate professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and the winner of a MacArthur Fellowship called the Genius Grant. He received the grant for creating the world’s first real-time streaming of near-miss collisions and activity in space.
The privatization of space travel has led to more and more companies putting satellites in orbit. Jah said that more regulation is needed to govern how they operate once they get there and what happens when they no longer function. On average, a satellite lasts five years, he said.
To track objects in space, Jah set up ASTRIAgraph, which assigns a dot to every human-made object it detects. The data can be accessed through Wayfinder, a program Jah created to allow everyone access.
At SXSW, Jah projected all the objects orbiting Earth on a giant screen in real time. He showed what he calls a “super spreader event,” in which an object explodes in space and creates a massive trail of debris. There are 2,000 more of these “ticking time bombs in orbit,” Jah said.
Jah showed a dot identified as junk; its removal from space would cost an estimated $20 million.
“Most of the stuff that we put up there either never comes back, or it takes decades to centuries to burn up in the atmosphere, and it pollutes the atmosphere,” Jah said.
Jah said part of the problem is that satellites are not recyclable and reusable. All that junk threatens other objects in space and the Earth.
“When things die in orbit, they continue to go at very high speeds because we don’t have this off-ramp kind of stuff, and so we just send up another thing and another thing,” Jah said. So these orbital highways are becoming congested mostly with dead stuff, and bad things happen when two things meet at the same place simultaneously with different speeds, he said.
Jah can’t track things the size of a bullet or a speck of paint. Still, those debris objects exist in space and can travel 15 times the speed of a bullet and damage a satellite or astronaut on a spacewalk, Jah said. If that happens, “It’s game over,” Jah said.
Jah said the data he relies on for ASTRIAGraph comes from everyone from amateur telescope operators to the U.S. Department of Defense and other governments, like a Russian Database.
If a company launches another satellite, it must know which objects are where and at what speed they are moving; Jah said all those calculations must be done to continue space exploration. Jah said there are no standards or taxonomies for cataloging junk in space.
Jah’s company is spinning out Gaiaverse, which will take ASTRIAGraph and link data and information from the land and sea with air and space because Mother Earth, Gaia, is a holistic system of systems, Jah said.
“Indigenous populations inspire my work,” Jah said. “Indigenous people still believe that all things are interconnected in an intergenerational contract of stewardship with the planet.”
Jah wants to provide humanity with evidence of the interconnectedness so he can delay the knee-jerk response of saying that’s not my problem.
“If you look deep enough, you will see that true independence doesn’t exist, and while we may escape some of the consequences in our lifetimes, the people we love and those they engender will not,” Jah said. “Our collective decisions are currently leading to our self-extinction.”
Through the Gaiaverse, Jah hopes to raise consciousness and allow people to recognize they have the power to control outcomes and make better choices regarding the stewardship of the planet.
Jah’s Privateer Space company also works with the National Geographic Society to create the Glint Evader. It will collect satellite data to develop software that predicts and helps astronomers anticipate when sunlight reflecting off satellites may interfere with their observations.
Jah expressed frustration at the absence of government funding to solve the space junk problem. He emphasized the need for a collaborative effort.
Jah said there’s a huge need for space regulation. People must learn to live with space debris as a reality and work in a circular space economy where satellites are reusable and recyclable.
“We have to learn how to live within the filth of our bathwater, so to speak, and we can clean up some stuff,” Jah said.
Jah said it’s not if but when a black swan event will occur in space that brings global awareness to the problem posed by space junk.
Ridesharing companies have had a difficult time historically in Austin.
In 2015, Uber and Lyft didn’t operate during South by Southwest because of regulatory hurdles.
Ridesharing companies shut down operations the following year after Austin voters passed a proposition requiring driver background checks. The companies appealed to the Texas legislature, and Austin’s Mayor Kirk Watson, who served in the Texas Senate then, voted against Uber.
“We’re in a different place now,” Watson said Monday morning at a featured session at SXSW: A Conversation with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Khosrowshahi said he wasn’t with Uber then, but looking back at what happened, he said Uber’s communication with local and state leaders could have been more collaborative.
Today, Austin is one of Uber’s top cities, Khosrowshahi said.
Watson said Austin embraces new people, ideas, and concepts. Its ethos is to keep Austin weird, which means keeping Austin open to new ideas, he said. The key is that disruptors must embrace communication and collaboration with city leaders and citizens, he said.
“As the new ideas come into play, people will need to make sure they focus on the values and that they communicate and collaborate,” Watson said.
In addition to traditional Uber rides, Uber offers micro-mobility choices through its app, Watson said.
Uber has a partnership with Lime that allows consumers to book an eScooter ride on the app. Khosrowshahi said Uber is about multi-modal transportation and giving consumers a choice. He said scooters are popular with people who must go less than three or two miles.
Watson said Austin wants every tool in the toolbox for transportation, including scooters. “People are voting with their feet.”
Watson said that in 2023, there were over 130,000 rides in just under 130,000 miles of travel in Austin. Most of the trips were around three-fourths of a mile.
Watson said Austin’s universities serve as a fountain of youth for the city, providing many young people who are focused on sustainability and want better transportation options.
Austin is compelling and aggressive in protecting the environment, Watson said.
Transportation is at the center of sustainability for the city, Watson said.
It’s evident that transportation is the hub of a multi-spoke wheel,” Watson said. “If we do transportation right, we do the environment right. If we do transportation right, we do affordability right.”
Watson said one of the biggest pushes for sustainability in the city is preserving Austin’s light rail system, Connect, which is under assault.
“It’s key to protecting the environment,” he said.
“Unfortunately, in Texas, the word Rail is a four-letter word,” Watson said.
Watson said that Austinites are asking for clean transit.
Khosrowshahi said Uber Green is a big part of its offerings. However, when it comes to paying a premium for a green offering, consumers believe it is an investment that the government and private industry should make.
Khosrowshahi said Uber will be emissions-free and all-electric in Europe by 2030 and worldwide by 2040. Uber has the largest fleet worldwide, with over 125,000 electric vehicles. Uber also invests over $800 million to fund drivers’ switch to EVs and is helping to build the charging infrastructure in cities. In Austin, he said, the penetration of EVs is almost 9 percent.
Watson said that with the growth of Austin, autonomous vehicle technology offers a lot of potential.
“I see a lot of promise in those vehicles, but we’re not there yet,” Watson said.
Watson has been in office for 14 months. He said that for the first six months, some autonomous vehicle group wanted to come in and meet with him to tell him how they would change the world. But autonomous vehicles present safety issues, he said.
“Safety is the number one issue,” he said.
Watson said autonomous vehicles were not responsive to emergency vehicles and were parked in the wrong places. Cruise recently halted its AV rides in Austin and nationwide after safety issues arose in California.
“Accessibility is also an issue,” Watson said.
Human drivers cause more than 35,000 fatalities on the road nationwide every year, Khosrowshahi said. So, should an AV be as safe as a human being or five or ten times safer? Khosrowshahi asked Watson.
Watson said he didn’t know. But he compared riding in the back of an AV to riding on a motorcycle. He was impressed with the vehicle’s operation and attention to potential road hazards.
Khosrowshahi said Uber doesn’t have its own AV technology but partners with others, and those partners want to be multiple times safer than human drivers.
Khosrowshahi said Uber is focused on affordability worldwide. It also wants to build an on-demand logistics Uber delivery network that will allow local businesses to deliver packages to consumers on the same day. He said Uber wants to empower every business to send packages. AVs will be part of that.
Austin aims to be one of the nation’s top hubs for the life sciences industry, which includes biotechnology, biochemistry, genetics, cellular biology, medical devices, and more.
To that end, a prestigious panel gathered Friday afternoon at SXSW at Antone’s Night Club on Fifth Street, which the University of Texas took over and renamed the Hook’ Em house.
Jay Hartzell, president of the University of Texas at Austin, said the life sciences industry is one of the most significant opportunities for the University of Texas and the Dell Medical School. In April 2023, UT announced plans for the UT Austin Medical Center with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and a UT Austin hospital.
Hartzell led the SXSW panel, which included Jim Breyer, founder of Breyer Capital, Andre Esteva, Founder and CEO of ArteraAI, Thomas J. Cahill, Newpath Partners LP, and Claudia Lucchinetti, Dean of the Dell Medical School and senior vice president for medical affairs at UT Austin.
“What we are seeing for the first time is the depth and maturity of AI and computation applied to the life sciences and healthcare,” Breyer said.
In addition, visual computing is becoming increasingly important in healthcare, he said. If healthcare workers harness these technologies, they will save people’s lives and improve lives so people live longer and better, he said.
Lucchinetti said technology’s impact on healthcare is transformative. It’s more than fixing a broken healthcare system; it’s about reimagining healthcare.
“You also think about what people want from healthcare, and they want a much more personalized, tailored experience,” she said. Data is the rocket fuel.”
Lucchinetti said the convergence of AI, computers, data, and machine learning leads to an accelerated discovery rate. The other significant change is that in medical school, students used to have to memorize a lot of information, but now that’s not the case anymore, she said.
“The EQ side of training our future physicians is even more important,” Lucchinetti said. Doctors also need to know data science. The workforce training across the board is changing. The healthcare industry is not prepared for the transition to human and machine care delivery, she said.
“The opportunities are endless,” she said.
Austin can learn a lot from Boston, the country’s number one life sciences hub, with 253 startups and 145 percent growth, Cahill said. The Boston life sciences hub grew partly through government incentives, including $115 million in tax deductions for biotech companies that are still being used today.
Cahill founded Arena BioWorks, a biomedical research institute in Boston. Breyer could open a second office in Austin. It’s like a Bell Labs for biotech, Cahill said.
Today, Breyer said that some of the nation’s top cancer scientists don’t even use computers. But in five years, he said most patients will not go to a specialist who doesn’t rely on deep AI and computational systems.
Breyer said these technologies are essential for drug discovery. They also enable doctors, nurses, and patients to understand more fully what’s wrong and what can be done about their health to live longer and better.
Also, today, few people own their medical data, but five years from now, 90 percent of all people should have the right to their medical data and the medical data of their close relatives, Breyer said.
“You need to see the data, and that just doesn’t exist today,” Breyer said. “Put it in the hands of patients, doctors, and nurses, and great things will happen.”
Good data is essential to healthcare discoveries, Cahill said. Finland is the best place in the world right now for the availability and quality of health data, he said. Cahill encouraged Austin to create its own data bank that would attract researchers and companies. He said he often travels to Helsinki to access its health data vaults.
In the late 1970s, Finland’s leadership started taking blood samples and patient data from everyone. Cahill said that the Finnish databank has led to most discoveries about genetics and disease, especially in the autoimmune space.
“The general public is not seeing it right away – CRISPR solved sickle cell disease – one of the biggest health issues – 6 percent of the population carries that,” Cahill said. “It’s going to be gone in the next ten years because of these drugs. That happened in Boston, and you can do a similar thing here with the leadership.”
Lucchinetti said she’s most excited about the potential to bring engineering and technology to medicine in concrete ways that solve medical diseases like MS, which she sees as an electrical engineering problem.
“Solving the greatest unmet needs of our patients in healthcare will require a transdisciplinary approach,” Lucchinetti said. There’s something special here at the University of Texas at this time in Austin.”
Breyer moved to Austin four years ago. He said what makes the city special is the ability to gather 10 people from UT, VCs, technologists, healthcare experts, and other disciplines around a dinner table to discuss ideas.
“That doesn’t happen in most other places where it’s a mix of skills and tremendous comradery,” Breyer said.
Esteva, founder and CEO of ArteraAI, said the four key ingredients for a health sciences startup hub are venture capital, entrepreneurs, talented engineers, and a top-tier research university, and Austin has all of them.
ArteraAI, based in San Francisco, created tests for prostate cancer. Esteva formed a company in 2021 that raised $110 million and has 100 employees.
Hartzell urged Esteva, a graduate of UT, to move back to Austin and even jokingly offered him two tickets to the UT vs—Georgia Football game. .
Merit Medicine, founded in 2022, uses AI insights from millions of patients in extensive datasets to generate predictions for each employer.
Ali Panjwani founded the company and serves as CEO. He previously worked at Genentech, BridgeBio Pharma, Coherus Biosciences, and Aetion.
“Large self-funded employers cover over a quarter of the US population today,” Panjwani said in a news release.
And employer contributions to healthcare comprise roughly $600 billion of annual healthcare spending in the United States, Panjwani said. “Using AI insights from millions of patients, Merit Medicine ensures a smoother, more predictable budget for employers’ catastrophic healthcare spend, leading to more people getting affordable access to the care they need when they need it.”
“Stop-loss carriers, responsible for insuring employers against substantial claims arising from these drugs and treatments, handle extensive information to calculate the premiums for employers,” according to a news release. Self-funded employers rely solely on their employee population.
“Self-funded employers are faced with rising healthcare costs and significant financial risk based on the health of their employee base,” Mike Marcantonio, who is leading the investment for Live Oak Ventures, said in a news statement. “Unfortunately, they have very few tools today to evaluate this risk and plan for it. When I met the Merit Medicine team, I was inspired by their mission to help employers address this risk by using AI to predict high-cost specialty drug usage and rare, chronic, and complex conditions.”
Josh Rickel, co-founder, said the company plans to use the money to hire key employees and further develop its technology.
In 2022, Rickel founded Perigon with Joshua Dziabiak, a serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded The Zebra in Austin. They wanted to make sense of public web data and news information. They named the company Perigon, a math term that means a 360-degree view, to make companies aware of what’s happening around them, Rickel said. They call it contextual intelligence or the ability to adapt to new information and situations.
Rickel said Perigon helps businesses and government agencies cut through the Internet’s noise, understand real-time data, and make better decisions. Perigon’s platform seeks to eliminate misinformation and synthetic content and provide companies with helpful information. The company scrapes data from more than 130,000 sources on the web and organizes it to answer queries.
“Perigon is committed to turning the chaos of the web into an organized system, making it possible for AI to understand and interpret the world’s events as they happen,” Dziabiak said in a news release. “It’s all designed to serve people with more context and diverse perspectives on the key issues that shape our world, in business and life.”
Perigon already has more than 70 customers, including government agencies, financial services companies, startups, and consumer products, Rickel said. According to a news release, environmental agencies have used Perigon’s platform to learn about environmental, health, and security risks. The platform also provides valuable insights to financial institutions and trading platforms looking for real-time data on economic trends.
Rickel said Perigon’s platform harnesses AI to update and make sense of all the data. The data is consistently updated and delivers real-time results.
“We are excited about the market opportunities that arise from unlocking contextual insights from public information at scale for business practitioners and consumers,” said Krishna Srinivasan, founding partner of LiveOak Venture Partners. “In a short period of time and with limited investment, Perigon has leveraged AI and powerful models to deliver value directly to end-users and through APIs by dozens of demanding customers all over the world. We believe that repeat entrepreneurs Joshua Dziabiak and Josh Rickel are the right pair to lead this ambitious endeavor and seize this massive opportunity.”
Perigon has over 20 employees, including a team of engineers in Ukraine. It’s a virtual company with employees worldwide, including Algeria.
Castel previously served as chief marketing officer, president, and brand officer of Teton Ridge, an omnichannel entertainment company.
Castel brings her global entertainment and consumer brand experience to Colossal, where she will lead international efforts to scale the company’s brand, experiences, consumer products, and emerging media properties.
“It is important for Colossal to bring the importance of our scientific achievements and focus on de-extinction and conservation education to consumers in all mediums,” Ben Lamm, Colossal CEO, and Co-Founder said in a news release. “Emily is the global brand leader who is best suited to bring Colossal there given her extensive entertainment background, knowledge of global consumer marketing, and proven track record in franchise marketing.”
Castel previously ran a creative consultancy in Hollywood, FIVE33, which included clients Disney, Pixar, Universal and Paramount. She ran global marketing strategies for numerous entertainment properties, including the one-billion-dollar Tim Burton’s Alice & Wonderland, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and JJ Abrams’s 2013 Star Trek.
In 2013, Castel joined Legendary Entertainment as Chief Marketing Officer after Legendary acquired FIVE33. While on the executive team, Castel oversaw all movie, TV, and entertainment launches, including global marketing, licensing, consumer products, and event activations. Castel successfully worked with distribution partners Warner Bros and Universal on Legendary-produced IPs, including Pacific Rim, Godzilla, Jurassic World, Warcraft, and Kong: Skull Island. Castel led the development of the MonsterVerse franchise mythology, which has gone on to gross $2 billion worldwide.
After leaving Legendary in 2017, Castel launched her UK-based consultancy Castel Creative, where she served as founder and CEO. During that time, she focused on adding strategic value to brands and IPs, including the Kingsman franchise and Rocketman for Marv Studios, while maintaining an advisory role at Legendary Entertainment.
Now at Colossal, Castel will lead a growing team of brand and consumer hires, including the newly appointed EVP of Design, Chris Klee. An award-winning design team leader, Klee was formerly the Chief Creative Officer of Hypergiant Industries.
“I look forward to building the Colossal brand into the market leader in the space and continuing the inspiring work that the team has been undertaking,” said Castel. “I’m excited to start the next chapter of my career with the world’s first de-extinction company. It is an opportunity to drive innovation in the sector, using entertainment to inspire global communities to engage in Colossal’s pioneering mission to preserve species and further their existence on earth.”
Since launching in September 2021, Colossal has raised $225 million in total funding led by the United States Innovative Technology Fund (“USIT”), with participation from At One Ventures, West River Group, Paul Tudor Jones, Breyer Capital, Animal Capital, Bob Nelson, Tim Draper, Victor Vescovo, In-Q-Tel, Builders VC, Peak6, among others.
Colossal was founded by emerging technology and software entrepreneur Ben Lamm and world-renowned geneticist and serial biotech entrepreneur George Church, Ph.D. Colossal creates disruptive technologies for extinct species restoration, critically endangered species protection, and the repopulation of critical ecosystems that support the continuation of life on Earth.
It’s the 16th year for the SXSW Pitch competition, which showcases innovative global startups. To date, finalists involved in the competition have raised more than $23 billion in funding since 2009, according to Pitchbook.
The categories for 2024 include Artificial Intelligence, Voice & Robotics; Enterprise & Smart Data; Entertainment, Media & Content; Extended Reality and Web3; Future of Work; Food, Nutrition, & Health; Innovative World Technologies; and Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability and Student Startup.
Austin had two finalists in the Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice categories. They include Autonomize, which created AI for healthcare workers and healthcare institutions. The other Austin finalist is Nava AI, which created an AI assistant that helps immigrants navigate the complexities of the U.S. immigration system.
In the Enterprise and Smart Data category, Aiki of Austin is a finalist. It created a system prioritizing student safety with dynamic two-way communication, connecting occupants and first responders.
Applix of Austin is a finalist in the Extended Reality and Web3 category. It created an AR-based automated visual quality inspection app for automotive, industrial, and medical tech firms.
Connected Athletics of Round Rock is an alternate in the category. The company empowers athletes to forge meaningful connections and form relationships with key influencers to optimize their sports careers during/after their eligibility.
In the future of work category, Layerpath is an alternate. “Layerpath revolutionizes team efficiency with AI-powered interactive product demos. Our platform enhances self-serve help experiences and boosts software adoption among customers and employees,” according to the SXSW website.
In the Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability category, Austin-based Terralytiq is an alternative. It is a climate tech startup specializing in enterprise decarbonization through its SaaS platform.
In the Student Startup category, MACH Transit of Austin is a finalist. “MACH’s pilot product is a levitating camera vehicle utilizing maglev to maintain zero contact with its guideway, enabling the capture of ultra-stable footage at over 200 mph.” Paradigm Robotics of Austin is also a finalist for creating a robotic platform to provide mission-critical situational awareness for firefighting, disaster response, industrial/manufacturing, and other industries. Merge Conflict Studio is also an alternate. It is a minority-led video game development studio focusing on centering marginalized perspectives and environmental awareness.
In Austin, Logictry hosted World Logic Day on Sunday at the Long Center downtown.
According to one of the organizers, the event featured more than 300 speakers, and an estimated 850 people attended a Friday event and the day-long Sunday event. Logitrcy’s co-founders Chris Fronda and Chelsea Toler organized World Logic Day and a handful of other co-hosts.
“As co-hosts, Logictry is enthused to spearhead this catalytic forum bridging innovation and collaborative community engagement,” Fronda said.
World Logic Day began as a movement organized by UNESCO in association with the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences.
Emily Gupton, COO of FOLIO and Community Partnerships Director for Austin Women in Technology, is also a Co-Chair for World Logic Day Austin. “I am deeply passionate about community and collaboration as a cornerstone to rise the tides together,” Gupton said in a news release. “UN World Logic Day brings local and global communities together to drive solutions to real-world problems.”
World Logic Day focuses on the importance of logic in addressing contemporary challenges.
Logictry began hosting the United Nations Austin World Logic Day in 2019, and the event has grown dramatically since then. Logictry also unveiled its Logic.Wiki, which shares how AI, business leaders, creators, and community builders are partnering together to share knowledge.
The event started Sunday morning with a keynote on “Innovation and Impact: Charting the Course Ahead.” Quite a few of the following panels focused on artificial intelligence and its effect on the educational industry, healthcare, and business. Other panels discussed community building.
“In the face of this new wave of AI, we are all a little uncertain of the future, but together we can utilize tools like Logic.Wiki and communities like our Logic Circle to leverage this moment for positive change,” Chelsea Toler, co-founder of Logictry, said in a news release.
One afternoon panel focused on YouTube content creators. Collectively, the five panelists had more than 30 million followers. Kenzie Yolles, a 15-year-old beauty, makeup, and fashion content creator, has a manager.
The event concluded with a panel of changemakers, five women who were highlighted in the most recent issue of Austin Women Magazine. Austin Women Magazine compiled a World Logic Day Changemaker List.
“I see logic bringing a brighter future for all when sustained by character,” Sofia Sunaga, Co-Founder and Director of Intergen.Family and Co-Chair for World Logic Day Austin said in a news release. “Logic, coupled with character development, invites us to step deeper into the realm of AI, creating a future where human logic and ethical development go hand-in-hand.”
The event engaged people of all ages to discuss change and the problems that must be solved. Chief among them was Anika Chokhavatia, student leader, founder, and co-chair for World Logic Day. “We are the emerging leaders of tomorrow, and it is our responsibility to be aware of the changing world and our place in it,” Chokhavatia said in a news release. “This initiative fuels the future we hope to build. I’m particularly looking forward to the Responsible AI, Consumer Protection, AI Innovation, and Business panel, exploring concepts of accountability and bias in shaping our worldview.”
In the latest Ideas to Invoices podcast episode, Nilima Achwal, founder of The Female Founders Lab, provides insights from her entrepreneurial journal.
Previously, Achwal founded Iesha Learning, a technology education platform to teach sexual education to junior high school students in India. She also launched and ran SEED, a social enterprise incubation program at Villgro Innovations Foundation in Chennai. In addition, she was a Kiva Fellow in Bolivia and wrote business case studies at the University of Michigan.
In this discussion, Achwal gives her views on entrepreneurship and her commitment to fostering a more inclusive and humanistic approach in the business world.
Some key takeaways from the podcast:
1. Inspiration for Female Founders Lab: Achwal moved to Austin about half a year ago to focus on expanding the coaching accelerator she founded in 2019. She was inspired by the city’s tech ecosystem, which she described as vibrant and collaborative. The atmosphere embraced her like a big hug.
2. Background in Impact Ventures: Achwal has spent 15 years in the impact venture space, working with startups focused on healthcare, education, food systems, media, the future of work, and sustainability. She spent six years in India and has experience in various aspects of the technology industry and startups.
