Category: San Antonio (Page 4 of 62)

H-E-B Buys Austin-based Favor

February 15, 2018 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

Jag Bath, president and CEO of Favor, photo by John Davidson.

Favor, the startup delivery service based in Austin, just got bought by one of the largest retailers in Texas, San Antonio-based H-E-B.

Under the deal, Favor will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of H-E-B and it will continue to operate as a separate brand led by Chief Executive Officer and President Jag Bath and all of Favor’s employees and its 50,000 runners will remain. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“I am thrilled to have H-E-B join forces with another well-respected and innovative Texas company,” Martin Otto, H-E-B’s Chief Operating Officer, said in a news release. “We share similar values, including a commitment to excellence in customer service and to our greatest resource – our people. Over the past two years, we have established a strong working relationship with Favor that has proven to be immensely successful for both companies. We see a unique opportunity with this partnership to support and accelerate each other’s growth through the sharing of experience, insight and resources.”

Last September, Favor announced the company had reached profitability and raised $22 million in venture funding. The startup, founded in 2013, operates in 50 cities in Texas. To date, Favor raised $37.9 million in venture capital, according to CrunchBase.

“We could not be more excited to be part of H-E-B,” Bath said in a news release. “I am incredibly proud of our team’s success and the business we have built at Favor. H-E-B’s extensive resources, capital and retail food industry experience will enable us to further build on our momentum and significantly accelerate our growth throughout Texas.”

H-E-B, with $25 billion in sales, has been making a big push into the grocery delivery business. The company already offers HEBtoYou, a home grocery delivery service. The company also offers “Curbside Pickup” at more than 100 of its stores. H-E-B operates 400 stores in Texas and Mexico.

Five of the Best Tech Events to Attend in San Antonio This Week

February 12, 2018 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

Lots of cool tech events happening in San Antonio this week from recruiting mixers to an AI meetup and the debut of a brand new business conference.

On Tuesday – WP Engine Technical Support Meet & Greet in San Antonio- The company is hiring. It’s having a mixer to get to know job candidates better and introduce them to this rapidly growing WordPress hosting company. The event is free and takes place from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Stone Werks Big Rock Grille at Lincoln Heights. RSVP here.

On Tuesday – Artificial Intelligence Meet Up at 6 pm. at the Geekdom Events Centre. “For this meetup we hope to have a lightning round of the different machine learning and deep learning projects people have accomplished or are currently pursuing in SAT and nearby areas.”

On Wednesday – Codeup Demo Day at The DoSeum on February 14th from 3:15 PM to 5:30 PM

On Friday: Motiontum 2018 – Business Conference & Expo at the Holiday Inn Riverwalk, a variety of speakers and topics at this daylong inaugural conference. Tickets start at $15.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday: Patriot Boot Camp: Technology Entrepreneurship Boot Camp in San Antonio on Feb. 16-18th.

Upcoming Events:

SA NewTech – Feb. 21st – Due to Valentine’s Day, San Antonio NewTech rescheduled its meetup set for the 14th to the 21st at 6 p.m. at the Geekdom Events Center.

Xconomy’s San Antonio Tech: Seizing the Momentum on Feb. 20th.

SXSW in Austin March 9-18th.

Upcoming events: (sponsored)

InnoTech San Antonio at the Norris Conference Center

Geekdom Launches a Community Fund to Ignite Startups

February 10, 2018 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

The epicenter of San Antonio’s startup system downtown is Geekdom, which occupies its own building, the historic Rand Building, on Houston street.

Launched in 2011, Geekdom has grown to become the hub of startup activity and now the technology co-working site and collaborative workspace has become a source of capital to ignite the ideas that take shape there.

In its early years, Geekdom provided $25,000 grants to startups based there through the original Geekdom Fund. Many of those startups are no longer in business including Remote Garage, Sporty Bird, Grapevine, Kirpeep, and Embarkly, among others. But some still are in business. ParLevel Systems received a $25,000 grant. It went on to participate in the Techstars Cloud program and then raised $7 million in venture capital, according to its CrunchBase profile.

That initial Geekdom fund aimed to jumpstart the city’s startup community by providing seed-stage funding to tech startups.

Just recently, Geekdom announced the launch of The Community Fund, which will provide seed-stage funding to entrepreneurs. To apply, an entrepreneur must be a member of Geekdom for at least 90 days.

