Early-stage startups in Austin just got a major boost.
Silverton Partners announced Thursday the formation of a new $75 million fund that will invest in early-stage startups in Austin.
The fund received backing from prominent Austin entrepreneurs, several university endowments and its general partners. It was oversubscribed and included more than 40 Austin founders, CEOs and executives. The fund will target investments in the enterprise software and consumer Internet. Silverton plans to hire two investment professionals during the next year.
Silverton Partners has had several successful exits from its Silverton Partners III fund. Those companies include Convio, which went public, BlackLocus, acquired by The Home Depot, Crimson, acquired by The Advisory Board, Hyper9, acquired by SolarWinds and Javelin, acquired by Avago Technologies. The fund also has 18 active portfolio companies.
“We are proud to announce Silverton IV, and greatly appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with such a premier group of entrepreneurs,” Bill Wood, General Partner, Silverton Partners, said in a news release. “We’ve witnessed first-hand the tremendous growth of the Austin startup ecosystem and its gratifying to see that our strategy of focusing on local, high-growth opportunities is being rewarded. We particularly enjoy working with seed-stage companies as they mature into robust companies with product traction and customer validation. It’s a winning formula for us – and we look forward to SP IV becoming another successful fund over the years.”
Category: Austin (Page 225 of 318)
The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and South by Southwest Interactive Wednesday named 12 companies to its 2013 Fall Austin A-List.
The list includes companies categorized by their investment stage including emerging, growth and scale and they span a wide range of industries including big data, social, health and entertainment.
The chamber releases its A-List twice a year to highlight some of Austin’s “most fundable and innovative regional startups,” according to a news release.
So far, 19 companies from its 2013 Summer Austin A-List have received a total of $10.3 million in investment and 28 members of its 2012 A-List have received a total of $164.5 million in investment.
“The 2013 Fall Austin A-List companies shine a light on the innovative spirit of Austin and its powerful entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Michele Skelding, the chamber’s senior vice president of global technology and innovation, said in a news release. “Raising the profile of these burgeoning companies helps cultivate investment, which helps attract the next generation of game-changing innovators who in turn, help Austin to evolve and continue to grow as the top region to start and grow an innovation based business. These companies are proof-positive that Austin continues to grow as a hotbed of technology and innovation.”
“SXSW Interactive is proud to be a continued part of the rich Austin startup and investment community,” Hugh Forrest, Director of SXSW Interactive Festival, said in a news release. “Austin’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has never been stronger, and these 12 A-List companies show great potential for growth and will help keep driving the spirited ideas that make Austin so special.”
The list follows with descriptions of the companies provided by the chamber:
In the emerging category for companies with less than $1 million in funding:
Atlas is an intelligent wristband for fitness enthusiasts looking for a complete solution, not just a pedometer.
Datafiniti was founded with the ambitious goal of converting the largest source of data, the Internet itself, into structured data to make better business applications and push the boundaries of better decision-making.
Filament Labs is building a SaaS platform to power any app that goes between a patient and their care provider.
Pristine develops apps for Google Glass for healthcare environments to help treat more people at a more affordable cost.
Shelfbucks aims to level the playing field between physical and online retail, revolutionizing the brand to consumer channel through mobile.
YouEarnedIt fosters happiness at work through a simple, fun, and flexible SaaS platform that provides real-time recognition and meaningful, custom rewards for employees.
In the growth or mid-stage category for companies with $1 million to $10 million in funding:
Gazzang develops products that keep data secure, available and actionable in the cloud.
How Do You Roll leads the restaurant industry as the first fast-casual, custom sushi shop.
Uship is the world’s largest and most trusted transportation marketplace, primarily serving the freight, household goods and vehicle shipping markets.
WP Engine is the premium managed hosting platform for websites and applications built with WordPress.
In the category of scale or later stage investment of $10 million or more:
Main Street Hub offers an integrated social, web, and email marketing product designed to help merchants get more customers and keep them coming back.
Phunware is the pioneer of Mobile as a Service (MaaS) – a fully integrated services platform that enables brands to engage, manage and monetize users on mobile.
IBM Wednesday unveiled its new product design studio in Austin, which will focus on designing software for a global audience.
