Category: Austin (Page 260 of 318)

The Beta Summit at Innotech San Antonio showcases some of the most innovative young startups. Last year’s winner, CallGrader went on to land a spot on DreamIt Ventures’ Philadelphia incubator program. This year, Nicholas Longo, co-founder and director of Geekdom, a collaborative coworking space at the Weston Centre downtown, will moderate the event. Silicon Hills News is sponsoring the event which takes place Wednesday, April 17th at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio.

Innotech San Antonio 2013 Beta Summit Companies:

Amazing JellyBean is a smart power switch that reboots your devices in the correct order to solve connection problems. About 80 percent of all Internet connectivity problems can be fixed by simply rebooting the devices, according to Jim Pyle, founder and inventor of the Amazing Jellybean. The company is currently raising $10,000 on Kickstarter.

Kirpeep, which stands for Keeping It Real People, is an exchange engine working to empower those who provide value to their communities, by making it easy to exchange for goods and services, with or without money. Steven Quintanilla, a 2010 graduate of M.I.T., is the founder. The company received a $25,000 investment from the Geekdom Fund.

SocialRest is social media for developers made simple. The company, which spun out of 3 Day Startup in San Antonio, takes care of maintaining API changes on social networks so developers no longer have to redeploy their applications. They can simply code and forget about it. With SocialRest, they do not have to go back and fix old applications. Clay Selby is the company’s founder.

SOLOSHOT is a first of its kind product that enables anyone – from extreme sport athletes to little league parents – to easily film the action with NO camera operator. The SOLOSHOT tripod automatically keeps a camera pointed towards the subject. SOLOSHOT is manufactured in-house in San Antonio. Scott Taylor and Chris Boyle are the founders of SOLOSHOT.

Sportybird is a cloud-based social platform built for in-game analytics of youth soccer. All collegiate and pro teams around the world use in-game analytics to improve team performance. Joshua Swank and John Trenholm, founders of Sportybird.io, are bringing the same technology to youth teams. The company received a $25,000 investment from the Geekdom Fund.

Greenhouse connects the crowd of Funders with passionate Founders. Greenhouse recognizes that great companies begin with a great community. The Greenhouse crowdfunding platform helps Funders discover companies that are important to them, lets Funders invest for equity in the companies, and provides Funders and Founders with the tools to build value together.

Note to readers: This post originally reported four companies would be showcasing themselves at the Innotech Beta Summit. But since the originally posting, two more companies have been added to the roster. Those additional companies are SportyBird.io and Greenhouse.

Q2ebanking has closed on $20 million in Series C financing.
The Austin-based company provides highly secure electronic banking solutions for banks and credit unions throughout the U.S.
Battery Ventures, a new investor, led the round. Existing investor Adams Street Partners also participated.
Q2ebanking provides ebanking technology for approximately 400 financial institutions, reaching over 3 million online users.
The company plans to use the latest round of funding to expand its sales and marketing efforts and to invest in cloud platform technology.
“New research and development efforts will focus on a unified user experience, mobility solutions, additional commercial features and further enhancing the company’s leading edge security offering,” according to the company.
“The addition of Battery Ventures and the continued commitment from Adams Street Partners is a reaffirmation of our single echannel strategy and its corresponding value to the market,” Matt Flake, CEO and president of Q2, said in a news release. “The investments we are making will enable Q2 to further serve the needs of our current and future clients, and prepare the company for its next stage of growth.”

