Alamo Angels announced Tuesday that Kim Biffle is its new executive director and CEO.
The San Antonio-based
group of angel investors, which launched in December of 2016, is now comprised
of more than 100 members who have invested in 18 businesses.
Biffle
is Alamo Angels third executive director. She replaced Cat Dizon who left to
become co-founder and COO of Active Capital, a San Antonio-based venture
capital firm that invests in early stage business to business software startups.
“We are living in exciting times and must meet our
challenges and opportunities with the help of extraordinary leaders. Kim is
exactly that leader Alamo Angels was looking for. She will help us immeasurably
and we look forward to collaborating with her and our partners,” Alamo Angels
board of director Rahul Patel said in a news statement.
Previously Biffle worked as the director of Annual Fund, vice
president of external affairs and chief of engagement at the Witte Museum.
“I am both honored and inspired by the responsibility
afforded to me by Alamo Angels. This is a perfect match for my aspirations to
make a difference in the world. The work and vision of Alamo Angels will have a
meaningful and lasting effect in our community and beyond. I look forward
to helping achieve the mission and work of Alamo Angels,” Biffle said..
Where: Houndstooth Coffee, 401 Congress Ave, (Frost Bank Tower)
Why: Hosted by Open Austin Coffee, created by Damon Clinkscales and
sponsored by Egan Nelson, is an informal gathering of Austin’s tech community
to network over coffee. For more info.
June 6th
Capital Factory 10th Anniversary Party
When: Thursday, June 6th at 5 p.m.
Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street
Why: “Get ready for a Texas-sized birthday party. Capital Factory has finally hit double digits! This year marks our 10th Anniversary, and we intend to honor every person in our community who has helped lead us to where we are today – including all of our amazing founders, mentors, members, staff and investors.” For more info.
June 10th
BioBash Spring
When: Monday, June 10th at 6 p.m.-8
p.m.
Where: Mean Eyed Cat 1621 West 5th Street Austin, TX 78703
Why: “BioAustin invites you to join us for our Spring BioBash event on Monday, June 10th from 6 – 8 PM at the Mean Eyed Cat near Mopac and Cesar Chavez St. BioBash is our premier networking event and provides attendees a chance to hear from the life sciences, biotech and health tech companies here in Central Texas, network with other life science professionals and see posters and abstract from our academic community.” For more info.
June 11th
AI: The Power, Promise & Pragmatic
Potential
When: Tuesday, June 11th at 6:15 p.m.
Where: Austin Central Public Library, 710 W. Cesar Chavez
Why: “In this Austin Forum session on AI, you will hear from experts on what’s driving this, why is it a big deal, and how are individuals, organizations and governments poised to take advantage. You will gain perspectives on how you should shape your involvement and activities to prepare yourself for this new industrial revolution, but also gain practical insights on what you should do to thrive during its evolution into a global force.” For more info.
June 12
Venture Forward
When: Thursday, June 12th at 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: The
Riveter, 1145 West 5th Street Austin, TX 78703
Why: “The Riveter and Christina Vuleta present Venture Forward, a venturing salon focused on helping entrepreneurs move forward in their business ventures. Join us for an evening of collaborative wisdom with featured advisors and connecting with women who are a step or two ahead of you can accelerate your progress and offer the support you need.” For more info.
June 12th
Bumble
Bizz Presents: Connect Like a Boss
When: Wednesday, June 12th at 6:30 p.m.
to 8:30 p.m.
Why: “You are invited to a Pitch Night celebrating the startups of the Innovation Bridge Mexico-Austin program at the Consulate General of Mexico’s Austin office. The startups pitching represent Mexican innovation across many industries.” For more info.
June 12th
State of Talent
When: Wednesday, June 12th 2:30 p.m. to
6 p.m.
Where: UT Austin, Robert B. Rowling Hall, 300 West
MLK Blvd., Austin, TX 78701
Why: “Join key community leaders to learn what it will take to upskill Austin’s talent and how businesses fit into the overall plan. Discover strategies to help employers, job seekers and hiring professionals maximize our workforce, help the unemployed, and attract even more talent. Meet with and hear from the experts with similar challenges and proposed solutions.” For more info.
June 13th
Summer Startup Soiree
When: Thursday, June 13th at 4 p.m.to 6
p.m.
Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street
Why: “We’re thrilled to welcome Brex, the first corporate card built specifically for startups, to Austin for a lively summer networking happy hour at Capital Factory! The evening will kick off with a brief overview from Brex’s very first employee on how the company was able to scale from Beta to Unicorn status in just six months. Capital Factory readily encourages entrepreneurs to take risks, and Brex has first-hand knowledge on how to navigate well-established fields effectively.” For more info.
June 13th
Demystifying Big Data
When: Thursday, June 13th at 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Oracle, 2300
Cloud Way, Austin, TX 78741
Why: “This panel will focus on topics around Big Data (collecting, organizing, and utilizing data), and the past, present, and future of Artificial Intelligence (business and personal use). The panelists will also touch on the skills and qualifications necessary to tap into the industry. Our experienced panelists include executives and recruiters that specialize in hiring data professionals.” For more info.
June 18th-21st
Digital Banking 2019
When: Tuesday, June 18th – Friday, June
21st.
Where: Austin Convention Center, 500 East Cesar Chavez
St.
Why: Various panels, discussions and keynote speakers on the financial technology services industry. For more info.
June 20th
MassChallenge Texas in Austin
When: Thursday, June 20th at 6 p.m. to
8 p.m.
Where: Native
Hostel and Bar & Café, 807 East 4th Street, Austin, TX 78702
Why: “Join the MassChallenge Texas in Austin finalist startups at our largest open-floor, open-to-the-public expo this year! This trade show style event is the first-look at the startups participating in the MassChallenge Texas in Austin 2019 program. Come out to learn about these emerging businesses and how their new ideas and creativity are poised to change the way we live, work, and play.” For more info.
June 27th
Ask Me Anything with Brad Bentz, principal with ATX Venture Partners
When: Thursday, June 27th at 12:00 p.m.
to 1:30 p.m.
Where: Galvanize, 119 Nueces Street, Austin, TX
Why: Lunch and learn – ask me anything – with Brad Bentz, a principal with ATX Venture Partners.For more info.
The financial terms of
the deal were not disclosed.
SmartDog Services,
founded in 1990, is a service provider to customers that use Oracle products.
And Apps Associates is one of the largest Oracle-focused cloud migration and
managed services companies in the U.S.
“SmartDog Services is a
natural extension to our existing portfolio of services and solution and
helps to expand our business with a meaningful footprint in the Central U.S.
region,” Adrian King, CEO at Apps Associates, said in a news release. “In
addition to deep industry knowledge, our organizations share longstanding
relationships with customers and partners, and we are now in an even better
position to help them as they continue to support their existing systems and
embark on migration to the cloud.”
“Apps Associates has a
rich history of delivering long-term value for Oracle customers, and has a
comprehensive service offering that we believe our customers really need,” Scott
Elequin, President of SmartDog Services, said in a news release. “Combining
forces with Apps Associates will allow us to better serve these customers and
will help us fulfill our mission and vision. In addition, og our companies
are both extremely customer-centric, and align from a cultural and
philosophical perspective. This is a natural pairing that will benefit our
employees, our customers and our partners.”
Rick O’Donnell, Founder and CEO of Skills Fund, said in a news release.
Austin-based Skills Fund, a financing platform for bootcamps and tech skill training schools, announced Tuesday that it has been acquired by San Diego, Calif.-based Goal Structured Solutions.
The acquisition was an all cash deal but the sales price was not disclosed.
Skills Fund, founded in
2015, previously raised $11.5 million in seed stage funding.
“We created Skills Fund four years ago with a simple premise: don’t finance students to go to crappy schools. We’ve delivered on that promise by underwriting the quality of education to ensure programs genuinely deliver career outcomes worth a student’s time and money,” Rick O’Donnell, Founder and CEO of Skills Fund, said in a news release. “Furthermore, student demand for lenders who focus on real outcomes is off the charts. By teaming up with Goal, we will have additional resources to serve even more students at a broader array of programs that deliver great outcomes.”
Skills Fund partners
with more than 70 schools and 400 programs. It lends money to students participating
in programs in software development, web development, data science, and
cybersecurity
Goal is the largest
third-party provider of student loan services and currently manages a portfolio
of over $26 billion.