3. Motivation behind Female Founders Lab: Achwal’s motivation to start Female Founders Lab stemmed from her challenges as a founder. She sought to create a more holistic and deep approach to accelerator programs that focused on founders’ whole selves and aligned their vision with tangible results.
4. Challenges Faced as a Female Founder: Achwal highlighted the challenges female founders face in finding mentors and role models. She discussed the importance of creating a space where female founders can be authentic and not feel compelled to conform to traditional, masculine business norms.
5. Importance of Diversity and Inclusion: Achwal emphasized the intrinsic value of diversity in reducing risk in business. She expressed concern about the “hijacking” of the diversity and inclusion narrative by political forces and stressed the importance of aiming for excellence rather than artificially creating diversity.
6. Advice for Women Starting Businesses: Achwal advised women not to get distracted by external noise and to focus on tuning into their vision and values. She highlighted the significance of authenticity and encouraged women to trust their intuition and feelings to gauge if they are on the right path.
7. Fundraising Strategies for Female Businesses: Achwal discussed female founders’ challenges in securing venture capital funding. She advocated for values-aligned investors at the early stages and suggested leveraging angel investors for initial funding.
Achwal also recalled a lesson from her experience as an entrepreneur. She faced huge challenges making inroads in the Indian education industry with her sex education product. She highlighted the importance of surrendering to a larger plan and releasing external pressures. Ultimately, she struck a deal to license her product to Tata, the largest IT company in India. Her perseverance led to a breakthrough, demonstrating the power of staying the course and trusting the process.
You can listen to the entire podcast below or wherever you get your podcasts.
Nilma Achwal is the founder of The Female Founders Lab, a virtual accelerator and coaching service in Austin. Achwal moved to Austin about a year and half ago from Los Angeles. Before launching The Female Founders Lab, Achwal founded Iesha Learning, a technology education platform to teach sexual education to junior high school students in India.
Austin startups raised more than $1.12 billion in venture capital in the fourth quarter of 2023, an almost 10 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago, according to the latest Pitchbook-National Venture Capital Association Venture Monitor Report.
The fourth quarter VC funding is also an almost 46 percent increase from the $607 million Austin startups raised in the third quarter of this year.
The number of deals funded in the Austin Round Rock metropolitan area also hit 126 deals in the fourth quarter, an almost 11 percent increase from 114 in the fourth quarter of 2022.
For all of 2023, Austin startups raised $3.8 billion, down 30 percent, compared to $5.5 billion for 2022. The number of deals funded in the Austin Round Rock metropolitan area also dropped to 416 in 2023, down 15 percent from 492 deals in 2022.
The top deal financed in the fourth quarter of 2023 was $300 million to Firefly Aerospace, based in Cedar Park, creating rockets for commercial launches to orbit.
The second largest deal was Infinitum Electric, which makes electric motors and received $200 million in venture funding. The third largest funding went to Mach Industries, a defense startup developing hydrogen-powered unmanned aerial vehicles, weapons, and generators, and received $84.1 million.
Deal, fundraising, and exit activity were down for the fourth quarter, according to the National Venture Capital Association. But the market isn’t in crisis, according to Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of the NVCA.
“Rather, the market has changed,” he wrote in a statement. “From interest rates to foreign conflict, the world looks very different than it did two years ago, and a new set of problems needs to be solved for.”
Overall, startups nationwide attracted $170.6 billion in venture capital, down $71.6 billion from 2022.
Austin-based Harbor Health, a primary and specialty clinic group, recently announced that it has secured an additional $95.5 million in funding.
General Catalyst led the round of funding with participation from Alta Partners and *VC. To date, Harbor Health has raised more than $128 million.
The company plans to use the funding to provide more primary care services and specialty care offerings.
Harbor Health was founded by Dr. Clay Johnston, Eric Scott (from 8VC), and Tony Miller.
“We realized in order to maximize the impact of our innovations, we needed to combine our efforts into one enterprise as a vertically integrated ‘pay-vider’ – both a payer and a provider,” Johnston said in a statement. “We have built a geographically dense care model that is organized around integrated practice units and focused on member health conditions. This new investment and our rapid growth confirm our innovative care model is working, and we’re meeting more people where they are with collaborative, team-based care.”
Harbor Health is creating a new healthcare model that puts consumers in control of their health.
“Eventually, we see a future where current care design and benefit design models become obsolete, replaced by a health-producing and health-promoting system that follows people along their life journeys,” Miller said in a statement.
This new approach and the history of success by both Johnston and Miller have attracted attention in the marketplace and from investors.
“There’s a strong appetite for a fresh approach to healthcare delivery among employers that prioritizes outcomes, enhances consumer engagement, and is proactive by design,” Chris Bischoff, Managing Director at General Catalyst said in a statement.. “We believe Harbor Health is providing ease of access to the largest covered population in the U.S. and bringing much-needed change as the company seeks to transform value-based care for the commercial sector. This aligns with our Health Assurance thesis. We look forward to supporting Tony, Clay, and the Harbor Health team in this new phase of growth.”
Harbor Health has eight locations in Central Texas, with more planned this year. It also launched two mobile health units. It employs 43 clinicians. Harbor Health touched consumers more than 25,000 times in Austin in 2023 with in-clinic appointments, virtual appointments, mobile clinics, and other modes of communication.
When frog design fired Doreen Lorenzo for doing great work for a client but not charging enough, Mark Rolston decided to leave the firm and start his own company.
It was the “actual kick in the pants to do it right then,” Rolston recalled.
He worked at frog for 20 years since 1994 and wanted to “remake what I enjoyed about frog” and roll it out into the marketplace. argodesign encourages a “culture of open willingness to argue” and challenges each other’s work to get the best possible solution and products. argodesign focuses on creating products that interact with technology.
Lorenzo, assistant dean of the School of Design and Creative Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts, interviewed Rolston at BigIdeasATX, a monthly event series hosted by Silicon Hills News. Unnanu, evisio, and Swyft sponsored the event.
Rolston founded argodesign in 2014, and in 2018, he sold to a $22 billion IT company, DXC Technology, for an undisclosed sum. Rolston, who has a more than 30-year career in the design industry, has worked with some of Austin’s most innovative startups, including Apptronik on its Apollo robot for NASA and ICON on its massive 3-D printer for houses and other structures. argodesign also works with Dreamworks, Sam’s Club, and others. argodesign has offices in New York, Amsterdam and Munich.
During an hour-long talk at argodesign’s headquarters in downtown Austin, Lorenzo asked Rolston about topics such as AI, creativity, copyright, technology evolution, and AI’s future.
Here are five key takeaways from the talk:
Shift in Technology and Product Development and AI in Software Development: Rolston talked about the evolution of the products being developed, from stereos and toasters to software and mobile apps. He discussed the challenges of creating AI tools for developers to make sense of AI at scale. He mentioned a shift toward dynamic, on-the-fly application creation, exemplified by the mention of Google’s Gemini.
Velocity of Change and Creativity: Lorenzo and Rolston talked about the rapid pace of technological change and its impact on creativity. They explored ideas on the potential for AI to create dynamic, ephemeral applications based on user requests.
Copyright Issues: Rolston said there is a need for potential regulation in the context of copyright, mainly as AI generates content inspired by existing works. He said there are challenges in existing copyright law, and there is a need for a rewrite to address AI-generated content.
Creativity and Human-AI Collaboration: Rolston acknowledged the role of humans in creativity and the belief that creatives will find ways to protect their work in the digital space. He believed that AI could enhance the creative processes and contribute a new form of collaboration.
Complexity of Emotion in AI and AI as a Tool for Empowerment: Rolston said detecting emotion in AI is a complex problem. Humans often attribute emotions to machines that are programmed to react like Furbys, according to Lorenzo. Rolston has a vision of designing AI systems that empower individuals to participate actively in conversations and the world around them.
Watch the entire talk in the YouTube video embedded below for more information.
BigIdeasATX with Mark Rolston, Founder and Chief Creative of argodesign Doreen Lorenzo, Assistant Dean, School of Design and Creative Technologies at the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, will interview Mark Rolston at the event.
Former TrendKite Founder and CEO Matt Allison has raised $6.3 million in seed funding to launch Handraise.
Austin-based Handraise will create a platform powered by artificial intelligence to help companies increase the impact of their press coverage.
Allison built TrendKite into a top media monitoring and analytics platform, which Cision acquired in 2019 for $225 million.
“As we worked with the world’s foremost PR and communications professionals at TrendKite, I realized there is a massive opportunity to help everyone involved – brands, communications professionals, journalists, and news consumers – get more out of the news by connecting the right audience to the right content,” Allison said in a news release.
“TrendKite was known in the industry for delivering on its promises of being consultative thought partners to its customers,” Allison said. “We helped our customers prove their value through our intuitive analytics and domain expertise. We’ll deliver on those same promises at Handraise while using generative artificial intelligence to help our customers measure their business impact and amplify it.”
Handraise is leveraging large language models to deliver simple yet profound insights without manual effort. This allows users to focus on strategy and impact.
“We were excited to learn that Matt and his former TrendKite colleagues are back together building a new product in the PR technology market,” Morgan Flager, Managing Partner at Silverton Partners, said in a news release. “Matt and his team of industry veterans are experts in the space, and we’re thrilled to back them again.”
Silverton Partners, Floodgate, Bill Wood Ventures, Firebrand VC, Aperiam Ventures, Active Capital, Sputnik ATX VC, Capital Factory, and a handful of world-class angel investors back Handraise.
“The ongoing advancements in generative AI are creating opportunities we’ve never seen before in the earned media space,” Mike Maples, Jr., Co-Founding Partner at Floodgate and early investor in Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, and others, said in a news release. “We believe the Handraise team is best suited to leverage their industry expertise and unique implementation of AI to unlock the power of news for everyone.”
The money will pay for equipment, staff, and training needed for classrooms, dual credit labs for coursework, robotics and automation, and other manufacturing-related program-specific laboratories at Taylor ISD’s new CTE building at Taylor High School. The new center is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2025.
“This new investment from Samsung Austin Semiconductor underscores our shared commitment to the next generation of advanced manufacturing talent,” Jennifer Garcia-Edwardsen, superintendent of Taylor ISD, said in a news release. “Our students have enjoyed working as interns and learning about the semiconductor industry. We look forward to our continued long-term partnership in ensuring that our scholars are inspired, equipped, and empowered to achieve their unique potential.”
The district offers 16 CTE programs that provide hands-on experience in various careers, from engineering to health science.
In November of 2021, Samsung Austin Semiconductor announced Taylor as the site for a $17 billion manufacturing facility. Since then, Samsung has provided tours of its facility to students, hosted a summer internship program, provided funding for teachers, and awarded a one-time grant of $250,000.
“We are excited to expand our relationship with Taylor ISD and invest in the vital resources necessary to provide an effective learning method about the semiconductor industry,” said Samsung Austin Semiconductor president Bonyoung Koo in a news release. “We believe our partnership can help build the future workforce of Texas, and we look forward to supporting education that will encourage students to consider a career in the semiconductor industry; our partnership is important for Taylor, our state, and the nation, and the impact will be felt worldwide.”
“This collaboration and Samsung presence in Taylor will provide opportunities for our scholars to find great employment in their hometown,” Rachelle Finck, director of Behavioral Health & Student Services at Taylor ISD, said in a news release.
The founders of SXSW got the idea for the event from New Music Seminar or NMS, a New York-based music festival in the mid-80s.
NMS always featured many Austin-based bands, said Hugh Forrest, Co-President and Chief Programming Officer of SXSW. After a plan to organize NMS South in Austin fell through, the four founders created South by Southwest during Spring Break of 1987. They picked that week in March because it was the slowest week of the year for the music venue.
It started with just 700 people. Today, SXSW has 60,000 badge holders and hundreds of thousands of consumers.
Forrest started the discussion Thursday afternoon at Austin Startup Week on “Why & How Startups Rock SXSW” by providing a “very brief look at the SXSW origin story.”
“I love telling the SXSW origin story, particularly when talking to startups,” Forrest said. “As with a lot of origin stories, SXSW happened more by coincidence than by design.”
The big takeaway from SXSW is that entrepreneurs turn trash into treasures, Forrest said. He said there’s a lot to learn from SXSW’s origin story.
“Find something that everyone has overlooked and create intense value,” Forrest said. “Or find an idea that no one has thought of before and create intense value. Or execute on a great idea that no one has executed on effectively before.”
The key is to “persist, persist, and then persist even more – and don’t take no for an answer,” Forrest said.
The four founders of SXSW were Roland Swenson, Louis Jay Meyers, Louis Black, and Nick Barbaro.
“These four SXSW founders paved the way for so much more March entrepreneurism,” Forrest said,
Among the great entrepreneurs to emerge from SXSW, Forrest included Johnny Cash in 1994,
Foster the People in 2011, Billie Eilish in 2017, Grimes in 2012, and other musicians.
Another takeaway from SXSW is that entrepreneurs are rockstars and vice versa, Forrest said.
There are a lot of similarities between entrepreneurs and musicians, and that’s why SXSW has survived for so long, Forrest said.
“SXSW always focuses on Creativity, authenticity, originality, and innovative ideas,” Forrest said. Those are the traits and characteristics that define successful SXSW bands and startups, he said. Forrest said they want to be on the same stage and intermingle at SXSW. He also encouraged everyone to reconsider and broaden their idea of what an entrepreneur is today.
“What can you learn from other creative types that will help you as a startup,” Forrest asked. The mission of SXSW is to help creative people achieve their goals, he said.
The event has attracted big names like President Barrack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden through the years. It has also been a launching pad for companies like Twitter, Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Workweek, Meerkat, ICON, and others.
At SXSW, entrepreneurs are even more critical than celebrities, Forrest said.
Chris Valentine, event manager for the SXSW Pitch competition, gave a quick presentation on the SXSW Pitch competition. Applications for SXSW Pitch are due on Sunday. There’s still time to apply at SXSW.com/Pitch, Valentine said.
Since 2009, SXSW Pitch has showcased 647 startups, which have raised a combined $23.2 billion in funding. Google, British Telecom, Apple, and others have acquired seven percent of those startups.
SXSW Pitch competition alums include Klout, ICON, Hipmunk, Tubemogul, Siri, Foodspotting, and Tango.
More than 700 startups apply for the SXSW Pitch competition every year, Valentine said. Of those, 45 finalists are selected to compete in nine categories, he said.
Startups’ Valuations are down, and entrepreneurs must do more with less money and focus on their core business to become profitable.
The days of startups valued at 20 times revenue are over, and now, it’s more common to have five-, six– or seven-times revenue as a valuation, according to Mike Dodd, general partner of Silverton Partners.
He spoke on a panel during Austin Startup Week’s discussion on “The Shift of the VC Fundraising Landscape: What This Means for Texas Entrepreneurs” Wednesday morning at Capital Factory. Charlie Plauche, general partner of S3 Ventures, moderated the panel, which also included Venu Shamapant, founding partner of LiveOak Venture Partners, Kerry Rupp, general partner of True Wealth Ventures, and Tom Ball, Cofounder and managing partner of Next Coast Ventures.
“There was just a matter of time before this bubble burst,” Dodd said.
But the situation could be more dire. Dodd said the panel had $1 billion worth of “dry powder” or venture capital funds looking for an investment. Many of the firms raised significant funds a year or two ago, and they have been more discerning in the last three quarters of making investments.
That shows in the latest VC data on the Austin-Round Rock metro area. Austin companies completed 78 deals worth $589.9 million in the third quarter, down 33 percent in value and nearly 20 percent in deal volume from the same quarter a year ago, according to the latest Pitchbook-National Venture Capital Association Venture Monitor report.
In the first three quarters of 2023, Austin companies have raised nearly $2.8 billion in 290 deals.
“Austin will likely reach 400 completed deals for the third consecutive year in 2023,” according to the report. “That figure would be just a 20 percent decline from the 2021 high, making Austin one of the more resolute VC ecosystems of the major markets.”
“It’s been an entrepreneur-friendly environment for a while, but it’s shifted in the last ten months. It’s more investor-friendly,” Dodd said.
“It’s a very cyclical business,” said Ball, managing partner of Next Coast Ventures. Ball emphasized that there has never been a better time to start a business.
“You are in it for longer than the average marriage in America,” Ball said. “As long as you have a good idea and can fund it, it’s good.”
Ball said Next Coast Ventures has pushed all of its portfolio companies to reach profitability to survive. Three to four years ago, VCs told startups to pursue growth at all costs, and now they need to be profitable, Ball said.
“It’s a tough environment as an entrepreneur with all the different advice you get,” Ball said.
Entrepreneurs must focus on their core business, Rupp said.
Also, debt isn’t available like it was a few years ago, Shamapant said. He said the days of getting a low-interest loan from Silicon Valley Bank are gone.
Companies that have moved here need to know that things are going to get better, said Plauche, general partner of S3 Ventures.
Dodd said that Austin VCs have a lot of capital to focus on Austin investments.
In the past five years, Austin has seen a flood of people move from the California coast to Austin, and that’s been good for the ecosystem, Dodd said.
“I’m a bit of an Elon Musk fanboy,” he said.
In addition to relocating Tesla’s headquarters to Austin, Musk has brought SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Starlink operations here, and that’s good for everyone, Dodd said. He said that brings in many talented people, and some might decide to launch their own business.
“It’s better than it’s ever been,” Dodd said. “It may not look like that in your shoes right now because it’s hard to get capital. But I think we’re in a great spot.”
Silverton has made five new investments in the last three months; before that, it had yet to do any in the previous ten months, Dodd said.
Next Coast Ventures has also closed on five new deals in the last three months, Ball said.
Shamapant said he’s been in Austin for 24 years, and the venture capital industry is the healthiest it has ever been. Austin Ventures used to be the only venture capital firm in town two decades ago; now, there are dozens of firms, he said.
“Money has a lot better chance of getting to you when there are multiple firms in the market,” Shamapant said.
Austin needs to focus on its infrastructure to deal with the influx of new residents and companies, Shamapant said. In particular, there is a need for affordable housing.
“Inflation has hit here hard,” Ball said.
Californians have also driven up compensation levels, and startups need more capital at an early stage to build a company, he said.
“Every deal is going to need more money,” he said.
Plauche, general partner of S3 Ventures, asked the panelists what startup metrics they look at when deciding to invest.
At the early stage, many of the metrics True Wealth Ventures looks at in startups are qualitative, Rupp said.
“The first metric is the team,” she said. She said that it’s a bit more than just math at the seed stage.
“We don’t invest until we see efficacy that something improves health,” Rupp said.
Next Coast Ventures looks at the team and product market fit, Ball said.
LiveOak Venture Partners also looks at the team and product market fit, Shamapant said.
Silverton Partners focuses on product usage, Dodd said.
“If the usage is pretty high and becomes part of the daily workflow of the customer, then you are onto something,” he said.
Rupp said seed investors and series A investors want a well-thought-out plan for how the entrepreneur uses the money.
“It’s kind of a long exercise of iterating around what can I do with the capital to get to the next stage,” she said. “You need to have a plan that makes sense to the investor around the assumptions you’ve made.”
Raising money is like being a plane, Ball said. And he said the entrepreneur has to take the plane apart and put it back together again before it crashes.
Q3 2023 Top 10 VC Deals in the Austin-Round Rock Metro Area
SpyCloud $110 million Software Series D
Hidden Layer $50 million Software Series A
One Model $41 million Software Series B
Black Ore $40 million Commercial Services Series A
Diligent Robotics $26.5 million Computer Hardware Series B2
Osano $25 million Software Series B
Chipletz $23.2 million Computer Hardware Series B
CertifID $20 million Software Series B
Terminal Industries $17 million Software Seedstage
A Cruise self-driving car was undergoing testing in the SoMa District of San Francisco.
Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company of which General Motors owns 80 percent, announced Thursday the shutdown of its Robotaxi operations in Austin.
“The most important thing for us right now is to take steps to rebuild public trust,” Cruise wrote in a post on Twitter. “Part of this involves taking a hard look inwards and at how we do work at Cruise, even if it means doing things that are uncomfortable or difficult.”
Cruise shut down its autonomous vehicle operations everywhere, including San Francisco and Phoenix.
“In that spirit, we have decided to proactively pause driverless operations across all of our fleets while we examine our processes, systems, and tools and reflect on how we can better operate in a way that will earn public trust,” Cruise posted.
The move comes after the California Department of Motor Vehicles ordered Cruise to halt its operations in the state after an accident with a pedestrian and another vehicle involved a Cruise Robotaxi which dragged the pedestrian forward, according to a story in Reuters.
Axios Austin reported earlier this year that 19 complaints were filed with city officials about Cruise’s Robotaxis. No deaths or injuries were associated with those complaints, which included Cruise cars stopped on the road and Cruise cars being unable to recognize a traffic officer’s hand signals.
At SXSW in March of this year, Mary Barra, GM’s Chair and CEO, spoke in a session on “Self-Driving Cars: From Science Fiction to Scale.” At that time, she said she believed AVs are the future of transportation and an essential part of General Motors’ business.
Shortly after that, Cruise’s robotaxis service started to scale up in the Austin market, which was already testing the vehicles.
Cruise contends that AVs provide increased safety and mobility for those who cannot drive.
At SXSW, Kyle Vogt, Cruise CEO, said that Cruise had built its cars for dense urban areas, forcing them to solve problems such as construction zones, traffic light outages, and road blockages. He said the company had solved most of the technical and scientific risks.
The applications can be drug development, virtual reality, artificial intelligent humanoid robot assistants, flying cars, or something else.
According to Google, an organization or company might be an excellent candidate to test a symmetrical 20 Gig connection if it is downloading or uploading massive datasets, conducting research that needs significantly more bandwidth, or doing future-focused technology that needs lots of bandwidth.
“We are interested in finding firms that are doing things I haven’t even thought of yet,” said Nick Saporito, head of Multi-gig & Commercial Product.
Google launched a test for its 20 Gig product with the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s School of Science and Engineering.
“They’ve been doing a lot of things at their School of Science and Engineering from tackling big data sets to making virtual reality less virtual and more reality,” Saporito wrote in a blog post.
“But we know that’s just the beginning (like our recently launched 5 Gig and 8 Gig products),” Saporito wrote. “That’s why we’re looking for eight more organizations — businesses, non-profits, educational institutions — to help test 20 Gig in Austin, Huntsville, Raleigh-Durham, and Salt Lake City.”
Austin currently has 1 Gig and 2 Gig products, and Kansas City has 5 Gig and 8 Gig available, Saporito said.
“Texas markets will get them later this year,” he said.
Google Fiber is currently available in Austin and San Antonio. Google began offering Google Fiber in Austin in December of 2014, and a year later, it announced plans to bring Google Fiber to San Antonio.
“We are very aggressively expanding the market in San Antonio and Austin and in Texas,” Saporito said. “We are very happy with how our Texas markets perform.”
“The 20 Gig is really a nice experiment for us,” Saporito said. “We have the technical capability to do it so why not test it out.”
The 20 Gig experiment is designed to generate as many technical learnings as possible, Saporito said. The second piece is understanding what future-looking use cases are for 20 Gig. Markets, he said.
“What’s coming down the pike in terms of Internet usage?” he said. “That’s really what we’re after here.”
Eagle Eye Networks, specializing in cloud video surveillance, and Brivo, which provides cloud-based access control and smart space technologies, Wednesday announced it received a $192 million investment from SECOM CO., LTD.
SEACOM, a security integration company, is investing $100 million in Eagle Eye Networks and $92 million in Brivo. Both Austin-based companies are majority owned by Dean Drako.
Drako founded Eagle Eye Networks in 2012 and serves as CEO. He acquitted a majority stake in Brivo in 2015 and is its chairman.
“The SECOM investment underscores that cloud and AI are the future of physical security,” Drako said in a news release. “Both Eagle Eye and Brivo will use a significant portion of the investment to further develop AI that dramatically improves the security of enterprises and businesses globally.”
Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo integrate with many third-party technology providers, including the leading property management and Proptech platforms.
In addition, Eagle Eye and Brivo provide a fully integrated solution that global businesses use to manage risk, identify threats, and respond. The companies’ joint capabilities deliver real-time AI-enabled video and access control events analysis, optimizing safety and security.
Eagle Eye Networks will use the investment for continued development of its AI-based analytics capabilities such as Eagle Eye Smart Video Search, Smart Alarms, and Vehicle Intelligence, and to expand its worldwide operations.
Brivo will use the investment to grow sales and marketing, accelerate product development, scale support and operational functions, and evaluate strategic acquisitions. Brivo will also use the additional investment to continue expanding in Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. It will also enhance the smart spaces and AI functionality in the Brivo Access Platform for its enterprise, multifamily, and commercial real estate customers.
“SECOM has a proud history of innovation going back to Japan’s first online security system for commercial use in 1966,” Sadahiro Sato, SECOM Managing Executive Officer. “We’re committed to delivering services and systems that deliver safety, peace of mind, and business efficiency. Our investment in Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo, the market leaders in cloud physical security, is an investment in our three companies’ mission: to provide the best technology possible to keep businesses and communities safe.”
By Laura Lorek, publisher and senior writer of Silicon Hills News
Newchip entered into bankruptcy liquidation last week.
The Austin-based company rebranded as Astralabs, doing business as Newchip and Newchip Accelerator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on March 17th, listing $1.7 million in total assets and $4.8 million in total liabilities, according to its filing. But last week, the bankruptcy judge forced the company into Chapter 7 liquidation, according to a letter posted by its co-founder and CEO, Andrew Ryan.
“I deeply regret to inform you that our company Newchip Accelerator after 6 + years of supporting startups globally, has faced a series of unfortunate events which have significantly impacted our operations,” said Ryan, formerly known as Ryan Rafols.
Among its top unsecured creditors, the company lists Apex Funding Source of Miami with a $536,000 claim, Clear Finance Technology Corp. of Ontario, Canada, with a $1.5 million claim, and Iruka Capital of New Jersey with a $594,000 claim. All of those were listed as “merchant cash advances,” alternative financing for small businesses where the borrower pays the interest upfront, and the lender takes a percentage of the company’s future revenue until it’s paid back.
In addition, Newchip received more than $776,000 in taxpayer funds under COVID-19 relief programs. It lists the U.S. Small Business Administration as a top 10 unsecured creditor with a claim of $500,000 for a COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan.
Newchip also received two Paycheck Protection Program loans for $141,289 in March of 2021 and $135,100 in April 2020, which were both forgiven.
Newchip raised $7.9 million in funding from accredited and nonaccredited investors, according to Crunchbase. However, the company has a history of losses. It filed documents with the SEC reporting a net loss of $197,884 for 2016 and a $748,999 loss in 2017. And in 2020 financial filings, it claimed $4.5 million in tax loss carryforwards.
In 2020, Newchip reported earning $2.6 million in revenue from selling its accelerator program to startups and $781,000 in 2019, according to its consolidated financial statements.
Silicon Hills News has been in contact with more than a dozen startups that claim the company took their money and didn’t deliver on the promises of the accelerator program. And one startup founder, Angela DiMarco, co-founder of Uniquely Phenom Collaborations in New York, said she paid $7,500 to go through Newchip’s accelerator and was pleased with the program.
“The education part of it was like getting an MBA, and where can you get an MBA for $7500, you know,” DiMarco said. “I went from not knowing what a KPI was to now being very comfortable that I can walk into a room full of investors and negotiate a term sheet.”
But DiMarco said she wouldn’t get that chance with Newchip to pitch to investors. She was supposed to do her three-minute elevator pitch to investors last week, which didn’t happen. She said she paid an additional fee for that opportunity and would try to get her money back.
In Vancouver, Washington, John Laine is not a happy customer.
In 2020, Laine gave a testimonial in favor of the company during the accelerator’s onboarding process. He hadn’t yet started the program, but when he did, he was hugely disappointed. Laine has asked the company numerous times to remove his name and testimonial from its marketing materials, but they have not.
At the time, Laine had a fintech startup and wanted to learn about crowdfunding. So he paid $3,800 of a $20,000 fee to participate in the accelerator.
“I did the program for less than a week and a half, and I realized I was duped,” he said. “It’s the crappiest version of online education you can produce.”
Laine contacted his credit card company and canceled the rest of the installments.
“Every business owner I’ve ever known is an optimist, and they prayed on that optimistic personality,” Laine said.
Newchip promised him that they would commit a minimum investment of $100,000 into his startup and that they did that for every startup that went through its program. But, unfortunately, he never got an investment.
Laine said they prayed on a particular avatar, a founder looking for a solution to bring their company forward.
Jari Kemppinen, the founder of Soulbotix, based in Australia, which builds custom ChatGPT-powered metahumans, joined the Newchip accelerator in February and paid $6,000 for the “courseware that gets you nowhere.”
“Seeking funding in Australia is a hopeless endeavor,” Kemppinen wrote in an email. However, he was attracted to Newchip because it was based in the US and offered remote learning and participation without relocating. He also liked the company’s promised connections and introductions to Newchip’s extensive VC investment portfolio. Unfortunately, once Kemppinen joined the program, he found little help from Newchip.
“I found that they lacked one-to-one communication, and I was left alone to navigate an enormous amount of content without any help,” Kemppinen said. “They just seemed to rely on founders looking after themselves.”
Kemppinen has yet to get any introductions to investors and would like a refund.
This experience disheartens him. “I am beginning to think the startup funding ecosystem is corrupt and not worth it,” he said. Too much work needs to go into creating so much documentation to gain some funding, he said. “Making solid partnerships, being honest, and working with your customers and partners is easier. That is what will make you money.”
A former Newchip employee said the company hired Garibay Ventures, based in Austin, to send spam emails to thousands of startup founders worldwide to recruit new startups for its paid program with the promise of investor introductions.
Ahmed Zobi, CEO and founder of Syntr Health Technologies, based in Irvine, Calif., received one of those emails from Anthony Garibay, CEO and Founder of Garibay Ventures, who claimed to be an investor.
Garibay Ventures said it recently partnered with Newchip’s accelerator to “get extra exposure to their investors (which I am a part of),” according to the email. The email included a link to the Newchip accelerator application.
In November 2020, Zobi paid $4000 to participate in the Newchip program. Newchip told him the actual cost of the program was $30,000, but they were granting him a scholarship for $26,000. But when he got the 12-page contract from Newchip, it included a clause that gave Newchip warrants or the right to buy a certain number of shares in the startup at a set price. Zobi showed it to his lawyer, who advised him not to sign. He didn’t. And Newchip never followed up to make sure the contract got signed. Zobi participated in the program but got little value out of it. His assigned mentor emailed him and said he was traveling to London. He ghosted him after that. The mentor never responded to follow-up emails or meeting requests, Zobi said.
“At the end of the day, I knew something was off because they never even asked for the contract back,” Zobi said.
“I think they just cared about getting as many startups signed up as possible,” Zobi said.
Other startups that paid to participate in Newchip’s global accelerator program are complaining on social media, primarily LinkedIn, that the company took their money and left them without resources. In addition, some former employees are alleging harassment in the Newchip workplace and a hostile work environment, according to a former employee.
Newchip started in 2016 as a marketplace aggregating the best deals from various equity-based crowdfunding platforms. It also was selected to participate in the Sputnik ATX accelerator program in Austin.
Newchip was not an equity crowdfunding platform itself. But it billed itself as the “kayak of funding,” Its website allowed nonaccredited investors to invest in deals for as little as $100 at a time.
The company said it made money from deal listing fees, investment commissions, exchange transaction fees, data analytics, and partners.
Travis Brodeen co-founded Newchip with Ryan Rafols, who has since changed his name to Andrew Ryan.
In 2018, Newchip raised $647,000 from more than 160 nonaccredited investors at a $15 million valuation on the equity crowdfunding platform Wefunder. Its goal was “to be the NASDAQ for the alternative investment market.”
But somewhere along the line, according to a former employee requesting anonymity, things went wrong.
The Newchip Accelerator has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau and two complaints from 2022 claiming the company lied to them. One complaint stated the startup paid $6,000 to participate in the program with a money-back guarantee that if they didn’t raise funds through Newchip, the accelerator would refund their money. However, the startup did not raise funds, and Newchip refused to repay its money.
Every startup in the world has one thing in common: a dream. From humble beginnings in a basement or garage, entrepreneurs set out to build the next big thing. It’s a tale as old as time and has always been part of the American dream.
For most entrepreneurs, there’s inevitably one major obstacle blocking the path to making this a reality – funding. No matter how great the offering is, growing a business without money is hard. But how far are you willing to go to make it a reality?
One Austin man is betting the house on his success – literally. Michael Ramirez, the founder of SEO technology company Evisio.co, has decided to forgo the traditional route of seeking funding from venture capitalists. Instead, he has listed his home on the market to secure the cash he needs to scale his business.
Rather than sacrificing equity in the company he has painstakingly built from the ground up with outside investments, Ramirez decided to grow his startup via “bootstrapping” (i.e., pulling yourself up by your bootstraps).
While venture capital, or VC, tends to get a lot of attention, largely thanks to the success of companies like DoorDash, Airbnb and Uber, many founders are unaware there are non-traditional ways to fund their startups.
Before we provide some alternative methods for VC funding, let’s take a closer look at the traditional role VC has played, the recent impact events have had on the field, and discuss other ways entrepreneurs like Ramirez are finding ways to finance their startups – without giving up a chunk of their business.
What is Venture Capital?
Venture capital is a form of private financing in which an investor, investment bank, or other financial institution puts capital into a startup or small business in exchange for a piece of equity. This investment can come in many forms, including operational capital, technical expertise, or management experience.
In many cases, VC is used as a short-term investment, where investors provide cash for startups to grow and build infrastructure and then exit once the company has reached a position where it can be sold to a corporation or receive equity in institutional public-equity markets.
While shows like Shark Tank and movies like The Social Network have reaffirmed the romantic image of a group of unknown entrepreneurs taking their business from the basement to the peaks of Silicon Valley remains, in reality, less than 1% of startups receive outside investment capital.
What has led to this more cautious approach? And what does it mean for aspiring business magnates? Let’s find out.
The State of VC Investments in 2023
On Friday, March 10, 2023, one of the world’s most prominent VC institutions, Silicon Valley Bank, fell victim to panic, resulting in the third-biggest bank failure in United States history. It was a problem that caught many investors off guard – but it shouldn’t have.
Investopedia estimated 97% of the bank’s deposits were not federally insured, which was particularly problematic for the tech sector, which has been hard hit by the aggressive rise of interest rates in an attempt to offset inflation.
The total damage of the fallout remains to be seen. Still, the highly interconnected nature of VC could lead to far-reaching concerns for both investors and the companies they have invested in, including the risk of companies being unable to pay employees or investors being unable to secure funds.
As a result, it seems likely that VCs will become less risk-tolerant, which means startups will find it more challenging to secure funding as VC investors become more selective.
This is far from the only issue with using VC to fund business growth. The field is also a largely insular community. According to a study by Richard Kerby, more than 80% of U.S. venture capitalists are men, and 70% are white. The study also indicates that nearly half of all VC investors studied at either Harvard or Stanford.
This has had the unintended consequence of creating what is known as “pattern matching,” in which investors make decisions about future investments based on past experiences.
In other words, because VC has typically included a lack of diversity in race, gender, and alma mater, it has created a cycle where white men from top universities continue to dominate the field.
This landscape makes it challenging for founders to secure funding and successfully scale once it has been secured. That’s why some entrepreneurs are thinking outside the box when it comes to financing their businesses.
Why a Local Entrepreneur is Selling His Austin Home to Bootstrap His Startup
Many founders are looking for ways to avoid the VC model and instead are seeking ways to bootstrap their startups, which is considered one of the safest and healthiest ways to scale. The primary means of accomplishing this depends on either the business generating enough revenue to fuel its growth or the founders successfully securing another type of investment, either from their assets, via their friends and family, or finding another traditional source of capital like a bank.
But there’s the issue – most people don’t inherit a fortune from a distant uncle, win the lottery or have some other source of behind-the-scenes funding. Solving this problem requires outside-the-box thinking to find nontraditional ways to secure financing – exactly what Evisio’s Michael Ramirez has done.
A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” Ramirez was not born into the lap of luxury. Growing up in inner-city San Antonio, he saw his share of financial and social struggles and made it his mission to change his family’s economic status.
“Despite our economic hardships, my parents taught me how to be resourceful, fight through tough times and see opportunities where others don’t,” he said. ”For example, when I was laid off from my first job out of college, I asked one of the company’s owners if he’d hire me as a contractor. Most people wouldn’t think to do that, let alone have the guts to ask.”
His hustle mindset led him to move to Austin, where he graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, started his marketing agency, became an SXSW speaker, and now bootstrapped his own marketing Saas company in Evisio.co.
“Starting with my SEO agency (which I still operate), I was constantly seeking ways to streamline the process of getting webpages to the top of Google rankings,” Ramirez said.”That’s when an idea struck me like a thunderbolt, and Evisio was born.”
A platform designed to streamline every aspect of search engine optimization and improve results, it’s suitable for every level of SEO expertise, from old pros to absolute novices. Ramirez was immediately confident this was a winning idea.
“But that brought me back to the funding problem,” he said. “I first wanted to prove the concept before taking on debt and giving away a lot of equity. But I didn’t have the cash to fund it myself, and unfortunately, my family is not independently wealthy. So, I had to get creative.”
This didn’t happen by chance, however. Ramirez worked multiple jobs to save money as he researched properties in Austin that would make a good investment. He then used his savings to build the first MVP (most viable product) and update the home. Once satisfied that he had improved the house’s value, he listed it on the market with the idea of using the proceeds to scale this venture.
“Is it risky? Sure. But if I’m not willing to go all in for this, why should I expect anyone else to?,” he said. “But by the way, if you know anyone looking for a beautiful 4-bedroom, 3-bath home in the heart of South Austin, send them my way,” he added with a smile.
Why Some Entrepreneurs Don’t Want VC
Despite making the headlines, most startups aren’t using venture capital. In some cases, this is because of shaky business models or over-saturated markets that make a business unappealing to investors. In others, it’s a conscious choice.
Some of the more common reasons why founders may choose not to seek VC include:
A loss of control – By surrendering equity to investors, founders can lose a portion of control over where their business is headed. Venture capitalists are not usually silent partners, which means they will have a share in how the business grows.
Forced timelines – Rapid scaling is not something every business is suited to, but the clock starts ticking when an entrepreneur accepts money from VC investors.
Unnecessary distractions – Securing VC funding takes a lot of time and energy. This can take you away from other equally important tasks during the crucial first two years of a business’ life.
A poor fit – Things like geographical limitations, scalability issues, and the need for physical inventory can make VC a poor fit, particularly for companies not in the tech world.
So, how do the 99% of startups that fall outside the realm of VC investors grow? By bootstrapping, of course.
Alternatives to Venture Capital
Entrepreneurs will go to extreme lengths to fund their dreams and retain company equity. But not everyone is a gambler. Some people are naturally more risk-averse. Luckily there are still lots of funding opportunities – without sacrificing control.
Here are some ideas for financing your business:
Selling assets – You don’t have to sell your house to fund your company as Ramirez did, but if you have other assets you don’t mind parting with, this is a route to consider. This could be anything from the mint condition Mickey Mantle rookie card your dad left you, your summer home, or your stock in Microsoft. Just remember you’re gambling on yourself here.
Government loans – While the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) only makes direct loans to help businesses recover from declared disasters, it does back loans designed to help small businesses get the needed funding.
Government grants – The SBA provides limited grants to small businesses and federal funding to states and eligible communities to promote entrepreneurship.
Programs for minorities – With a commitment to supporting the development of minority-owned businesses, the SBA has funding and resources earmarked for businesses owned and operated by African Americans, Asian Americans, Hasidic Jews, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders.
Incubators – Business incubators provide specialized programs to help new entrepreneurs learn and grow their businesses. These come in many forms, including academic institutions, nonprofits, and for-profit property development companies. These programs do not generally directly provide funding, but they can point you in the right direction.
Bank loans – Most banks offer small business loans and financing to provide startups with a cash infusion. However, many business owners have found approval challenging, as traditional banks are unwilling to issue high-risk loans.
VC is Not for Everyone
Venture capital funding can be a godsend for certain companies. Companies we know and love, like Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, were all backed by VC. But it’s not the right choice for every business. In his book Lost and Founder, author and entrepreneur Rand Fishkin provide honest advice about when a startup should consider taking VC money based on his experience building Moz.com.
With the constant threat of a recession looming, investors are taking a more careful approach to startups, which may lead to some businesses being left out in the cold.
Luckily, there are options. Work through yours and make a careful decision about your next steps. Ramirez does not doubt that selling my house will provide returns many times over. But if you’re not as bold as he is, there are still many sources of funding you can employ.
Hypergiant Galactic Systems has received a $61.4 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract from the U.S. Air Force.
The company, based in Blanco, received the contract to provide user interface and user experience development services for cloud-based command and control.
Hypergiant will perform the work in Blanco by May 4th, 2026. Hypergiant Galactic Systems is a subsidiary of Hypergiant, based in Austin. Mike Betzer, Hypergiant’s president, and CEO, lives in Blanco, about 50 miles South and West of Austin, where Hypergiant Galactic Systems is based.
Air Force Life Cycle Management, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contractor.
In 2021, the U.S. Air Force named Hypergiant Galactic Systems and 28 other companies as awardees on a potential $950 million contract. The contract is to build and operate systems across land, air, sea, space, electromagnetic spectrum, and cyber domains as part of the Joint All Domain Command Control program. In addition, the companies will compete to provide software and other solutions to the Department of Defense. The contract runs through May 2025.
Founded in 2019, Hypergiant’s customers include Sumitomo Corporation, Boeing, Schlumberger, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the United States Department of Defense. In addition, Hypergiant sells AI services, software, and solutions. The company has raised undisclosed venture funding from Sumitomo Corp. of America, Perot Jain, and other investors.
As a kid, Armir Harris immigrated to the United States from Albania.
Harris learned the ins and outs of the transportation business at a young age from his uncle.
“I picked up the ground transportation business at the dinner table,” Harris said. “I had no plans on going into the transportation or bus industry at all, but shortly after college, my uncle got sick. He had a limousine and bus company, and I had to take over.”
At 23, Harris stepped in and then, in 2012, founded a company called Shofur, a charter bus service.
“As I started to scale Shofur, I realized that there were much bigger problems we weren’t solving in the industry,” Harris said.
Mom-and-pop operators with ten buses or less make up more than 80 percent of the nation’s bus companies, Harris said.
“There is very little transparency and very little to no accountability in the industry,” Harris said.
In 2018, Harris founded CharterUP, a real-time marketplace for charter buses with an Expedia-like model to provide customers with a better experience, Harris said. The company also sells its software to 600 bus operators on its platform.
This week, Atlanta-based CharterUp opened a second headquarters in Austin. It plans to hire more than 100 employees locally, Harris said. In addition, CharterUp announced it had hired Brian Showers as the company’s Chief Technology Officer, Nick Donelson as its vice president of product, and Evan Hopkins as vice president of supply.
Austin will serve as the company’s tech and product hub. However, the company’s sales, customer success, and finance operations will remain in Atlanta.
CharterUP’s customers include school athletics departments, government agencies, and corporations. The company takes a percentage of all transactions booked on its marketplace. It also licenses its software to bus companies to run and manage their fleets.
“We’ve been profitable almost every quarter since the inception through bootstrapping,” Harris said.
CharterUP’s reached $150 million run rate revenue in 2022 through bootstrapping, Harris said. In October, the company raised $60 million, in a Series A round from Tritium Partners, a private equity firm based in Austin.
In the past five years, CharterUP hired many technology and product employees who lived in Austin, and it made sense to make this its second headquarters, Harris said.
“Austin kind of grew organically, and as I got to spend more and more time in Austin, I realized that Austin was a thriving tech hub, and many companies were moving their headquarters to the Austin region as well,” Harris said. “So we recently decided to move our technology and products or technology headquarters to Austin, where I spend most of my time.”
CharterUP is also seeing increasing demand for its services in Texas, Harris said. CharterUP serves Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and El Paso and is expanding into McAllen, Brownsville, and throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The company has rolled out more than 160 buses in the Austin and San Antonio markets.
“You should be able to see them rolling around with the CharterUP logo on the buses,” Harris said.
Another thing driving demand is corporations moving people from outer suburbs to work in Austin and shuttles between San Antonio and Austin. Harris said the growth for corporate shuttles between Austin and San Antonio had grown over 280%.
CharterUP’s customers in Austin include H-E-B, the University of Texas at Austin, and Austin ISD. Harris said it recently signed a contract to provide Samsung with corporate shuttles. Tesla is also a customer, he said.
“One of the reasons why we also decided to move our technology headquarters to the area is we were confident that commerce and tech companies are still going to continue to move to the Austin market, and over time, Austin will grow as that will grow and will thrive as a tech hub,” Harris said.
The conference, which is called SaaStock USA, features panel discussions and networking. It brings SaaS founders together with funders to help them access capital to scale rapidly.
SaaStock plans to make its SaaStock USA conference an annual event in Austin.
The conference first launched in Dublin in 2016, and its most recent event in 2022 saw over 5,000 attendees, many of whom were founders, executives, and investors focused on the SaaS startup industry.
SaaStock chose Austin because of its history as a startup hub and as a host to other technology conferences with a strong content, networking, and entertainment focus.
SaaStock expects over 800 attendees for its inaugural event and expects to provide Austin merchants a $1.2 million economic boost from spending on lodging, food, and entertainment over the three-day event. The event organizers expect to see that number exceed $10 million annually as plans to grow the event take root over the next five years.
“We’re excited to make Austin our home for future SaaStock USA conferences. We’ve long believed that Austin was the perfect city for the U.S. version of SaaStock. Austin is home to a healthy SaaS startup sector and the overall startup ecosystem is among the most active in the country. The city’s vibrant festival and music scene fits the experiential approach we take with our conferences, which places value on helping attendees create lasting connections through networking at entertainment-driven venues,” Alex Theuma, CEO and Founder of SaaStock said in a news release.
The SaaStock USA conference will feature over 50 speakers with proven experience as startup founders, executives, and trendsetters. Some of the notable speakers include Jason Cohen, Founder & Chief Innovation Officer of WP Engine; Mary D’Onofrio, a Partner at Bessemer Ventures; and Godard Abel, co-founder & CEO of G2.
Since its inception, SaaStock estimates that SaaStock Dublin has had a cumulative economic impact of over $500 million in the form of capital investment, M&A transactions, and new business deals over the past seven years.
“We have been attending SaaStock Dublin for 5+ years and have found it extremely productive. Nowhere can you meet so many SaaS startups in one spot in such a short period of time. While we’ve found several investment opportunities attending the events, we’ve also benefited from the networking opportunities and a chance to learn more about trends impacting the broader SaaS sector,” Kyle Poyar, Operating Partner, OpenView, said in a news statement.
SaaStock USA will feature some of the following events and programs:
SaaS.City (May 31): a one-day accelerator for SaaS workshops led by SaaS experts addressing five critical startup functions, including CEO/Founder, Marketing, Sales, Operations Efficiency, and Fundraising/Investment; locations to be announced.
Startup Program & Global Pitch Competition (May 31 – June 2): a launchpad for select SaaS startups to gain valuable feedback from SaaS investors and VCs.
NightStock (May 31 – June 2): evening networking and entertainment includes a Welcome Party, Rainer Street pub crawl, and Closing Party.
Last year, cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens, blockchain technologies, and the metaverse dominated at South by Southwest.
