Category: San Antonio (Page 57 of 62)

At SXSW, It Takes a Village of Startups

March 12, 2012 / / 0 Comments

BY SUSAN LAHEY
Special Contributor to Silicon Hills News
Take the energy of SXSW, multiply it by the energy of thousands of passionate start up founders, compound it by a factor of anxiety at being judged and you’ve got the fourth floor of the Hilton Hotel in down town Austin: Startup Village.
This is the first time SXSW has created a special area just for startups, according to Chris Valentine, event producer for Startup Village and Microsoft Bizspark Accelerator. But once it was proposed, it seemed so obvious. So intuitive.
“The response has been overwhelming. The hallways are just packed with people,” Valentine said. “People keep saying ‘This is a great idea, you guys should have been doing it years ago.’”
SXSW organizers wanted to create a base where startup participants could find programs created just for them—like cofounder speed dating and presentations on creating elevator pitches. The salons include mentoring opportunities for startups. And, Valentine pointed out, accelerator judges are roaming the halls, easily accessible to any entrepreneur. People like Arun Rajan of Zappos, Adam Ostrow of Mashable and Blair Garrou of DFJMercury.
There are startup focused events like The Startup Bus in which participants got on busses in their native towns and had to create a startup between home and Austin, then the teams were judged. Locastartups have the opportunity to mingle with people from startups all over the world. And to see how so many startup communities pale in comparison.
Nick Goggans, co-founder of Umbel, having had a startup in Boston, fell for Austin at an SXSW event three years ago.
“I was inspired by the quality of the companies I met when I was here three years ago for a SXSW event with my Boston startup,” he said. He likes that Austin is central, easily accessible. He also thinks it has an underrated talent pool and a burgeoning angel community. Moreover, the cost of living allows for bootstrapping.
Bill Boebel, former vice president of strategy at Rackspace and advisor to the Capital Factory said he had his first startup in Virginia.
“Austin is a little more balanced than most cities,” he said. “It’s a great family town, too. I love the diversity. It’s a great place to build a company and a family at the same time. If your spouse isn’t into tech, that’s okay.”
Cesar Donofrio, CEO of Making Sense in San Antonio said “We receive a lot of help from local people. There’s a great amount of information. You can talk with people in the same environment so you can validate your experiences. And there are a lot of resources like incubators and accelerators so you get a lot of support.”
He acknowledged that the “Fail faster” that accepts failure on the way to success is stronger here than in other places, such as his native Argentina.
Kevin Callahan, co-founder of MapMyFITNESS, said he and his cofounders love Austin because of the talent pool and also because of the fitness conscious culture here.
Many of the startups present are high tech in nature. But the varieties of startup presentations continue to grow and diversify, Valentine said. Things like food, art, and music all can have technological components and are represented at the event.
Which brings another cool aspect to the SXSW Startup Village. One participant who lives in Russia asked: Why Austin? Why not New York? Paris? Tokyo.
And the answer, Goggans said, is that it happened here. Organically, SXSW Interactive and Startup Village grew out of a culture where there was music and film that blended easily into technology.
“There was a core film and music environment that manifests into technology over time,” Goggans said. “I don’t think that’s something that can just be dropped into a place. It’s organic. It has to do with a multidisciplinary approach…it’s a question of ‘how strong is your creative community?’”
On the fourth floor, it’s very creative.
“Basically different types of event producers’ response was ‘This is finally happening!’” Valentine said of Startup Village. “That’s one of the great things about an idea that’s so easy. It was like ‘Of course.’”