Geekdom plans to select one entrepreneur every month for a $10,000 reward.

“The Community Fund is critical in filling an ongoing need that currently exists and will continue to as San Antonio develops,” Geekdom CEO David Garcia, said in a statement. “As the hub of growing startup scene in the city, we realize that if we don’t take this step and provide initial seed funding for startups, others may not either. Our desire is that we can get other individuals and entities to join the effort to increase the funding we are able to award each month.”

Garcia made the announcement on Jan. 30th at Geekdom’s annual state of the ecosystem meeting at its event center. At the event, Geekdom Co-founders Graham Weston and Nick Longo gave a talk moderated by Geekdom Chairman Lorenzo Gomez. The report on Geekdom can be found here.

Cool Tech Events to Attend in San Antonio This Week

January 28, 2018 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

It’s that time of the year where the folks at Geekdom give the state of the tech ecosystem report about the coworking and event incubator’s impact on San Antonio. If you’re interested in the tech scene in San Antonio, it’s the event to attend this week.

Also, in the same vein of collaboration among Austin and San Antonio, the folks at South by Southwest are hosting a meetup at Brick at the Blue Star Arts Complex on Wednesday evening to give a rundown about all the benefits of attending SXSW in March. And one lucky attendee (you must be present to win) will win a badge to SXSW.

Here are the details of this week’s events:

Tuesday: Jan. 30 – 10 a.m. at Geekdom – State of the Tech Ecosystem – At this annual meeting, Geekdom’s leaders give a report on the impact the San Antonio-based coworking space and tech center is having on San Antonio. Geekdom Founders Graham Weston and Nick Longo are expected to attend along with Geekdom’s Chairman Lorenzo Gomez and David Garcia, CEO of Geekdom.

Tuesday: Jan. 30th – 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. BUILD – Join Alice, Dell and Bunker Labs to celebrate San Antonio’s vibrant network of small businesses and startups at the Maestro Entrepreneur Center at 1811 S Laredo St.

Wednesday: Jan. 31 – 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Geekdom Events Center – Get Giggy with It – Table Tennis Tournament hosted by JumpFiber

Wednesday: Jan. 31 – San Antonio: SXSW Community Meet Up – 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Brick at Blue Star Arts Complex. The folks at South by Southwest are going to give information about what the big SXSW conference in Austin is all about and they give away one free badge at the event. It’s free, but register to attend.

Friday – Feb. 2 – Geekdom – 4:00 p.m. – Fermented Friday – beers and networking with the Geekdom community.

Upcoming events:

Codeup Demo Day at The DoSeum on February 14th from 3:15 PM to 5:30 PM

Patriot Boot Camp: Technology Entrepreneurship Boot Camp in San Antonio on Feb. 16-18th.

Xconomy’s San Antonio Tech: Seizing the Momentum on Feb. 20t

SXSW in Austin March 9-18.

Upcoming events: (sponsored)

InnoTech San Antonio at the Norris Conference Center

Five Tech Events to Attend in San Antonio in December

December 5, 2017 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

San Antonnio Riverwalk at Christmas, photo courtesy of Visit San Antonio.

Things are getting jolly in San Antonio for the tech industry for the month of December.

Codeup is having a Demo Day. Capital Factory is taking a road trip to Geekdom and Joshua Baer is hosting an Intro to Fundraising in Texas panel. There’s Tech Bloc’s holiday party and Bunker Labs’ San Antonio ribbon cutting on its new office and so much more.

So get in the spirit and put on your ugly Holiday sweater and go out and network like a Rockstar.

Wednesday, Dec. 5: Codeup Demo Day
Where: The DoSeum, 2800 Broadway Street
When: 3:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.
What: Codeup Demo Day is an exclusive event for employers and recruiters looking for top software development talent. It features 23 graduates from the latest Codeup program.

Friday, Dec. 7: The Bunker Labs Launch
Where: Geekdom Events Center 110 E Houston St
When: There’s a ribbon cutting at 9 a.m. and Bunker Brews at 4 p.m.
What: Bunker Labs’ office launch in San Antonio will be combined with Bunker Brews this week.