This year, the buzz was all about conversational AI, particularly ChatGPT, which released GPT-4 during the conference. ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses conversational AI capable of understanding, processing, and responding to human language.
And one of its co-founders, OpenAI’s Co-Founder and President Greg Brockman, talked to Laurie Segall, founder of Dot Dot Dot Media, about the technology in a jam-packed keynote address.
This is freakier than HAL in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. (My alma mater – the University of Illinois, gave birth to the fictional HAL) Conversational AI is a sea-change technology that will shake up the economy as much as the introduction of the Internet did. Key takeaways from Brockman’s talk were that ChatGPT is a breakthrough technology, and Open AI, the company behind it, has made significant efforts to make it accessible and user-friendly. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot launched in November of 2022. “ChatGPT reached its first 1 million user milestone in a week, surpassing Instagram to become the quickest application to do so,” according to a UBS report. “ChatGPT-3 uses a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) to generate largely identical text to human conversation. GPT is part of the broader family of large language models, which are AI models that understand and can generate text.” On March 13th, OpenAi launched ChatGPT-4, which surpasses the previous version in its advanced reasoning capabilities. During his keynote, Brockman said, “this app really took off and people started using it, and we could see the gap between what people thought was possible and what actually had been possible for quite some time.” Brockman also expressed concerns about deploying the technology in a way that could be potentially harmful. He recalled a dinner meeting in 2015 attended by co-founders of OpenAI, including Elon Musk, to discuss the future of AI and whether they could positively impact the technology. They saw the potential for AGI, artificial general intelligence, and felt a sense of urgency to steer the technology in a positive direction. OpenAI started as a nonprofit research lab, hiring PhDs and open-sourcing code, but later realized they needed to scale and raise funds to make a more significant impact. The company aims to align its incentives with a good outcome for humanity and believes AI should be an endeavor of humankind, not just one company or individual. But even Brockman seemed a bit scared of the technology and the future. He’s not the only one concerned. On Wednesday, a group of technologists, including Elon Musk, penned a letter requesting a halt to all giant AI experiments.
The past year proved that AI is here to stay. We have seen AI disrupt every major industry, from search engines to art and music. The change will be felt in nearly every aspect of our daily lives.
2. We can unlock health insights and prevent disease from more knowledge about our genes. Personalized healthcare is based on patient genetics. I was surprised to hear Anne Wojcicki, Co-Founder and CEO of 23andMe, talk about the company’s healthcare focus. During the pandemic, 23andMe acquired Lemonade, which allows the company to provide medical expertise to customers and deliver care through a clinician group, physician consult, and pharmacy. Wojcicki noted that consumers often feel disempowered in healthcare, while physicians increasingly recognize the importance of genetics in patient care. She talked about the importance of pharmacogenomics, which can help match patients with the best medications based on their genetics. Wojcicki also noted that financial incentives could sometimes conflict with preventive care, underscoring the importance of consumers taking control of their healthcare. Along those lines, Wojcicki suggested patients should bring their 23andMe reports to their doctors to inform their care. Wojcicki also said conversational AI has the potential to predict and prevent health conditions. She discussed the possibility of risk prediction as a means of prevention. She said most of the AI currently used in healthcare is focused on disease optimization rather than prevention, but 23andMe is working on tests and research to predict behaviors that could help prevent disease.
CIA/NSA/National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at the SXSW Creative Industries Expo
3. Welcome to the surveillance economy. For the first time (let me know if I’m wrong here, but I’ve never seen it before, and I’ve been going to SXSW for a couple of decades), the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency all had booths along with the National Science Foundation in the corner of the Creative Industries Expo. Also, David Cohen, the deputy director of the CIA, and three other high-level members of the CIA participated in a panel discussion on “Spies Supercharged: Tech and the Future of the CIA.” “We recognize that technology is advancing very, very quickly, the pace of technological change is greater today than it’s ever been, and technology itself is a domain in which we need to compete with our adversaries,” Cohen said. “it’s not just that we need to use technology to do our business we need to understand how our adversaries are using new and disruptive technologies against us, how they are weaponizing technology.” The CIA was at SXSW to “find partners who want to work with us to find people who want to come and work for us,” Cohen said. The CIA focuses on wireless technology like 5G and 6G, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and bioengineering, financial technology, and advanced power like the next lithium-ion battery. I also learned that the CIA puts spy gear into mascara tubes, and now I’ll never look at my makeup the same way again. At the same conference, Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst who leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks and went to prison for violating the espionage act, spoke on the need for more privacy and data protection. She said it’s not just governments monitoring communications; corporations increasingly use sophisticated surveillance and tracking technology to learn as much about their consumers as possible.
Cruise’s Origin AV
4. This is definitely not your father’s Buick or even my old Pontiac Firebird, for that matter. Autonomous vehicles are on the streets today, and more are set to come along with more electric vehicles. Cruise is an autonomous vehicle company of which General Motors owns 80 percent. Kyle Vogt, Cruise CEO, and Mary Barra, GM’s Chair and CEO, spoke with Emily Chang, a Bloomberg reporter, at SXSW in a featured session titled “Self-Driving Cars: From Science Fiction to Scale.” Vogt discussed how Cruise operates a “robotaxi” service in San Francisco and is scaling up its testing operations in Austin and Phoenix. The technology has moved from a science-fiction problem to an execution and scaling problem, Vogt said. Barra believes that AVs are the future of transportation and that they are an essential part of General Motors’ future. Vogt noted that AVs provide increased safety, mobility for those who cannot drive, and the potential for faster and more efficient movement of goods. There are distinct differences between self-driving and driverless cars, and confusion arises when companies market their products as self-driving when they are not fully autonomous, Vogt said. The goal is to have vehicles that work for the driver rather than the driver working for the car, Vogt said. Tesla’s marketing of its “full self-driving” feature confuses consumers, Vogt said. Vogt noted that Cruise had built its cars for dense urban areas, forcing them to solve problems such as construction zones, traffic light outages, and road blockages. He said the company had solved most of the technical and scientific risks. The need now is for robust infrastructure and software systems to operate large fleets of electric vehicles and balance supply and demand across the network, Vogt said. Cruise can expand into more towns and cities as more vehicles are manufactured, including the new “origin” vehicle. Vogt noted that its transformational design breaks away from the traditional car shape built around the driver. He also expressed concern about the U.S.’s approach to AV development and regulations compared to China, which is building infrastructure and incentivizing development. He suggests that the U.S. could be at risk of seeding leadership in AV automotive manufacturing. Overall, the automotive industry is transforming, with GM planning to have all of its light-duty vehicles electric by 2035, Barra said.
5. If the HAL and AI reference didn’t freak you out enough, then you need to know about brain implants. Brain-Computer Interfaces are being used with paralyzed patients today to restore some motor functions and regain independence. In a panel titled “Hello World: Brain-Computer Interfaces at Scale,” Tom Oxley, CEO of Synchron is focused on implantable BCI devices, which he called a neuro-prosthesis. Max Hodak, CEO of Science, who previously worked at Neuralink, also focuses on brain interface development and restoring vision. Synchron offers a different approach, which involves using technology that delivers electrode senses of stimulation into the brain using the blood vessels rather than requiring the removal of the skull to implant electrodes directly into the brain. Technological advancements that have made BCI possible include the miniaturization of electronics and wireless communications. But challenges still need to be addressed, such as ensuring lower power usage and immune barriers. The panelists also talked about the potential role of AI in BCI technology, with many current user interfaces being mediated by AI. AI will likely play a role in the suite of tools enabling people to use BCI devices. In closing comments, Oxley with Synchron said he expects to have widespread commercial adoption of its BCI technology in the next three to five years. It is currently conducting clinical trials in the U.S. and enrolling patients.
GovExec, the market-leading sales and marketing intelligence company for government leaders and contractors, announced Friday their upcoming Austin event in partnership with VMware (NYSE: VMW), the leading multi-cloud services provider for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control.
As companies continue to scale, support a hybrid workforce, and need secure flexibility for their operations, cloud technologies become more central to the future of business. At In Focus: Public Sector attendees will hear from government and industry leaders who will explore their current conditions and the importance of secure cloud technology to serve their current and future needs.
EVENT DETAILS
What: VMware Explore In Focus: Public Sector
When: April 5, 2023, from 9 am – 1:30 pm CT
Where:The Bullock Museum, 1800 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701
Speakers include:
Amanda Blevins, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for the Americas, VMware
Dr. Brian Gardner, Chief Information Security Officer, City of Dallas
Nassos Galiopoulos, Chief Technology Officer and Deputy Chief Information Officer, University of Texas at San Antonio
Mark Silis, Chief Technology Officer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abdul Subhanis, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army
“We’re really excited to bring together such a strong group of public sector IT leaders — especially in one of the top American tech hubs,” said George Jackson, Vice President of Events at GovExec. This event will be fun, informative, and fast-paced. It’s a must-attend for anyone interested in cloud systems.”
To learn more about or register for the event, please click here.
About GovExec:
GovExec’s data and insights set the standard for depth, accuracy, and impact for government leaders and contractors. GovExec provides data-driven strategic sales and marketing intelligence solutions that accelerate revenue growth to fuel market success. The platform is powered by the largest and most sophisticated database in the public sector, reaching over 3.3 million government influencers each month.
The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) has awarded the 2022 ACM A.M. Turing Award to Bob Metcalfe, recognizing his contributions to Ethernet’s invention, standardization, and commercialization.
This award, often called the “Nobel Prize of Computing,” is named after Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who laid the foundations of computing. It carries a $1 million prize with financial support from Google.
Metcalfe, an Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and a research affiliate in computational engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, invented Ethernet in 1973 while working as a computer scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center. He drew on ideas from ARPAnet, particularly packet switching, and an idea from the University of Hawaii: Aloha Network, a method for sharing a communication channel.
With the help of David Boggs, a co-inventor of Ethernet, Metcalfe built a 100-node PARC Ethernet, which was replicated within Xerox to create a corporate internet. Metcalfe left Xerox and founded 3Com in 1979, raising venture capital in 1981. The company shipped its first big product, Ethernet for the IBM personal computer, in 1982 and went public in 1984.
Today, Ethernet is the main conduit of wired network communications worldwide, with data rates ranging from 10 Mbps to 400 Gbps, and emerging technologies with 800 Gbps and 1.6 Tbps. Ethernet has become an enormous market, with revenue from Ethernet switches alone exceeding $30 billion in 2021, according to the International Data Corporation.
Metcalfe’s original design ideas have enabled the bandwidth of Ethernet to grow dramatically, making it possible for every computer to be networked. Ethernet remains the staple data communication mode, particularly when prioritizing security and reliability.
Bob Metcalfe’s 1973 sketch of his original “Ethernet” vision. Photo courtesy of Bob Metcalfe and the Palo Alto Research Center Inc., a Xerox Company.
Metcalfe has received numerous honors for his work, including the National Medal of Technology, IEEE Medal of Honor, Marconi Prize, Japan Computer & Communications Prize, ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, and IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal. He is also a Fellow of the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Inventors, Consumer Electronics, and Internet Hall of Fame.
The ACM President, Yannis Ioannidis, said, “Ethernet has been the dominant way of connecting computers to other devices, to each other, and to the Internet. It is rare to see a technology scale from its origins to today’s multigigabit-per-second capacity. Even with the advent of WiFi, Ethernet remains the staple mode of data communication, especially when security and reliability are prioritized. It is especially fitting to recognize such an impactful invention during its 50th anniversary year.”
Jeff Dean, Google Senior Fellow and SVP of Google Research and AI added, “Ethernet is the foundational technology of the Internet, which supports over 5 billion users and enables much of modern life. Today, with an estimated 7 billion ports around the globe, Ethernet is so ubiquitous that we take it for granted. It’s easy to forget that our interconnected world would not be the same without Bob Metcalfe’s invention and his enduring vision that every computer must be networked.”
Metcalfe will receive the ACM A.M. Turing Award at the annual ACM Awards Banquet, which will be held on June 10 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
By Laura Kobylecky, Special Contribution to Silicon Hills News
During SXSW 2023, The Courtyard on 4th Street was transformed into an official SXSW venue that hosted various events focusing on British innovation, culture, and music. One of these events brought Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, to the stage to talk about what’s happening in Manchester.
Burnham made connections between the growth and innovation patterns in Manchester and Austin. I also spoke with a citizen of Manchester to get their perspective and watched a performance from a Manchester band at an SXSW show.
I sat down with Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, to talk further about this connection. Burnham explained, “The cities are so similar, to be honest.” After “coming to Austin for the first time in 2018 to go to South By,” he was “immediately struck by the similarities: a fast-growing city, a young city, a music city.”
He was also impressed by Austin FC, a football club that was founded in 2018, saying that “he loved it.” He described Manchester as “an old football city” and said, “There’s not much about English football that I don’t know.” This adds a particular layer of depth to his emphatic statement, ” They’ve built something new, something exciting… it’s got all the right kind of values built into it.” He believes that the “new fan culture” being built in Austin is something that “England will start to look to.”
He connects Manchester’s “passion” for football and live music culture with the culture of Manchester, stating that it’s “Something about the working class roots of Manchester. Working people have hard lives, and they needed something on the weekend.”
He explains, “Manchester is like Austin; we have an ecosystem of smaller venues.” Like Austin, these venues receive support from “lots of people who go and watch the new bands that are open-minded about music.” According to Burnham, “you go out any night of the week in Manchester, and you’ll find a few hundred people watching a new band.”
Burnham talks about the historical connections between Manchester, Austin, and SXSW. He said that “South By’s founders were regularly in Manchester in that period in the 90s and the early 2000s” and believes they were inspired by Manchester’s conference called “In the City,” which he describes as “similar” to SXSW. Burnham describes this as something of a crossover and “not just by chance” but rather a sort of “cross-fertilization.”
Manchester is also concerned about some of the same issues as Austin. Affordability threatens the scene’s survival in both Austin and Manchester. Burnham believes that Manchester has “got a worry actually” because it remains “a working-class city,” but some of the working class may not be part of the music scene.
He states, “These days if you want to make it in the music industry, you’ve got to have money or be from a family that has money because it’s getting much harder to break through.” He thinks this is something that “should worry us all… because sometimes it’s those young people who come from those circumstances who become sort of the biggest personality, the character, and if that’s lost, then music is much the poorer for it.”
He also discusses “the risk” of Manchester perceiving “to trade on past glories: The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Oasis, New Order, Joy Division.” This can lead to situations where Burnham believes “we’ve kind of looked back too much, and we need to look forward more.”
Burnham’s more personal contribution to this is “a new initiative called Mayors Artist of the Month.” At “the last week of every month,” he has an open application, and from this, he chooses the “’ artist of the month,’ and they get airtime on the radio.” He says, “I promise you, I go out running, and then I listen to them all.”
Another similarity between Austin and Manchester is that Manchester will launch its own “new global music conference,” according to Burnham. He describes it as “not meant to be a rival to South By,” but he does draw comparisons between the two. This conference, he claims, “is about a forum for debate and for resolution of some of these issues in the industry.” He sees it as something that “counterbalances South by in many ways,” including the timing. Beyond the Music will take place in October.
On Saturday, March 18th, I returned to The Courtyard for the British Music Embassy. I spoke to Rob Brown, managing partner at a PR agency in Manchester’s MediaCityUK , to see how a non-government official feels about the Manchester/Austin connection. Brown has spent time in both Austin and Manchester and sees a kinship between the cities, saying that “they’re both boom cities.”
He explains, “you can see in the skyline of both cities they’ve changed immeasurably over the last ten years.” Brown says that skyscrapers may be typical in the US, “it’s quite unusual in the UK; it’s only really London and Manchester that have tall buildings.”
He also sees a cultural connection between the cities: “they’re both very vibrant music capitals.” Even though “Austin has more live venues than Manchester,” Brown still believes “you can see a great band every night of the week in Manchester.”
Brown is excited to be here at SXSW. He’s a passionate music fan, so enthusiastic that he’s already twice seen “The Golden Dregs,” a UK rock band. This is his 10th SXSW, and he’s already planning to come back again next year.
On Friday, March 17th, I saw Ist Ist, a Manchester-based band, play at The Velveeta Room, an official SXSW venue. They played a show full of post-punk energy with tones that ranged from heavy rock to mellow emotionality. The lead singer, Adam Houghton, informed the audience that this band is from Manchester.
Manchester culture has made a connection with Austin at SXSW.
At South by Southwest, ZenBusiness hosted a talk on entrepreneurship with Billionaire Mark Cuban and U.S. Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, the highest-ranking Latina in a government office.
Austin-based ZenBusiness, a tech platform that makes it easy for anybody to start and run their own business, has helped form about 500,000 small businesses since its founding in 2015, said Michael Fanuele, ZenBusiness senior vice president, who moderated the discussion.
“Our purpose is unleashing the entrepreneur in everybody,” he said.
To start off, Fanuele asked SBA Administrator Guzman and Cuban about their first entrepreneurship experiences.
Guzman recounted how she grew up as the daughter of a small business owner.
“My dad bought his first veterinary hospital when I was one year old in East Los Angeles and grew it to chain of five veterinary hospitals,” Guzman said.
She spent time in his office and saw firsthand her dad’s passion for serving his customers.
“He worked harder than anybody I knew,” Guzman said.
Her dad also did community vaccination clinics and provided free services to his clients in need, Guzman said. Her dad ingrained in her “this grit and determination to really fulfill whatever it is that I was working on with such passion,” she said.
Guzman turned being seen as an underdog and being underestimated into an advantage. Her mother fought for her to be in gifted and talented programs at school. Her mother fought for her to have a seat at the table.
“It gave me a voice, confidence, and drive to feel that I can expect more,” Guzman said.
In middle school, Cuban was always the kid selling something. In college, he had side hustles, and after that, he joined Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh.
“I got in trouble because I saw an article in a magazine, and I clipped it and sent it to the CEO of the bank, and my boss and his boss and his boss did not like that, so you know, so I was the person that was always stepping out, so I knew at some point that I was going to have to work for myself it was just a question of when I would get there,” Cuban said.
Fanuele asked about the bar Cuban owned and ran at Indiana University.
Cuban ran parties at the Motley’s Pub, the hot bar on campus. When it got shut down, he bought it.
“We opened before I was even 21, but one day, they busted us too, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me because otherwise, I’d still be, not that there’s anything wrong, but I’d be running a bar in Bloomington, Indiana,” Cuban said.
After working at Mellon Bank, Cuban moved to Dallas and founded MicroSolutions, which he eventually sold to CompuServe for $6 million. He also co-founded AudioNet, an online streaming service, and sold it to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock. Cuban then bought the Dallas Mavericks National Basketball Association team. And since 2011, Cuban has been a “Shark” on ABC’s Shark Tank. And most recently, Cuban launched Cost Plus Drugs, an online pharmacy providing low-cost drugs.
Fanuele asked Cuban and Guzman to name some characteristics that define entrepreneurs.
“For so many entrepreneurs who are starting businesses today, it’s women and people of color. It’s this drive to try to achieve their version of an American dream of business ownership,” Guzman said. “That drive to create prosperity, to build wealth, to try to enter into spaces that they’ve not been able to before, I think that’s a unique thing about what the face of entrepreneurship looks like today.”
Other traits are grit, determination, flexibility, agility, ability to change, resilience, and vision, Guzman said.
Everyone can be an entrepreneur, Cuban said. “We’re all problem solvers.” The hard part is finding what you are innately good at, Cuban said.
“Once you find something you could be good at, then it’s just a question of fear,” Cuban said.
Entrepreneurs have to cross that line and commit themselves to do it. But it takes a lot to act on it, Cuban said. Daymond John, CEO of FUBU and another Shark investor on Shark Tank, calls it the power of broke, Cuban said.
“One of the defining elements of an entrepreneur is you can’t be afraid to be broke because you will go broke at some point,” Cuban said.
Cuban recounted living with six guys in a 3-bedroom apartment and sleeping on the floor in his early days.
“You know it was nasty, I had my one towel I stole from motel 6,” Cuban said. “It was really disgusting, but it was the best thing ever because you know the power of broke; you got nothing to lose, and you go for it.”
And when your buddies are stepping over you to go to their job, and you’re starting this company, you realize that there’s only one direction to go, and that’s up, and that’s the power of being an entrepreneur, Cuban said.
“And we all have it, but taking that first step and finding the things we’re good at are the challenges,” Cuban said.
And the fear is warranted because half of all businesses fail in the first five years.
The SBA can provide tools and resources so that that fear can be reduced, Guzman said. She said that the SBA has more than 1,600 resource partners nationwide that focus on financial and capital readiness.
And beyond SBA loans, the federal government awards more than $4 billion yearly for research grants through SBIR.gov, Guzman said.
“Our growth model is to get you funded and also connect you to the largest buyer in the world, which is the federal marketplace,” Guzman said. It’s a $500 billion marketplace, and at least 1/4 of that is spent with small businesses and innovative startups, she said.
The government grants are non-dilutive cash which means you don’t have to pay it back, Cuban said.
“When you’re starting a business, sweat equity is the best equity,” Cuban said.
Quantum computing startup, Strangeworks has announced the completion of a $24 million round of funding.
The Austin-based company previously raised a $4 million seed stage round, bringing the total funds raised to $28 million.
Strangeworks, founded in 2018, reported Hitachi Ventures led the funding round with investment from IBM, and Raytheon Technologies. It also had follow-on investments from seed-stage investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Great Point Ventures, and Ecliptic Capital.
Strangeworks, which has 21 employees, said in a news release that the investment allows Strangewowrks to offer a broader range of technologies beyond quantum computing, including quantum-inspired, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence.
“Today’s announcement represents a significant milestone for Strangeworks,” Will Hurley, known as Whurley, the company’s founder and CEO, said in a news release. “Five years ago, I took the stage at SXSW for our first quantum computing keynote. Since that day, this team has stayed focused on our core mission, continuously beating industry expectations while utilizing only a fraction of the resources compared to the industry. Raising the Series A from these exceptional investors in this challenging economic climate sends a clear message to the market on where enterprise companies are placing their bets in a race to create quantum value.”
The funding comes after Whurley’s keynote speech at the 2023 SXSW conference using all AI-generated text and images.
Hitachi identified quantum computing as a critical technology to advance society and developed its own quantum technologies and quantum-inspired solutions, Norihiro Suzuki, Ph.D. and CTO of Hitachi, said in a news release.
“Quantum computing has the potential to help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, from fighting climate change to curing fatal diseases that require far greater computational power than is currently available in classical computers,” Suzuki said. “The Strangeworks platform removes barriers to access quantum and quantum-inspired solutions creating customer value today.”
Raytheon’s investment in Strangeworks aligns with its customers’ interests, Dan Ateya, president and managing director at RTX Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Raytheon Technologies.
“We believe Strangeworks’ platform and their ability to make quantum and high-performance computing more accessible can support a wide range of applications in the aerospace, defense, and commercial sectors.”
‘Quantum computing is here, but exploiting its advantages requires rare know-how and lots of capital,” Ray Lane, managing partner of GreatPoint Ventures, based in San Francisco, said in a statement. “Strangeworks democratizes quantum computing by opening proprietary platforms to consumption-based usage, and this is how large tech markets are unleashed.”
By Laura Kobylecky, Special Contribution to Silicon Hills News
PentoPixwon the 2023 SXSW Pitch Awards in the “Entertainment, Media & Content” category. PentoPix also won the “Best In Show” award at this competition. PentoPix uses AI-assisted technology to transform text into 3D animations.
SXSW Pitch showcased innovators and tech industry pioneers, from “indie tech companies to trailblazing startups” (1). The event featured 40 interactive tech companies in 8 different categories. The startups pitched in front of a panel of judges.