Spanning Cloud Apps has closed on $6 million in Series B funding.
The Austin-based company makes backup software for Google Apps.
The company reported that an undisclosed strategic investor led the round and Foundry Group of Boulder, Colo. also participated.
Since its founding in 2010, Spanning Cloud Apps has raised $9 million.
“We’ve spent the last two years building the best backup system on the planet for the millions of businesses that use Google Apps,” Charlie Wood, CEO and founder of Spanning, said in a news release “This infusion of capital will allow us to accelerate the build-out of our direct sales team and reseller channel, while extending the product lead we’ve established over our competitors. It also provides us with an important strategic partner.”
The company plans to hire additional workers. It currently has 20 employees and expects to have 50 by the end of the year.
“Businesses are increasingly moving away from the traditional desktop-based Microsoft Office to the more collaborative and cost-effective cloud-based Google Apps,” according to the company. “With over five million businesses and 50 million users currently leveraging Google Apps worldwide, and 5,000 businesses migrating to Google Apps each day, it represents the fastest growing business productivity solution segment.”
“Spanning’s cloud-to-cloud backup solution solves a critical issue for leading organizations worldwide whose data is at risk,” Seth Levine, managing director, Foundry Group, and Spanning board member, said in a news release. “This leadership team has extensive experience in Google Apps and a deep track record of success in enterprise software. They are building the right culture and have a great vision for growing their business.”

Dachis Group announced Wednesday the completion of a $7.5 million Series C funding round led by Austin Ventures.
The Austin-based company will use the money to expand development of its big data social marketing analytics platform, which measures the impact of global brands.
Since its founding in 2008 by Jeffrey Dachis, who previously founded Razorfish, the company has raised $58.5 million, according to TechCrunch. It previously raised $30 million from Austin Ventures in a Series B Round in January of 2011, TechCrunch reported.
“There is no doubt in our minds that social engagement is driving more effective brand marketing,” Chris Pacitti, General Partner, Austin Ventures, said in a news release. “Given the enormous market for brand spend globally, we are a big believer in Jeff’s vision and approach. With an ever-expanding set of social engagement currencies, it is our continued belief that the disruptive platform the team at Dachis Group has built has the opportunity to become the ‘de facto’ standard in social measurement. We are delighted to continue to partner with Jeff and his team.”
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it, and we have the most powerful enterprise class social analytics platform in market today to help brands measure and manage social engagement programs across all social engagement touch points,” Dachis, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Dachis Group, said in a news release. “This additional funding will enable us to better meet the growing needs of our customers who all share our belief that data driven social marketing is modern marketing’s future.”
Dachis Group’s customers include Nokia, New York Life, Starwood, Bloomberg, Bank of America, Estee Lauder, Acer and AT&T. The company currently analyzes the social engagement of more than 35,000 brands and several hundred million social transactions daily.

Savara Pharmaceuticals closed on $7.4 million, the second tranche of a $16 million Series B financing round to expand the clinical trial testing of its drug to treat lung infections in Cystic Fibrosis patients.
In addition, Savara was awarded a $4 million grant by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
The Austin-based company has created a drug called AeroVanc, which is the first “inhaled antibiotic being developed to address the growing population of MRSA-infected Cystic Fibrosis patients.”
“Savara’s new investors include members of the Tech Coast Angels and the North Texas Angel Network, along with returning investors from the Central Texas Angel Network and The Keiretsu Forum, which led the $8.6 million first tranche of the Series B in June 2012,” according to a news release. Other independent investors also participated.
The company increased the round, which was oversubscribed, from $13 million to $16 million. Since its founding in 2007, Savara Pharmaceuticals has raised $19 million.
“Savara has quickly emerged as one of the key players in inhaled antibiotics, but unlike all other similar products, AeroVanc is the first one to specifically address the growing problem of MRSA lung infection in cystic fibrosis,” Rob Neville, Chief Executive Officer of Savara Pharmaceuticals, said in a news release. “This has created substantial interest among an increasing number of high caliber investors, with strong support from key opinion leaders and the CF medical community.”

BY ALAN WEINKRANTZ
Special Contributor to Silicon Hills News

This year, my SXSW experience started at the Abbey Road crossing in London on

Sunday, February 23, followed by a visit to Liverpool, England on Friday, March 1.
Crossing Abbey Road. In a Geekdom shirt, of course.
I was there with a life-long friend from college, on a Beatles pilgrimage. Being in
Liverpool was incredibly special. The last time I was there, I spent my 21st birthday.
Now, approaching my 60th, it was time to return.
Like many of us then, and to some extent, today, the Beatles influenced, well, just
about everything.
Back then, music was our source code. It gave rise to a global social consciousness
raising that set the tone for everything from putting a man on the moon, to the
decline of communism, the invention of the microprocessor, and of course, what
become the Internet.
I believe we are in the middle of history repeating itself with the manifestation of
a new form of code: it’s the apps and all the cool technologies and gizmos we are
using to digitize our lives and allow us to express, communicate and manage our
relationships in new ways.

