Rackspace® — [INFOGRAPHIC] Cloud Computing Services: Evolution of Music in the Cloud
![Rackspace® — [INFOGRAPHIC] Cloud Computing Services: Evolution of Music in the Cloud](http://c179631.r31.cf0.rackcdn.com/Infographic_Music_in_the_Cloud_Final02.png)
Category: San Antonio (Page 58 of 62)
SXSW is just around the corner so no better time than now to plan your panels, parties and people to meet. Also, these guides will help you deal with life’s most vexing problems like where do I go for barbecue and does anyone have a room to rent or a couch?
The official fist-timers guide to SXSW by the show’s organizers.
GSD&M’s SXSW SXSurvival Guide contains a series of boards they’ve assembled on Pinterest ranging from Weird Austin to Daytrips to Eats and Parties. It’s a comprehensive look at what’s in store complete with countdown clock – only 16 days until SXSW kicks off.
For startups, The Capital Factory has created the most comprehensive list of SXSW events for founders and entrepreneur-wannabes with “The Ultimate Startup Guide to SXSW 2012”
Omar L. Gallaga with the Austin American Statesman has covered SXSW for years and his coverage is always stellar. Already, he has reported several blog posts on the conference.
Since 2000, SXSW Baby has been the unofficial weblog of all things SXSW. Definitely worth visiting throughout the conference to find out what’s happening.
By all accounts, Rackspace Hosting is a fun place to work.
It ends up on lots of lists for best places to work including this one. It’s San Antonio’s largest high-tech employer and has an office in Austin and San Francisco.
But who loves their job enough to want to get married there? A couple of “Rackers” – the company name for its employees. Last week, Nathan and Meghan Spells tied the knot at Rackspace’s headquarters, which is dubbed “The Castle.”
On that same day, Friday, Feb. 10, Racker David Sims took his camera around the company and produced this video, which gives a good insight into what it’s like to work at Rackspace.
Disclosure: Rackspace is a sponsor of Silicon Hills News
By Luke Carrière
Special contributor to Silicon Hills News
Ever wanted to start a company but didn’t know the exact market or have the exact expertise? 3 Day Startup is teaming up with HomeAway, a recently IPO-ed Austin startup, to challenge, inspire, and help students and recent graduates to create companies in the travel space. The goal is to meet co-founders, work with great mentors, and build momentum for your new tech startup. We would like to invite you to apply to this exciting new event, which will be held the weekend of April 13th to April 15th. Please apply as soon as possible as we have rolling admissions.
We’ll combine the regular 3DS format – sixty hours of little sleep, high intensity doing, including market validation, prototyping, business model generation, etc – with HomeAway’s unique insights in the travel industry to help you create new companies. HomeAway has generously agreed to donate access to their API, their top executives, and has agreed to host free boot camps on the travel space in general and specifically, the $85 billion vacation rental market. The experiment here is simple: what happens when you combine 40 brilliant participants, 3DS’ proven methods for company creation, and the insights and expertise of a $2 billion company? As always, you, the participants will own the company. (That’s right, HomeAway isn’t taking any equity in companies that come out of the weekend, although they have acquired a lot of companies (16) in the past few years.)
Accepted participants will be mentored by some of HomeAway’s finest employees, including Chief Technology Officer Ross Buhrdorf. Over a dozen rockstars from HomeAway’s engineering, marketing, and sales departments will also be on hand at the event to help you build your companies. If you’re interested in participating in this unique new event, please click here to apply.
This is a sponsored post.
Photo: PRWeb / Copyright: Stadler Studio Do not reproduce without permission.
In the 2012 World Tech M&A Report, Carter noted that “SaaS continues to be the hottest segment of the application software sector. Growth rates of SaaS are over twice that of on-premise solutions.”
SaaS University provides the hard data and practical execution strategies SaaS and cloud applications companies need in order to take advantage of this growth. The event includes 28 separate sessions, including SaaS sales and marketing, finances and transition to SaaS. Attendees also receive a complimentary subscription to the monthly Softletter publication, which provides valuable benchmarks and proprietary industry data.
Ward Carter is Chairman of the Corum Group, the leading seller of privately held software and related technology companies. Corum has done landmark SaaS merger and other transactions with many of the leaders in the SaaS field including Salesforce.com and Concur. Ward has personally been at the vanguard of the SaaS revolution, running many of the leading valuation and negotiation forums. He was also a contributor for nearly five years with Softletter and other leading software industry pubications as an expert on topics related to software and technology M&A.