“This transaction is an
exciting opportunity to continue expanding our commitment to outcomes-based
lending. Higher education is moving away from encouraging students (and their
parents) from taking out student loans for an education that doesn’t pay off.
Skills Fund is at the forefront of fixing the misalignments among accreditors,
lenders, and schools regarding what is best for the student. With Skills Fund
now a part of the Goal family of companies, we further strengthen our efforts
as the leader of outcomes-based student lending,” Ken Ruggiero, Chairman and
CEO of Goal, said in a news release.
Skills Fund will operate
as a wholly owned subsidiary of Goal, with the Skills Fund team continuing to
be based out of Austin. O’Donnell and co-founder Joseph Kozusko will continue
to lead the company.
FloSports, live digital sports media company, this week announced it has closed $47 million in new funding.
Current investor Discovery Inc. led the round of funding, which also included participation from existing investors Causeway Media Partners, LP, Fertitta Capital, and DCM Ventures, as well as strategic investors World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments.
To date, the Austin-based company, founded in 2006, has raised $79.2 million in funding. It has 250 employees.
FloSports reports its subscribers and annual recurring revenue grew by more than 50 percent from the previous year.
“We are excited to continue building on the momentum of our recent strong growth, including our best quarter ever,” FloSports CEO and Co-Founder Mark Floreani said in a news release. “With this new round of funding from our investors, we will further enrich underserved sports communities by broadening our existing coverage and expanding into new verticals.”
“We are big believers in the consumer appeal of OTT (Over The Top) verticals like FloSports to serve passionate communities and fans,” Bruce Campbell, Chief Development, Distribution, and Legal Officer, Discovery said in a news release. “FloSports aligns nicely with Discovery’s global direct-to-consumer strategy and provides us with opportunities to apply learnings to our own OTT products. We’re excited to deepen our participation in this growth and innovation story.”
FloSports focuses on covering live events through its subscription-based network. It provides coverage of 25 sports and broadcasts more than 10,000 live events annually.
As a provider of in-depth coverage across 25 sports that broadcast more than 10,000 live events annually.
“While live events are the center of our offering, original programming is a cornerstone—we’re committed to providing our subscribers with engaging content out of season,” Floreani said. Currently, FloSports offers more than 2,000 hours of premium content.
The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce celebrated Austin’s hottest startups at its A-List Award ceremony.
The chamber gave awards to
24 companies in various stages of development. In addition, the Chamber recognized
Joshua Baer with Capital Factory; Dan and Lisa Graham with
Notley; Whitney Wolfe with Bumble for their contribution to the ecosystem in
the culture category.
The event took place last week at ACL Live at the Moody Theater. The following companies won awards:
Backtracks, a data and analytics and hosting platform for podcasts, announced Thursday that it has raised $2.1 million in seed stage funding.
Moonshots Capital,
Capital Factory, Sputnik ATX, Next Coast Ventures, and Bull Creek Capital led
the round with participation from BNSG Capital.
Backtracks plans to
use the funding to further product innovation and to hire key staff. As part of
the deal, Kelly Perdew, co-founder and managing general partner at Moonshots
Capital will join the board.
Previously, Backtracks received $100,000 in seed stage
investment from Austin-based Sputnik ATX and participated in the accelerator’s inaugural
class in 2018.
Backtracks provides
audience data information to podcasters and advertisers. With the data,
advertisers can then launch targeted campaigns to listeners and podcasters can
make money from their podcasts.
Jonathan Gill and Kevin
Wright founded Backtracks. They previously worked together at Mozu, which Vista
Equity Partners acquired.
“Podcasts and
spoken word audio content are experiencing massive growth with an expected 53%
increase in listenership over the next four years. Backtracks allows audio
content creators and brands harness the power of that growth to own their
revenue and drive audience growth,” Gill, CEO of Backtracks, said in a news
release.
“The podcasting
space is a massive market that is ripe for disruption and Jonathan and Kevin
are the team to do it,” Michael Smerklo, co-founder and Managing Director
of Next Coast Ventures said in a news release. “They are seasoned founders
with deep domain expertise on the complexities of designing an
industry-agnostic platform that can integrate different offerings for customers
big and small. Backtracks is not just a company that has the most cutting-edge
analytics or the latest monetization tools to leverage advertising, their
platform truly serves as a one-stop shop for brands that want to extend their reach
and unlock the full potential podcasting has to offer.”
