For many people, this weekend will be a time to relax and kick back and enjoy the beginning of summer.
But not for a group of dedicated citizens in San Antonio and Austin. They will be hacking away for free to make the world a better place for everyone.
Saturday is the National Day of Civic Hacking.
San Antonio and Austin are two of 79 cities and 98 civic hacking events taking place from May 31st to June 1st, according to Government Technology.
San Antonio’s Civic Day of Hacking takes place at Geekdom’s Rand building starting at 10 a.m. and runs through 5 p.m.
“This year, openSATX and Geekdom have partnered with CODE for AMERICA to host Cafe Commerce, an entrepreneurial incubator launched by ACCÍON and the Office if the Mayor last month,” according to a news release. “Using city data, we hope to build real-time applications that will ignite local business.”
This will be the second time Austin has held a National Day of Civic Hacking. Its program, ATX Hack for Change, will be held at St. Edwards University. It kicks off Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and it is sold out. A demonstration of the projects developed during the event will be held Sunday night.
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Box announced Friday morning it has selected Austin to expand its operations.
The Austin office will be the company’s first U.S. location outside of the Bay Area. The company spent more than a year on its site selection process.
The office will be located at One American Center and it will include workers in a wide variety of areas including customer service, finance, technical operations and other functions. The office is a 20,800 square foot.
Box plans to hire up to 90 workers by the end of this year and plans to eventually hire more than 200. Box plans to hold a recruiting event on June 4th at Easy Tiger.
“Today we have more than 25 million users globally and in addition to Austin, we’ve opened up offices in San Francisco, London, and Japan in the last two years,” according to a Box blog post.
Box, an online file sharing and cloud content management company, is based in Los Altos, Calif. The company has raised $414 million since its founding in 2005, according to Crunchbase.
Despite restrictions, Lyft, the ride sharing company known for its cars emblazoned with giant pink mustaches, launched Thursday in Austin.
“The Austin community’s overwhelming calls for more transportation options have been heard,” according to Lyft’s blog post. “After a petition started by ATX Safer Streets garnered nearly 4,000 organic signatures from Austin residents – many of whom left comments explaining their need for Lyft and other ridesharing services – Lyft will now be providing friendly, reliable, and affordable rides throughout the Heart of Texas beginning tonight at 7 p.m.”
Lyft provides its ride-sharing service through a free app on an iPhone or Android smartphone. Customers download the app and then they can schedule a ride by inputting the time and place. For the first two weeks, Lyft is offering free rides to customers in Austin.
Lyft is known as a peer-to-peer ride sharing program which means its drivers use their own cars to provide rides to others. The drivers do have to pass a background check, according to Lyft.
“With Lyft, passengers are connected via smartphone to background-checked community drivers – which include a food truck owner and middle school social worker in Austin – all easily recognized by the furry pink mustaches on the front of their cars,” said Katy Dally, spokeswoman for Lyft.
The company is holding a kick off party to celebrate its Austin launch Friday evening at Bungalow on Rainey Street.
While Austin’s City Council formed a task force to study the issue of ridesharing at its recent meeting, the council did not approve the practice. And the city’s transportation department has issued a statement warning Lyft that its drivers could receive citations and have their vehicles could be impounded if they are found in violation of current laws.
“Lyft is not operating illegally in Austin nor San Antonio, as taxi and chauffeur laws in those cities do not apply to Lyft,” Dally wrote in a statement. “In Austin, the city’s passing of a resolution to create a new regulatory structure for TNCs demonstrates that the current structure does not account for emerging and unique business models. We are committed to staying at the table and continuing to work with the City, as we have in jurisdictions across the country.”
Austin is Lyft’s fifth city in Texas. The two year old San Francisco-based company launched in San Antonio in late March but it met with opposition from the city’s taxi cab industry and city officials. Uber also launched in San Antonio in late March and it also met with opposition.
San Antonio’s Police Chief William McManus warned Lyft and Uber drivers against providing rides for pay or else they would be cited for violating the city’s vehicle for hire law and their vehicles might be impounded.
The City of San Antonio formed a transportation study and has held hearings on the ride sharing services. Meanwhile, Lyft and Uber continue to operate and they have begun charging people for rides.