I sat down with Volha Paulovich, Co-Founder & COO of PentoPix, to talk about her experience at the Pitch Awards. When asked for the shortest summary of her company, a demonstration of her freshly-honed pitching skills, she stated, “PentoPix is an AI-assisted platform that brings creativity and efficiency together by converting scripts into 3D animated videos for storyboarding and pre-production.”
She was very excited about winning the Best in Show Award at SXSW Pitch and said, “It’s surreal; I haven’t processed it. It’s the best outcome we could have expected. And in startups, you never expect the best outcome to happen.”
Paulovich found the SXSW Pitch awards to be a unique experience. She explained, “I pitch almost every day …I didn’t really think about it much, and then coaching started, and we shook things up completely, and it was great because it kind of never happens, and I’m really glad that we did.”
The process of SXSW Pitch involved some hands-on training. Paulovich described the process “Every startup gets a coach we get to meet a few times.” There are a required number of meetings “we have a minimum bar of, I think, two times, but you can do more… I did more, for sure…probably four. The experience also included a coach who “can guide you through the process of what it’s like on the day or how to structure your pitch better, leave comments about slides, how to prepare for Q & A.
Paulovich compared the experience to that of an athlete and spoke highly of her coach, referring to them as “absolutely amazing” and the overall experience as “something new and different.”
The SXSW Pitch experience was unique in the startup world, according to Paulovich “And it’s a level of support that you rarely get in startups, especially when it comes to the pitch.” The pitch experience normally means pitching “to an audience of investors or potential users.” For these early-stage startups, “it’s kind of their job to find why your startup won’t work,” meaning that “you don’t really get to hear the honest feedback because everyone is so critical.” The SXSW experience means having a coach with “a completely fresh eye on you,” and Paulovich described this added value as “amazing.”
When asked more about what she learned from the SXSW Pitch experience, Paulovich described how she and her team “started tailoring things towards people we are meeting, and it just gave us this understanding.” She reflected, “Always there are people who are not a match, and it’s okay. We are not a gold coin so everyone loves you.”
She emphasized the value of targeting a pitch, stating that “there are funds that invest in specific categories, everyone has investment criteria, and it’s okay when you don’t match. It’s not the end of the world; we’ve got to keep pushing, and that’s great to understand.” This wisdom came from “the exposure to so many different walks of life and so many different startups, to so many different investors.”
Winning this award had a meaningful effect on Paulovich and her company. She says, “Now, since we won, we think bigger, like, a much bigger scale.” The SXSW Pitch award is, according to Paulovich, “the top of the top.” This award inspired her team with a vision that “we are onto something, we are doing great things, not that I didn’t believe it before, but now we have this external validation.”
The external validation led to some more immediate changes. Paulovich explains, “to be honest, I was going to take a holiday after South By, and now, I don’t feel like doing that anymore.” The encouragement from this experience inspired the feeling that “It’s time to push and get out there and continue all the conversations we started, connect to all the people we met, and do more.”
The motivation here came from more than just winning the award. Paulovich found being in Austin for SXSW to be uplifting in many ways, saying that “in general, just being here in Austin, it gives that level of motivation and inspiration.” It makes people believe that “we can do it. We will achieve all these great things and milestones in the future,” and this “kind of fights all the mental health issues and all the negativity that may be involved in building a startup.”
The SXSW experience seems to have inspired Volha Paulovich, Co-Founder and COO of PentoPix and winner of the Best in Show Award at SXSW Pitch, and perhaps this inspiration will be shared by others.
On Wednesday morning, he returned to SXSW to present the power of quantum computing and artificial intelligence to solve the world’s biggest problems and change how everyone works and lives.
“I think there’s a lot of dystopian fears out there; I think we should be talking about the utopian stuff,” Hurley, known as Whurley, said.
He spoke on “QuantumAI: Why your future depends on the convergence of Quantum Computing & Artificial Intelligence” to a packed ballroom of about 600 people. Other people were turned away at the door when the room filled to capacity.
During his presentation, Whurley spoke from a teleprompter with his speech on a handheld iPad.
He spoke on “how quantum computing and artificial intelligence are two of the most rapidly advancing, controversial, and debated fields in technology today.” Austin-based Strangeworks develops quantum computing software and has 21 employees. The company has raised $4 million in seed-stage funding.
“The convergence of these two technologies will play a significant role in shaping the future of our species and the world as we know it,” according to Whurley.
Throughout his presentation, he hinted that he was doing something different. And at the end, he revealed that everything he said was created with ChatGPT 4, the conversational artificial intelligent agent created by OpenAI. He said he came up with the idea when he submitted the teaser for the talk on the SXSW programming site. Then he used ChatGPT to come up with a presentation outline. And a day ago, he created the entire presentation with ChatGPT and AI-generated images. He re-did the presentation when the latest version of the software was introduced yesterday.
All of the images on the slides were created with AI. And a magazine, “Schrody Cat,” handed out to attendees, was created in 3 hours. “Everything written, seen or printed in this book has been co-created with AI,” according to a statement on the publication.
At the beginning of his presentation, he hinted that he was doing something different and encouraged the audience to take pictures because he would tell them about them at the end of the presentation.
He started by explaining quantum computing, a technology that uses quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical computers.
Quantum computing massively speeds up computer power and can lead to improvements in drug discovery by a lot, Whurley said. He said it could also lead to more efficient batteries and fix environmental problems.
Quantum computing has many applications in cryptography, weather forecasting, and optimization of train schedules and supply chains.
Quantum-AI technology can also have a profound social impact.
“We are building technologies that could get out of our control,” Whurley said.
The fear is of creating a machine like the T-1000, a shapeshifting android Terminator assassin featured in the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
The fear is the robots will kill us or make people their pets, he said. The technology could also lead to income inequality and economic upheaval, Whurley said.
But it can also lead to social and economic progress, Whurley said. Monitoring banking systems in real time can lead to greater accountability in financial systems. It can also lead to improved technologies for sustainable energy. It can lead to higher productivity with autonomous robots and drones for agriculture and manufacturing, and as Whurley predicted, 100 percent unemployment by 2060.
At the end of his presentation, Whurley also said that he stopped blogging on March 13th, 2018, and that his website is now filled with hundreds of articles that were AI-generated while he was on stage.
At Whurley’s book signing following his presentation, Hugh Forrest, Co-president of SXSW and Chief of Programming, was nearby. When asked about what he thought of Whurley’s presentation done exclusively with AI-generated content and images, he said he didn’t see it. But he had heard it was a successful event. But he doesn’t think technology will replace human creativity anytime soon.
“I think Whurley’s middle name is interesting and eccentric, it’s part of his brand, and it has served him well,” Forrest said.
In 2030 when SXSW meets, everyone will understand better how to implement AI robots as virtual assistants, Forrest said.
So much of SXSW is built on creativity, human creativity, and imagination, that’s what makes SXSW, and that’s not going away, he said.
“We will have more assistance from more machines, more software, more hardware in the future,” Forrest said.
Colossal Co-Founder George Church is a Harvard geneticist who is spearheading the team of 40 scientists and researchers to bring the woolly mammoth back to life.
Lamm said the gestation period for a woolly mammoth is 22 months and can’t be sped up. The company is using Asian elephants to carry the baby mammoth to term. It also has built some artificial wombs to grow woolly mammoths in the lab. Some of the other projects Colossal’s working on, like the Tasmanian Tiger, or Thylacine, or the Dodo bird, might be brought to life sooner than the woolly mammoth because they have shorter gestation periods, Lamm said. Thylacine has a gestation period of less than a month.
Colossal, founded in September of 2021, is one of Texas’ unicorn companies and a moonshot company tackling big projects like bringing the woolly mammoth back from extinction along with the Tasmanian tiger and the Dodo, a bird species extinct since 1662. The synthetic biology company has raised $225 million and spun out Form Bio, a software platform, which raised a $30 million Series A round.
Colossal has 90 employees and 40 external collaborators and labs in Austin, Dallas, Boston, and Melbourne, Australia.
“Our goal is every animal we work on we want to reintroduce back into their natural habitat,” Lamm said.
Colossal has been working with Alaska natives and conservationists about introducing the woolly mammoth back to Alaska. It is also in talks with people in Canada, Lamm said.
There are 54 mammoth genomes, and Colossal is working with the University of Alaska to re-introduce Alaskan mammoths, Lamm said. Colossal has agreed to provide 200 mammoths, he said.
Ben Lamm, Colossal CEO and Co-Founder
“That re-wilding process has to be very thoughtfully done,” Lamm said. “We are looking for people to be collaborators in it.”
Colossal is being transparent and is focused on educating the public, which is essential when doing something this big, Lamm said.
Colossal’s goal is to bring keystone species back to the environment they were removed from, Lamm said.
Reintroducing the extinct species will benefit the whole ecosystem, Lamm said. He mentioned the successful reintroduction of Grey wolves into Yellowstone National Park. The wolves had been absent from the parkland for decades when the park brought them back in 1995. Lamm said it had been one of the most successful reintroductions of a species to an environment.
Linchpin for the ecosystem
Colossal focuses on linchpin species that are essential for the ecosystem, with the animals going mainly extinct because mankind has a history of murdering them, Lamm said.
Lamm said that Colossal has looked at other species, like the Steller sea cow, which has been extinct since 1768 and would benefit kelp forests by bringing it back. But there’s nothing “we can gestate it in,” he said.
“There are certain species we can’t go after,” he said.
Beth Shapiro, Ph.D., Colossal Scientific Advisory Board member, and lead paleogeneticist, is heading up the work on the de-extinction of the Dodo bird and has to create reference genomes. Lamm said it could cost between $6,000 to $25,000 to do bird genomes.
“Before we can do ancient DNA, we have to do DNA for existing species,” Lamm said.
Colossal isn’t trying to create clones. It is creating close proximities to extinct species, Lamm said.
Etherington asked Lamm if he could make a real Pokémon.
“We aren’t ever going to focus on Pokémon,” Lamm said.
Humanity faces more significant climate issues and problems to solve, he said.
“After we solve all the climate issues, we can start getting weird,” Lamm said.
Etherington asked Lamm about how Colossal makes money.
Lamm said he looks at de-extinction as a systems problem and runs Colossal like a software company.
“We look at monetizing all of the technologies that come from it,” Lamm said. He said that Form Bio was its first spin-out company, but it plans to do more.
Colossal has gotten negative feedback, and some people think what it’s trying to do is like Jurassic Park. Lamm said thoughtful and informed people give Colossal feedback that is critical. He brings them onto the company’s advisory boards to improve their projects.
“I do not think Colossal is the solution to the biodiversity crisis,” Lamm said. “I think we’re bringing attention to the crises.”
Environmentalists and conservationists today are massively undercapitalized. Colossal doesn’t replace existing conservation efforts, Lamm said. Lamm said that Colossal didn’t take money away from conservation efforts but brought new money into it.
“People still need to support these existing causes,” he said.
In the Q&A at SXSW, Lamm got asked several questions about what happens if things go wrong, and Colossal creates a nightmare situation and deviates from the original genome to create a Jurassic Park situation.
“We are trying to be very thoughtful of narrating it down versus engineering for fun,” Lamm said.
He said Colossal also faces regulatory oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency and others. He said it doesn’t plan to create mammoths for food or build battle mammoths.
By Laura Kobylecky, Special Contribution to Silicon Hills News
South by Southwest announced the 2023 Innovation Award winners during an awards ceremony at the Austin Convention Center on Monday evening.
The winners are:
Immersive
Move.ai of London, an OS Application, uses AI, computer vision, and machine learning to capture high-fidelity motion without the traditional markers and suits. It helps enable motion capture with things like off-the-shelf cameras and mobile phones.
Media
For Tomorrow: an Innovation Ecosystem of Los Angeles helps connect insights, innovators, resources, and inspiration and encourages people with actionable on-the-ground solutions to reach out to them and join their network. The company strives to “create what matters.”
Convergent Gaming
Time Investigators of Bourne End, U.K., is a mystery-solving game that uses augmented technology to further immerse players in the experience.
Audio
Nomono Sound Capsule of Trondheim, Norway, created a wireless, self-contained recording kit for easy recording in the field and on the go. The technology democratizes audio by enabling “anyone to capture good audio.” The award was significant to them as there were “40 people sitting in Norway waiting in the middle of the night with vodka” to find out the results of this competition.
Enterprise DEI Workplace
Sephora of San Francisco is a multinational retail brand with skincare, makeup, beauty, fragrance, and hair products.
Mid-Sized DEI Workplace Innovation
Bitwise Industries of Fresno, CA, uses apprenticeships to bridge the gap between working in the tech industry and learning. The company offers a living wage to apprentices working on real-world projects.
Rising DEI Workplace Innovation
Included.ai of Seattle uses DEI data science to build a people analytics platform. Its process can help companies connect with talent from diverse pools.
Urban Infrastructure
Power From the People of Brooklyn, NY partners with property owners to help them secure permits and add public chargers to their properties.
Artificial Intelligence
Bird Buddy Smart Bird Feeder of Kalamazoo, MI, is an AI-powered bird that lets people know when a bird visits and takes pictures. The company’s mission is to reconnect people with nature; on average, users spend 10-11 minutes daily looking at birds.
The 35*2 Free Initiative of Towson, MD, creates programs that improve college-educated black women’s economic and financial mobility. The company provides career coaching, financial guidance, and retroactive scholarships.
Sustainability
World’s Whitest Paint–Thinner Than Ever of Lafayette, IN, Purdue University researchers developed the paint that helps to “fight global warming by reducing the need for air conditioning.”
Health and Med Tech category
NeuraLight – Digitizing Neurology of Tel-Aviv, Israel, introduces “novel ways of diagnosing and monitoring” issues like Alzheimer’s.
Patient Safety Technology
Kalogon of Melbourne, Fl, makes a smart cushion. It is helping the world live an active seated life by improving posture, relieving pain, and increasing blood flow.
Best in Show
GAF Beats the Heat by Cooling Streets of Parsippany, NJ. is an initiative aimed at helping cities address urban heat at a community level by developing insights and assessing the effects of current cooling strategies.
From a pool of hundreds, over 50 finalists were considered for the 14 different categories. The winners were announced in a ceremony hosted by Austin comedian Carlton Wilcoxson, who created enthusiasm throughout the night.
The Innovation Awards also included the induction of Dan Rather into the SXSW Hall of Fame. He was greeted with a standing ovation. Rather said this award was significant to him because when he was young, he saw “the lights of Austin” as “a beacon of creativity and knowledge and infinite possibilities.” He lives in Austin and still believes in the strength of that beacon and told the audience, “keep dreaming, keep exploring, keep connecting.”
Before the presentation, energy was high in the line that curled around the corner of the ballroom. Various people speculated whether they would be granted access to the event or if capacity had been reached.
Michelle Vincent, who spoke at the SXSW session You Should Start Your Own Indie Agency attended. She was particularly excited about the Innovation awards, explaining that she was “running a company where we are trying to transform and innovate, so we’re really curious to see what SXSW is doing to set the standard.” Her particular interests included the creative side of things, artificial intelligence, the metaverse, and film.
As great as Austin’s trajectory has been, the best is yet to come.
That’s the gist of the conversation between Jay Hartzell, president of the University of Texas at Austin, and Jim Breyer, founder, and CEO of Breyer Capital. They participated in a fireside chat on “Building a Hub of Academic & Business Innovation at South By Southwest Saturday at Banger’s Sausage House and Beer Garden on Rainey Street.
Breyer called Hartzell one of “the great presidents of a university, if not the best president of a university in the United States.”
“I have never seen a leader doing so many tactical and strategic things for the university, the city of Autin, and the state of Texas,” Breyer said.
In the movie, The Graduate, the advice given to Dustin Hoffman’s character, Benjamin Braddock, is the future is plastics. Breyer referenced the movie when giving his advice.
“My advice to all of you….study linear algebra,” Breyer told the crowd. Linear algebra is the base of quantum technology, he said. Breyer is bullish on quantum but thinks the technology is still five to ten years away.
Breyer also encouraged interdisciplinary thinking between mathematicians, technologists, healthcare researchers, and more. Breyer said his mother, Eva, was a brilliant mathematician from Budapest, Hungary. His mother and father migrated to the United States, and his mother turned down a fellowship at Stanford to follow his father, who received a fellowship at Yale. Breyer was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He got his undergraduate degree from Stanford and his MBA from Harvard. As a venture capitalist, he was an early investor in Facebook, now known as Meta. He has also invested in Etsy, Spotify, and Grammarly.
About 15 years ago, Breyer began focusing on med-tech startups that use computational and artificial intelligence focused on medicine. He works with the best medical institutions to spin out startups. The first one Paige.Ai spun out of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It uses artificial intelligence for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The next spinout was from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. So far, Breyer Capital has made ten similar investments.
Breyer said a lot is happening with artificial intelligence and proprietary data at hospitals and universities. It starts with a great medical team and a license with the hospital or cancer center. Breyer said his job is to find the brilliant 30 to 40 men and women to form the startup. He said those employees are mid-career technologists who come from other technology companies like Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon.
“I’m always working on one or two of these,” Breyer said. “That’s what brings me here today.”
Breyer and his wife, Angela Chao, moved to Austin from California three and a half years ago. He had been on the board of Dell and spent years traveling to Austin. Michael and Susan Dell are dear friends, he said. They encouraged them to move, and they finally did.
“We’re here forever,” Breyer said. “We love Austin, and we love the Hill Country.”
Since opening Breyer Capital’s Austin office, the firm has invested in many Austin-based startups, including OJO Labs, Sana Benefits, Homeward, DISCO, data.world, ZenBusiness, and ClosedLoop.ai.
Breyer said many universities are really siloed and don’t communicate well among the various departments.
“What Jay and the University of Texas are doing is breaking down many of those siloes,” Breyer said. “It takes leadership to break down those silos.”
Breyer pointed to the recent hiring of Dr. Claudia Lucchinetti as the next Dean of the Dell Medical School at UT Austin as a positive move to encourage more collaborations. Lucchinetti previously worked at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Not having a medical school for 100 years, Hartzell said UT doesn’t have to break down silos.
“They can build it in a way that is collaborative,” Hartzel said. “A lot of the university’s strengths are around robotics, AI, and technology. How do we get companies connected with us and find ways to work with us?
That means engaging with companies that want to hire students or that have a problem they want UT students and faculty to solve, Hartzell said.
“Universities don’t’ understand how daunting and complex it is for companies to build relationships,” Breyer said.
Breyer said he’s never seen it work with just a research person in charge of licensing technology.
“Innovation, entrepreneurship, the natural partnerships don’t happen,” Breyer said. “It comes down to the leadership, faculty, and post-docs. It’s happening here in Austin the way it doesn’t happen in other places.”
Hartzell asked Breyer what UT could do to support those collaborations.
Breyer said that UT Austin could continue attracting phenomenal talent, building affordable housing, and working hard to find intersection points. He said the idea is to get collisions between brilliant people to develop new ideas. Proximity and location are essential to make that happen, Breyer said. It’s important to have centers of excellence together.
“Not everyone needs to be around Austin, Texas downtown,” Breyer said.
Breyer suggested UT create a quantum-oriented center about 30 minutes from downtown, and he mentioned Stanford Research Parc in Palo Alto as a model. Breyer advised UT to own the land, and Hartzell agreed.
Another strength is Austin’s close proximity to San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth, where phenomenal hospitals and educational institutions exist, Breyer said
MD Anderson sends data to our data scientists to build a model of a person to predict how the treatment is going to go, Breyer said.
“I truly believe in this area of AI and medicine,” Breyer said. “With the use of technology, we are making humans smarter.”
One-third of prostate and breast cancer diagnoses are incorrect, Breyer said.
“With technology, I’ve seen the cycle move from 10 days to two days, and the accuracy is 95 percent,’ Breyer said.
Tech startups at South by Southwest could breathe a little easier on Monday after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced Sunday that it would cover Silicon Valley Bank’s depositors.
It also will cover depositors affected by the closure of Signature Bank. On Friday, regulators took over SVB, based in Santa Clara, Calif., with $210 billion in assets, making it the second-largest bank failure in history. Federal regulators also took over New York-based Signature Bank with $118 billion in assets, the third largest banking failure in U.S. history.
The largest bank failure was in 2008 when Seattle-based Washington Mutual, with $308 billion in assets, collapsed.
“Over the weekend, and at my direction, the Treasury Security and my National Economic Council Director worked diligently with the banking regulators to address problems at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I am pleased that they reached a prompt solution that projects American workers and small businesses and keeps our financial system safe. The solution also ensures that taxpayer dollars are not put at risk.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insures deposits up to $250,000 at banks. But many startups had millions in SVB and ran payroll, accounts payable and other expenses out of the bank. Covering the uninsured depositors at SVB and Signature Bank ensures that the companies can access those funds to run their businesses.
In addition, the Federal Reserve Board on Monday announced that Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr is leading a review of the supervision and regulation of Silicon Valley Bank in light of its failure. The review will be publicly released by May 1.
“The events surrounding Silicon Valley Bank demand a thorough, transparent, and swift review by the Federal Reserve,” Chair Jerome H. Powell said in a statement.
“We need to have humility and conduct a careful and thorough review of how we supervised and regulated this firm and what we should learn from this experience,” Vice Chair Barr said in a statement.
At SXSW 2023, ICON plans to unveil a 3D-printed performance center at the Long Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday.
The event will begin with a discussion, “a Moonshot for Affordable Housing,” with ICON CEO Jason Ballard, Bjarke Ingels with BIG, Michaelle Addington with the University of Texas, and Sarah Satterlee with Mobile Loaves and Fishes, at 2:30 p.m. It will be followed by a reception and concert on the terrace with live music from Primo the Alien, The Bros Fresh, and Tameca Jones.
SunPower and Rewiring America’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) hosted a cocktail hour at ICON House Zero to showcase its technology on Saturday. The event featured a bluegrass band, an open bar, and tacos.
Austin-based ICON, a sponsor of SXSW, built the 2,000 square foot, three-bedroom 2.5 bath home featuring its 3D printed wall system, which replaces a building system. Its walls are made with the company’s proprietary cement-like material called “lavacrete.”
The house in East Austin was 3D printed by ICON’s next-gen Vulcan construction system and designed by Lake/Flato.
ICON has a history of doing big things at SXSW. In 2018, the company won the South by Southwest Accelerator pitch competition for its construction technology. ICON also generated a lot of buzz when it built a 3D printed home in East Austin in two days during SXSW using its 3D printer.
That first permitted 3D-printed house cost about $10,000 in materials. The 350-square-foot house was created as a proof-of-concept house in partnership with New Story.
The next year, ICON unveiled its “Vulcan II” 3D printer that can quickly print up to a 2,000-square-foot house at half the cost.
In 2021, ICON raised a $207 million Series B round of financing led by Norwest Venture Partners, one of the largest fundraising rounds for an Austin-based company in history.
And last year, ICON received a NASA contract worth $57.2 to develop construction technologies that could help build the moon’s habitats, landing pads, and roads. NASA is planning for long-term human exploration of the moon under Artemis.
By Laura Kobylecky, Special contribution to Silicon Hills News
The 2023 SXSW Pitch competition winners are Reality Defender, Climatiq, PentoPix, GPx, Reach Pathways, SXD Ai, Numbers Protocol, and Urban Machine.
The 15th annual SXSW Pitch competition, presented by ZenBusiness, occurred Saturday and Sunday at the Hilton Austin Downtown. It featured 40 tech companies from eight categories pitching in front of an audience of SXSW attendees, media, venture capital investors, and a panel of judges. The winners were announced Sunday night at an awards ceremony.
Reality Defender of New York, which created a deep fake platform, won the Artificial Intelligence, Voice, & Robotics Technologies category. Enterprises can use Reality Defender’s platform to flag fraudulent users and content. Their presenter says they are “the only one doing this right now” regarding their particular methods and how they detect deep fakes.
