Category: Austin (Page 263 of 318)

BY IAN PANCHEVRE
Silicon Hills News Reporter

It’s okay if you haven’t heard the rumors yet.
Supposedly – and this has been verified by a number of sources who are generally in the know – gossip has been stirring about the sudden appearance of various technology professionals and enthusiasts in Austin this weekend. Apparently, a bunch of people randomly decided to travel from distant lands and descend upon Texas’ capitol.
I’ve been told there’s some sort of conference going on. I think it’s called South by Southwest. But I’m not sure. I’ve only heard people say “South by.” And every time I’ve read about the get-together, it’s referred to as “SXSW.”
At any rate, I was told there would be plenty of free food and drinks of the alcoholic persuasion. That was all I needed to hear to plan on going. But when I learned that a Badge for the Interactive Festival cost $1,150, I suddenly had second thoughts.
Fortunately, I learned about a program called Interact, which is a “community of the brightest young entrepreneurs in the startup scene.” Interact was founded by Maran Nelson, a senior at the University of Texas. Their premier event, Interact ATX, has partnered with high-profile sponsors to generously provide discounted badges to 100 young entrepreneurs, as well as exclusive events for the 2013 Interact class.
Somehow, I managed to trick the good people of Interact into thinking I was bright, young and an entrepreneur.
The truth is, I’m 23 which feels surprisingly old. Sure, I was fortunate to attend an Ivy League school, but my two-year stint in New Haven was enough to teach me that “bright” is very much a subjective term. As for being an entrepreneur? I’ve worked on a few projects, past and present, the pinnacle of which was a social, customer-loyalty app called Qliq. But everyone knows that you’re not a real entrepreneur until your company IPOs or sells for 10+ figures. So I’ve still got some work to do until I can plan my sabbatical on the French Riviera.
But enough about me. Let’s talk about South by Southwest, erm, SXSW.
Needless to say, I’m excited for what’s to come. So excited that a declarative sentence, written in all caps and followed by a dozen exclamation points would underrate my excitement.

I’M SO EXCITED THAT I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT I’M DOING!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, seriously. What am I doing these next few days?
As a SXSW novice I don’t really know how to navigate the festival. Fortunately, Interact ATX has put a few events on the calendar for me. But I can’t help but notice that hours of my days are open, unstructured, free.
For the past few days, almost by the hour, I’ve been learning – through email, twitter, blogs, Facebook, and carrier pigeons – of some new, super awesome, can’t miss, absolutely-must-attend meet up, crawl, hackathon, pool party, rooftop party, nightclub party, and lounge party.
And then there’s the serious stuff. The keynotes, the presentations, the workshops.
Fortunately, there are lots of resources for keeping tabs on SXSW.
Twitter aficionados might find it useful to follow a few accounts, which have been carefully curated by The Horn: @ChronSXSW, @AusChronMusic, @sxswparty, @360sxsw, @SPINsxsw, @googlesxsw, @Media_TheHorn, @rsvpforyourlife, @SXSWbaby, @SXSWPartyList, @sxswist and @Do512.
If you’re a traditionalist, the official SXSW website is a good place to start. Take note that if you have a badge to any of the three festivals – Music, Film, and Interactive – you’ll also have access to the Comedy events. Hello Sarah Silverman!
For the more professionally minded among us, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has kindly provided a master schedule of events that it is supporting.
And if you want to get ahead of the curve by downloading as many SXSW apps as possible, before the festival (yes, even among early adopters, there are early adopters). Well, this would be the place to start.
I have to admit – it’s already feeling like sensory overload and I haven’t even finished my laundry yet.
And then there’s Silicon Hills News. Susan Lahey, Andrew Moore, and of course, Laura Lorek, will all be present to share their experiences with the world wide web.
As for me? SHN has been fantastically supportive about letting me explore my journalistic whims. So for the next few days, I’ll be writing a series of sorts. This is part 1.0.0 of Adventures in Austin. In future pieces, I’ll explore the economic impact of SXSW, deep-dive into Interact ATX, and comment on the technologies that are making the most noise.
But right now, I need to move some clothes out of the dryer and into a small suitcase. I-35 is calling my name. Time to get going.