The 50,000 square foot studio will serve as the center for IBM’s software efforts in Big Data, cloud, mobile, social software and cognitive solutions.
IBM designed the space to encourage collaboration and to bring together designers, developers and product managers involved in creating new software products.
“This studio is the embodiment of a new approach to software design. It is the home of IBM Design Thinking, a broad, ambitious new approach to re-imagining how we design our products and solutions,” Phil Gilbert, general manager, IBM Design, said in a news release. “Quite simply, our goal — on a scale unmatched in the industry — is to modernize enterprise software for today’s user who demands great design everywhere, at home and at work.”
IBM already hosts a one-week training camp at its studio called “Designcamp.” So far, it has held more than 60 camps.
IBM is also recruiting design experts from top design schools nationwide.
This week, IBM released its first commercial product, InfoSphere Data Explorer, using its IBM Design Thinking initiative.
In addition to the Austin Design Studio, IBM’s Austin campus also has research and development labs, SmartCloud Innovation Center, Watson Solutions, cloud and smarter infrastructure teams and IBM Security Systems.
It looks like AT&T will be the first to get its high-speed GigaPower broadband Internet network to customers in Austin.
The company announced an initial roll out of its service to tens of thousands of customers in central, northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast Austin and city neighborhoods like French Place, Mueller, Zilker and Onion Creek.
“In December, U-verse with GigaPower customers will also have access to cutting-edge TV services that offer the ability to watch and record more shows simultaneously with our largest storage capacity DVR,” according to a news release.
The Internet service will initially have upload and download speeds of up to 300 Mbps and those customers will be able to upgrade to 1 Gigabit per second speeds in mid-2014.
AT&T plans to expand its high-speed Internet and TV network to more residents and businesses next year. The company is determining the roll out, in part, based on the number of votes it receives from Austin residents to have GigaPower in certain neighborhoods.
“We’ve already received great input from thousands of Austinites eager for the fastest speeds,” Dahna Hull, vice president and general manager, Austin, AT&T Services said in a news release. “These votes are helping us identify where the need for speed and advanced TV services is the greatest and will help guide our future GigaPower expansion plans.”
Austin-based HomeAway just increased its presence in Asia with the acquisition of Bookabach Limited, a New Zealand-based vacation rental site.
The world’s largest online marketplace for vacation rentals announced Wednesday that is has secured a 55 percent stake in Bookabach which has more than 8,000 property listings in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific islands.
HomeAway did not disclose the terms of the deal of the all cash transaction.
The acquisition also includes Bookastay, the company’s affiliated Australian vacation rental site. Bookabach and Bookastay together feature more than 8,000 property listings in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific islands.
The partnership broadens HomeAway’s presence in the Asia Pacific region and strengthens its presence in Australia and New Zealand.
“New Zealand is one of the most beautiful destinations in the world and we’re excited about adding thousands of New Zealand properties to our portfolio,” HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples said in a news release. “The Bookabach team has built a great brand among vacation rental owners and travelers in New Zealand, and we will build upon that by delivering more value to owners over time and continuously seeking ways to improve the experience for all travelers who choose vacation rentals.”
Bookabach Co-founder Peter Miles will serve as the general manager of Bookabach’s seven employee office in Auckland.
HomeAway executives will discuss the acquisition during its third quarter earnings conference call today at 3:30 p.m. central time.
Every year, tech startups look forward to the highly selective South by Southwest Accelerator competition at the Startup Village.
The 2014 SXSW Accelerator marks the sixth year for the competition.
The organizers are expecting more than 500 startups to apply for the 48 slots available. The deadline to apply is Friday, Nov. 8th.
“This event provides an outlet for companies to present their new technology of Entertainment and Content products, Social, Enterprise and Big Data Technologies, Innovative World, Wearable, Music, or Health technology to a panel of industry experts, early adopters, and representatives from the Angel/VC community,” said Chris Valentine, its organizer.
Past judges have included Tim Draper of DFJ, Paul Graham of Y Combinator, Craig Newmark of Craiglist, Bob Metcalfe of University of Texas, Guy Kawasaki of Alltop, Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media, Naval Ravikant of AngelList, and Tom Conrad of Pandora.