In Austin, Lyft created a Youtube video explaining why it chose the city and also outlining the need for its service including issues such as traffic congestion and drunk driving.
Yellow Cab Austin President Ed Kargbo released a statement regarding Lyft’s launch calling it an “illegal operation” with a “complete lack of respect for the City of Austin.”
“We strongly advise everyone to ask for proof of commercial insurance before using any illegal service,” Kargbo said in a news release. “While they choose to sidestep the rules, we’ll honor a commitment to addressing our city’s challenges through legal transportation options that prioritize the safety of both riders and drivers, including innovations like the Hail A Cab app. We will also continue to respect the process set forth by the Austin City Council — one that is in place for the protection of our residents and visitors.”
Lyft’s service is not illegal, Dally said.
“Despite what Yellow Cab representatives might say, Lyft does protect all passengers and drivers with commercial insurance,” she wrote in a statement. “In fact, Lyft offers three times the insurance coverage as an Austin taxi, and also has more strict background check and DMV driving record check requirements.”
Yan Engines, a recent graduate of the Austin Technology Incubator, has closed on $2 million in funding.
The company has also developed a fuel efficient car engine and landed a contract to create a truck engine for the U.S. military.
Yan Engines recently graduated from ATI’s Clean Energy Incubator. The company also works closely with Prof. Ronald Matthews from UT’s Engines Research Laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department.
“At ATI, we look for major market disruptors, and Yan Engines fit that criterion and then some,” Mitch Jacobson, co-director, ATI Clean Energy Incubator, said in a news release. “By proving out that they could make a standard commercial engine 80% more fuel efficient, the future technology applications are literally endless. We are excited to continue to support Yan in its efforts to improve fuel efficiency of military fleets, shipping, power generation, and infinite other potentials.”
In 2008, Yan Engines completed a Honda engine prototype, which was built in Taiwan. But in the fall of 2011, the company moved to Austin and joine ATI.
To date, Yan Engines has raised $4 million through investors and contracts. Its latest investment came from New Energy Holdings, a private equity firm.
Filament Labs raised $1 million in a seed investment led by the Mercury Fund.
The Austin-based company plans to use the money to develop its Patient IO platform for health professionals. The patient portal allows doctors and other caregivers to put information about the patient’s treatment online, including doctor recommended homework and medicine and deliver it to the patient’s smartphone.
Filament Labs was part of the inaugural Techstars class, which held its Demo Day last October. The company previously raised $160,000 as part of the Techstars program.
“Mobile care plans create informed, accountable patients, contributing to improved outcomes and decreased costs for accountable health care providers. With this funding, we will continue to modernize paper-based care plan programs and bring them into the digital era through the Patient IO platform,” Filament Labs CEO Jason Bornhorst said in a news release.
Filament labs has already tested its Patient IO platform with about 4,000 patients in a partnership with Corinthian Health Services and Arcadia Home Care, which are also investors in the company. It plans to expand the service to additional 4,000 patients in June.
Malauzai Software, which makes mobile apps for banks, announced it has received a $6.48 million in venture capital.
The Austin-based company received the Round C investment, led by Wellington Management Co., last week. The company, founded in 2010, has previously raised $5.3 million.
Malauzai has more than 260 banks and credit unions as customers. It reaches more than 300,000 consumers with its mobile banking apps. It has created mobile features such as “Picture Pay, Debit Card Management, 4-digit pin log-in and quick view of balance and transactions without the need to sign in.”
The company plans to use the investment to further develop its products, on marketing and sales.
“Our goal is to level the mobile banking playing field and arm community institutions with technology that meets, and often exceeds, the mobile features offered by the big banks,” Malauzai’s CEO Tom Shen said in a news release. “As mobile banking continues to grow in both usage and functionality, it’s vital that this market segment has the tools to compete. this most recent investment will allow us to drive those efforts even further.”
Austin-based Skyonic Corp. announced last week that it has landed another $12.5 million in funding.
The company, which creates carbon capture technology, received the funding from existing investor, ConocoPhillips and from new investor Enbridge of Canada.
Skyonic plans to use the money to further develop its technology, called SkyCycle, which uses thermolytic chemical reactions to capture carbon dioxide emissions. It then converts the CO2 emissions into other products such as hydrochloric acid and limestone.