The half-day “Selling Up, Selling Out” workshop helps software entrepreneurs to prepare, position, research, value, negotiate and execute due diligence for maximum price and structure. It is the most attended technology M&A event ever, with participants having achieved over $1 trillion in transaction value.
To register for this event, please visit the SaaS University website.
About Ward Carter:
Mr. Carter’s technology background includes field and management positions with Burroughs Corporation (later Unisys). Later, as vice president of a Wall Street investment firm and as a principal in a regional venture capital firm, Mr. Carter raised funds for ventures in computer hardware, software, and biotech. As an executive for a Seattle-based archival storage software company he attracted venture capital and assisted in the eventual acquisition of the company. As the president of InfoMatrix, and later of Discovery Sales + Marketing, Mr. Carter provided strategic consulting support to emerging software companies.
In 1997 Mr. Carter joined Corum Group where he has successfully managed numerous software mergers & acquisitions worldwide, and was appointed president in 2006 and Chairman in 2010. He graduated with Honors from Seattle University with a BA in Business.
About Corum Group:
The global leader in software M&A, Corum Group has specialized in serving software and technology companies for over 25 years from its network of offices throughout North America and Europe. The company has created more than 6 billion in wealth for its clients while completing over 220 software M&A transactions. With an experienced team of senior M&A advisors backed by top industry valuation and research analysts and the industry’s most comprehensive database of potential buyers and investors, Corum offers unparalleled support in achieving its clients’ M&A objectives.
About SaaS University
For four years Softletter’s SaaS University has provided actionable SaaS benchmarks, metrics, and hard data not available from any other source. The 2012 event showcases SaaS Communities for Growth and Profitability as well as Private Meetings with VC and M&A Experts.
The company that placed this press release with PRWeb is responsible for its content. It is not edited by SiliconHillsNews.com
If you would like to attend this conference for free, Silicon Hills News has one ticket to giveaway, please contact Silicon Hills News to put your name in the hat. We’ll draw one winner at the end of the week.
By Luke Carrière
Lead Organizer of 3DStartup NYC
In August 1994, Nick Longo founded a coffee house in Corpus Christi, Texas, which became one of the first internet cafes in the world. He created a website for his coffee shop and began designing websites for others in his community. By 1996 it had became so popular that he designed software to help people make their own websites and called it CoffeeCup Software, Inc., a startup that went on to win Shareware Industry Awards Foundation (“SIAF Awards”) for Best Web and Internet Software for six years from 1999-2004. In 2000, Nick founded then spun-off Bluedomino Web Hosting, which hosted over 15,000 websites. Nick is now at Rackspace in San Antonio, Texas as “Chief Rainmaker & Director of Strategic Initiatives.” One of the initiatives he is involved in is a collaborative workspace for entrepreneurs called Geekdom.
How did you recognize the opportunity/research the feasibility of the idea?
That’s a good starting place. That was from being a user first. I think a lot of good ideas come from saying to yourself, “hmm this isn’t done right,” or, “I could do this better.”
So, opportunities seem to be right in our own backyard. We are really good at our hobbies and things we do everyday. For example, I’m a webmaster and I don’t like the tools that are available. The idea comes about to make my own software so life will be easier for me. If I can make my life easier for myself, then it is probably going to make someone else’s life easier too. That is exactly how CoffeeCup was formed. I wanted to make my life easier. I had an intuitive sense at it was going to help others because they must be running into the same problems.
How did you finance your business?
I started with just a Master Card. I bought a $500 computer. I setup the computer in my coffee house and slept on the floor for the first year. I spent 24/7 focusing on creation and distribution of software. I took no financing.
What did you do with initial profits?
I wasn’t concerned with paying myself the first year, except for minimal stuff. When I had to make the first hire, I stockpiled cash because I would need another developer. I used the income I earned early as my bootstrapping money. So, I would “save, save, save,” and then hire to make more software. It was really a bootstrap deal.
How long did it take for your company to become profitable?
Within the first three months I was able to close the coffee house. I paid myself as much as I could, of course, I was keeping it really low. At the end of year one I had already made another two pieces of software.
How did your idea change throughout the process?