Tuesday, Dec. 12: Capital Factory Epic Office Hours at Geekdom
Where: Geekdom Event Space 110 E Houston St
When: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
What: This is a speed dating session for entrepreneurs with venture capitalists and other technology advocates. It features successful entrepreneurs and investors for lightning round mentor sessions.

Tuesday, Dec. 12: Intro to Fundraising in Texas Panel at Geekdom
Where: Geekdom 110 East Houston Street
When: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
What: Intro to Fundraising in Texas with Capital Factory’s Founder and Executive Director Joshua Baer, Geekdom Fund’s Managing Director Michael Girdley, Moonshot Capital’s Co-founder and General Partner Craig Cummings, Interlock Partner’s Jason Story, and Founding General Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners Krishna Srinivasan.

Tuesday, Dec. 12: San Antonio Tech Industry Holiday Party
Where: The Pearl Food Hall, 312 Pearl Parkway, Building 6
When: 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
What: San Antonio Tech Bloc is hosting its annual holiday party. Its event partners include Codeup, Geekdom and the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. They suggest attendees wear sci-fi/techie themed ugly sweaters to qualify for its grand prize giveaway.

Also, tech entrepreneurs from San Antonio are invited to Silicon Hills News’ 2018 Tech Calendar Party.

San Antonio Residents Can Now Sign Up for Google Fiber

November 15, 2017 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

This week, Google announced that Google Fiber is now available in some areas of San Antonio.

Residents of San Antonio in the “Westover Hills area and around West End Park on the near west side have from now until Dec. 21 to sign up for the company’s flagship product: Fiber 1000, or up to 1,000 megabits per second of high-speed symmetrical broadband to their homes,” according to Google.

The service costs $55 a month for super-fast Internet.

“The spirit of Google Fiber has always been one of innovation – and we’re honoring that right here in San Antonio,” Tyler Wallis, Google Fiber’s San Antonio City Manager said in a news statement. “From the way we’re building the Fiber network to our product line-up, we’re simplifying our processes to give our customers what they’ve told us they want – affordable, super fast Internet without any unnecessary complications.”

To date, Google has deployed its Google Fiber in 12 metro areas nationwide including Austin.

“Access to high-speed broadband is a critical piece of creating an economically viable city,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a news statement. “I am pleased to see increased investment in high-speed internet throughout the community. This infrastructure is crucial to enhanced economic development and educational opportunities for San Antonians.”

To check for availability of the Google Fiber service in San Antonio, residents can visit google.com/fiber/sanantonio.

Six Tech Events in San Antonio to Attend This Week

November 7, 2017 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

San Antonio’s tech scene is on fire this week.

The big event is Tech Bloc’s Rally@Rackspace on Thursday at Rackspace’s headquarters. It kicks off at 5 p.m. with a pre-program reception featuring food trucks, music, retro-gaming competitions, a Cosplay contest and complimentary drinks and event T-shirts.

Then the main event takes place at the Rackspace Events Center starting about 6 p.m. with a talk on “The Birth of Video Games and Silicon Valley, Stories and Wisdom from Nolan Bushnell,” the founder of Atari and 20 other companies.

After that, there is another talk on “The Startup That Changed San Antonio – The Creation, Growth, and Future of Rackspace:” featuring Dirk Elmendorf, co-founder of Rackspace, Lew Moorman, former Rackspace president, Scaleworks founder and Tech Bloc co-founder and Graham Weston, former Co-founder and Chairman of Rackspace, founder of Geekdom, the 80/20 Foundation and the West Urban real estate company. Tickets are available at Tech Bloc’s website.

Other events this week:

WEDNESDAY – SA New Tech takes place at the Geekdom Event Centre starting at 6 p.m. It is a monthly meetup featuring new technology companies being developed in San Antonio.

THURSDAY – Coffee Club at 2 p.m. at Geekdom on the Seventh Floor. The event features a tasting of coffee from different San Antonio-based coffee shops and lots of networking.

FRIDAY – Fermented Friday runs from 4 to 6 p.m. at Geekdom’s Event Centre and this particular event will feature a launch party for Winslow Swart and Beto Altamirano’s 1MDreams Mobile App.

FRIDAY – Nerd Night from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Geekdom Event Centre features a lot of people playing board games.

FRIDAY – Dinner and Code take place at the Geekdom Event Centre starting at 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. It is a meetup focused on learning to code and dinner.