BY ANDREW MOORE
Silicon Hills News Reporter

It’s the first week of March — and that means the latest meeting of SA New Tech! Want your company to have biometric face and fingerprint scanners just like in spy movies? FaceKey can do just that. Plus, Cloud Options shows how cloud computing space can be sold in a futures market like any other commodity.

Cloud Options (aka Strategic Blue)
Cloud Options is a cloud brokering company founded by CEO James Mitchell Ph.D. It is also one of the 12 startups currently going through the TechStars Cloud program at Geekdom.
The company serves as a middleman between big cloud computing companies, like Rackspace Hosting, and clients that need more flexible, or cheaper, cloud options that the big companies can’t provide.
“Wouldn’t it be great if you could get reliable costs for your particular project that starts on a particular date and runs for a particular duration,” says Mitchell. “And wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to prepay for that.”
When dealing with a major cloud computing provider such as Rackspace Hosting or Amazon, customers have to commit to long term services. A business that only needs four months of cloud hosting, or only two months but at a very high volume, is forced to pay for more time than they need. Furthermore, that business is forced to use a credit card – a required part of signing up for the services.
Cloud Options allows users to “book” shorter or more irregular stays on big cloud company services at a lower price than those companies offer. The companies get a simple invoice from Cloud Options instead of having to use a credit card for payment. Invoices are sent out at the end of each month of scheduled cloud usage, and the months don’t even have to be back-to-back. Using Cloud Options, a business could book two months in the summer and one month in the fall if they wanted to.
Cloud Options pulls this off by first buying a year of cloud computing space from a major company at a substantially discounted price – which the company agrees to because it provides income security and grants them access to more customers using their services.
“Cloud providers love Cloud Options because we are a valuable service for customers who are frustrated by limited billing choice,” says Mitchell.
Cloud Options then sells parts of that space to cloud users at a somewhat lesser discount – which grants Cloud Options a profit. By paying Cloud Options, users not only get a small discount but can now book cloud computing space on a much more flexible schedule. If a user overstays their contract with Cloud Options, they can continue to use cloud services but will now have to pay the provider directly at full price.
Cloud Options offers additional advantages as well. Cloud Options has already paid for its cloud computing space in advance, which means it can offer a user certainty that the discounted price offered will not fluctuate in the future. The company can even accommodate users in other countries that wish to pay in non-U.S. currency.
Cloud Options was funded by Morgan Stanley for 14 months before the bank had to break connection because of regulations. T-Systems Managing Director Sam Kingston is currently an investor in the company and will eventually be the Chief Operating Officer.

FaceKey
FaceKey was founded by Yevgeny B. Levitov Ph.D. – a former soviet scientist who immigrated to the U.S. in 1991. The company has been working on biometric recognition solutions for ten years and has created a small face and fingerprint recognition device similar to what is seen in movies. In fact, FaceKey’s technology was in the film “Man on a Ledge”. It is also utilized at Geekdom of San Antonio. FaceKey matches a user’s face to two different images – one in regular light and one in infrared light. This allows the device to see its user in a wide range of lighting conditions.
Levitov claims there are many advantages to using a biometric system for building access instead of just cards.
“This card can be used by me or by you – by anybody else,” said Levitov.
Levitov says cards can be exchanged, broken, or lost just like any “key” device. Cards also carry an additional cost because one must be given to every employee.
There are more interesting security risks as well. Levitov showed the audience a small handheld device which he bought from China for $19.99. The device looked like a gadget from a Jason Bourn film.
“This is card duplicator. It is very smart device. It can duplicate your card even if it is in your pocket,” said Levitov. “The problem is that this device copies the information on the card even with (an) encryption. That’s why there is no security.”
Levitov says the technology is especially useful in emergency situations.
“If you have for example some disaster in the building like fire, it’s very difficult to find out what has happened and who has not survived – who is missing. Our system can – in real time – help you to find who is missing.”
Other examples of where biometrics can be helpful include the practice of “buddy punching” — A situation where a friend will punch their buddy’s time card after work so he can leave early. A biometric device would prevent this from occurring.
FaceKey can install a fingerprint system for $1,000 or a fingerprint and face recognition system, similar to the one at Geekdom, for $2,500. While this price is much higher than the core components of card systems, which are around $300, Levitov says that card systems require a complicated and expensive network of wiring between card reading panels which is hidden in a card system’s price. FaceKey, he says, can be integrated with a building’s existing computer network which results in a much cheaper installation cost verses a card reader. The device can even function if its network goes down, utilizing a built in database of biometric data.
FaceKey is currently talking to several companies working for the Department of Homeland Security to see if its technology can be utilized in that area.