As Humanity Evolves, So Does SXSW

For me, this year’s SXSW experience was about intent.
For one week out of the fifty-two in a year, the expression of intent is not about
doing business development, landing a big deal, or a possible career move up the
food chain.
I believe the act of intent shows a sign of faith that while you may not be able to
rationalize or clearly understand what you are doing, your instinct says you just
have to go with the flow, be intentional, and be open to new flows of energy and
opportunity that could come your way.

Aside from having a speaking slot – sharing the stage with Jeff Pulver on Israel’s Startup Economy, and doing client work, my intent was to attend several of the seminars that were of personal interest to me and be inspired by big thinkers
and doers. I did make it to hear Tim Ferris, Esther Dyson, and Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone.
I had five other “must-listen / gotta get inspired” talks I wanted to sit in on, but enroute to each talk, the randomness and magic of SXSW swung into full effect. In some cases I ran into people I follow on various social networks. In others, it was friends from San Antonio that I don’t see as often as I would like to. I crossed paths with friends from Israel, the UK, and all over the U.S. There were some friends that I never got to see, but felt their presence on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter as they were there.
In one case, I was standing outside of the convention center, and saw someone “very famous” looking around trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B. I went up to him and said, “hi – I know the area pretty well. You look lost. Can I help you?” This famous person accepted my offer and we walked a couple of blocks as I helped him find his way to his next appointment or interview.
While I have always been awestruck of this very famous person, suddenly I realized that he was just a normal person.
He was human.
He was real.
And he showed his vulnerability.
In another special moment in time, I ran into a friend, and we started to compare notes in the challenges of getting budgets for clients. In her infinite wisdom, my friend said, “there’s always a budget, but not for me…” On the spot, I knew there was a country western song in there. We agreed to save that nugget and re-visit it again at our next random encounter. For those of you reading this story, just you wait; we’ll be on stage on day singing this very famous song to be.

The Dow at Almost 14,500. Happy Days Are Here Again, But For Different Reasons

During SXSW Interactive, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was zooming and booming to new highs, almost getting to 14,500. Happy days were here again, but for totally different reasons.

On the show floor, countries like Korea, Chile, Ireland, and Mexico were there showcasing startups, and promoting innovation that were indigenous to the genetic code of their country. Offsite, there was the State of Israel’s dinner at an Italian restaurant that I attended. As with the folks from Chile, we celebrated with great food and terrific wine.
Going from booth to booth, each foreign country I visited all had similar messages: we see the future, we have connectivity, smart and passionate people, and we are out to rule the world.
While not on the show floor, I spent quite a bit of time with someone who is doing some amazing things with a non-profit organization in Egypt. He told me that the best thing that happened since the revolution, was that young people want to take part in the startup economy. He’s creating a new type of venture capital fund to tap into the entrepreneurial opportunities that is taking hold in his country.

Microsoft Comes A Calling

In my travels to Israel, I get to speak at many of the accelerators, one of which includes the Microsoft Azure Accelerator program in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. Knowing that I was at SXSW, they asked me to interview one of the companies that
was in their program. I was not only happy to help out, I was thrilled. I knew the company when it was a great idea and had some early stage seed funding. Fast forward one year later, and they had not only raised a nice round, but they were
doing licensing deals with some major brands.