SXSW Startup Bus Entrepreneurs Pitched at Rackspace

March 9, 2012 / / 0 Comments

At Rackspace headquarters, a slew of startup bus entrepreneurs pitched their ventures to a panel of celebrity judges Friday morning.
Among the judges, Dave McClure, serial entrepreneur and head of 500 Startups, gave them frank feedback, laced with a lot of F-bombs.
Dozens of entrepreneurs, from startup buses that originated in San Francisco, Boston, Cincinnati, Florida, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisiana, Mexico, New York, Stanford University and Washington, D.C., bravely presented their ideas in front of the panel. They spent the last three days traveling first to San Antonio and then to South by Southwest where they will compete in a semi-finals round Saturday and finals on Sunday. The Rackspace event sought to help prepare them.
The startup buses have become an important part of the startup culture surrounding SXSW. But the concept started in March of 2010 as a joke, said Elias Bizannes, its founder. In the last few years, the startup bus has taken on a life of its own. This year’s contingent is the largest ever. A competition was also held in Europe last November, Bizannes said.
“Our focus is more on the people and not the products they build,” Bizannes said. “A lot of people have come out of this and gone on to raise money and start ventures.”
A guy from the New York startup bus last year raised $2 million from venture capitalists recently, he said.
And several of the startup bus entrepreneurs who pitched on Friday sounded like they had good business ideas.
Some guys on the Las Vegas startup bus hatched the idea of providing a print product comprised of all the postings on various social networks a person does in a year called YearInPrint.com It’s sort of like a yearbook of your life on social networks.
The retro futuristic idea got some love from Nicole Glaros, managing director of the TechStars Cloud.
YearinPrint.com has already signed up 100 users and it just launched Friday morning on the bus. That’s pretty impressive, said Robert Scoble, a blogger and Rackspace employee, who moderated the event.
“They actually have a product that works and you can use it,” Scoble said.
McClure told the entrepreneurs to present their ideas clearly in the format of customer, problem and framework.
He also yelled at the audience when the crowd got too loud.
“Hey you, shut the fuck up,” McClure said. “This is actually interesting.”
SimplyApp.com pitched their idea “Pinterest for geeks.”
“Who the hell cares?” asked McClure.
The head of TwoToursandalie.com said he registered AwesomeLobster.com and then pitched his tour service to McClure. McClure was not impressed.
“You bait and switched,” he said. “If you’re going to bait and switch make sure to pitch something awesome.”
McClure said the pitch was “fucking awful” and told the guy to get off the stage and hand the microphone to someone else.
Cerealize.com, a customizable cereal service that delivers the stuff to your door, presented its whimsical idea for cereal creation. It’s interested in getting a foothold in the customizable foods market. In just a few days, they were able to design a logo and launch a webpage.
The personalization includes the cereal box, Scoble said. “My kids could each have their own box of cereal with their picture on it.”
“This is the best idea I’ve heard all day,” said a judge. But he said the company would face a nightmare in sourcing ingredients.
The panel liked the nine-member team of Cerealize.com because they displayed passion and commitment to their product and they made others believe in their success.
GivingLight, an idea from the Washington, D.C. startup bus, presented its neighborhood service to help people for free to receive good Karma.
“What’s the business model?” asked Scoble.
“Corporate sponsors,” said the woman pitching GivingLight.
It’s an awesome idea, but it doesn’t fit the investor model, said Glaros with TechStars. But she said she would donate money to it.
A startup bus group pitching itself as a semester aboard for entrepreneurs got some traction from McClure.
“I kind of like this pitch,” McClure said. “It’s a narrow market but I think this is kind of interesting.”
A woman presented Curiouscities, an alternative lifestyle for adults interested in finding sex sites in different cities focused on fetishes and other stuff.
“How do you get your content?” asked a panel member.
“It’s all in the community,” she said.
“Best pitch today,” said McClure. She covered the customer, problem, target market and provided a solution.
Clrme.com is a crowdsourced reputation site for people.
“A platform for people to tell it like it is,” said the guy pitching it.
A panel judge said the name was awkward and it’s not a word so it’s difficult for people to find and understand. He recommended that they get the .Co website and spell the name out.
Two guys pitched, Taxcast, a site focused on providing tax information to artists and other creatives. They said “We are fucking revolutionizing tax today.”
McClure smiled at that.
McClure said the pitch was good for the first 30 seconds, but he doubted that people needed instant access to information about their taxes and their tax refund.
“I fucking don’t believe it,” he said.
The room became really loud with almost everyone talking at once. Glaros asked everyone to see how quiet they could get the room. It quieted down immediately.
“Punch the person next to you if they talk,” Glaros said.
Several startup bus entrepreneurs wanted to pitch their ideas but only 30 minutes remained. So Glaros came up with the idea to let each team present for 30 seconds and at the end they got a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If the panel liked the idea, the entrepreneur received additional feedback. If not, they had to leave the stage.
First up, PopcornU.com pitched its augmented education site for kids.
“That was clear,” said McClure. “But it kind of sucks.”
PopcornU exited the stage vowing to be back.
A site pitching itself as beer goggles for Twitter got voted off stage.
Open Wallet pitched a site that lets people get money from people nearby using a mobile phone. People broadcast their need and others nearby finance them. With Open Wallet, everybody becomes an ATM. They got a thumbs up.
One of the judges said it’s going to be very easy way to steal money from people. McClure asked if they have any background in fraud prevention.
“There’s a business here somewhere,” McClure said. “It’s peer to peer payday loans.”
Jay Hancock pitched Hancockapp.com, an app that creates simple contracts.
“It’s like having a lawyer in your pocket,” he said. He got a thumbs up from the panel. They liked the idea.
The judges also advised the startups not to put a dash in their domain name.
Wastebits.co created a business to business online platform to connect the creators of garbage with disposal services.
“If this doesn’t exist, it’s really interesting,” Glaros said.
“It’s hot,” said the guy pitching the waste company.
The panel generally liked the waste disposal company idea.
BumperCrop.co from the Florida statup bus pitched an application to connect home-based farmers with consumers. The panel liked the idea.
TimeClutch.com from the Boston startup bus billed itself as a Flipboard like experience that curates social activity around events. It launched today and already has three sponsors for SXSW. The panel asked how it differentiates itself from Storify.com. The app is event focused and automatically curates content on an event. The panel seemed to like that. But the entrepreneurs still had work to do.
“You’ve got to work on the pitch,” McClure said. “It sucks.”
The last company to pitch wanted to spread happiness, Happstr.com. It already has had 300 check ins. The idea is to find happy places using a location based app.
“Find your happy place.”
And on that note, the panel wrapped up.