Originally I put it out for free. But a few things that changed. First, I had no idea how big the market was going to become. I made an HTML editor and that was all I planned to make. Then, a few months later, I realized there was a lot more opportunity and I need to make more software. My original intent was only making an HTML editor. But by the time I was done there were 35 pieces of software. That was a major shift.
Did you ever think of giving up? If so why?
I’m not a big fan of the “fail” methodology. If I were operating on a “fail fast” mindset, I would have been discouraged at month 3, and at month 6. When you are doing it by yourself, or only one other guy, you have all these aspirations to make a million dollars, and then you realize you can barely pay yourselves. That can be discouraging. I don’t have a “fail” bone. I say to myself, “I am going to ride this out as far as I can for as long as I can before it fails.” When I start something I don’t start believing its going to be successful, I start believing that I don’t want to fail. I always keep this little “fear of failure” thing in my pocket. I don’t worry about it succeeding, I just don’t want to fail. That can be a major driving motivator. Sometimes it’s not healthy. I’m more concerned about paying the rent.
What was your initial role? What is your current role in the company now?
We didn’t use the word “startup.” Starting a new business automatically made me a founder. As business develops and you add more products and there are more revenue and profits which increase the amount of problems like taxes, accountants, insurance and employees. The role shift goes from Founder to CEO, and that is a hard transition to make. Founders have fun: CEO’s not so much. Then it becomes a daily process and a monthly process of watching numbers. Before I sold my business I spent more time during the last half, 5-6 years, hitting refresh and checking revenue and planning marketing and sales, than I did in the first half.
What are the most successful marketing techniques? Guerilla marketing?
Everything I do is guerilla. Try to spend least possible on anything normal. In 11 years I spent approximately $100,000 in total marketing costs. We did a lot of one-on-one marketing to our distributors like CNET and other download sites. We would take those guys out to parties, which was cheaper than paying for advertizing. In return, they would give us way better advertising spots than we could ever afford by being cool with them. I’m a big fan of contests. I’ve given away Super Bowl tickets, a Rolex, a Mercedes: I’m really big on contests. Surprisingly, that is cheaper than having a marketing budget. We would raid conferences, like crashing a wedding. We wouldn’t even buy tickets. We didn’t even look like we should be there. We handed out our software up and down every isle. I’d rather have a developer than spend money on marketing. It did take a lot of tricks to walk through the back door to get to the front door.
What is the worst advice you have ever received and why?
Well, to be honest with you I didn’t really take peoples’ advice. Our culture was a little weird. We used to talk about being in a petri dish. You were either in the petri dish or your not in the petri dish. We didn’t let much in and we didn’t go out of it. We were really making our own rules. I didn’t take much advice.
The best advice I got was to make it shareware and actually sell it and timeout the software. I remember that. It was from one of the founders of download.com. Besides that, we weren’t taking much advice. To me all advice was bad. If we ever heard it, it usually didn’t match what we were doing because the company was very rouge.
You were trailblazing?
If you want to call it that. If our attempts didn’t work it was okay because it was the internet. You could delete it and it goes away and its not a big deal. If you released software and no one bought it you could delete it and move onto the next project. We didn’t invest too much time in any one specific piece f software. We were developing software in really short amounts of time, the epitome of agile development or rapid application development. We would say, “if we add this feature…wait, lets just make it its own piece of software.” Every 2-week and 4-week blocks we were delivering another piece of software.
Which part of your job is actual work opposed to passion?
You’re mostly driven by passion, not by what the outcome will be. If you love what you’re doing you are probably going to get a good result. That doesn’t always have to mean money. Even today, CoffeeCup is pretty well known. We were trying to help people change their lives by using our software so they don’t have to work for the man any more. That made us anti-establishment. That drove our passion. All the people who worked for us were that way.
We didn’t follow any process. The smaller the team, and closer we are together, the more money we can make, and the more we can do what we believe to be the right thing, which was to make software cheap for everyone, so they don’t have to work for the man. If that was the mission, it was passion driven. It means 24/7 hours, but passion doesn’t have to be about hard work if your having fun. If you are having fun, it shouldn’t be work. So, if you find yourself thinking you are working too much it probably means you are losing some of the passion you started with on your first day.
How is the economy effecting your business?
I think that is product driven. During my tenure at CoffeeCup we went through the Dot Com Bubble Burst, and 9/11, and another stock market crash. Those were actually opportunities. When the economy is down people lose their jobs, which means more people want to do their own thing. More entrepreneurs and startups are born when the economy is down. CoffeeCup was there through a lot of the bad, but we made out better because of it.