Molly Fletcher at Chase for Business Event in Austin
When it comes to work, purpose matters, said Molly
Fletcher.
“When we are clear on our purpose it helps us suffocate the fear that bubbles up in our life,” said Fletcher, one of the first female sports agents and now a motivational speaker and entrepreneur.
Fletcher gave a talk last week at the Chase for Business event, in partnership with Women on the Move – “Unleash Your Business Potential!” at The Line in downtown Austin. She conducted a workshop on negotiating with about 200 female entrepreneurs and businesswomen.
To illustrate the importance of stories in our lives, Fletcher recounted the story of Olympic speed-skater Dan Jansen. He failed to win a medal at two Olympics, and he was stuck.
Jansen wanted to win a gold in the 1,000-meter race and break the 36-second world record in the 500-meter event, Fletcher said. So, he went to James E. Loehr, a sports psychologist. Jansen told Loehr he hated the 1,000-meter race and no one had ever broken the 36-second barrier in the 500-meter race.
“That’s the story you’re telling yourself,” Loehr
said. “What if we change your story.”
Loehr told Jansen to stick post-it notes with 35.99 written on them everywhere – on his bathroom mirror, locker, car, door, everywhere he looked. And to write 35.99 in his training log every day. He also told Jansen to say, “I love the 1000 meter every day after practice.”
“That’s the story we’re going to change your mindset to,” Loehr said. “We’re going to change the story.”
As a result, Jansen changed his story and he won a gold medal in the 1,000-meter race at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. And he broke the 36-second record in the 500-meter race four times before the Olympics.
“We tell ourselves all these stories and we begin to
believe them and sometimes they don’t serve us,” Fletcher said.
“When we change our stories, it changes our results,” she said. “What is the story that is keeping you in a place that isn’t taking you where you need to go?”
When starting out in her career, Fletcher could have told herself there are no female sports agents, and she could have accepted it but instead, she became a trailblazer in the industry. She previously worked as president of client representation for sports and entertainment agency CSE and spent two decades as one of the world’s only female sports agents. CNN called her the “female Jerry Maguire” and she successfully negotiated more than $500 million in contracts. Her clients included Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, PGA Tour golfer Matt Kuchar, broadcaster Erin Andrews, and basketball championship coaches Tom Izzo and Doc Rivers.
During her Game Changer Negotiation Training workshop for Chase, Fletcher provided tips and tools on how to close deals faster and build lasting relationships with customers. She also told a lot of stories about lessons she learned from her own life.
Fletcher recounted the story of how she launched her career after graduating from Michigan State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications while competing in tennis. She saved $2,000 during the summer and decided to drive to Atlanta to find a job even though she had never lived outside Michigan. It was before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and she thought there might be opportunities for her to get a sports-related job.
In Atlanta, she slept on a friend’s couch for a few weeks until she landed a job as a tennis pro at a local apartment complex. She got the job by networking with other tennis professionals and found out a guy who taught a weekly class at an apartment building was about to leave to get married. She went there and gave the apartment manager her homemade business card. The apartment manager didn’t know the guy was leaving yet. But a week later, Fletcher got the position. She taught a weekly class in exchange for free rent for nine years.
Fletcher ended up working for the Atlanta Super Bowl XXVIII Host Committee and then landed a job as at CSE, a sports agency in Atlanta.
Since 2011, Fletcher has written four books: Fearless at Work, A Winner’s Guide to Negotiating: How Conversations Get Deals Done, The 5 Best Tools to Find Your Dream Career, and The Business of Being the Best: Inside the World of Go-Getters and Game Changers. She also hosts a popular podcast called Game Changers with Molly Fletcher.
“Business is so anchored in relationships,” Fletcher
said. “We need to get in the head and hearts of those we serve.”
She also learned the difference between champions and those who played professional sports but didn’t make it to the top. The champions had an ability to lean into discomfort and grow from it, Fletcher said.
Champions are also resilient, Fletcher said.
“They recover from adversity faster than anyone else,”
she said.
And when it comes to doing business, it’s not about
the transaction, it’s about building great relationships, Fletcher said.
She also had to drop a client who was sucking away her energy and taking too much of her time.