Full Disclosure: Rackspace is a sponsor of SiliconHillsNews.com

Coworking is changing the way people work

March 9, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Chelsea McClain, all purpose superhero with Office Nomads in Seattle

The way people work has changed dramatically through coworking.
Today, younger workers don’t covet a corner office with a closed door and a view, said Tony Freeth with Medusa Business, a technology provider to coworking spaces.
“A huge demographic change is taking place,” Freeth said. “For workers under 35, they see being assigned a private office as a punishment.”
Freeth travelled from Scotland to attend Austin’s Global Coworking Unconference Conference Thursday at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. He attended a European coworking conference in Berlin last November. He said Austin and Berlin are leading the world in discussions about coworking.
About 250 people from 18 countries attended the daylong event, according to Liz Elam, its organizer, who also runs Link Coworking in Austin.

Tony Freeth with Medusa, which sells coworking technology

Coworking spaces provide workers with shared desks, conference rooms and other work areas.
The industry, which is still in its infancy, has undergone tremendous growth. The number of co-working spaces has nearly doubled each year since 2006 to 1,300 worldwide, according to Deskmag, which follows the industry. It released a report Thursday showing coworking spaces are projected to grow to 2,150 this year. In fact, two in three coworking spaces plan to expand this year.
The vast majority of coworking spaces are run as for profit businesses and cost about $58,000 in the U.S. to start up and about $60,000 in Europe. And on average, 40 percent of all coworking spaces are profitable. And 72 percent become profitable after two years.
The coworking spaces come in all kinds of varieties. Some focus on a particular industry while others appeal to a broad range of workers. And the coworking operators don’t always agree on best practices.
For example, in a panel on coworking design, Benjamin Dyett, who runs Grind in New York, said he doesn’t designate desks for its members.
“We want everyone to come in everyday and sit next to someone new,” Dyett said.