If everyone has tons of money they will buy the expensive software, regardless of whether it works well or not. We were there for beginners and intermediates. It was perfect in goods times and bad. In bad we did better. That is an awesome market to be in: a business that is recession proof. I would always be looking for that.
There is a big difference between needs and wants. For example we need a car, we want a Mercedes. You are better off selling products or services that people need. “Want businesses” are hurt the most, not the “need businesses.”
What is your advice to future entrepreneurs?
First, find the thing that people need, not what they want. Second, absolutely do the thing that you are passionate about, not the thing that you think is going to make money.
Those are two super super important things. Right when you find the striking balance between those, that is when you will find yourself successful: worrying less about failing but knowing that it is still there.
Don’t drive for success: drive not to fail.
Reprinted with permission from 3DStartupNYC
By Luke Carrière
Special contributor to Silicon Hills News
The Austin Forum on Science, Technology and Society hosted a free event Tuesday evening to help nonprofit organizations get the most out of South by Southwest Interactive 2012.
The event attracted non-profit professionals, start-up founders, and University of Texas students. Several people tweeted throughout the evening using the hashtag #austinforum.
To kick things off, Hugh Forrest, director of the SXSW Interactive Festival showed a video by SXSWi, which is an example of how nonprofits can use technology to engage their followers. He advised nonprofits to create dynamic videos, rather than videos featuring their executive director speaking into the camera for 12 minutes, which would not communicate their mission as well. He also invited the audience to attend a free event on March 11: The 2012 Dewey Winburne Community Service Award Ceremony, which honors one of the co-founders of SXSWi, who “believed that the new media revolution could help level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots in our society.”
Next, Heidi Schultz Adams, senior director of engagement at LIVESTRONG, pointed to the power of social media in managing communications with seven time Tour de France Champion and Philanthropist Lance Armstrong’s 3 million followers. Lynn Freehill tweeted Adam’s advice on how to handle the debates that surface on social platforms, “Leave in negative comments, leave in positive comments–let the conversation unfold.” The bottom line about using social media was summarized by Ronald McDonald House Charities Austin, “Social media costs you, but it can also save money for a nonprofit. Be smart about it.” Yes, you will need to dedicate time and resources to ensure you do it right. Giving the task to an unpaid intern is not the way to manage and cultivate constituent relationships effectively.
David J. Neff, founder of Lights. Camera. Help said his nonprofit, like many in Austin, is constantly exploring ways to generate revenue. He said it can often be difficult for a nonprofit to reach the point where they can afford to hire their first full time employee. In contrast, startups have it easier than nonprofits because of the huge upside of potential profit they offer investors and employees. SXSWi can be a resource for nonprofits to stay on top of emerging technology and tools, he said. He recalled SXSW 2005, when he learned about the growing field of online video. That is now central to his nonprofit, which connects nonprofits with videographers to help them convey their mission in a video form. “SXSW Interactive is where I go to find out what’s going to be hot in two years,” Neff said.
Overall, the take-away from the event was that nonprofit leaders should stay aware of the powerful social media tools being developed every year. If SXSW Interactive is not within your budget, there are many free events to attend and affordable options like SXSWedu and SXSWeco.
Sara Peralta, a student at Texas State University, covering all things SXSW at SXSTXSTATE. Filed this Storify post on the event.
Who knew Microsoft made movies?
Microsoft will screen its new movie on entrepreneurship, Ctrl+Alt+Compete tonight at 6 p.m. at Geekdom, a collaborative workspace in downtown San Antonio.
“Ctrl+Alt+Compete is a new documentary that takes a revealing look at the startup and emerging business scene through the eyes of 5 founders and their teams and tells a story of the passion, fortitude and insanity that is bringing a startup to life,” according to Microsoft.
The first TechStars Cloud program kicked off in San Antonio on Jan. 19 with 11 companies that all moved to the city from outside the state. Jason Seats and Nicole Glaros, managing directors, run the TechStars Cloud program at Geekdom on the 11th floor of the Weston Centre. The three-month incubator and mentoring program ends with a demo day in April.
Microsoft has been at Geekdom all day teaching the TechStars Cloud entrepreneurs about Microsoft Azure, said Nick Longo, director of Geekdom.