The company is building a plant in San Antonio, which is expected to be operational in October.
“Stationary emitters are facing a lot of uncertainty right now, with new, stricter EPA regulations expected to be proposed next month,” Joe Jones, Skyonic founder and CEO said in a news release. “As emissions regulations continue to develop over the next several years, SkyCycle can help the industry to evolve with them.”
Skyonic, founded in 2005, has raised a total of $143.5 million to date, according to its Crunchbase profile.
Austin-based VUV Analytics has closed on $5.8 million in venture capital.
The company closed on the series A round, led by S3 Ventures, to fund the launch of its laboratory-scale molecular spectroscopy instruments business.
S3’s Managing Director, Brian R. Smith, will also join the company’s board.
“We are really excited to close this investment with S3 Ventures,” Sean Jameson, CEO of VUV Analytics, said in a news release. “They are the perfect fit and bring a tremendous wealth of knowledge regarding the business practices which are common among successful fast-past technology companies. Their guidance and insight will be incredibly valuable to our business.”
By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News
The Austin Technology Council’s Startup Showdown builds a bridge between the startup community and those who have more seasoned experiences and companies, said Josh Alexander, founder of Toopher.
Toopher, a security platform that helps businesses authentic and verify their customers online, won the ATC Startup Showdown in 2012.
“As a result we were able to connect and get really, really good advice from those who have been there and done that,” Alexander said.
“We’ve been very fortunate in our trajectory so far and we’ve been able to accomplish a lot, clearly, if not most of it, because of the wonderful community we have here in Austin,” he said. Toopher has raised $2 million.
Alexander spoke at the Austin Technology Council’s CEO Summit on Thursday during a noontime presentation of the four most promising local startups in the 2014 ATC Startup Showdown.
Alexander introduced Joseph Kopser, the CEO and Founder of RideScout, “the Kayak of ground transportation” and the winner of the Startup Showdown from last year. RideScout started in the Austin Technology Incubator. The company created a mobile phone app that lets consumers search and compare aggregated ground transportation options to find the best one. The company has raised seed stage funding last year, built out its team and launched in Washington, D.C., Austin, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago.
“We wouldn’t have gotten to where we are today without ATC and its supporters,” Kopser said.
ATC chose one startup from each of four tech incubators based in Austin including the Austin Technology Incubator, Capital Factory, DreamIt Ventures and Techstars Austin.
Among Austin’s incubators and accelerators there’s a lot of collaboration and cooperation, said Isaac Barchas, director of the Austin Technology Incubator.
“The infrastructure is being built out in a way that makes the whole more valuable than its parts,” Barchas said.
Rick Hawkins, president and CEO of Lumos Pharma, an ATI company.
The winning company from Capital Factory was Cratejoy.
Josh Baer, co-founder of Capital Factory, said the incubator has made 30 investments since October. He said it’s the most active seed-stage investor in Austin right now. Capital Factory launched a syndicate investment on Angellist with $100,000 investment in Cratejoy and the company attracted another $350,000 in investment from around the country, Baer said.
Amir Elaguizy, founder of Cratejoy, a Capital Factory company.
The company pivoted from Toutpost, a Y-Combinator startup, into Cratejoy after Elaguizy identified an unmet need for a platfrom catering to subscription based businesses. The company launched a Beta program recently and has signed up several paying businesses including Beard Brand, which sells grooming supplies for breads, Sumo Snacks, a subscription based jerky delivery to companies and a tie of the month club. Cratejoy, which has 10 employees, recently moved out of the Capital Factory and into a house in Austin because it’s expanding so quickly and needed more room, Elaguizy said.
Utz Baldwin, founder of Plum
“I think Austin is the number two city in the country, outside of the Bay Area, for starting up a company,” he said. “We are intent on building a big consumer brand right here in the great state of Texas.”
The winning company representing DreamIt Ventures was Swan, a platform that allows consumers to order beauty services like hairstyles, makeup and manicures to the home or office.
Kerry Rupp, CEO of DreamIt Ventures in Austin, introduced Julia Andalman Swan’s founder. Andalman first pitched her company to Steve Welch of DreamIt Ventures in Dallas but she didn’t think he liked it. Then he called her a week later. He went home and talked to his wife about it and she thought it was a great idea, Andalman said.