New Terms of Art

From what evolves at SXSW, are born new trades and terms of art.
Big data was used in various forms and for the first time ever, I learned the term, “data journalist,” in the Visual.ly booth. The “ quantified self” was on my radar. Devices like FitBit and Nike Fuelband were in full motion, adorned from the jeans and wrists of attendees.
The liberation of currency was clearly on the tradeshow floor. Several crowdfunding sites and professional services providers who are becoming part of this ecosystem were also promoting their message.
One of my favorite talks during SXSW: Transcending Tech: Is G-d Rebooting the World, with Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone from Lubavitch.com

The Rise of Mentorship
I saw themes of mentorship this year, which also plays a big role in what I am doing. It’s part of the ethos of what we, as residents at San Antonio-based Geekdom have taken a pledge to mentor our fellow community members at what has now become the largest collaborative workspace in the State of Texas.
Tuesday afternoon, I had to leave to return back to my office at Geekdom for a very special event. Brad Feld was in town, sharing his vision on what it takes to build a startup community. I’m fortunate to have my office at Geekdom where I can mentor, do client work, and be around incredibly smart people whose goodness, intellect and intent is clearly there.
In our intent to do new things with the tools, bandwidth and platforms we now have, there is forever something that’s not just better, but more optimistic that was in full swing at SXSW.
SXSW is a platform that creates a place for you to open yourself up to experiencing the medium of intent.
When you put intent into motion, you can reset, calibrate, discover and yes, be discovered. There are people from all over the world randomly (or not so randomly) connecting through the medium of intent.
You now have twelve months to get ready for SXSW 2014.
Think about what your intent is, how you can discover what’s new, and be open to being discovered.
With positive intent, March 2014 will be a good time to return to Austin, Texas for the next adventures of SXSW.

Alan Weinkrantz is a Public Relations advisor to technology companies and startups
worldwide.

Disclosure: Geekdom is a sponsor of Silicon Hills News. Alan Weinkrantz is an advertiser on the site.