Climatiq of Berlin, Germany, won the Enterprise & Smart Data Technologies. They use scientific data to “build climate intelligent solutions.”
PentoPix of London, United Kingdom, which uses AI-assisted technology to transform text into 3D animations, won the Entertainment, Media & Content Technologies category.
General Prognostics GPx of Boston, a company allowing physicians to remotely and non-invasively monitor blood biomarkers vital for managing chronic disease, won the “Food, Nutrition, & Health Technologies” category. The company’s process is similar to “continuous glucose monitoring,” minus the needles. The presenter emphasized that similarity and talked about how it could improve the quality of life for those individuals.
Reach Pathways of Chicago won the Future of Work Technologies category. The company uses a “‘metaversity’ ecosystem” to connect talent and opportunities. It “rewards students for finding jobs and completing real-life and in-game tasks” and gamifies the recruitment system.
SXD Ai of New York won the Innovative World Technologies category. It is a “tech-powered design platform” that is trying to make “creative visions into zero fabric waste clothing” that lower cost and carbon footprint without sacrificing beauty. Their presenter emphasized that, in the next few years, they would like to see one-third of the clothing “that we’re wearing right now” be zero waste.
Numbers Protocol of Taipei, Taiwan, won the Metaverse & Web3 Technologies category. The company claims to be “building the most comprehensive solution to make digital media traceable and verifiable.” Its website describes the company as “a decentralized asset network for creating community, value, and trust in digital media.” It aims to make “digital media traceable and verifiable” to address issues like “misinformation, copyright, and royalty distribution.”
Urban Machine of Oakland, California, won the Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability Technologies. Category. The company is on a mission to build a sustainable future and plans to do this by “salvaging millions of tons of wood waste from construction and demolition.” They use “AI capable robots” to reclaim “old wood for reuse into locally sourced, premium lumber products.”
Judges evaluated the companies on Creativity, Potential, Goodness, Functionality, and Team/People. The winner for each category received $4,000 and a trophy, two comped badges for the 2024 Interactive Festival, and a gift bag.
SXSW Pitch 2023 also honored its “Best In Show” winner, PentoPix.
Special awards were also presented to AMA — Environmental Agents for Best Bootstrap company. It creates “phygital” tools that integrate physical and digital elements to “improve people’s lives and their urban environments.”
LeadrPro won the Best Speed Pitch award. The company directly connects sellers with software buyers. This category emphasized the unique skills and abilities it takes to funnel the whole mission and energy into a mere minute of time.
The “Best in DEI” (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) award went to CreditRich, a company that “rounds up users’ spare change to pay their bills intelligently and optimize credit scores.” Their website explains that their “mission is to reduce poverty by giving people access to easy-to-understand financial education materials.” Their presenter told the audience that diversity is important to the startup scene, but currently, “less than 1% of funding goes to black founders.” They emphasized that we must “be the change that we all want to see.”
Isabella Casillas Guzman, the U.S. Small Business Administrator, and Mark Cuban, Billionaire Tech Entrepreneur at ZenBusiness SXSW panel Sunday morning
The Silicon Valley Bank failure can have downstream consequences depending on how the government responds to it, said Mark Cuban, billionaire tech entrepreneur.
“The rich people got wiped out already,” Cuban said at a South by Southwest panel discussion Sunday morning. “What’s at stake is the depositor. If they can’t get their money out come Monday, you ain’t getting paid. If you don’t get paid, others don’t get paid.”
SVB, which had $209 billion in total assets and $175.4 billion in total deposits at the end of 2022, failed on Friday. SVB is where a large share of VC firms and VC-backed startups all across the country held deposits, according to the National Venture Capital Association. It’s the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history behind Washington Mutual in 2008.
The investors of SVB are out of money, Cuban said. All those people who had deposits over the FDIC insured $250,000, that’s tens of thousands of companies that need access to their money for inventory, payroll, and accounts payable, Cuban said. If they don’t get access to their funds, it could have substantial ripple effects throughout the economy, he said.
“The Feds have to come in and say we’ve got you,” Cuban said. The bank got hit with a liquidity crunch, he said. “The federal government has to say all deposits will be made whole. I know that’s scary, but that’s the reality.”
Isabella Casillas Guzman, the U.S. Small Business Administrator, also participated in the SXSW panel discussion and said U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen was working closely with bank regulators on the collapse. She said that many of SVB’s depositors are small businesses and are critical to the U.S. economy.
“This weekend is critical,” Guzman said. Regulators are working to determine the right actions to ensure the U.S. economy remains strong.
On Sunday morning’s Face the Nation TV show, Secretary Yellen said SVB’s failure stemmed from a rise in interest rates. And that many of the depositors were small businesses and that the regulators were working on a solution for them, she said. But the Federal government didn’t plan to bail out the investors and owners of the bank.
“The problems of this bank, from reporting about its situation, suggest that because we’re in a higher interest rate environment, assets that it holds, many of which are Treasury assets, or mortgage-backed securities that are guaranteed by the government lose market value, and the problems of the tech sector aren’t at the heart of the problems of this bank,” Yellen said on Face the Nation, according to a show transcript.
SVB’s bank failure is the buzz around SXSW, the annual technology conference held in Austin every Spring.
The bank backed a lot of startups locally, said Ross Buhrdorf, CEO of Austin-based ZenBusiness.
“We ran our business out of it,” Buhrdorf said. He spoke to Silicon Hills News Sunday morning after an SXSW panel his company moderated.
“We’re scrambling to figure out how to run day to day,” he said. “Like a bunch of us are.”
Buhrdorf, founding Chief Technology Officer of HomeAway, which sold to Expedia and is now known as VRBO, is also an active angel investor in Austin and has backed dozens of companies. All of them used SVB, he said.
ZenBusiness is one of Austin’s home-grown Unicorn companies. Founded in 2017, ZenBusiness runs an online platform to help small businesses incorporate and stay compliant with regulators. It raised a $200 million Series C round in late 2021, valuing the company at $1.7 billion.
ZenBusiness is not exposed financially, Buhrdorf said. He said it diversified its bank deposits in several banks before the bank failure. But ZenBusiness’ payroll is run out of there, he said.
“You don’t just change that and the next day go to another bank,” he said.
Two characters from the Roku City party at SXSW Friday night
South by Southwest kicked off Friday on the same day Federal regulators took over the failed Silicon Valley Bank.
It’s the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history behind Washington Mutual in 2008.
Silicon Valley Bank is “where a large share of VC firms and VC-backed startups all across the country held deposits,” according to the National Venture Capital Association. As of Dec. 31, 2022, the bank had about $209 billion in total assets and about $175.4 billion in total deposits.
Bank customers still have access to funds up to $250,000, the amount the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insures. But others will have to wait to recoup their uninsured monies.
In an SXSW panel discussion on the Silicon Heartland with CNBC Journalist Rebecca Fannin Saturday morning, Venture Capitalist Jim Breyer said he began hearing about problems with SVB a week ago and advised 90 percent of Breyer Capital portfolio companies to establish an alternative bank account.
It’s too early to predict what’s going to happen, Breyer said. More details will come to light on Monday, he said.
VC Jim Breyer in Q&A with author Rebecca Fannin about Silicon Heartland and a major impact of SVB collapse on tech and venture
Meanwhile, Roku, which has an office in Austin, filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission reporting approximately $487 million held at SVB, representing approximately 26 percent of the company’s cash and cash equivalents as of March 1st. Its deposits with SVB are largely uninsured, and it “does not know to what extent the company will be able to recover its cash on deposit at SVB.” But the company said it believes it has sufficient capital to meet its needs for the next 12 months and beyond.
On Friday evening, Roku had an invitation-only party at the Riley Building downtown, transforming it into a Roku City, a Willy Wonka and Alice in Wonderland-type experience. It had customed characters dressed in purple outfits handing out purple boas, berets, and sunglasses, and Roku served purple martinis and prosecco cocktails at a rooftop bar. A DJ played music. Waiters served purple hors d’oeurves to guests. The party was rocking despite the bank failure.
But not everyone is in the party mood at SXSW. Reign Ventures canceled its Reign Ventures House events at SXSW because of the SVB collapse. It sent out a Tweet with its sincerest apologies.
“We are sorry to miss you, and we are sending out our support to all the startups and VCs being impacted during this challenging time,” according to a statement.
It’s still uncertain what effect the bank failure will have on startups in Austin.
The NVCA sent out a news release saying it “has been closely monitoring the SVB situation as it unfolds to help the startup community navigate this unprecedented turbulence.”
With the FDIC takeover of SVB, the NVCA said, “there will be immediate, short, and long-term impacts on the startup ecosystem.”
“NVCA is discussing the potential consequences of a failure of this central part of the financial plumbing of the innovation ecosystem with a range of policymakers and industry leaders,” according to the news release. “The implications for company and fund operations are far-reaching.”
The biggest concerns are startups’ inability to access their deposits greater than the FDIC-insured amount of $250,000. That means some companies might not be able to cover payroll.
“Without access to additional funds, or if access is delayed, companies will be faced with difficult decisions ranging from furloughing employees to potentially shutting down,” according to the NVCA. “These decisions could have a lasting impact on the industry and the country.”
TechCrunch reported in a story posted on Friday that the SVB collapse is the talk of SXSW. Some panelists were so distracted by the bank’s failure that they kept checking their phones during panel presentations to ensure their money was secure at their own banks.
In 2021, Empower a Billion Women topped the list of Austin’s fastest-growing companies on Inc Magazine’s list.
Ingrid Vanderveldt founded the company in 2013 and launched a healthcare business to supply personal protection equipment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vanderveldt announced last week that she had sold EBW Cares Distributors to Shield Manufacturing, based in Alpharetta, Georgia. She discussed the deal at her SXSW presentation Friday titled “Be The One: Unlocking the $28 Trillion SHEconomy with AI” at the Hilton Downtown Hotel. And Alison Bagwell, CEO of Shield Manufacturing, attended the event. Bagwell is an engineer formerly with Kimberly Clark. She has more than 50 patents and has used the bulk of them to drive more than $500 million in sales over the last decade, according to a news release.
“While the deal remains private, it is estimated to be valued at over $100 million,” according to a news release. The companies first focus will be building its cleanroom glove facility in Sandersville, Georgia, which is expected to produce over 2.2 billion gloves annually in its Phase I. Shield cleanroom gloves will serve pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech, chip manufacturing, and other controlled professional lab environments.
Vanderveldt created Empowering a Billion Women to reach one billion women across the globe and help them start and scale ventures through mentorship, education, and community. Vanderveldt is a former Entrepreneur in Residence of Dell and has led ventures and initiatives that combined have driven over $1 billion in impact reaching over 700 million people worldwide, according to Vanderveldt.
When she heard a statistic from the United Nations that it would take 300 years for gender parity, she thought she needed to do more. She said she wanted to use technology to build a bridge, break down doors, and transform lives.
So she’s launching SHEconomy.com, a metaverse world built on technology, blockchain, and using artificial intelligence and machine learning, Vanderveldt said.
“The word Sheconomy was first coined in 2007,” according to Frost & Sullivan. “It refers to a new economy driven by the increase in female consumers in industries like tourism, healthcare, food, beauty and wellness, culture, media, and entertainment.”
“Together, we can move the needle,” she said. “We can create the new future we want to see.”
Vanderveldt said it’s impossible to do big ideas without a team, so she has partnered with Cristina Diaz, founder of Minero, and Bobby Henebry, founder of HBCC LLC and Elway Capital LLC.
“As a technologist myself, it’s easy to think we can make all kinds of things happen with data, but we need relationships, and we need to bring people together, “ Vanderveldt said.
Today, 84 percent of women and diverse leaders running businesses don’t make over $100,000 in revenue annually; only 3 percent will get over $1 million, and .003 percent will get over $10 million, Vanderveldt said.
The SHEconomy World will bring people together in the virtual world to make real-life connections, Vanderveldt said. It will launch in November, she said. She said the focus would be on helping women connect to corporations and investors to move the needle of their progress as entrepreneurs.
In California in the early ‘90s, a man bought a ketchup bottle, and when he got it home, he found that it contained less ketchup than the specified weight.
That turned out to be true, said Arati Prabhakar, now Chief Advisor on Science and Technology to President Joe Biden and director of the White House Office Of Science And Technology Policy.
Heinz had new packaging material, and its sensors had miscalibrated how much to fill the bottles, Prabhakar said. At the time, she was the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a 122-year-old agency.
An investigation and a consumer protection lawsuit against Heinz ensued, and Heinz agreed to overfill ketchup bottles in the state of California for a year to get even with consumers, Prabhakar said.
“NIST just works, and you can count on it,” Prabhakar said. “It’s the invisible work of government in our society that just works.”
At the NIST, Prabhakar “reinforced the agency’s long-time mission in measurement science and technology that underpins commerce and high-quality manufacturing,” according to the White House.
Prabhakar spoke Friday afternoon in Salon B of the Hilton Austin Downtown Hotel during a South by Southwest Panel titled “Achieving America’s Aspirations through Science, Technology, and Innovation.” Austin Carson, founder and president of SeedAI moderated the discussion.
Prabhakar was the first woman to lead the NIST. She later served as director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Prabhakar, who moved with her family to the United States from India as a child, is the first woman and immigrant to serve as the director of OSTP.
Prabhakar also has Texas roots. Her family relocated from Chicago to Lubbock when she was 10. She received her electrical engineering degree from Texas Tech University. Then she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology and earned an M.S. in electrical engineering.
Prabhakar also spent 15 years in Silicon Valley as a venture capitalist. She formed a nonprofit organization, Actuate, to open access to opportunity for everyone in the technology industry and focus on climate, health, trustworthy data, and information technology challenges.
In her new role as director of OTSP, Prabhakar said it’s one place to see the whole chessboard of research and development in science and technology in the U.S.
“Our job is to nurture and shape and strengthen that whole ecosystem,” she said. “Every major technological advance, our progress in society does not come from one technological model or place. The answer is you need all the pieces.”
And that ecosystem is getting bigger under President Biden, Prabhakar said. Prabhakar highlighted President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, $740 Billion to provide billions of dollars in new climate-related federal spending. It passed congress, and President Biden signed it into law in August of 2022. And she mentioned the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which President Biden also signed into law in August of 2022. It provides nearly $50 billion in additional investments in American semiconductor manufacturing.
The U.S. originated the semiconductor industry, then it globalized, and eventually started getting very concentrated in one part of the world, Prabhakar said. She said the pandemic showed the U.S. needs to strengthen its domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research and development industry.
“The R&D part of the semiconductor work will keep production here,” Prabhakar said.
Investment in research often takes years to come to fruition, Prabhakar said.
For example, in 2012, when Prabhakar was director of DARPA, a geneticist and Air Force Colonel warned about a future pandemic and the fact the U.S. still didn’t know how to develop vaccines. That problem led her to kick start the development of rapid-response mRNA vaccine platform, which made the development of the COVID-19 vaccine fast, safe and effective.
“We at DARPA were investing for a purpose – a vaccine platform for the future,” she said.
At the time, the mRNA research was being focused on cancer, a “tragically forever reliable and lucrative market,” Prabhakar said.
Everyone thought it was the dumbest idea they had ever heard of to do mRNA research on vaccines, she said. But then, testing with the Chikungunya and Ebola viruses, people saw that it could be possible, which happened around 2018, Prabhakar said.
That early research made it possible for Moderna to ship its first COVID-19 vaccines within 42 days from when they got the spike protein, Prabhakar said.
She said that early pivotal investment in research later made something happen in real time.
Of course, not all investments turn out as successful as that, and that’s the point of research and development, Prabhakar said. She recalled a launch system that blew up on the pad and an airship that didn’t fly.
“We had many things that did not pan out quite as expected,” she said.
This year, the U.S. is requesting $210 billion for research and development, which is a record request, Prabhakar said. But it’s needed, she said.
“We’re a big country, and we’ve got big ambitions, both public and private,” Prabhakar said.
One goal is to boost innovations in many of the regions throughout the country. In addition, Prabhakar said every child in America should have the opportunity to find out if a science and technology career is for them. That’s something that needs to happen, she said.
In the U.S., innovators, scientists, and entrepreneurs also need to continue going after big, bold, hairy, audacious goals, she said. She said that work on artificial intelligence, brain implants, and biological technologies would continue to improve people’s lives. Prabhakar said there is no better time in history to be alive than now. And continuous improvement is the goal, she said.
“I just want the future to be better than the past,” Prabhakar said.
South by Southwest is best done with an official badge. The SXSW badge lets you into all the keynote talks, panel discussions, and some of Austin’s best parties, movies, music, and more.
But if you don’t have a badge, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the festivities. You can attend many badge–less events–some are free, some charge a ticket, and almost all require an RSVP. On the eve of the big kickoff for SXSW, it’s time to fill your calendar with events.
Don’t worry if plans change. SXSW is known for serendipitous encounters. Magic can happen with an unscheduled meeting in a hotel lobby or bar. So be open to talking to strangers.
And remember to use ridesharing whenever possible, wear comfortable shoes, drink a lot of water (bring a refillable water bottle with you), bring a phone charger or carry an extra battery pack, and be open to chance encounters of the creative kind.
SXSW has its own list of top free events. It includes Austin Industry Day at the Creative Industries Expo on Wednesday, March 15th. The Expo is open to all Austin industry professionals – no credential required from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Austin Convention Center.
Capital Factory House at SXSW – kicks off with the Capital Factory Startup Crawl Friday evening at 5 p.m. No badge is required, but it does require RSVP and tickets.
The Inc. Founders House at Foxy’s Proper Pub, 201 Brazos Street – SXSW, runs from March 10-13th and is open to non-badge holder entrepreneurs and features curated conversations, cocktails, and more. Request an invitation here. March 10-13th.
Fast Company Grill at Cedar Door Bar & Grill – 201 Brazos Street is also open to non-badge holders. It features unique content, exclusive product demos, tasting and interactive experiences, and networking. March 10-13th.
SHE Media takes place March 11th and 12th at The Native at 807 East 4th in Austin. It will examine the science and storytelling around women’s whole health. Attendees will hear from experts and thought leaders, including Katie Couric, Maria Shriver, Christy Turlington Burns, Dr. Laurie Santos, Phoebe Robinson, Judy Greer, and more. Tickets required.
The Future of Food 2023 – SXSW event series is free and open at 1400 Lavaca Street and features conversations, art installations, and delicious tastings.
Builders + Backers, an accelerator program and investment firm that backs entrepreneurs at the idea stage, finds, funds, and equips builders nationwide.
“We want to put more ideas into action,” said Kathleen Hale, Partner at Builders + Backers.
Donna Harris, a native of Detroit, founded Builders + Backers and previously founded 1776 Ventures and served as managing director of the Startup American Partnership during the Obama Administration. Harris is also ranked as one of the top 25 female early-stage investors in the United States in 2021 and 2022.
The traditional VC model doesn’t work for most entrepreneurs. It was “leaving a lot of ideas on the sidelines,” Hale said. That’s where Builders + Backers comes in. The 90-day virtual accelerator provides funding and support to take the idea from the start to scaling it into a bigger venture, Hale said. Builders + Backers gives its entrepreneurs a $5,000 investment from its Pebble Fund to test the idea. It’s provided to the founder with a Stripe credit card. The Idea Accelerator program and the Pebble Fund are supported by philanthropic donations from partners and sponsors, including Heartland Forward, a think-and-do tank based in Bentonville, Arkansas. Along with the Pebble Fund, Builders + Backers invests in startups all the way from Seed Stage to Series C.
Builders + Backers launched in early 2021 and has held six cohorts. To date, nearly 400 people have gone through the accelerator and over 100 new ventures. Everything from a nonprofit organization to a VC-ready startup has launched; as a result, Hale said.
The economic impact is huge, Hale said.
“We need a variety of ventures to have a thriving economy,” Hale said.
An estimated 60 percent of Americans have an idea to start a business, which equates to millions of ideas, and last year, VCs funded less than 5,000 deals, Hale said. That’s a lot of ideas that need to be shifted through to find the gold, she said.
“In this moment in time in the digital world, the ability to startup and test an idea is easier than ever,” Hale said.
She said tools like Canva, Wix, Square Space, and more make testing those ideas easy.
Builders + Backers also want to be in all of the places where ideas are, Hale said.
Last year, Builders + Backers hired Marisa Vickers, based in Austin, as its Director of Global Brand Growth. She’ll be at SXSW 2023 along with Hale, Builders + Backers COO.
At South by Southwest 2023, Builders + Backers is one of the sponsors of Midwest House, which showcases Midwest startups and innovation. It is open Friday, March 10th through Tuesday, March 14th, at Half Step Bar at 75 1/2 Rainey Street. It is free and open to the public. On March 11th at noon to 1 p.m., Hale will participate in a fireside chat about “Fueling Innovation: New Tools for Funding More Ventures!” moderated by CS Freeland, founder of the Texas Venture Association.
In addition, one of Builder + Backers builders, Narayan Iyer of Laminar Scientific, will be featured at the SXSW pitch competition as one of the top 5 finalists for “World Changing Technologies.” Laminar Scientific is an American Ocean Energy company that has developed several inventions and improvements in ocean wave energy that aim to improve efficiency, reduce LCOE, simplify sea maintenance, and reduce its frequency. Before the pitch, he will also participate in a private panel discussion regarding sustainability for the Austrian SXSW delegation.
Additionally, other Builder + Backers portfolio companies, Chris Cummings of Iconic Moments and Clint Carlos of Soar, will also participate in panel discussions with the Austrian delegation. Carlos of Soar will speak on Technologies for Tomorrow for on Friday, and Cummings will speak on Trends in Media and Creativity at a Tech Breakfast Panel on Monday.
Builder + Backer VC Associate Mychal Richardson will also be a judge for the upcoming SXSW Startup of the Year competition held on March 12 from 11:30-12:30 PM.
At SX, Builders + Backers also promotes the Tulsa Idea Challenge with Atento Capital and Tulsa Remote. The Tulsa Idea Challenge is a two-day entrepreneurial workshop and competition for Tulsans to learn how to transform an idea into action. Applications are open now, and the event will take place in downtown Tulsa from April 27-29. Builders + Backers is partnering with Atento Capital and Tulsa Remote on The Tulsa Challenge, which will award $50,000 to the top teams.
Mr. Robot put up a Ferris Wheel at Fourth and Congress one year, and General Electric had a solar-powered carousel.
Giant Spoon created one of the most talked about experiential marketing activations ever at SXSW when it recreated HBO’s Westworld in a ghost town just outside Austin. The next year, Giant Spoon launched a Game of Thrones experiential marketing activation at SXSW.
Amazon Prime also has a history of putting on incredible events at SXSW. It has hosted a Good Omens’ Garden of Earthly Delights activation featuring angels and demons. Last year, it held a Lizzo-themed marketing activation to promote Lizzo’s show “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls.” That event also had a carousel.
This year, the activations are back! Amazon Prime Video, Showtime, HBO, and the film Dungeons and Dragons all have experiential marketing activations at SXSW 2023.
Amazon Prime Video plans to establish Prime, Texas at Hotel San Jose on South Congress. The venue will highlight a variety of titles such as Daisy Jones & The Six, The Boys, Swarm, The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Power, Academy of Country Music Awards; I’m a Virgo, Harlem, and Carnival Row.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson even plans to attend Prime, Texas, on Friday to accept the key to the faux town.
The town features sound and photo studios, a nail salon, a semi-permanent tattoo parlor, a plant shop, and a mysterious power room. There’s also locally sourced, Texas-inspired food and beverages with a Prime Video twist.