Handshakez announced Wednesday that it has closed $3.6 million in venture capital financing.
Austin Ventures led the Series A round along with with First Round Capital, FLOODGATE, CrunchFund, Valhalla Partners and Thinktiv.
The Austin-based startup is “led by Jason Wesbecher, previously VP of Strategic Accounts at Jive Software; Scott Brittain, previously VP Engineering at Solarwinds; and Michael Osborne, previously Chief Revenue Officer at Bazaarvoice,” according to a news release
Handshakez has 50 customers on its customer relationship collaboration and analytics platform.
“The act of shaking hands is as old as commerce itself — and signals engagement, trust and balance between two people,” Handshakez co-founder and CEO Jason Wesbecher said in a news release. “This engagement has been under enormous strain in the last two decades by CRM technologies that have not kept up with the needs of the modern customer. The term CRM itself is wildly out of touch: customers don’t want to be managed, they want to be engaged. Handshakez is solving this today by humanizing and simplifying front end processes to put the customer at the center of the relationship.”
“There is a tremendous opportunity to take customer relationships out of email and bring new levels of collaboration to an age old sales process,” Thomas Ball, General Partner at Austin Ventures, said in a news release. “Successful enterprise companies like Jive and Yammer have proven that engagement, not record keeping, is the future. Handshakez has what it takes to build an industry-leading company in this space: seasoned leadership, an insider’s understanding of the market, and the vision to re-shape front-end enterprise applications around the customer.”

Right before South by Southwest kicks off, Taskbox is making a lot of news.
The Austin-based startup Taskbox, which makes a popular iPhone app to manage an email inbox, announced it has raised $600,000 in seed stage funding from angel investors with the Central Texas Angel Network.
The company also released the 2.0 version of its social task management app for email. The app turns email into prioritized tasks.
Silicon Hills News did this spotlight on the company last October when it had a campaign going on Kickstarter to raise $30,000. That campaign was not successful.
“Taskbox is transforming the process of reading, prioritizing and following up on emails and action items,” Andrew Eye, CEO of Taskbox, said in a news release. “Taskbox isn’t only for casual use. Our customers have been asking us for features that would allow them to organize both their personal and professional lives in one tool.”
“With Taskbox, users can experience the best aspects of task management without ever leaving their inboxes,” Rick Timmins of the Central Texas Angel Network said in a news release. “Taskbox is not only making it faster to manage email workflows, but its bringing transparency and accountability back to the email process. People can finally close the loop on every outstanding message. If that isn’t providing value in today’s world, I don’t know what is.”
Taskbox also made GigaOm’s list of the 10 startups to visit with at SXSW Interactive 2013. And Taskbox is one of 12 finalists chose to pitch at the Hatch startup competition on Sunday.

Bloomfire announced today that it has raised another $8 million in financing from founding investors at Austin Ventures and Redpoint Ventures.
The Austin-based company comes as the company’s has landed 200 paying customers and 65,000 users.
To date, Bloomfire has raised $18 million. The company plans to use the money for engineering, sales and marketing.
Founded in 2010, Bloomfire bills itself as a software company that has created a “knowledge sharing platform.” Today, it also announced improvements to its flagship product to connect its customers to multimedia content, real time Q&A and social networks.
“The way people discover, consume and share information has fundamentally shifted, as mobile and social platforms continue to reshape how we communicate and interact across every aspect of our lives, especially in the workplace,” Chris Pacitti, General Partner at Austin Ventures, said in a news release. “By unifying the information silos created by mobile, social and cloud technologies, Bloomfire is poised to make a huge impact on how enterprise workforces collaborate. We look forward to continuing to support them in that mission.”
“Bloomfire has taken a leadership position in addressing the critical unsolved problem of capturing and sharing valuable informal knowledge and delivering it exactly where and when it is needed,” Jeff Brody, Partner at Redpoint Ventures said in a news release. “Craig Malloy and his veteran team of entrepreneurs have worked together for years in previous businesses that Redpoint and I have funded. They have made impressive progress in Bloomfire’s first full year of operation and made our investment decision very easy.”