The competition takes place March 9th and 9th.
AngelHack takes place next weekend at Capital Factory starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
This is the second time AngelHack has held a hackathon in Austin. The first one took place last June at Mass Relevance’s headquarters.
This hackathon is focused on mobile apps. AppHack takes place in 30 cities worldwide and focuses on building mobile apps and teaching developers Android and iOS development.
The event also features workshops. Jeff Linwood is teaching an Android development workshop, Ryan Pitylak is teaching mobile customer acquisition and there’s also a cloud app platform workshop.
Steve Guengerich, co-founder with Appconomy, Josh Kerr, co-founder and CEO of Written.io and Pitylak, CEO of Unique Influence, are the judges and mentors.
Moo.com, Lob, PayPal Develop, 99Designs and Capital Factory sponsor AngelHack.
Joshua Baer and Nicholle Jaramillo with Capital Factory are organizing the event.
The winner of the competition gets a chance to go to Angelhack’s HACKccelerator program and a trip to San Francisco.
Use the promo code, “SiliconH100” to get FREE tickets to AngelHack Austin.
Full disclosure: Silicon Hills News is a media sponsor of AngelHack.
By SUSAN LAHEY
Reporter with Silicon Hills News
If something scary pops up on an X-ray or CT Scan or MRI, radiologists have always had to play phone tag to let the attending physician know. For someone like Seton’s Dr. Christopher Ziebell, an emergency room physician who has a small window to decide whether to release patents or admit them to the hospital, this was a bad system.
“There are some things that can be very subtle on an X-ray,” Dr. Ziebell said. “The radiologist might see some tiny thing that looks normal to me. But it’s a partial collapse of a lung or a small shadow that, to his trained eye, looks like a very early lung cancer. The radiologist can pick up on things I might otherwise miss.”
The problem was communicating the information in time. Texting violated HIPAA standards, though several doctors did it anyway. Enter DocbookMD, an Austin startup founded by a married couple, both of whom are physicians. DocbookMD sends encrypted information over a secure server that exceeds HIPAA standards. And the company’s latest product is a tool by which radiologists can send their results and assessment to the ordering physician. It will arrive on the physician’s phone within 30 seconds, with a unique tone. If the doctor hasn’t seen the results within five minutes, the radiologist is alerted and is prompted to either send another message, or use a more traditional way to reach them
“I am always getting the results before I’ve had time to admit or discharge the patient and I’m always armed with the information I need when I have that final trip to the bedside to assess patient for the last time,” Dr. Ziebell said.
Doctors Don’t Communicate Well
Dr. Tracey Haas, a family physician and Dr. Tim Gueramy, an orthopedic surgeon, never thought of building a tech startup. In fact, they tried to interest other tech companies in building the first iteration of DocbookMD, a directory of specialists you could look up on your mobile device, press a button and contact.
“There used to be fewer subspecialties,” Dr. Gueramy said. “Now for every 100 Medicare patients, a primary care doctor must coordinate with 99 physicians across 56 specialties. (Dr. Gueramy is a foot and ankle specialist). It’s just gotten so complicated,” he said. That includes the nursing staff, which might include a rehab nurse, a home health care nurse, or a hospice nurse. Physicians traditionally did not communicate well because they often worked independently rather than being interdependent. Today, interdependence is required, so all health care workers need to be able to leverage technology to communicate.
So in 2008, the couple built DocbookMD so doctors could look up a specialist in their area, push a button and be connected. And that was great. Until they started thinking about other things they could do. Like what if they could see images of wounds, test results, X-rays and the like right on their mobile devices? They could make decisions, or send photos to other doctors for consultations, and get instant results.
For example, one Thanksgiving the couple was driving out of town and learned that a friend’s child had hurt his foot. Through the app, the doctor was able to send the X-rays to Dr. Gueramy’s phone. One look told him the child needed surgery immediately to avoid bigger problems later. He contacted Dell Children’s Hospital and managed to get a cast scheduled for the same day.
Who Will Pay for This App?
