Bryan Menell, a serial technology entrepreneur, announced Tuesday the launch of Verimos, a data bank with information on health and wellness powered by Blockchain technology.

Menell, who unveiled his latest company at a press conference at Capital Factory, said the company is partnering with all kinds of businesses in the wellness industry including health food suppliers and fitness studios.

“People are wearing devices, monitoring health measurements, and downloading apps on their phones to track workouts, jogging, calories, water consumption, and almost every aspect of their wellness,” Menell said in a news statement. “Verimos is creating a protocol that makes it easy to store this data in a new type of database called a blockchain.”

“People distrust big technology companies that continue to accumulate personal data for the purpose of selling us more products. Verimos will allow individuals to store their information in such a way that details are private to them, but available as aggregate data to researchers tracking trends in public health and wellness.”

Blockchain technology is the same technology that is used in Bitcoin. It distributes the data to hundreds of computers worldwide and no single entity has control over it.

Customers can then access their health data and use it to get discounts with health insurance companies.

Other uses include pharmaceutical companies looking for clinical trial candidates with certain health traits. Healthcare professionals can also design precision therapies and medicines targeted at the individual. It can also be used by companies for workforce risk assessment.

The Verimos team includes Menell, CEO, Jason Stoddard and Michael May.

In Amazon’s Super Bowl ad, there are major hints that Austin is definitely on Amazon’s radar.

Amazon’s personal assistant Alexa, a hardware device that runs on artificial intelligence, is the ad’s star along with Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos.

The ad opens up with a woman in her bathroom brushing her teeth, listening to Alexa.

Alexa says: “In Austin, it’s 60 degrees with a cha…cough, cough.”

Then the commercial breaks to a newscaster reporting that Amazon’s Alexa lost her voice this morning. Then the scene cuts to Bezos, founder, and CEO of Amazon, talking to his staff who assure him that they’ve got substitutes ready to fill in. Then the commercial shows off a string of celebrities providing commentary and not really being helpful at all to customer inquiries.

The commercial is fantastic. But it’s the opening that has Austin buzzing the morning after the Philadelphia Eagles 41 to 33 victory over the New England Patriots. Austin is in the running along with 19 other cities for Amazon’s second headquarters project that could bring billions in investment and as many as 50,000 high paying jobs. On the Austin Startups Facebook page, someone posted the ad and others speculated whether Amazon was sending Austin a message.

Texas Monthly wrote a story speculating that the entire ad signaled Austin as Amazon’s favorite from the ad’s references to country music and peacocks.

“This ad, in our estimation, bodes poorly for the mayors of nineteen other cities in the running for Amazon’s HQ2,” according to Texas Monthly. “Austinites, meanwhile, should come to grips with the changes to their city and its housing availability, its traffic, and its property taxes. From the clues in this ad, it’s already a done deal.”

And according to USA Today, the Amazon Alexa Loses Her Voice ad won as the best ad of the Super Bowl on its Ad Meter.

Now whether Austin wins Amazon’s HQ2 project, is yet to be confirmed. Amazon has said it will make an announcement some time this year.

In 2013, Dell went private in a $24 billion buyout deal backed by Silver Lake and Michael Dell.

Today, Dell Technologies filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing that the company’s board is considering taking the company public again with an initial public offering or by merging with VMWare. Normally, the company doesn’t have to disclose the information since it’s private, but it owns 82 percent of VMware, which is public, and that required Dell to make a public filing with regulators.

“Nothing has been decided and alternatives are just being considered at this stage,” Dell wrote in an internal memo to Dell Technologies employees, which was included with the public filing. “While this process continues, it is business as usual for team members, customers and partners with no changes to current structures, practices and processes. There will be continued press coverage and speculation, and it’s important to stay focused on delivering for customers and closing the quarter strongly.”

“For my part, I remain completely committed to our mission and extremely excited about the opportunities ahead,” Dell wrote.