Geekdom, the collaborative coworking site in downtown San Antonio, has launched GeekdomX, a new affiliate in which it will seek partners globally to open similar coworking sites.
Geekdom, which launched a little over a year ago, has 600 members. Its first GeekdomX location will open in San Francisco this summer.
Nick Longo and Graham Weston, cofounders of Geekdom, have plans to expand the concept nationally and internationally through select partnerships. Already six cities and one country have expressed interest in establishing a GeekdomX.
“We’re looking for people with tech cred,” Longo said. “This isn’t about collecting royalties. It isn’t a franchise. This is not about world domination. This is about finding the right people in their community to build a tech city.”
Today, Geekdom unveiled the program along with a new Website. Longo, director of Geekdom, is also speaking on alternative financing for coworking spaces this afternoon at the Global Coworking Unconference Conference. Geekdom is a sponsor of the event and has a booth at the Austin Music Hall, where the two-day conference is taking place, to provide information on its new program.

Geekdom is a sponsor of Silicon Hills News and SHN is a media sponsor of the Global Coworking Unconference Conference

BY L.A. LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News

Traditional work is killing people so they are looking for alternatives and coworking fills that void.
That’s the view of Gervais Tompkin with Gensler, a global design firm. He spoke Tuesday morning on a panel on trends in coworking at the Global Coworking Unconference Conference. An estimated 300 people are attending the two-day conference at the Austin Music Hall.
“Modern work has pushed everything we’re doing onto little screens,” Tompkin said. “Work in a traditional office environment is literally killing people.”
Coworking can make people more active, Tompkin said. The computer and Internet age has resulted in workers leading more sedentary lives. That coupled with a poor diet in the U.S. has led to an obesity epidemic. Coworking can bring more balance into people’s lives and lead to a healthier lifestyle, Tompkin said.
Coworking is a movement that is about 10 years old but in the last few years it has grown tremendously.
Work is changing, said Jean-Yves Huwart, an expert in organizational models with Global Enterprise, and the panel’s moderator.
Coworking is becoming a specialized industry, said Liz Elam, GCUC founder who runs Link Coworking in Austin. Coworking sites that specialize in food, technology, maker spaces and more are popping up around the country.
More than 110,000 people worldwide work in one of the nearly 2,500 coworking spaces worldwide, according to deskmag, a coworking magazine which covers the industry. Its annual report shows that coworking spaces increased 83 percent last year and membership at those spaces grew 117 percent.
An explosion in the number of coworking venues allows employees more flexibility on how and where they do their jobs, according to panelists. Austin has more than a dozen coworking space scattered around the city. San Antonio has Geekdom, the state’s largest coworking space with more than 500 members.
Coworking spaces allow people to work remotely in a workplace with others. The businesses provide desks, Internet access, networking and coffee. Some are run as nonprofit ventures, but the majority are for profit ventures. The workplaces encourage collaboration and provide workers a more social and interactive environment than working from home.
“It’s the new health club you can get your workout and get your work done,” said Tompkin with Gensler. “People come to cowork with an intention.”
The coworking movement is a phenomena that is taking people by surprise, Tompkin said. He estimates that 77 percent of all relationship’s are virtual so people need contact with others to be happy and productive.
“We need these extremely divergent experiences to keep us human,” he said.
The U.S. has the most coworking spaces with 781, ahead of Germany’s 230, Spain’s 199, Great Britain’s 154 and Japan’s 129, according to deskmag. Altogether, 83 countries have coworking facilities.
The industry is not going to slow down, said Kevin Kuske, chief brand anthropologist with turnstone, and panelist.
“The things that drove coworking to be popular are not slowing down,” he said.
He estimated that there will be 1.3 billion virtual workers in the next decade. And energy costs and carbon emissions is also driving that behavior, he said.
At a later panel on corporate coworking, company representatives said coworking gives their employees flexibility and the ability to save time commuting to a remote office.