As Drs. Haas and Gueramy recognized the potential of what they were doing, they decided they needed to go all in for the business. They mortgaged their home, cashed in their 401K, sold a car and later received private funding rounds from friends, family and other doctors. The problem was the revenue model. They have 21,000 users across 37 states. And the bulk of messages are opened within five minutes. The company only wanted to charge $50 a year for the app. But doctors, Dr. Haas said, “don’t want to pay for anything.”
Medical malpractice insurers, though, would pay. Communication errors are behind 60-to-80 percent of medical malpractice suits. DocbookMDs tools would provide records about conversations that had taken place, decisions that had been made, and they all lived on the secure server, not on the doctors’ phones.
DocbookMD connected with the Texas Medical Liability Trust, which is one of many sponsors for the company.
“I was introduced to the principals at DocbookMD in late 2011 after I joined TMLT,” said Charles (Chip) Ott, president and CEO of TMLT. “Going into that meeting I was skeptical. TMLT’s sponsorship had been portrayed to me as an opportunity for TMLT to write additional Medical Professional Liability business through advertising tied to the application. I was not convinced this was a good use of our advertising dollars.”
“Upon seeing the application first hand, it was immediately clear that this application would have a distinct impact on future liability claims while improving the practice and delivery of medicine. The ability to share patient information through a secure connection improves the speed of care to the patient while protecting privacy concerns. I am certain that many physicians have shared confidential information through their smart phones in an unprotected format. As a medical professional liability carrier, the DocbookMD application significantly reduces the potential for claims arising from such activity… DocbookMD’s application continues to drive down risk and improve patient outcomes.”
It was interesting for the founders to realize that doctors wouldn’t pay for the app. It was also interesting to learn what would encourage engagement. If doctors could see how it would help patients, they would sign up.
“Physicians need to trust the technology,” Dr. Haas said. “They need to know it will help them take care of their patients. That’s what motivates them.”
All doctors must sign a business associates’ agreement acknowledging their responsibility in protecting patient confidentiality. For example, if the phone is lost or stolen, they must report it to DocbookMD immediately.
The company has recently made it possible for physicians to add important members of the care team to their circle of communication on the app, a distinction for DocbookMD, Dr. Ziebell said, that will set them apart. And they’re working to create specific models for different groups such as a model that connects all the doctors and nurses who work for a specific hospital. They’re also working to involve labs, so that results go directly to doctors.
Eventually, Drs. Haas and Gueramy plan to take the app to the rest of the world.
They both quit their practices a few years ago to focus on DocbookMD. But while they miss certain aspects of patient care, Haas said, they’re impacting the care of far more patients now. As Dr. Gueramy said: “We could have a bigger impact on the world of medicine than we ever could in traditional medical practice.”
It’s that haunting time of the year when zombies, ghouls, princesses and werewolves march up and down the streets in search of tricks and treats.
But it’s also a time for reflection.
After all, Halloween is the eve of all hallows day or Day of the Dead in Latino culture. It reminds us that we’re all mortal. We’re on this earth for a fleeting moment in time. So this time of the year, we should remember our ancestors and also give thanks for the life that we have today. Gratitude will carry us through some of our darkest moments.
And if you’re running a startup, you’re going to have dark moments. You probably barely notice Halloween or Thanksgiving or Christmas for that matter because you’re grinding away and working on the business without a thought to the calendar changing and the marching on of time.
But that’s the wrong thing to do.
Throughout two decades of covering entrepreneurs and tech companies I’ve learned that the happiest entrepreneurs tend to be the most successful. So here’s a few treats:
1. Take time to have fun. All work and no play makes for one miserable entrepreneur and no one wants to buy products and services from someone who looks like a sad Panda. So don a happy Panda costume and eat some candy. If you have kids, go trick and treating with them. If you don’t have kids, go trick or treating anyway.
2. Let those creative juices flow. Carve a pumpkin. Bake a pumpkin donut. Create a costume from scratch. Look at Pinterest and attempt to recreate one of those perfect Martha Stewart-like arts and crafts projects like cake ball brains with oozing cherry blood. It doesn’t matter whether it works out. In fact, if it doesn’t then it’s just as much fun.