BY IAN PANCHEVRE
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

Austin is now in my rearview mirror.
Well, not exactly. I reasoned that writing this article while driving would be rather imprudent. So instead, I find myself at a Starbucks in Buda, TX, reflecting on the blur of events and emotions that transpired over the past few days.
It’s hard to summarize SXSW in a concise, all encapsulating sentence or phrase. Even the great Rachel Maddow struggled with the following question posed by @IanPanchevre via Twitter: #AskMaddow – Fill in the blank, SXSW is a lot like _______________.
Maddow’s answer – “I feel like it’s a cross between a political convention and lollapalooza” – came off a little flat. Lollapalooza? I’ll buy that. A political convention? Hmm…
Here’s another attempt to summarize the festival: Inspiring and humbling.
Starting with the inspiring, Astro Teller, a member of Google’s experimental laboratory, Google[x], spoke Tuesday morning on “Moonshots,” Teller’s term for ambitious, far-reaching projects and people. He encouraged the audience to think creatively, to set big goals, and to fearlessly pursue the supposed impossible.
“We want to work on something really thrilling, something that really matters, something that pushes us to our limits while doing it with people whom we deeply respect and admire,” explained Teller.
As for a modern day archetype of a moonshot, Teller points to Elon Musk. Without a doubt, Musk stole the show on Saturday with narratives from SpaceX (a private space exploration company), Tesla Motors (an electric vehicle manufacturer), and SolarCity (a provider of solar power systems).
“He’s doing all these amazing things at the same time!” exclaimed Stephen Blank, author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. “So, next time you take a look at your little mobile app, realize there’s still more to accomplish.”
And that leads me to the humbling.
Blank, speaking Saturday morning, drew a comparison between the two industry clusters in California – technology in Silicon Valley and film and entertainment in Hollywood. His assessment was that Silicon Valley, like Hollywood, has become a “star ecosystem” where celebrity figures are idolized, gossip constantly churns, and supporting industries extract value from the few who do productive work.
Blank’s message: don’t get distracted by the glamour of startups, stay focused on building a great product and good things should follow.
Okay, but what about the tech? Yes, there was lots of that too.
Surprisingly, mobile technologies were quiet at SXSW 2013. Given the track record of mobile launches at the festival, there was certainly an air of expectation for something to rise above the noise.
Not this year. If there were truly a breakout mobile app, I didn’t hear about it.
Yes, there were some cool apps. Aurasma, an augmented reality application boasts great performance, design, and branding. Tout, a Twitter-like service for short videos, got some attention. But that was mostly because Shaquille O’Neal, a Tout-backer, made a few appearances on the company’s behalf.
All things considered, no true marvels of technical accomplishment nor user engagement presented themselves among the mobile applications.
Perhaps what is most telling is that the only app that did seem to organically capture a fragment of the festival’s attention was Tinder – a dating app that, though well designed and fairly “sticky,” can be easily written off as flashy, valueless, and ephemeral.
Rather, SXSW 2013 will most likely be known as a year for hardware products, as opposed to enterprise software or consumer applications.
Additive printing technologies (i.e. 3D printing) built upon the momentum they gained at SXSW 2012 to claim a lot of the spotlight in 2013. The festival was given a proper kickoff by Bre Pettis, Founder and CEO of MakerBot, who entertained the audience at the first keynote. Conversations abounded throughout the weekend about the social, economic, and legal implications of this coming revolution in manufacturing.
OUYA – the new gaming console that will soon come to a store near you – was introduced to the SXSW audience by Julie Uhrman, its Founder and CEO. OUYA, priced at $99, empowers game developers of any size and budget to sell games through OUYA’s marketplace. Uhrman shared insights on running a successful Kickstarter (OUYA holds the record for the most amount of money raised on Kickstarter; $8.6 million from over 63,000 individual backers), the difficulties of product design, manufacturing, and distribution, and the deficiencies of the existing gaming ecosystem.
Leap Motion’s motion-control device was a big hit as well. Co-founders Michael Buckwald and David Holz dazzled the crowd by elucidating upon the technical wizardry of their controller’s hardware and software. The Leap Motion promotional tent – where attendees could manipulate various applications by waiving their hands and fingers – was a popular destination. In fact, yours truly was so impressed that he pre-ordered a Leap Motion Controller for $80, to be shipped later in March.
And then there were the wearables. Wristbands and watches that capture key biometrics à la FitBit abounded. But Google Glass – Mountain View’s bold new technology that places an internet overlay in front of a user’s eyes – perhaps stirred the most geek juice at SXSW. Sadly, my attempts to sneak into a presentation on the technology (the room reached capacity before I could get in) were unsuccessful.
Space exploration was another area that captured curiosity. Not only did Musk raise excitement about private space exploration, but NASA also provided perspective on the status of our public space program. A well-attended session on the user experience of a space station touched on interesting topics, such as the challenges of replacing laptops on a space station with iPads.
In retrospect, my extended weekend in Austin was fantastically stimulating. I couldn’t have hoped for better exposure to the latest, most magical, technologies.
Then there was the social side of things. During the day my mind was regularly blown with new ideas. At night, my poor iPhone 5 was barely able to keep up with the onslaught of texts, tweets, trending places, Facebook messages, and emails broadcasting the coolest spots for scoring free food, drinks, and swag; the quality of which was generally very satisfying.
Perhaps the ethos of the festival was best captured during an exchange between Dennis Crowley, Founder and CEO of Foursquare, and Anil Dash, Co-Founder of Activate.
Crowley noted during his interview that at South by Southwest, “you get to experience the future for a couple of days and then you go home and live in the present.”
”Wow, the future has a lot of hangovers!” retorted Dash.
The crowd immediately roared with laughter. Evidently, Dash’s witty remark resonated with a few of the attendees.
As for myself, all I can say is that if I had stayed any longer, I ran a real risk of having my body pull an emergency force quit. So I’m calling it a wrap now, while I can still boast that I survived South by Southwest 2013.
I hope you’ve enjoyed Adventures in Austin! Please feel free to share your thoughts on the series in the comments below.

Previous segments:

Apparently there’s this conference happening in Austin?? Adventures in Austin, Part 1.0.0

Adventures in Austin, Part 2.0.5: SXSW = big fun and big business.

Flying High with Interact ATX! (Adventures in Austin, part 3.2.1)