Disclosures: Silicon Hills News is a media sponsor of the Global Coworking Unconference Conference. And Geekdom is a sponsor of Silicon Hills News.

The Austin Technology Council Monday announced a free Gateway to Austin’s Best app to showcase Austin’s coolest technologies, food and entertainment.
ATC’s Gateway to Austin’s Best app has been developed in partnership with Circuit of the Americas, MapMyFitness, Tabbedout, the Austin Food Blogger Alliance, Austin Startup Games and RED Method. The Gateway mobile app for iPhone and Android is a guide to the food, tech and entertainment. The app provides Austin’s best maps, lists, links and picks to help navigate Austin during South by Southwest.
People who download and use the Gateway to Austin’s Best app will be entered to win two tickets to any 2013 event at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas. Winners will be announced at the ATC CEO Summit on May 8th.
“We will only be successful in Austin as a global competitor if we work collectively to showcase what we all know and love about Austin tech,” ATC President Julie Huls said in a news release. “We get to experience the best and brightest in Austin everyday– we have amazing executives; hundreds of available tech jobs; and a cool scene to support a strong workforce. Now, it’s time to showcase what we know and love to the rest of the world.”
ATC, with more than 7,000 members, is hosting its first “Very Important Tech or VIT” Gateway Party, Thursday, March 7, at ACL Live at The Moody Theater from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. for its members. Reserve a ticket on its website. The party features music by the White Ghost Shivers, LED dancers and executive networking.

A new travel startup, Localeur launched today in Austin.
The site, aimed at Millennial travellers, provides local travel recommendations from “a curated community of local insiders,” according to the company’s news release.
Localeur is only available in Austin right now, but plans to expand to other cities this year.
Joah Spearman and Chase White, former employees with Austin-based ratings-and-review software company Bazaarvoice, founded the company.
“Localeur gives Millennials the confidence of having a local experience by putting the recommendations in the hands of local insiders,” Spearman, CEO, said in a news release. “Review sites don’t get to the heart of a city and travel books get outdated too quickly.”
“Austin is a perfect fit to launch Localeur and a model city for the kind of local travel Millennials want,” said White, president. “People in Austin are very attuned to eating and shopping local, and our curated, screened group of Localeurs offer recommendations that only fellow Austinites could know.”
Early investors in Localeur include Austin-based serial entrepreneur and investor Chris Shonk, Sweet Leaf Tea and Deep Eddy Vodka co-founder and CEO Clayton Christopher and Austin City Limits executive producer Terry Lickona. Other Austin investors include identity protection industry leader Joe Ross and Spredfast co-founder Ken Cho. The company also has investors outside of Austin.

Localeur | Experience Local™ from Localeur on Vimeo.

The University of Texas at Austin wants student entrepreneurs to receive as much recognition and support as the school’s athletes, according to Bob Metcalfe.
Metcalfe, UT professor of innovation and a successful entrepreneur, innovator and venture capitalist, heads up the university’s Longhorn Startup Program, previously known as One Semester Startup, along with serial entrepreneur Joshua Baer. That program has helped dozens of student entrepreneurs launch companies and seek investment capital.
This week, the University of Texas puts the spotlight on campus innovators with UT Entrepreneurship Week, which is a week of events designed to develop student entrepreneurs and their new ventures. The full list of events can be found on its website.
This evening, Metcalfe will discuss the importance of student entrepreneurship to kick off the UT Entrepreneurship Student Startup Expo, which highlights 15 student run companies. The event is hosted by Scientific Entrepreneurial Society and run by Taylor Barnett.
“The goal for E Week is to engage the student body in supporting these students and considering the entrepreneurial lifestyle,” according to Nick Spiller, one of its organizers.
The event includes a special Longhorn Entrepreneur Awards Dinner on Wednesday at 7:30. For the first time, the university’s student government will recognize a Student Entrepreneur of the Year.