The venue will also feature music from Prime, Texas’ main stage from DJs CRG, TJ the DJ, Christy Ray, Disko Cowboy, and Just Jim. Amazon Prime will also have drinks at the Six Saloon and food at The Prime Cantina. “On Sunday, Chef Damien Brockway, a 2022 James Beard award semi-finalist Pitmaster will serve modern African American fare and local Southern BBQ comfort food at a Harlem-themed influencer brunch,” according to a press release. “Partnering with online thrift store Goodfair, guests will also have the chance to personalize a denim jacket in collaboration with a local artist at PRIME DenimCo., leaving with a customized item to remember Prime, Texas.”
Prime, Texas, opens at noon on Friday, March 10th, and runs through Sunday, March 12th, at the Hotel San José, 1316 S Congress Ave.
Prime Video is also hosting the Swarm Mini-Mart pop-up at the Austin Motel with an exclusive first look into the world of Swarm by co-creators Donald Glover and Janine Nabers.
Showtime is putting on Camp YellowJackets at the Fair Market. The 3-day interactive experience celebrates the release of the series’s second season, Yellowjackets. It kicks off on Friday.
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Tavern Experience will take place at The Highball at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. It will serve fluorescent “Dragon’s Brew” in the “antagonist Gelatinous Cube.” The tavern opens at 11 a.m. on Friday and runs through Sunday.
HBO Max also announced it will have an in-person activation with Coffeehouse in Austin on March 11 and 12th, featuring HBO and HBO Max content. HBO Max’s Human powers the event by Orientation and Pa’lante! Multicultural marketing initiatives. It’s focused on elevating LGBTQIA+ and Latinx communities. The event will feature invite-only and public events. HBO hasn’t published the Coffeehouse location yet.
The SXSW Pitch competition has selected 40 finalists for its 15th annual SXSW Pitch Competition.
“Since its inception, SXSW Pitch has been front row to some of the most ambitious startups from around the world, using creative ideas to change their industry’s future,” SXSW Pitch Event Producer Chris Valentine said in a news release.
From March 11-12, SXSW Pitch will showcase 40 tech companies from eight distinct categories for two days of live pitches in front of an audience of SXSW attendees, high-profile media, venture capital investors, and a panel of expert judges. This season’s judges include industry moguls like Stacy Feld (Johnson & Johnson), Jacqueline Jennings (Raven Indigenous Capital Partners), Mingu Lee (Cleveland Avenue), Trish Costello (Portfolia), Kay Koplovitz (USA Networks), and many more.
Participating companies come from all around the world, with finalists this year representing Norway, Germany, London, Ireland, Brazil, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates, to name a few.
This year, the competition includes two Austin and one San Antonio finalist and five alternates from Austin.
A new mobile phone service, REALLY, announced last week that it had received $18 million in seed-stage funding.
Adam Lyons, the founder of TheZebra.com, is the company’s founder and CEO.
“We raised this capital to create the modern telco. REALLY is a tech company. A lifestyle brand. A movement. We are building the telecommunications company that people love,” Lyons wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Polychain led the round with Floodgate founding partner Mike Maples Jr and other strategic partners.
According to Lyons, REALLY wants to be the number one online retailer for phone plans. However, he said it also plans to offer its products and services alongside others.
“REALLY is already the most comprehensive wireless comparison platform in the nation comparing over 279 plans across 50 carriers,” Lyons wrote in his post. “But we aren’t stopping there. We plan to launch our own phone service later this year for people that care about their community and privacy.”
REALLY’s mobile network and infrastructure will create a blockchain-powered telecommunications community owned by the people using it, focusing on privacy, accessibility and anonymity for a 5G network.
Among the industry experts leading the infrastructure and service build-out for REALLY are executives from AT&T, T-Mobile, GoogleFi, uShip, Indeed, Niche, and The Zebra.
“Smartphones and mobile networks have become indispensable, yet most people don’t love their service provider. We see a massive opportunity to fix this, and our mission is to create a brand in this industry that people trust and love,” Lyons said. “We are building a better, more affordable phone service allowing communities to build equity and support their neighbors by using their cell phones. Those interested in putting a mini cell tower in their home or business will also have the opportunity to earn in USD. No other network exists that truly puts the ability to create and power the network in the hands of users like this.”
REALLY Wireless is set to launch later this year.
“The ongoing and rapid adoption of Web3 and blockchain into our everyday lives has allowed for an unprecedented period of change in telecommunications,” said Maples Jr., founding partner at Floodgate, said in a news release. “Adam and the team of industry experts assembled to make REALLY a reality have proven track records of excellence in their fields. We are excited to be able to play a part in this paradigm shift in telecommunications that will redefine how the industry functions.”
DivInc, the premier startup accelerator for BIPOC and women entrepreneurs, announced the nominees for its 5th Annual Champions of Change Awards held in Austin, Texas.
The awards ceremony will occur on Thursday at Distribution Hall. This year’s theme is ‘Rise,’ a reflection of the champions who embody the organization’s mission and power initiatives that spark sincere change.
“Champions of Change is not the traditional awards recognition event. It is a celebration of the best of Austin,” explained Preston James, Co-founder, and CEO of DivInc. “The community comes together in unity to recognize awe-inspiring, unsung leaders who are creating positive change. Everyone walks away with pride knowing that we’re truly moving forward together to create a world where social and economic disparities no longer exist.”
Tickets to the event are $50 per person and are available on Eventbrite here.
Proceeds from the event will go directly to support DivInc’s efforts in bridging the gap between underrepresented entrepreneurs and the resources they need to build profitable high-growth, high-impact startups.
“Over the years, I’ve had the honor to witness Champions of Change grow with more and more individuals at the helm of meaningful action and impact. Our future relies on their leadership to provide a safe and supportive space for underrepresented communities,” said James, “These nominations recognize the trailblazers who demonstrate exceptional dedication towards advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in Austin and beyond.”
This year’s categories include Executive of the Year, DEI Leader of the Year, Young Leader of the Year, Champion of the Year, Investor of the Year, Startup Leader of the Year, Rising Star of the Year, Spacemaker of the Year, and Non-Profit Leader of the Year.
2023 Nominees
Executive of the Year
Kana Livolsi, CEO and Co-Founder of Dos Mundos Creative
Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas
Shaleiah Fox, Chief Advancement Officer at The Thinkery
Shuronda Robinson, CEO of Adisa Communications and Austin Woman Magazine
Wendy Howell, Co-Founder and CEO of Executive Council Network
DEI Leader of the Year
Amy Maldonado, Global Inclusion Programs Coordinator at Indeed
Brion Oaks, Vice President of DEI and Operations at Charles Butt Foundation
Dr. Elizabeth Medina, Inclusion & Accountability Director at Everly Health
Rachel Lauren Pierce, Vice President of People and Culture at Dream.Org; Founding Partner at Diversified Consulting Firm
River Holley, Global Diversity, Belonging and Inclusion Specialist at AMD
Young Leader of the Year
Alyse Gamble, Public Affairs D&I Content Specialist at HEB
Ash Hall, Founder & CEO of Justice Strategies, LLC
Azteca Sirias, Founder & Executive Director at Aztech Kidz Code
Chastiny Brown, Programs Manager of 3 Day Startup
Corey Alan, Program Associate at 3 Day Startup; Community and Youth Engagement Consultant at OutYouth
Champion of the Year
Dr. Angela Valenzuela, Professor in Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin
Hailey Easley, Executive Director at Austin Asian Community Health Initiative
Maria Brown-Spence, Founder of Hearts2Heal; Director of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) at SThree
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, Judge of 459th District Court
Ryn Gonzales, Director of Operations and Programs at Out Youth
Investor of the Year
Andy Ambrose, Partner at TheFund Austin
Betty Wu Adams, Managing Director of Equity Investments at The Disability Opportunity Fund
Cat Dizon, Co-founder of Active Capital
Juan Thurman, Co-founder and Managing General Partner of SWAN Impact Fund
Sanika Bhave, VC at Capital Factory
Rising Star of the Year
Alyse Gamble, Public Affairs D&I Content Specialist at HEB
Daniela Silva, Consultant at Farmshare Austin
Dante Clemons, Co-Founder Origin Studio House
Jazz Mills, Founder and Director of Operations at Free Lunch
Nicole Cardoza, CEO & Founder at Reclamation Ventures
Nonprofit Leader of the Year
Diana Anzaldua, Founder & CEO of Contigo Wellness
Kelenne Blake-Fallon, Executive Director at Black Mamas ATX
Phyllis Everette, Founder & CEO of Saffron Trust Women’s Foundation
Rockie Gonzalez, Deputy Director at Austin Justice Coalition
Timeka Walker, CEO of United Against Human Trafficking
Startup Leader of the Year
Carley Deardorff, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Capital Factory
Luis Gramajo and Hans Scheri, CMO and CEO of Wunderkeks LLC
Katrina Tolentino, Executive Director at Naturally Network
Sierra Pena, CEO & Co-founder of Shelfleet
Sugar Tennon, Founder and CEO of Pink Sugar Treats & Eats
Spacemaker of the Year
Diana Melendez, Esq., Co-Founder of Women of Color Collective; Attorney at Diana Melendez Law, PLLC
Dominique McLeggan Brown, Founder of The Sisters in Law LLC
Katrina and Eric Brooks, Owners of Black Pearl Books
Marissa Rivera, Founder & Community Curator, Ola Wellness _OFCOLOR
Natalie Sanders, Founder of House of LEPORE & the ORISHA mere project
Allison Jenkins Schickel wanted a robe with a built-in bra to provide support after she got out of the shower.
When she couldn’t find one, she created it by sewing a sports bra into a bathrobe.
Schickel took the bathrobe bra combination to Fredericksburg for a girl’s weekend wine trip and her friends fell in love with it. They called it the Brobe. The name stuck.
The following year, Schickel’s friend Wendy was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer and The Brobe took on a whole new meaning. Wendy told Schickel about the need for a hospital robe that could support the drains women have after undergoing surgery. The existing robes were “ugly as hell, overpriced, and not made from a nice material,” Schickel said.
“They were only focused on the sickness,” Schickel said. “They were not focused on wellness.”
The women recovering from breast cancer surgery needed something to make them feel beautiful and to give them their power back, Schickel said. So, she created The Brobe, a “bra” and “robe” combination with pockets for ice packs, prosthetics, drains, and more.
“I wanted to do something that mattered,” Schickel said.
Schickel officially launched the company in 2012 and to date, “Brobe’s functional and fashionable post-surgery apparel has reached more than 50,000 customers and garnered sales of $2.7 million.”
Last week, Schickel launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine with the goal of raising $1.2 million. So far, the company has been bootstrapped and running on revenue along with a $150,000 Small Business Association loan from PeopleFund.
Brobe sells direct to consumers online at retailers like Amazon. It also sells directly to plastic surgery centers, lingerie boutiques, and hospital systems.
Brobe started off focused on functional fashionable adaptive clothing for breast cancer survivors but has since expanded to helping people recovering from other major surgeries like open heart, organ transplant surgery, vasectomies, and more, Schickel said. Today, 70 percent of her sales are non-breast cancer related, she said.
The company also recently launched the Elliot Superhero Robe for children who are undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Schickel plans to use the funds raised from the crowdfunding campaign to buy more inventory because she’s not able to meet the demand for her product right now, she said. The Brobes are made in a factory in Shenzhen, China. She ran into supply chain problems during the pandemic and her inventory actually sat on a ship in the ocean for four months. Now that manufacturing and supply chain problems have subsided, Schickel is ready to ramp up production and inventory.
Hugh Forrest, C0-President and Chief Programming Officer at SXSW speaking at the Heath Tech Austin Summit
This year’s South by Southwest is going to be bigger than 2022, but not yet back to the pre-pandemic level, according to Hugh Forrest, Co-president and Chief Programming Officer at SXSW.
More than 51,000 people are expected to attend SXSW 2023, which runs from March 10th to March 19th.
There’s going to be a big increase in international attendance this year, Forrest said.
The SXSW conference features panels, sessions, meet-ups, workshops, networking, and more. It includes Interactive, Film, and Music segments and features 25 tracks of programming.
About a decade ago, SXSW added the Health & MedTech programming track, which runs from March 10th through March 13th, Forrest said.
SXSW added the track because SXSW is largely a reflection of what’s happening in Austin, Forrest said. And the Dell Medical School was opening, which spurred development and innovation locally in biotechnology, medical technology, and healthcare.
Forrest spoke Thursday morning at the Heath Tech Austin Future of Care Delivery Summit at Capital Factory. He said the event provided a preview of the kinds of programming that will be showcased at SXSW.
Among the sessions, there will be a discussion on how doctors are using TikTok now to reach younger audiences, Forrest said. Nick Jonas, singer, and songwriter, will be in a featured session titled “Crushing: The Burden of Diabetes on Patients” at 10 a.m. on March 13th.
Forrest also highlighted a documentary, “No Ordinary Campaign,” which will screen on March 12th at the Alamo Theater on Lamar. The film focuses on Brian Wallach, a former Obama White House staffer, who was diagnosed with ALS “on the same day he and his wife Sandra brought their second daughter home from the hospital.” The documentary focuses on Wallach’s fight against ALS and his fight for drug approval and research funding. Journalist Katie Couric is one of the film’s executive producers.
The Health & MedTech tracks have grown to be incredibly popular with SXSW attendees, according to SXSW. This year, the content includes everything from aging, data, and FemTech to organ transplants and virtual care. It also includes a new area of focus on brain-computer interfaces, featured in the sessions titled “Hello World: Brain-Computer Interfaces at Scale” as well as in “Superhuman: Meet The World’s First BCI Pioneers.”
The intent of the healthcare system isn’t aligned with improving things, said Dr. S. Claiborne “Clay” Johnston.
“It’s not about making healthcare better,” said Johnston, the inaugural deal of the Dell Medical School, who left that job in 2021 after seven years and co-founded Harbor Health in 2022.
Austin-based Harbor Health is disrupting the way patients receive healthcare.
The first time he talked about his new venture in public was Thursday morning at the Health Tech Austin’s Future of Care Delivery Summit at Capital Factory.
Tony Miller, the other co-founder of Harbor Health, is a serial healthcare founder. He formerly founded Bind Benefits in 2016 which offered on-demand healthcare and sold to United Healthcare. Before that, Miller founded Definitely Health which sold to United Healthcare for $300 million in 2004, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Harbor Health is working with employers and Medicare to redesign benefits and care to reduce costs and improve care.
“We’re wasting a ton of money,” Johnston said.
For example, only 25 percent of people with high blood pressure are being treated for it, Johnston said. If that rose to 100 percent, then 60 percent of heart attacks and strokes could be prevented, he said.
Harbor Health is a fee-based system that focuses on preventative care and providing access to doctors through telemedicine and even text-based exchanges, Johnston said. It’s also focused on finding the best specialists for the patients, he said.
Harbor Health is redesigning the care system around things that matter, Johnston said.
The new healthcare provider has three clinics in Austin, Round Rock and Kyle. The clinics provide primary care, chronic disease management, behavioral health, health and wellness services, and Medicare wellness exams. The multi-specialty clinic groups treat infants, children, adolescents, and adults.
Harbor Health has raised a $9.5 million Series A round of funding from two investors, according to Pitchbook. The company has 100 employees, Johnston said.
Curative started in 2020 as a company focused on improving outcomes for sepsis patients.
But then the Pandemic struck.
It quickly pivoted to become one of the nation’s largest testing centers for COVID-19 with 19,000 locations. Its test sites completed 36 million tests and 2.5 million vaccinations, said Fred Turner, the company’s CEO, and co-founder.
Now Curative’s headquarters are based in Austin with 400 employees and it’s pivoting again.
At the Health Tech Austin Future of Care Delivery Summit at Capital Factory Thursday morning, Turner shared more about the company’s new mission as a healthcare insurance provider. It’s creating a Netflix model for next-generation healthcare.
The startup has created a new employer-based health plan that offers $0 copays, $0 deductibles for in-network services, and preferred prescription drugs as long as the member completes a baseline visit to their primary care physician without 120 days of plan activation. If they don’t, then the member defaults to a plan with a high deductible plan.
At the baseline visit, the member is given a preventative health assessment, but they are also taught how to navigate the system, Turner said. Each member is assigned a “health navigator” who helps them understand their goals and needs and navigate the complex healthcare system.
After Curative’s COVID-19 testing business, Turner said he wanted to focus on something that would move the needle on how healthcare was delivered and make it better for everyone.
Fifty percent of the people in the U.S. get their insurance from large-group employer health plans. Curative is available to companies with more than 50 employees in Austin. It plans to move into the San Antonio market next within a few months, then Dallas and Houston later this year, Turner said.
High deductible health plans don’t work, Turner said. Those plans usually discourage people from getting preventative care like mammograms and colonoscopies or early detection of diabetes and heart disease, he said.
“By not investing in primary care and preventative care that comes back to bite you,” Turner said.
Curative’s plans offer zero cost in network and that builds trust with members, Turner said. Curative wanted to design a plan so that the member always knows what it will cost to receive care, he said.
Two percent of a healthcare plan’s members are generating 50 percent of the costs, Turner said. A dollar spent on primary care is worth way more than a dollar spent to treat a major health problem that if detected early could have been prevented, Turner said. In the long run, the plan ends up saving a lot of money and people are healthier, he said.
Curative already has 10,000 providers in the Austin area, Turner said. Its network includes major providers such as the Austin Regional Clinic, Austin Diagnostic Clinic, and all of St. David’s facilities, among others as well as 24-hour access to a local physician via telemedicine.
“We want you to go get care,” he said. “We want you to get the right care.”
Curative picked Austin for its headquarters at 900 Congress because the Curative brand is already well-known here, Turner said. In addition, Curative has a lab in Pflugerville. It also chose Texas because of its regulatory environment for new healthcare companies, he said. And Austin has a number of headquarters for large companies, he said.
To date, Curative has raised $8 million in venture funding, according to Crunchbase.
The event takes place from 8:30 a.m. until noon. The event features opening remarks from Dr. Desmar Walkes, a public health expert, family physician, and medical director for the City of Austin, and Hugh Forrest, co-president and chief programming officer for South by Southwest.
The event also features four “TED-like talks” from the following speakers: Fred Turner, chief executive officer and co-founder of Curative, Mike Geeslin, president and CEO of Central Health, the Travis County Health District, Kacie Kelly, chief innovation officer at the Meadows Institute and Dr. S. Claiborne “Clay” Johnston, co-founder and chief medical officer of Harbor Health, a vertically integrated health delivery system that launched last year in Austin.
“I thought that maybe by starting a new academic medical center we could change the health system. I was wrong,” Johnston says in a news release. “We need to design an entirely new system.”
Kelly agrees and says, “Solving the mental health crisis requires a complete paradigm shift. At the Meadows Institute, we are working with health systems, school systems, and justice systems to design and implement data-driven solutions that are available today to correct the trajectory of mental health care.”
The summit opens with breakfast at the Capital Factory, first floor of the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown, 700 San Jacinto.
Madhu Basu, the founder of Unnanu, wants to scale his startup to a billion-dollar contextual search company in the next ten years in Austin.
Already, he’s been issued a U.S. patent on selecting media using weighted keywords and he has another patent pending. He’s focused initially on applying the technology to match job seekers with jobs through Unnanu Hire.
But he sees widespread applications of the technology across all industries.
In this episode of the Ideas to Invoices podcast, Basu discusses his company’s plans for 2023 which include raising more than $3 million in seed-stage funding and hiring more than a dozen employees.
Previously, Basu founded and served as CEO of PMCS Services, which provided IT consulting, staffing, and solution services for more than 16 years. He also co-founded IntegrateUS, Prachas Technologies, and The Fresh Vegetable Package company.
“Unnanu is my fifth company,” Basu said. “I always found businesses to solve other businesses’ problems.”
Basu founded Unnanu because he saw a need to map job candidates to job descriptions contextually. He couldn’t find a way to do that. So, he built a solution and created better contextual search technology.
“It’s actually a search problem,” Basu said.
He named the company Unnanu, which means hello in his native Indian language.
“Why? Because our search is so intricate part of what we do, it’s kind of like saying hello I need this,” Basu said.
Search technology has to be refined, Basu said.
“I think we have a chance to get better at that,” he said.
Open.AI with its ChatGPT technology is exploring artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide better answers to search questions, Basu said. He mentions a recent video from Greylock’s Intelligent Future Summit featuring a discussion between Open.AI CEO Sam Altman and Reid Hoffman, a serial entrepreneur and general partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners on the future of AI. In the talk, Altman says with the new conversational AI models, there will be a serious challenge to Google’s existing search business. It’s a massive trend and very large businesses will be built around conversational AI, Altman said.
Unnanu is targeted at becoming one of those, Basu said. A fundamental problem with AI is it is missing contextual analysis, Basu said. His pending patent is focused on contextual analysis and weighted keywords, he said.
Right now, Unnanu is bootstrapped. The company recently participated in the Founder’s Institute program in Austin. And it has since gone on to participate in Founder’s Lab, Basu said. It’s in the process now of raising funding, he said.
Unnanu used to be based at Galvanize, which abruptly shut down operations in Austin last year. The company is now located at WeWork on Congress downtown.
For more listen to the entire podcast below or wherever you get your podcasts.
Madhu Basu is the founder of Unnanu, a tech startup from Austin that helps businesses by using a patented contextual weighted keyword search. The company currently provides a simple solution for businesses to have resumes mapped to jobs contextually.
Sana, a healthcare insurance company, Tuesday announced it has laid off 19 percent of its staff.
Will Young, Sana CEO and Co-Founder, announced the layoffs in a LinkedIn Post late Tuesday afternoon. He also posted a statement on the company’s blog. He said the layoffs were painful but necessary to keep the company operating successfully in today’s environment.
Laid-off Sana employees began posting “open to work” status on LinkedIn Tuesday. Sana had around 210 employees. A source reported 40 employees were let go this week.
Sana is providing its laid off employees severance pay equal to three months of their base salary, paid medical, dental and vision insurance coverage through May 31st, the ability to keep their laptops, removal of the one year cliff for equity and three months of career services through RiseSmart, a job placement services firm.
For the past few years, Sana has focused on “accelerating growth and product development came at the cost of higher risk tolerance and greater expenses,” according to Young’s blog post. He wrote that the company is “fundamentally well-positioned to weather downturns.
“However, we need our investments to reflect the realities of the current macroeconomic environment and funding climate,” Young wrote. “This means re-orienting our company for leaner times today so we can continue delivering on our mission decades from now.”
To date, Sana, founded in 2017 by Young and Nathan Hackley, has raised $107 million. In June of 2022, Sana closed on a $60 million in Series B funding.
Sana provides health care options for small businesses. The company reports that Sana’s customers often save up to 20 percent compared to legacy insurers. It also provides telehealth care and low co-pays. Itoperates in eight states.
In January of 2022, the company opened Sana MD in Austin. It is Sana’s first primary care health center for members. In addition to in-person office visits, Sana gives employees access to virtual care with providers specializing in primary care, pediatrics, maternity and mental health.
The news of Sana’s layoffs come a week after Decent, another healthcare startup based in Austin, announced plans to wind down operations to a core team and layoff most of its 40 employees.
Nationwide, tech companies have been trimming staff. Zoom announced on Tuesday it was cutting 1,300 employees, according to the New York Times. Other tech companies in Austin laying off employees include Dell, which announced this week plans to cut 6,500 employees worldwide, according to the Times. Microsoft, Alphabet, Salesforce, Meta, Amazon and PayPal have all announced layoffs recently, the New York Times reported.
Beth Shapiro, Ph.D., and lead paleogeneticist working to bring the dodo bird back from extinction with Ben Lamm, Co-Founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences
By Laura Lorek, Publisher of Silicon Hills News
First, Colossal Biosciences announced in September of 2021 plans to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction.
The next year, the synthetic biology company announced plans to bring the Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, back to life.