“It was like a bad breakup,” Fletcher said. “This
relationship was draining more than I even knew.”
Once she cut that client, she was better able to
service her other clients.
“We need to protect our energy,” she said. “Protect
the things that bring us joy.”
10 Best Practices to Close the Deal by Molly Fletcher
Austin Texas Abstract Skyline Cityscape as the sunrise hits the riverside pedestrian bridge
Santé Ventures, a healthcare and life sciences investment firm specializing in early-stage companies, announced Wednesday it has closed a $250 million fund.
This is Santé Venture’s third fund, since its founding in 2006. The firm is based in Austin and has an office in Houston.
Fund III has “secured capital commitments from over 30 limited partners, including the previously announced new investor, Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (“PSERS”). Investors in previous funds accounted for approximately one-half of the total capital,” according to a news release.
Sante’s founding partners previously ran “Ascension Health, one of the largest healthcare systems in the country with $22 billion in revenue; created Ascension Health Ventures I, a $125 million corporate healthcare venture fund; and helped establish a healthcare practice at Austin Ventures, a top-tier venture firm with $3.9 billion in capital under management,” according to its website.
“We are grateful for the trust and confidence investors have placed in us with their capital. We are also pleased to have broadened our base of institutional limited partners with the addition of sovereign wealth funds, investors from Europe and Asia, and several new preeminent healthcare delivery systems,” Kevin Lalande, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Santé Ventures, said in a news release. “Over the last decade, we have proven and continued to refine our unique portfolio strategy, which is designed to engineer the luck out of fund-level venture capital returns. Our multi-disciplinary investment team partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build innovative companies with the potential to deliver better health outcomes at lower total cost, without relying on exits at unicorn valuations to generate attractive returns for our investors.”
With the latest fund, Santé Ventures plans to invest in 20 to 25 companies. It has already invested in Cryosa for the treatment of sleep apnea, DyaMC for the treatment of Type II Diabetes and Geneos Therapeutics, a neoantigen-based personalized cancer therapy.
To date, Santé Ventures has made investments into 33 companies including Claret Medical (Boston Scientific), TVA Medical (Becton Dickinson), Millipede Medical (Boston Scientific), Molecular Templates (MTEM), AbVitro (Celgene) and Explorys (IBM Corp).
Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, holds up a T-Shirt from the Computer History Museum imprinted with his original sketch for Ethernet from a May 22, 1973 memo he wrote
Ethernet’s 46th anniversary is Wednesday, May 22nd
and on this occasion, Silicon Hills News has done a special edition Ideas to
Invoices podcast with Bob Metcalfe, founder of Ethernet.
Metcalfe is also professor of Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin. On Tuesday morning, he spoke to Silicon Hills News on the outdoor deck of Mozart’s Coffee Roasters. An occasional bird can be heard in the background as we chatted under the giant oak trees overlooking Lake Austin.
Metcalfe, who came to Austin in 2010, is also taking a 15-month leave from his position at the University of Texas at Austin starting this summer. During his time off, he plans to work with two Austin startups, which he declined to name.
Metcalfe sketched out the diagram for how Ethernet would work and included it in a memo he typed up on an IBM Selectric Typewriter. (which he thinks might have been made in Austin) He was working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, known as PARC.
Metcalfe
also formulated Metcalfe’s Law, “which states that the value of a
telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of
connected users of the system.” And that’s been one of the greatest
achievements of the Internet and Ethernet is the ability to connect so many worldwide.
This year, Ethernet celebrates its 46th anniversary, the
Internet celebrates its 50th anniversary, 3Com, the company Metcalfe
went on to found, which is now part of HP, celebrates its 40th
anniversary and the World Wide Web turns 30 years old.
It seemed like the perfect time to chat about Metcalfe’s accomplishments of the past, the killer app of the Internet and some of the ill effects of the Internet and social networks.
For example, Metcalfe quit Twitter in January of this year because the social network continually put him in a bad mood from reading various tweets. It also ate up a lot of his time. He now has reclaimed three and a half hours a day that he used to spend on Twitter, he said. He still does post information to Facebook, and he’s careful not to spend too much time on that platform.
Metcalfe also thinks the current problems the Internet faces will be solved. And there’s so much more he talks about so tune in and listen to the whole podcasat below or on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