Upcoming Events:

San Antonio Entrepreneurship Week kicks off Monday, Nov. 13 and runs through Friday, Nov. 17th. Tickets available here.

Sources: Geekdom and Tech Bloc

MassChallenge Texas Launches with Plans to Work With up to 100 Startups

September 13, 2017 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

MassChallenge, a global network of network of startup accelerators, announced Wednesday plans to launch its new program in the Austin and San Antonio region.

The Austin-based nonprofit accelerator will work with up to 100 startups that will compete for up to $500,000 in equity-free cash awards.

The MassChallenge Texas accelerator program is “supported by a public-private partnership that includes founding corporate partners Southwest Airlines, USAA, and Upstream Thinking,” according to a news release

MassChallenge also has other programs in Boston, Israel, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Mike Millard will serve as managing director of MassChallenge Texas. He has previously held senior positions at Ascension, Austin Ventures, and AT&T Knowledge Ventures. And he is the founder and CEO of Pitch-a-Kid, an Austin-based event series that connects startups to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

The MassChallenge Texas accelerator is targeting the healthcare, clean energy, hardware and manufacturing, biotech, consumer tech and social impact industries.

MassChallenge Texas founding partners include Southwest Airlines, USAA, and Upstream Thinking. Its board of advisors include Bob Metcalfe, professor of innovation at the University of Texas at Austin, Heather Figallo with Southwest Airlines, Zachary Gipson with USAA, Larry Peterson with the Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities and Pike Powers with the Pike Powers Group.

“Today’s news that MassChallenge is opening an Austin office makes us an even better home for innovation. This is good news for Austin and it’s great news for our local innovators,” Mayor Steve Adler, City of Austin said in a news release.

“We see a familiar innovative spirit and unique vision in MassChallenge and Southwest is excited to give some lift to its future success,” Heather Figallo, Senior Director, Innovation & Labs at Southwest Airlines, said in a news release. “MassChallenge is a great example of the type of organization we want to support as we work across the United States to set up future innovative companies for success, growth and –like Southwest–opportunities to change the world one innovation at a time.”

“In collaboration with public and private partners across the state, MassChallenge Texas will further activate the region’s innovation ecosystem to attract and support the world’s best startups,” Scott Bailey, Executive Director of North America at MassChallenge, said in a news release. “We believe that Texas is a global destination for entrepreneurs, and we’re excited to help bring the innovation community together to help support entrepreneurs, create jobs, and drive growth.”

MassChallenge Texas is hosting a launch event on Oct. 16th at the Bob Bullock Museum.

Partners of the RealCo Seed Fund Program in San Antonio talk Entrepreneurship on Ideas to Invoices

September 10, 2017 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

Chris Saum, partner in the RealCo Seed Fund Program

The RealCo Seed Fund Program, founded in January at Geekdom, is helping business to business startups succeed.

“We are vested in their success,” said Teresa Evans, a partner in the RealCo Seed Fund Program.

The goal is to help the companies scale and get to a point where they can raise a Series A round of funding. The 15-month long program focuses on providing networking, capital, mentors, co-working space at Geekdom, access to investors and more. Startups in the program receive $100,000 in funding.

Michael Girdley, co-founder of Codeup and co-founder of Geekdom Fund, is heading up the RealCo team along with Evans, co-founder of San Antonio Science and associate director of the San Antonio Angel Network and Chris Saum, co-founder, and director of business development of MUD Geochemical.

In this episode of Ideas to Invoices, Saum and Evans discuss the attributes they look for in an entrepreneur, the path to success in the SeedCo program and more about the growing San Antonio technology industry.

RealCo’s portfolio companies include Dauber, a software company that lets construction companies monitor and dispatch trucks and drivers to job sites in real time, Mr. Presta, a microfinancing site aimed at the Latin America market, and Funnel.ai, a software system that harnesses social media to find sales leads for companies.

“We’re really excited about the idea and the idea is so important but we’re also really excited to work with these entrepreneurs who are leading their industries and all have amazing stories and lots of experience,” Evans said.

Startups can apply for the RealCo Seed Fund Program on Angellist and on its website and other funding sites. It accepts applications on a rolling basis, Saum said.

RealCo provides the structure and framework for its startups to tackle the task at hand, Evans said.

“We work to make sure they are working smarter, not harder,” she said.