Now Colossal is announcing the launch of its avian genomics group, which will bring back the Dodo, a bird species extinct since 1662. Colossal is using breakthrough gene-editing technologies to recreate the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, and dodo.
Colossal Biosciences also announced on Tuesday that it raised $150 million in Series B financing. To date, the company has raised $225 million since launching in September of 2021. The funding makes Colossal a Unicorn company, meaning its valuation is more than $1 billion.
“It’s exciting being a Unicorn, but I don’t think it’s more exciting than bringing back the woolly mammoth,” said Ben Lamm, co-founder, and CEO of Colossal.
In addition, Colossal spun out, Form Bio, a software platform last September, which raised a $30 million Series A round. Colossal, which has 80 employees and 40 external collaborators, has labs in Austin, Dallas, Boston, and Melbourne, Australia. Colossal expects to add additional employees as the various projects progress, Lamm said.
“The projects we are working on, we are seeing early success in the de-extinction efforts, and technology development,” Lamm said.
Colossal’s latest round is led by the United States Innovative Technology Fund, known as USIT, a private equity fund founded by U.S. Billionaire Thomas Tull, a technology investor. Other investors included Breyer Capital, Bob Nelsen, Animal Capital, Victor Vescovo, In-Q-Tel, Animoca Brands, Peak 6, BOLD Capital, and Jazz Ventures, among others.
“This support by Thomas Tull and the others ensures that we will get further faster,” Lamm said.
There is a hunger for this kind of moonshot type initiative that can move the needle forward for all of humanity, Lamm said.
“The World Wildlife Fund found that in the last 50 years, Earth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% at the hands of mankind,” Lamm said. Colossal Biosciences has put together teams of some of the smartest people on the planet to tackle that problem, he said.
“By gathering the smartest minds across investing, genomics, conservation and synthetic biology, we have the opportunity to reverse human-inflicted biodiversity loss while developing technologies for both conservation and human healthcare,” Lamm said.
The launch of Colossal’s new avian genomics group will help to address the decline in the world’s bird population, which has lost more than 3 billion birds in the last 50 years, a stat from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
“The IUCN Red List also now categorizes more than 400 bird species as either extinct, extinct in the wild or critically endangered,” according to Colossal. “Colossal is on a mission to reverse these staggering statistics through genetic rescue techniques and its de-extinction toolkit.”
The work to bring the Dodo back to life is being spearheaded by Beth Shapiro, Ph.D., Colossal Scientific Advisory Board member, and lead paleogeneticist.
“The Dodo is a prime example of a species that became extinct because we – people – made it impossible for them to survive in their native habitat,” Shapiro said in a statement. “Having focused on genetic advancements in ancient DNA for my entire career and as the first to fully sequence the Dodo’s genome, I am thrilled to collaborate with Colossal and the people of Mauritius on the de-extinction and eventual re-wilding of the Dodo. I particularly look forward to furthering genetic rescue tools focused on birds and avian conservation.”
The dodo is iconic, and Shapiro has been working on it for more than a decade at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Lamm said.
“It is the symbol of manmade extinction,” Lamm said.
Most of the work on dodos will be done in Texas and the first dodo brought back to life will be a Texas dodo, Lamm said.
Lamm sees other applications for Colossal’s gene editing technologies in agriculture with new biofuels and preserving biodiversity, as well as in healthcare with gene therapies and vaccine development. Some of the technologies Colossal is developing will also have government applications, Lamm said.
“Dr. George Church and Colossal’s deep work in genomics is creating some of the most cutting-edge advancements in biotech,” according to Tull, USIT Chairman. “Their innovative technology has important applications for scientific discoveries, including biomedicine, and we look forward to supporting this crucial work.”
Colossal’s woolly mammoth de-extinction team, which is headed up by Church, now has more than 40 scientists and three laboratories. They are working with Asian and African elephants to implant an embryo to bring back the woolly mammoth. The team also launched a children’s education and research project with the University of Alaska Fairbanks on woolly mammoths in Alaska.
The Colossal thylacine team with 30 scientists in the U.S. and Australia has done a lot of work with stem cells in the lab and they have prototyped an artificial ex-utero development for early-stage marsupial gestation.
“The work is massively accelerated and currently ahead of our internal schedules,” Andrew Pask, Ph.D., Colossal Scientific Advisory Board member, and thylacine lead, said in a news statement.
In addition, Colossal recently launched its Conservation Advisory Board adding Forrest Galante, Virginia Riddle Pearson, Iain Douglas-Hamilton Ph.D., Former Lt. Governor of Alaska Mead Treadwell, permafrost research Jim Coates, Alaska’s Head of Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang, and Former Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Aurelia Skipwith, J.D.
Colossal has also established partnerships with WildArk, Aussie Ark, Save the Elephants, Elephant Havens, the International Elephant Foundation, Re:Wild, and the AZA’s SAFE.
Colossal also added new members to its Scientific Advisory Board including world-leading scientist Christopher E. Mason, Ph.D., Doris A. Taylor, Ph.D., Rachel J. O’Neil, Ph.D., Austin Gallagher, Ph.D., Tom Gilbert, Ph.D., Mike McGrew, Ph.D., Matthew Wooller, Ph.D., and Duane Froese Ph.D.
Colossal Biosciences has 80 employees and Austin-based Form Bio has 45 employees. Colossal may spin out new companies in its not-too-distant future, Lamm said.
“I’m excited about Texas and what we are developing here,” Lamm said
Decent, the Austin-based health insurance provider is “shutting down all of its operations to just a core team,” according to a blog post published Friday afternoon by Nick Soman, the company’s founder, and CEO.
“Decent’s mission since Richard Luck and I founded the company five years ago has been to deliver affordable health insurance for all. Starting in Texas in 2018, we launched health plans for 35% less than market rates with a Net Promoter Score of 79 vs. the industry average of 14. In 2021 we launched a professional employer organization to help small businesses band together to get even lower rates, and saw 100% renewal among eligible small businesses. I’m proud of what we’ve built, and prouder of the team that has built it.”
“Unfortunately, we just hit a massive and unexpected setback. It’s not impossible to move forward, but we will need time to figure out how,” Soman wrote. “For that reason, we are winding down all of our operations to just a core team.”
The company had 60 employees, according to an interview with Soman last November. The current number of employees is 40, according to a spokeswoman.
Decent, founded in 2018, has raised $43 million to date including a series that closed in December of 2021, according to a spokeswoman. Last fall, the company launched a massive ad campaign in Austin promoting its services on billboards around town.
In his post, Soman reports that Decent had been working with a major partner to prepare for nationwide expansion this quarter. It wound down its product in anticipation of the partner’s new and improved one, according to Soman.
“We were all systems go as of last Wednesday,” Soman wrote. “Then late last week, our major partner pulled out without warning, citing unspecified concerns from their executive team and leaving us with no near-term path to market. We explored every possible avenue to salvage the partnership, but to no avail.”
That left Decent without a health insurance product, and as a result, it has to stop serving customers, according to Soman.
Decent will let its team go in the coming months with notice and severance, according to Soman.
Correction: Title corrected and updated to reflect Decent winding down operations to a core team, but not shutting down completely. Also, the article was updated with the current employee count and funding amount of $43 million.
After moving to Austin recently, SciPlay’s CEO Josh Wilson has plans to expand operations and move into new areas including building SciPlay’s own gaming platform.
In this episode of Ideas to Invoices, Wilson talks about how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mobile gaming company’s operations. It led to a boom a business as people looked online for ways to entertain themselves while stuck at home. He also talks about the company’s current outlook and plans for the future.
In 1998, Aaron Schurman founded Phantom EFX in Cedar Falls, Iowa. It was acquired by Scientific Games and now it is a stand-alone company called SciPlay, which is traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol SCPL.
In 2019, Wilson became CEO, and his vision is to make SciPlay the best entertainment company for consumers.
SciPlay currently offers social casino games like Jackpot Party Casino, Gold Fish Casino, casual games like Bingo Showdown and Solitaire Pets Adventure, and hyper-casual games such as Rob Master 3D and Deep Clean. It does not have any plans for the Metaverse right now, but the company plans to build out its own gaming platform to connect directly with its customers.
SciPlay also recently contracted with America’s Got Talent Judge Sofia Vergara for an ad campaign. In the TV commercial, Vergara plays SciPlay’s Jackpot Party Casino game. The campaign was highly successful, Wilson said.
SciPlay has more than 500 employees worldwide including more than 150 in its Austin office, which was established in 2016.
For more, listen to the entire podcast posted below or wherever you get your podcasts.
Josh Wilson is SciPlay’s Chief Executive Officer. The company makes social casino games like Jackpot Party Casino and Goldfish Casino and others. Wilson recently moved to Austin where SciPlay has a large office. In this episode, he talks about the company’s current outlook and plans for the future.
The Austin area saw a huge slowdown in venture capital invested in the fourth quarter with $775 million flowing into 78 deals, according to PitchBook-National Venture Capital Association Venture Monitor data.
That is down 50 percent in dollars invested from the fourth quarter of 2021 which recorded $1.5 billion in 122 deals, according to the Pitchbook report. It is also a 36 percent decline in the number of deals being done.
“After years of frenzied investments and soaring company valuations, venture capital investment levels are readjusting as businesses assess the current economic landscape,” according to the report.
Despite the fourth quarter slowdown, overall, for 2022, the Austin area still had a phenomenal year with $4.9 billion of venture capital invested in 416 companies.
That’s on par with stats from 2021 when Austin had a record-breaking year with $4.9 billion in venture capital investments. And it’s actually an increase in deal flow by nearly 7 percent from 387 companies in 2021.
Overall, companies in Texas raised $1.6 billion in venture capital in the fourth quarter of 2022, in 180 deals. That is down nearly 56 percent from $3.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. And down nearly 34 percent in deal flow from 271 deals in the fourth quarter of 2021.
For all of 2021, Texas companies raised $9.5 billion, down nearly 20 percent from $11.9 billion raised in 2021. Deal flow also dropped 16 percent in 2022 to 840 companies funded, down from 1,004 in 2021.
In Austin, the biggest deals in the fourth quarter went to Jasper, a content generation platform, that received $141 million in venture funding. The Series A round made Jasper Austin’s latest Unicorn company valued at more than $1.5 billion. Jasper is one of the startups developing conversational AI and image generation AI similar to Open.AI’s ChatGPT. Its investors include Insight Partners, Coatue, Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP, Foundation Capital, Founders Circle Capital, HubSpot Ventures and more.
The second largest deal went to Infinitum, based in Round Rock, which is developing motors and generators powered by its patented technology. It raised $110 million in a Series D round. Its funding came from Riverstone Holdings Latin America, Alliance Resource Partners, Caterpillar Venture Capital and Cottonwood Technology Fund.
And rounding out the top three deals is Dabbsson, which has created a clean energy backup generator for homes. It landed $75 million.
Top 10 Venture Capital Deals in Austin in 2002 Q4
Jasper, an AI content generation platform, $141 million
Infinitum, develops motors and generators, $110 million
Dabbsson, alternative clean energy equipment maker, $75 million
Setpoint, real estate fintech and software platform, $43 million
SubjectWell, clinical trial, and patient matchmaker platform, $35 million
Way, a software platform for curating experiences for hospital brands, $20 million
Flueid, a software platform to automate title and escrow closing practices, $20 million
Maergo, shipping and logistics platform for retailers, $20 million
Keystone Bank, banking services, $18 million
Beatbox Beverages, ready-to-drink alcoholic punch, $16 million
Protopia AI, based in Austin, announced it has closed on a $6 million seed round of funding led by ATX Venture Partners.
The company has developed a software solution that allows big companies to tap into key data by using artificial intelligence and machine learning to extract insights without exposing sensitive information.
Protopia cites a Gartner report on AI which found that CEOs major problem in using AI is data accessibility.
Other investors in the round included Galaxy Interactive, Silverton Partners, and DNX Ventures. Protopia has raised a total of $8 million, which includes an initial $2 million pre-seed round. All existing investors extended their commitment by participating in the new round.
Protopia AI’s core technology is based on inventions by Professor Hadi Esmaeilzadeh, endowed chair of computer architecture at the University of California San Diego. He is also Protopia AI’s co-founder and chief technology officer.
“We are at an inflection point where AI has unprecedented capabilities — but at the cost of losing the control and ownership of data,” Esmaeilzadeh said in a news release. “Protopia AI is the vision to enable practical AI without losing the control/ownership of data.”
Portopia.AI plans to use the funds raised to hire engineers and on product development. It is currently in beta-testing with customers in financial services, government and health care.
Funds raised from the round will be used to build out engineering teams and advance the product. The company is currently beta-testing its product across industries where data sensitivity causes the most operational slowdowns, including financial services, government and health care.
“Protopia AI empowers enterprises to extract maximal value using AI and machine learning from their data by providing the governance and protection that is necessary,” Eiman Ebrahimi, Protopia AI co-founder and CEO, said in a news release.
“Today, companies are looking to create real value from their data using artificial intelligence and machine learning, according to Protopia AI. “They frequently are blocked or slowed down by data-sensitivity issues. According to a Seagate Technology and IDC survey, respondents estimated their organizations collect only 56% of their operational data. Out of that 56%, 43% of data remains unused. Protopia AI solves this dilemma with its easy-to-use Stained Glass Transform™ that enables the operation of AI and ML while removing the need to access the company’s data in identifiable form.”
“Data-centric AI is the future, and Protopia is positioned to emerge as an industry innovator and market leader,” Chris Shonk, ATX Venture Partners managing partner, said in a news release. “No other software company in the market is offering a solution with privacy in mind, at all stages of the ML lifecycle, including deployment, in mind from inception. We have a shared vision for maximal data protection and are pleased to fund the company at this critical growth stage.”
Austin-based Ribbon has closed on $2.7 million to help nonprofit organizations.
The company has created a software platform that gives individuals and businesses the banking, accounting, fundraising, and organizational tools they need to build a successful charity under the umbrella of a fiscal sponsor.
Ribbon’s fiscal sponsorship model allows individuals looking to conduct charitable work to partner with existing 501c3s to help them accomplish their goals while enjoying the sponsor’s tax-exempt status.
“We believe starting a new charity should be quick, easy, and effortless,” Ribbon CEO Braden Fineberg said in a news release. “We already have 1.6 million registered nonprofits in the U.S. In a crowded market, there is a growing demand for a platform that makes charitable work more accessible without the need to create a new 501c(3).”
Austin-based Trust Ventures led the investment round.
“You can start a company in a day for a few hundred dollars, but a nonprofit can take years and thousands of dollars, not to mention countless hours working through legal red tape,” said Salen Churi, General Partner at Trust Ventures. “Ribbon helps those in the nonprofit sector move at the speed of business, spending their time and resources doing good rather than on tax lawyers.”
Ribbon thinks its sponsorship model will replace the vast majority of new nonprofit organizations. The platform aims to save nonprofit organizations time and money in filing and managing their charitable status.
“Imagine the good that could be accomplished if people who wanted to do charitable work could, in effect, create a nonprofit in minutes, enable tax-deductible donations instantly, and not have to manage their nonprofit status,” Fineberg said. “With IRS backlogs and the acceleration of Open Banking APIs, the industry is ripe for this product.”
Open banking is a system under which banks make their application programming interfaces (APIs) accessible for third parties to develop new apps and services. Ribbon’s fiscal sponsorship model will be the first product to allow this to happen in the nonprofit sector, Finberg added.
NASA has awarded Austin-based ICON a contract worth $57.2 to develop construction technologies that could help build habitats, landing pads, and roads on the moon.
NASA is planning for long-term human exploration of the moon under Artemis.
“In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs,” Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). “Pushing this development forward with our commercial partners will create the capabilities we need for future missions.”
ICON already received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) dual-use contract with the U.S. Air Force, partly funded by NASA. The new NASA SBIR Phase III award will support the development of ICON’s Olympus construction system, which is designed to use local resources on the Moon and Mars as building materials. The contract runs through 2028.
“To change the space exploration paradigm from ‘there and back again’ to ‘there to stay,’ we’re going to need robust, resilient, and broadly capable systems that can use the local resources of the Moon and other planetary bodies. We’re pleased that our research and engineering to-date has demonstrated that such systems are indeed possible, and we look forward to now making that possibility a reality,” Jason Ballard, ICON co-founder and CEO, said in a news release. “The final deliverable of this contract will be humanity’s first construction on another world, and that is going to be a pretty special achievement.”
ICON will work with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, under STMD’s Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technologies (MMPACT) project.
Previously, ICON 3D printed a 1,700-square-foot simulated Martian habitat, called Mars Dune Alpha, which will be used during NASA’s Crew Health and Performance Analog, or CHAPEA, analog mission starting in 2023.
ICON also competed in NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge. The company partnered with the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, and the team won a prize for 3D printing a structure sample that was tested for its ability to hold a seal, for strength, and for durability in temperature extremes.
The announcement comes after ICON’s warehouse and original headquarters in South Austin were severely damaged by a fire in the building the day after Thanksgiving, according to the Austin American Statesman. The paper reported a cause for the fire has not been determined.
ICON TO DEVELOP LUNAR SURFACE CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM WITH $57.2 MILLION NASA AWARD SBIR Phase III Contract Furthers ICON’s Space-based Construction Technology Developments & Will Target Humanity’s First-ever Construction on Another Planetary Body ….. ICON, a leader in advanced construction technologies and large-scale 3D printing, announced that it has received a contract awarded under Phase III of NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
A ransomware attack at San Antonio-based Rackspace Technology has caused service disruptions for thousands of its customers.
The attack began last Friday, Dec. 2nd, and continues although the company reported Friday night that two-thirds of its customers’ services have been restored.
The ransom wear incident affected Rackspace’s Hosted Exchange Email business, which represents one percent of Rackspace’s total annual revenue and is comprised of primarily small and medium businesses that solely use this product, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“No other Rackspace products, platforms, solutions, or businesses were affected or are experiencing downtime due to this incident,” according to Rackspace.
Rackspace hired a leading cyber defense firm to investigate along with its security team.
“Ransomware is a type of malicious software or malware that prevents you from accessing your computer files, systems, or networks and demands you pay a ransom for their return,” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. “Ransomware attacks can cause costly disruptions to operations and the loss of critical information and data.”
Computers can become infected with ransomware by opening an email attachment, clicking an ad, following a link, or even visiting a website that’s embedded with malware, according to the FBI.
“Once the code is loaded on a computer, it will lock access to the computer itself or data and files stored there,” according to the FBI. “More menacing versions can encrypt files and folders on local drives, attached drives, and even networked computers.”
Rackspace has been working with its customers to migrate them to a new environment as quickly as possible, according to a news release.
“Rackspace maintains cybersecurity insurance commensurate with the size of its business, and is confident in its ability to absorb potential financial costs associated with the incident and fulfill its obligations to other customers,” according to a filing with the SEC.
“As of today, more than two-thirds of our customers on the Hosted Exchange environment are back on email,” according to Rackspace. “Every customer who has reached us has been offered support to transition to Microsoft 365.”
“We are continuing to make significant progress in our recovery efforts. We have engaged industry-leading global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to help investigate and remediate,” according to Rackspace. “Due to swift action on the Company’s part in disconnecting its network and following its incident response plans, CrowdStrike has confirmed the incident was quickly contained and limited solely to the Hosted Exchange Email business.”
Rackspace is still investigating the root cause of the incident.
Meanwhile, Rackspace faces two class action lawsuits filed on December 6th against the company last week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Chris Ondo, represented by Jon B. Ellis of Sadovsky & Ellis, filed a class action lawsuit against Rackspace seeking injunctive relief and damages for alleged negligence and breach of confidence.
In addition, Garrett Stephenson and Gateway Recruiting, LLC, represented by Cole & Van Note, filed a class action lawsuit, Stephenson, et al. v. Rackspace Technology, Inc. for negligence and related violations arising out of the email hosting provider’s recent high-profile data breach. In addition to monetary damages, the suit demands Rackspace Technology implement and maintain sufficient security protocols going forward so as to prevent future attacks.
Stuart Wall, Michael Lam, and Ben Rubenstein, Co-Founders of Setpoint
In 2021, Ben Rubenstein left Realtor.com with Michael Lam to co-found Setpoint with another friend, Stuart Wall.
The problem they identified is a need for critical software to power a more efficient asset-based lending market. They’ve created a funding operating system to replace email, Excel spreadsheets, and computer folders which comprise the backend of real estate transactions. Setpoint’s software verifies, and stores documents automate interest rate calculations, and digitizes assets like homes or autos.
“The old real estate business backend is broken, and it is costing the consumer more money,” Rubenstein said. “This is a big problem that is hiding in plain sight and we’re solving it.”
On Wednesday, Setpoint announced it has closed a $43 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Henry Kravis, Spencer Rascoff, co-founder of Zillow and 75and Sunny, Fifth Wall, 645 Ventures, NextView Ventures, LiveOak Venture Partners, Vesta Ventures, ATX Venture Partners and Capital Factory.
“A lot of people say it’s impossible to get tech funding right now, but this shows it is possible,” Rubenstein said.
Setpoint also announced that it is on “track to power 25,000 home transactions this year and expects to power more than 100,000 in 2023 via single-family residences, iBuying, Power Buying, Fractional Ownership, Rent-to-Own, and other transactions that make buying, selling, and renting a home easier, faster and more accessible,” according to a news release.
In addition to his experience at Realtor.com, Rubenstein was an early investor in Austin-based Homeward, which allows homebuyers to buy a home before they sell their existing one. In the early days of Homeward, Rubenstein, and Lam supplied capital to the company. It was asset-backed lending to a tech company. And through that experience, they understood the internal financial operations and how it was done manually, and it didn’t scale, Rubenstein said.
Setpoint initially focused on power buyers like Flyhomes, Orchard, UpEquity and then expanded to all of PropTech like Opendoor, rent to own, home equity, and warehouse lending, Rubenstein said.
“They all have the same problem,” Rubenstein said. “It is a company that is accessing capital and needs to report on those assets.”
Last June, Setpoint came out of stealth mode with $615 million in debt capital when it officially launched its platform. That part of the business enables Proptech companies to offer contingent-free, all-cash offers on homes to customers, which it says accelerates funding and closing on properties.
“While there’s been much innovation and investment made upon improving the front-end of fintech transactions, behind-the-scenes capital market workflows are often a product of email, Excel, and FTP folders,” David Haber, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said in a news release. “I believe that Setpoint’s Funding OS has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency of these transactions, resulting in lower cost for both borrowers and lenders.”
The latest funding round will allow Setpoint to invest further in software engineering and develop critical tools for their customers on both sides of asset-backed transactions. The firm will continue to focus on relationships with borrowers and lenders, while also expanding beyond its core market of real estate.
Real estate is just the first market Setpoint plans to address. It might expand into other areas like auto loans and credit card loans, Rubenstein said.
Setpoint’s Team
Half of Setpoint’s team is in Austin and the other half is in New York. The company has 25 employees and expects to double over the next year, Rubenstein said. The company primarily operates as a hybrid company with most employees working from home and office space at WeWork on Congress, he said.
The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way tech companies operate and remote working is now more acceptable, Rubenstein said.
Setpoint is Rubenstein’s third startup. He previously co-founded Yodle, which sold for $342 million to Web.com, and Opcity, which sold to Realtor.com for $200 million.
“I truly enjoy building startups,” Rubenstein said. “I’m much more zero to one guy. I like the super, super early days of building a company.”
Rubenstein and Lam previously worked together as founders of Opcity and they have known each other since college. Wall is also a friend who founded Signpost, a competitor to Yodle.
His experience at his previous companies taught Rubenstein that there are big problems in the world that software can really help with. And that it is important to go to the right partners and work with the right VCs, he said.
“Working with people you like, and know and trust is really fun,” Rubenstein said.
For more information, read David Haber’s blog post on Andreessen Horowitz’s investment in Setpoint.