Jerome Chang, architect and founder of BlankSpaces

But Jerome Chang, who runs Blankspaces, provides a much more structured environment.
“People want dedicated spaces,” he said.
Sonya Dufner, director of workplace strategy for the New York offices of Gensler, an architecture firm, said there are people who chose a private workspace.
“It’s about providing people with choices,” she said.
But Dyett disagreed.
“That’s not the business I’m in,” he said.
They all agreed that coworking revolves around the community that the business serves.
“For me, coworking is an office space and community is one of the services I provide,” said Sidi Gomes with C3, social space designer.
The coworking concept has also spread to large corporations, said Dufner.
“People are working differently,” she said.
Corporations see the cost-savings benefits from coworking, Dufner said In a corporate environment, a worker gets about 150 square feet per person. But in a coworking environment, they get about 75 to 80 square feet, Dufner said.
To design a coworking space, Chang advised people to find a space that they love and to sit in it, observe everything and take notes.
Cubicles and panels are dead when it comes to designing coworking spaces, according to the panel. Instead, designers use selective storage units and shelving to separate workspaces.
Benching is also in, Chang said. Workbenches that allow for greater collaboration in the workplace is a huge trend, he said.
“If you know of a space that you really love go find out how they built the space,” Dufner said.
Designing a coworking space requires a mix of art and science, said Mark Gilbreath, the founder and CEO of LiquidSpace.
Some coworking spaces spend thousands of dollars on fancy high-end furniture while others outfit their spaces with thrift store finds. It’s important to listen to the community and tailor the space to their needs, according to the panel.
“I’m about really strong infrastructure,” Chang said. “And then I let the community organically develop.”
A pioneer in the coworking movement, Chang, a licensed architect, opened his first coworking space, targeted at creative professionals in Los Angeles, four years ago. He has since expanded and opened another coworking space in Santa Monica. Both have 100 members.
The coworking movement, which features collaborative workspaces with open spaces, has also caught on in the corporate world, Chang said. In particular, Zappos recently redesigned its workspace with wide open spaces in which its CEO and Founder Tony Hsieh sits in the middle of the space instead of in a corner office.
“Many workplaces are allowing their employees choice,” Chang said. “People come in to work everyday and they get to choose where they want to work.”
Steelcase’s headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan promotes coworking, Chang said. Many people work out of Steelcase’s giant café, he said.
“Only a few people have dedicated workspace,” he said.
Today, a lot of work involves social interactions and chance meetings, Chang said.
“A huge myth existed about work that people are only productive when they closed their door, put their head down and worked,” Chang said. “But business development can take place over coffee. Being social is part of your work. You exchange ideas and get feedback through those interactions.”
Craig McAnsh, who runs Mojo Coworking in Asheville, NC, has seen the shift in the way people work firsthand. He opened his coworking space 11 months ago and now plans to expand from 1,700 square feet into a 5,000 square foot space.
“In a small community, coworking has to be about serving many needs,” McAnsh said. “There’s definitely a demand for it. We’ve got entrepreneurs, writers, small agencies and people who just use it for the conference room.”
Mojo has about 30 members who work out of a mixed-use development in the historic part of town. McAnsh isn’t attending SXSW. He travelled to Austin just to attend the coworking conference.
“I’m looking to get as many of the latest ideas and trends that I can and learn how to incorporate those into my business,” McAnsh said. “I find the white space conversations are the most beneficial.”
Chelsea McClain, all purpose superhero with Office Nomads in Seattle, also travelled to Austin specifically for the coworking conference.
Office Nomads, which has 100 members, has been around for 5 years and some dub it “the granddaddy of coworking” in Seattle.
“We’re doing better than ever,” McClain said. “There’s a lot of coworking spaces in Seattle now. There’s a lot of interest in it.”
While the natural inclination might be to grow bigger and expand, Office Nomads recently decided not to expand.
“I think coworking questions the naturalness of that,” McClain said. “More money, more space. There’s a lot of people that don’t’ think coworking should be about that. The culture of our community is not about making as much money as possible.”
Office Nomads is a for profit business and it is profitable, McClain said.
“People can get space anywhere,” McClain said. “Coworking is about community. The elements of community are about physical human interaction and talking about ideas around the water cooler.”
Diversity is also a benefit, said McClain, who used to be a burlesque dancer working out of Digital Nomads before she joined their staff.
“We’re extremely diverse,” she said. “We’ve got ornithologists, deep sea explorers, writers, entrepreneurs and more. The cross pollination of ideas is really fascinating.”

Codero Hosting to open an Austin office

March 1, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The cloud hosting wars are starting to heat up in central Texas.

Emil Sayegh, President and CEO of Codero Hosting

Kansas-based Codero Hosting, a cloud hosting service provider, announced that is has hired Emil Sayegh as its president and CEO and he’ll be based in Austin.
“In the next six months, Codero plans to add additional staff to its current headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas and office in Phoenix, Arizona, and open a new office in Austin, Texas where the rapidly growing technology industry offers a highly skilled pool of technology workers and prospective customers,” according to a news release.
Sayegh previously led cloud computing and hosting businesses for HP and Rackspace Inc.