Ultimately, RealCo seeks to get the startups to a level of traction or $1 million in recurring revenue on an annual basis and 30 percent month or month growth, Saum said.

RealCo is looking for entrepreneurs with startups tackling big ideas that seek to transform the industries they are working in, Saum said.

The average age of the entrepreneurs in its program is in the mid-30s, which is telling of the niche of business to business, Saum said.

For more on the RealCo Seed Fund Program, listen to the entire podcast and please subscribe, rate and review Ideas to Invoices on iTunes.

Chris Burney with the San Antonio Angel Network Discusses Angel Investing on Ideas to Invoices

September 4, 2017 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

By LAURA LOREK
Publisher of Silicon Hills News

Chris Burney, Executive Director of the San Antonio Angel Network, courtesy photo.

San Antonio has always had angel investors but it hasn’t had a formal network for a while, but a year ago that changed with the formation of the San Antonio Angel Network.

“A group of local investors, visionaries, entrepreneurs got together and hatched the idea that San Antonio really needed an angel network to help with all the growth we are experiencing in our startup ecosystem and beyond,” said Chris Burney, executive director of the San Antonio Angel Network.

Previously, Burney worked as a manager and senior financial analyst for Rackspace, the San Antonio-based Web hosting company.

As the head of the San Antonio Angel Network, Burney evaluates deals, recruits new members and runs the organization, which is based in the RealCo Seed Fund Program offices at Geekdom in downtown San Antonio.

On this episode of Ideas to Invoices, Burney discusses angel investing in San Antonio and the details of the deals the San Antonio Angel Network looks for when evaluating a startup.

The San Antonio Angel Network’s 75 members consist of accredited investors or wealthy individuals, ranging from large family offices, successful entrepreneurs, business owners, doctors, accountants, and lawyers.

“The diversity of our network is one of its strengths,” Burney said.

The San Antonio Angel Network, a nonprofit organization, is still accepting members but plans to cap membership at 100. Individual members pay $1,800 and corporate members pay $2,500 a year.

“Those dues just really help us be sustainable,” he said.

The San Antonio Angel Network uses a pooled investment vehicle that allows angels to invest a smaller amount in lots of deals, Burney said. That allows them to write checks in a startup for as low as $5,000, he said.

“Angel deals are inherently risky even with the best due diligence and best entrepreneurs,” he said. “We expect a high rate of failure. But we also expect a high rate of return for our investors.”

Every six to eight weeks, the San Antonio Angel Network hosts pitch events with two or three startups pitching to investors. Entrepreneurs can apply directly on the San Antonio Angel Network website. It reviews applications on a rolling basis and it doesn’t require a fee to apply, Burnet said.

“We have no geographic limitations on the companies we will fund, or invest in,” Burnet said.

The San Antonio Angel Network has invested in three San Antonio startups and one in Austin so far. Its first deal was in HelpSocial, a social media software systems startup spun out of Rackspace and founded by Matt Wilbanks. The second investment was in Parlevel Systems, which is inventing new vending machine technology, and the third one was Dauber, a dump truck logistics, and technology company. And its Austin investment is Localeur, based in Austin, which is an app that provides recommendations from locals headed up by Joah Spearman.

“Almost every major city with a thriving startup ecosystem in the state has an angel network helping support the entrepreneurs,” Burney said. “San Antonio did not have that until we came around. We know for a fact that we were missing deals and that companies were either not getting funding or moving elsewhere because of the lack of investment resources here.”

The San Antonio Angel Network is part of the Alliance of Texas Angel Networks, comprised of 13 angel groups across Texas. Last May at the Hotel Emma at the Pearl, the San Antonio Angel Network hosted the annual summit of the Alliance of Texas Angel Networks with more than 100 investors from all the groups to discuss best practices and angel investing across the state.

The San Antonio Angel Network tries to be a very friendly entrepreneurial network, Burney said. It tries to get the application and due diligence process down to weeks, instead of months and to get the entrepreneurs that meet its criteria in front of its investors as quickly as possible, he said.

The San Antonio Angel Network will look at any deal with a scalable business model that will provide a good return to its investors, Burney said.

For more on the San Antonio Angel Network, listen to the entire podcast and please subscribe, rate and review Ideas to Invoices on iTunes. And support the podcast on Patreon for exclusive content only available to subscribers.