The complete filing, which is short, can be found here.

In a statement, VMware’s CEO Pat Gelsinger said, “We are not in a position to speculate on the outcome of Dell’s evaluation of potential business opportunities. Dell has been a tremendous partner since it became our majority owner and as we’ve accelerated our growth. We look forward to Dell’s continued support as we work to execute our growth plans in the years ahead. The VMware management team remains laser-focused on serving our customers and partners with the best portfolio of software products and services across cloud, mobile, networking and security.”

Content marketing is driving readers to websites.

Startups that produce their own content can become an authoritative voice in the industry that they cater to. That creates trust, which can lead to higher sales of products and services.

But it’s not just about throwing content onto a website and hoping something resonates with the audience. The entrepreneurs who do the best job of creating content spend a lot of time planning their posts, surveying and understanding their audience and creating a mission statement that focuses their content and achieves the goals they set out.

And a key component to content marketing success? An editorial calendar that plans posts by the day, week, month and year. These calendars can be paper-based, online software tools and do-it-yourself excel spreadsheets or Google calendar and tasks integrated templates.

So why does an entrepreneur need a content calendar?

1. Saves time and keeps content organized and on track.
2. Allows for collaboration among teams, freelancers, partners and others.
3. Plans content around key dates.
4. A key tool for content marketing.
5. Search engine optimization or SEO relies on content and that can generate more sales.

On Wednesday, a group met at Galvanize in downtown Austin for a workshop on creating a content calendar. This is the SlideShare presentation from that event:

Austin’s ice storms have finally passed (at least we think so). And the sun is shining. So it’s a great day to plan out events to attend during the week. Here’s just a few to consider.

Sunday & Monday – The Culturati Summit, a program of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, takes place at Brazos Hall and Capital Factory – This summit brings in about 150 business leaders from all over the country to talk about creating and sustaining company culture.

Tuesday – Jan. 30 – 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Impact Hub Austin on North Lamar – Venture Prep – A two-hour free workshop for entrepreneurs by Tech Ranch.

Wednesday – 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Galvanize – How to Create an Editorial Calendar and Content Creation Tips by Laura Lorek, publisher, editor and senior writer with Silicon Hills News. This is a hands-on workshop at Galvanize in the Paramount Conference room and is limited in participation. Only a few tickets remain. The cost is $7 and tickets are available here.

Wednesday – 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Galvanize – WINE NOT Learn how to do killer AdWords campaigns? Todd Nevins of ClickPlacement is teaching this workshop at Galvanize. And Dave Perez of Lumen Insurance will show off the Adwords campaign that he built. The event is free and includes wine and cheese. Tickets available here.

Wednesday – 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center at UT, Room 202 – TexTalks featuring Joshua Dziabiak, cofounder of The Zebra, an insurance search engine in Austin. The event is free, but registration is required.

Wednesday and Thursday – 1:30 p.m. kickoff at Capital Factory – the HealthTech Austin Medical Device Summit features panels and demos of some of the latest medical technology devices in the Austin area. Tickets are $160.

SXSW – March 9 – 18 at the Austin Convention Center and locations all over Austin.

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GroundBreak Construction Conference by Procore Technologies, Nov. 13-15 in Austin. Use the Code “LocalsOnly” to save $100 on registration costs through April 2018.

In Dallas, ShearShare, a startup that created an app to allow barbers and hair stylists to rent salon space on the fly, won $100,000 in a diversity investment challenge last week.

The diversity challenge, announced last Fall by Captial Factory, focuses on giving a $100,000 investment to one startup from Dallas with a diverse executive team. The husband and wife team of Tye and Courtney Caldwell won with their startup ShearShare, founded in 2016, which has completed the 500 Startups program and is a Y Combinator Fellow. The company has raised $415,000 to date in two seed rounds, according to Crunchbase.