By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News
A panel of women entrepreneurs in Austin managed to find funding for their ventures despite the odds being stacked against them.
“There’s no ratio or statistic that has gotten in their way,” said Jan Ryan, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Women@Austin.
That panel at the Austin Technology Council’s CEO summit included Sara Gates, founder and CEO of Wisegate, Cathy Thompson, CEO of Motion Computing, Karen Bantuveris, CEO of Volunteerspot.com and Crista Bailey, CEO of TextureMedia.
“One of the best kept secrets in Austin right now is the talent around entrepreneurial women,” Ryan said.
She has made it her mission to shine a spotlight on the success of women entrepreneurs in Austin. Last year, Ryan noticed that the ATC CEO Summit had few women presenters and only a handful of female CEOs in attendance. She worked to change that and organized the panel for this year’s summit.
Ryan along with 16 other successful female entrepreneurs created Women@Austin, an organization with the goal of making Austin the most successful and supportive city in the nation for women.
“It’s not just good for women,” Ryan said. “It’s good for economics.”
Women launch 1,288 new businesses daily, double the rate from three years ago, according to the 2014 State of Women-Owned Business Report, commissioned by American Express OPEN. Those are primarily small businesses, Ryan said.
But Harvard recently did a study showing the number of women led big businesses with $10 million or more in annual revenue has grown by 57 percent in the last 12 months, Ryan said.
“There’s a movement afoot we can leverage,” she said.
The impact diversity has on profitability and the effectiveness of a team is huge, Ryan said. The company that has a balanced management team with even a single woman on the team is poised to perform better, she said.
Yet women-run firms received just an estimated 5 percent of the $29.4 billion invested by venture capitalists in 2013.
A big part of the success for female entrepreneurs is having a good mentor, Ryan said. Studies show women with a mentor are seven times as likely to succeed, she said. She asked the panelists who mentored them.
For Gates, her mother, a former opera singer, served as her mentor and told her she could do anything her brothers could do. That foundation helped her found Wisegate, an IT research firm. She also had a strong local mentor, Mark McClain, CEO and Founder of SailPoint Technologies and her former boss.
Bailey with TextureMedia, which runs web sites for women with curly hair, mentioned Jimmy Treybig, founder of Tandem Computers as her mentor. He is also an investor in the company and serves as its chairman of the board.
“He has tremendous empathy for entrepreneurs,” she said. “He also has innate belief in the good in people. He believes in men and women working together to create great companies.”
Bantuveris, founder of Volunteerspot, a leading coordination tool for moms, gave “props to the Austin community in general.” She called herself an accidental entrepreneur.
“I don’t think I could have started up a company anywhere else but Austin,” she said. “Everybody was so welcoming and they wanted to listen to what we were trying to do.”
Thompson, CEO of Motion Computing, a rugged laptop company focused on the enterprise market, said she has had several mentors. In particular, Michael Dell let her move from the finance department to run a division of Dell. She also mentioned Rudy Garza at G-51 Capital and David Altounian, founder of Motion Computing.
Landing venture capital can be a huge challenge for any entrepreneur but female entrepreneurs face some unique challenges when pitching women focused startups to a room full of men.
At first, Bantuveris bootstrapped her venture and then she received seed funding from the Central Texas Angel Network and additional capital from a nationwide network of angels.
“What’s fun for me is to say go home and ask your wife,” Bantuveris said, about the need for an organizational tool like Volunteerspot for moms. There aren’t that many women venture partners, she said. Venture capitalists tend to fund what they know and understand and what they are comfortable with, she said.
TextureMedia, received funding from CTAN in 2007, and additional investment from Golden Seeds in New York.
“You’ve never lived until you’ve tried to raise money for a platform for women with curly hair and you’re standing in front of a room full of men,” Bailey said.
Motion Computing, founded in 2001, is about to start raising outside capital, said Thompson.
“We see a huge market and growth opportunity,” she said.
She said when it comes to raising outside capital, you can’t take it personally.
“There’s times where you’re going to be a good fit and times when you’re not going to be a good fit,” she said.