Omni Water Solutions lands $7.9 million, plans to create clean water systems for oil and gas operations

February 28, 2012 / / 0 Comments


Omni Water Solutions won the Clean Energy Venture Summit last October.
Now the Austin startup, which makes a portable water purifying system, just landed $7.9 million in a first round financing deal led by Austin Ventures. Backers also included investors “connected to land, oil, and gas in the Eagle Ford Shale region of Texas,” according to Omni’s news release.
Omni plans to use proceeds from the financing to create water treatment units for oil and gas operations where water can be treated and re-used instead of discarded.
Founded in 2010, Omni has patent-pending technology that allows it to treat a high volume of contaminated water effectively with its portable systems at remote locations.
“Omni has an industry-leading approach, which has resulted in successful pilot tests with several marquee exploration and production operators,” Clark Jernigan, Venture Partner at Austin Ventures, said in a statement. “We believe that as domestic energy exploration continues to expand, Omni’s advanced technology will become increasingly important to companies that are looking for economical solutions to water conservation and re-use.”

Omni Hippo System – Oil & Gas Market from Omni Water Solutions on Vimeo.

What’s brewing in Silicon Hills? Coffeehouses hotspots for startups

February 27, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Photo by Stephanie Watson, used under a creative commons license

I read a blog post last year that advised never to ask a venture capitalist (or any busy person) to lunch.
The post, written by Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned venture capitalist Mark Suster, advised entrepreneurs to ask for a coffee meeting instead. The jist of it was that venture capitalists don’t have much time and they only want to dine with people they know well. But asking for a coffee date was just fine.
In the startup community, a lot of deals get done over a cup of coffee. The coffeehouse provides the perfect venue for veteran entrepreneurs to dish out advice and for startup founders to soak it up. And these meetings don’t take place in the neighborhood Starbucks. Creative entrepreneurs seek out other creative entrepreneurs who run independent coffeehouses. I’ve compiled a list of the entrepreneurial coffeehouse meet ups that I know about in Austin and San Antonio. If you know of more, please mention them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

Jeffrey Harbach, executive director of the Central Texas Angel Network has office hours on Wednesdays from 9 to 11 a.m. at Mozart’s Coffee Roasters, 3825 Lake Austin Blvd, Austin.

Robert Reeves, IT and Wireless Portfolio Director with the Austin Technology Incubator holds office hours every Thursday at Jo’s Coffee at 242 West 2nd Street from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Entrepreneur Joel Bush heads up a group of regulars who meet Friday mornings at Mozart’s Coffee Roasters, 3825 Lake Austin Blvd. You can follow their activity on Twitter at Regularing and through the group’s tumblr postings.

Entrepreneur Joshua Baer also holds office hours at Lola Savannah Coffee Shop at 6317 Bee Cave Road at 360 in Austin. You must sign up in advance for the next available time.

San Antonio also has lots of groups that meet informally at coffeehouses around the city. But thanks to Geekdom, I found out about San Antonio Open Coffee Club that meets every other Tuesday at Grassroots Coffee at 343 W. Sunset starting at 8 a.m. I’ll be there tomorrow to check it out and network with other entrepreneurs. So if you’re there, say hi!

Bazaarvoice stock soars in its first day of trading

February 24, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Brett Hurt, CEO and founder of Bazaarvoice, photo courtesy of McCombsToday.org

Bazaarvoice made some newly minted Austin millionaires today.
The social media marketing company stock debuted on the Nasdaq, priced at $12 a share, Friday morning and rose as high as 41 percent to $17.16 in the afternoon.
The stock, traded under the stock symbol BV, opened at $15.77 a share, up 33 percent, when trading began. The company raised $114 million in its initial public offering. Check Yahoo Finance for its most recent trading activity.
It’s Austin’s first IPO for a tech company this year.
Bazaarvoice provides online social marketing services and software to companies. It helps companies capture and display reviews on their websites and promote their brands online. Its customers include Cabela’s, Footlocker.com, Petco, Sephora USA, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Philips Consumer, Proctor & Gamble, Newell Rubbermaid, Orbitz and USAA, among others. The company reported revenue of $64.5 million in 2011 and a net loss of $20 million.
Bazaarvoice has raised $20 million in venture capital from Battery Ventures, First Round Capital and others, according to TechCrunch.

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