3. Don’t be stingy. Give, give and give some more candy, your time, your money, your expertise, your attention and yourself. When you give to others, you receive so much more in return. It’s that warm fuzzy feeling that lets you know you’re human.
4. You always hear people tell startups to get out of the building – well this is your opportunity. Go to a party, a bar, a neighborhood gathering. Talk to other people outside the startup world about what they are doing and you can also ask them about what they think of your product.
5. Don’t forget to say thank you! Studies show that saying thanks is good for business. It’s cheap. It’s effective. Don’t miss an opportunity to say thank you to coworkers, partners, clients and investors. And studies show that trick or treaters who say thank you receive more candy.
By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News
It’s not a good idea to quit a good job and launch a divorce startup while happily married, said Cotter Cunningham.
“The day you quit your job to go home and tell your wife you’re starting a divorce site is not the best day of your life,” Cunningham said.
At 46, Cunningham left his job as the COO of Bankrate in Palm Beach and wrote a $1 million check to launch Divorce360.com. He also raised $1 million from Austin Ventures. The investment was a good chunk of his net worth.
“It failed miserably,” Cunningham said.
The first year, the startup spent $400,000 and made $19, Cunningham said. The second year, it spent $1.5 million and made $300,000, he said.
“I feel like we failed because of the business model,” he said.
Cunningham recounted his entrepreneurial journey Tuesday evening during an interview with Brett Hurt, co-founder of Bazaarvoice and entrepreneur in residence at UT during a talk sponsored by the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship at UT.
Today, Cunningham is the founder, president and CEO of RetailMeNot, the world’s largest online coupon and deals marketplace. The company, founded in 2009, has 300 employees with its headquarters in Austin and offices in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. The company has raised approximately $300 million from investors including Austin Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Adams Street Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, JP Morgan and Google Ventures.
Hurt asked Cunningham how he became an entrepreneur. Cunningham and his brother grew up in Helena, Arkansas and later Memphis, after his parents divorced. His dad was speaker of the house in Arkansas and liked to debate politics around the dinner table. Cunningham liked growing up in a small town where everyone knew his name and the kids had a lot of freedom.
“I was driving at 14,” he said. “My dad threw me the keys and said have fun.”
When Hurt asked Cunningham what advice he would give to students, Cunningham advised them to be confident and persistent.
“I think to succeed as an entrepreneur, you have to have a strong amount of confidence in yourself, bordering on arrogance,” Cunningham said. “Persistence has worked for me. It was not something I was born with. I had to develop it as a skill.”
Cunningham said he didn’t have a great academic record. When he graduated from Memphis State, he landed a $14,000 a year job working for Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton. He then went on to get his MBA from Vanderbilt University.
“I have always persisted,” Cunningham said. “I didn’t give up.”
That’s where passion comes into play, Hurt said. It drives entrepreneurs to keep going in the face of adversity.
“You almost can’t be persistent if you don’t like what you do,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham joked that he was the antithesis of Hurt, who he joked grew up with an entrepreneurial pacifier from birth.
After Divorce360 failed, Cunningham moved to Austin with his family and worked with Austin Ventures to start something new. He met a guy at a cocktail party who was going through a divorce and he found out he owned an online coupon site. The site generated $3 million a year in revenue.
“It was insanely profitable,” Cunningham said.
That sparked him to start Whale Shark Media, later renamed RetailMeNot. With the backing of Austin Ventures, Cunningham cold-called 100 online coupon sites. He interviewed 60 of them. He ended up buying three of them. Together, they had $10 million in revenue. He hired 30 people. He found out that RetailMeNot, the biggest competitor, based in Melbourne, Australia, was for sale. He got on a plane a few days later and flew to Australia to meet with the founders.
“We pursued them for nine months,” he said.
Part of the courtship involved eating kangaroo meat, something that Cunningham did not enjoy. But it helped him close the deal.
The lesson for the students, said Hurt, is that to be successful, “you have to eat kangaroo meat.”
Through all of the acquisitions, RetailMeNot has been able to maintain its corporate culture by treating employees the right way, Cunningham said. It got 60 employees through the acquisitions.
“We believe people work hard for us, so we need to work hard for them,” he said.