The award is from Capital Factory, a coworking and accelerator in Austin, in partnership with The Dallas Entrepreneur Center and DivInc, a diversity accelerator in Austin, to help minority and female-led startups in the tech industry.

Last year, Capital Factory’s Executive Director and Founder Joshua Bear wrote the Texas Startup Manifesto about Capital Factory’s plans to expand its accelerator program to include Dallas with a presence at The Dallas Entrepreneur Center. Last week, Capital Factory opened its new space. It has already been working with Dallas startups and has hosted office hours in Dallas. Since then, Capital Factory has also taken busloads of entrepreneurs and mentors from Austin to Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston to network and do office hours.

Also last year, Capital Factory awarded $100,000 in another pitch competition focused on gender and ethnic diversity. Kiss and Tell, an online wedding planning site, won that competition and is now based at Capital Factory.

“$100,000 isn’t all of the money you’ll ever need, but it’s enough for a scrappy team to focus full-time on building a minimum viable product and finding product market fit for about a year. We give you free rent, free hosting, a lot of other free stuff to make that $100,000 last as long as possible,” Baer wrote in a blog post.

As the winner of the competition, ShearShare receives $100,000 cash investment as a convertible note, access to accomplished technology and business mentors, one year of unlimited co-working at Capital Factory and The DEC, legal services and hosting credits.

The funds for the Capital Factory investment challenge come from angel investors and mentors.

Techstars Austin announced the ten companies selected for its Techstars Austin 2018 accelerator.

The accelerator, which features a diverse set of companies, kicked off on Jan. 22nd at Techstars’ new offices at 220 S. Congress Ave. The program ends on April 20th with a Demo Day.

This is Techstars’ sixth program in Austin.

This year’s cohort includes six teams from the Carolinas and four from Austin. Seven of the companies are led by minority and female founders.

“All of the companies are tackling interesting problems, and joining Techstars Austin to focus on growth of their business,” Amos Schwartzfarb, managing director of Techstars Austin, wrote in a blog post.

The class includes the following startups:

Allstacks: It measures the productivity of software engineers on a development team.

Locus Tracking: It uses proprietary eye-tracking technology to provide real-time data on where users look on their phones.

DocStation: It connects payers and pharmacists to cut costs and improve patient outcomes.

Mesur – It enables growers to accurately water and fertilizes seed by using real-time environmental measurements and advanced analytics.

MILKFUL – makes lactation snacks for breastfeeding moms.

Rosso & Flynn: It is an online butcher shop.

SkillPop: It provides community-based pop-up classes.

Transmute: It is a blockchain development platform.

Van Robotics: It makes smart robot tutors that deliver highly personalized instruction.

The Waggle Company: It provides dog walking services through an online platform.

Next Coast Ventures announced last week that the firm has added Jeff Browning as its latest venture partner.

Browning “will focus on helping their portfolio companies with all aspects of organizational design, talent acquisition and executive development,” according to a news release.

Browning most recently worked as a principal at GTRC Private Equity and he has more than 30 years of experience in talent acquisition. He also spent 15 years as the recruiting partner for Austin Ventures.

“I’m excited to be working with Jeff again, over the ten-plus years we worked together at Austin Ventures, I saw firsthand the positive impact he made on some of the most successful companies in Austin startup history,” Tom Ball, co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures, said in a news release “I’m really looking forward to more success stories working closely together with Jeff and the entrepreneurs in the NCV portfolio.”

Next Coast Ventures has been growing its staff steadily since launching in last year.

Last September, it brought on Paul Rogers and Jim Dunham as Technology Venture Partners, which will serve as mentors to the firm’s tech entrepreneurs in its portfolio and advisers to the fund’s leadership. And it hired Adam Salamon as its first Entrepreneur in Residence.

Next Coast Ventures, based in a remodeled house at 12th and Nueces, also brought on Zeynep Young, an Austin entrepreneur as a venture capital partner, last March. The same month it closed on its $85 million fund.