Tag: Austin (Page 36 of 37)

Cyclewood Solutions bagged a win at 2011 Clean Energy Venture Summit

September 28, 2011 / / 2 Comments

At the Clean Energy Venture Summit 2011 in Austin, Cyclewood Solutions competed with four other CleanTech Open semifinalists from the South Central region.
And it took home the $10,000 prize.
Kevin Oden, Chief Operating Officer of Cyclewood Solutions and Nhiem Cao, president and CEO of Cyclewood, pitched their company to a panel of judges. At the end of the day, the judges decided Cyclewood was one of the best companies  to go on to compete in the Cleantech nationals in San Jose, Calif. in November for $250,000.
Cyclewood, based in Fayetteville, Ark., makes biodegradable plastic bags called XyloBag from lignin, an organic material that biodegrades in 150 days.
The plastic bag market is worth $8.6 billion.
Cyclewood can make its Xylobags for as little as one and half cents, Oden said. That compares to 1.2 cents for a traditional bag, he said.
By 2015, the company predicts sales of 2.2 billion bags from just 12 customers. It also expects to have revenue of $127 million by 2015 and to be profitable.
Cyclewood is seeking a first round of funding of $600,000, followed by a $1.5 million second round.
The other Cleantech Open semifinalists for the South Central region included GeoSolar Zero Energy Buildings, based in Louisville, Kentucky, which makes fully integrated temperature controls for buildings to conserve energy. NanoTermo, an Austin-based startup, has developed a heat dissipation technology for Light Emitting Diodes, known as LEDs, using a composite nanotechnology material that can be fitted into existing and new light fixtures.

Smart Office Energy Solutions, based in Houston, makes a hardware and software system to control building energy use. It was also selected as the only Texas company to go to compete in the national competition.  And Silicon Solar Solutions also got recognized as a runner-up and was selected to go to compete in the national competition. The Arkansas-based startup has created thin solar sheets made form large grain polysilicon technology that makes solar manufacturing less expensive.

More information on the problem plastic bags pose to the environment and Cyclewood’s solution.

Clean Energy Venture 2011

September 28, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Today we’ll be reporting live from the Clean Energy Venture 2011 summit in Austin.

The event starts at 1 p.m. with a utilities futures panel, followed by presentations from five Cleantech Open semifinalists competing for $10,000 in funding and a chance to go to nationals to compete for $250,000.

Then Ideal Power Converters and MTPV, presenters from a past Clean Energy Venture conference, will discuss their accomplishments in the past year.

And a reception takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Austin City Hall to announce the winners of the competition.

So stay tuned.

SXSW to feature a startup village

September 19, 2011 / / 0 Comments

What do Foursquare, Twitter and Foodspotting have in common?
They launched or gained major traction at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin.
The SXSW conference has become a magnet for high-tech entrepreneurs looking to get attention for the next big thing. Last year, dozens of entrepreneurs climbed aboard startup buses to code and create companies on the way to the show.
The startup fever runs red hot at SXSW. And that may be why at the next show SXSW will host the SXSW Startup Village from March 9 through March 14. The event will feature “SXSW Accelerator, panels, meet ups, lounges, pitch events, and mentoring and coaching sessions,” according to SXSW.
“By bringing these individuals together under one umbrella we hope to create a heightened awareness of this unique community during SXSW Interactive and SXSW Music, as well as more opportunities to educate, collaborate and network with fellow attendees.”

And in case your startup needs a little insight into the venture capital process, check out this video.

Bloggers to meet, eat and create at BlogathonATX

September 15, 2011 / / 0 Comments

About a year ago, Ilene Haddad, started the first BlogathonATX because she wanted to meet other bloggers and learn from them.
“I’m not a good or consistent blogger,” Haddad said. “I was looking for accountability.”
Apparently, a whole lot of other Austin area bloggers wanted to network with others too. The first BlogathonATX sold out within a few days, Haddad said.
“It exploded overnight,” she said. “Obviously I wasn’t the only one that needed a little help.”
Haddad, a graphic designer for 20 years, has blogged for the past 2 years.
“I love to write so much,” Haddad said. “ I just started to write about all sorts of things. It’s my take on day to day stuff.”
Her blog has benefitted from the community that gathers at BlogathonATX, she said. The first event, held in August of 2010 sold out and so did the second event, held last January. The third BlogathonATX takes place on Saturday, Oct. 1 starting at 9 a.m. and running until 9 p.m. at Link Coworking and only a handful of $60 tickets remain, she said. This time, Haddad is expecting more than 100 people, up from 60 at the last two events.
“People can come and blog,” Haddad said. “We have a tech support room. For people who are new to blogging, they can come and get that help. We bring in a few experts in various fields and we have roundtable discussions.”
The event is very collaborative with lots of open discussions and unstructured time, she said. And the snacks are plentiful. She’s also looking for sponsors for the event.
“We have tons of food,” Haddad said. “It’s mostly very casual. A lot of really good stuff comes from the unplanned.”

Eight startups to watch from Demo Day in Austin

September 12, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Mason Arnold of Greenling pitches its healthy grocery delivery service


A gaming company, weather site and even an organic grocery delivery service pitched their startup companies at the Capital Factory’s Demo Day in Austin last week.
In an afternoon session, 17 entrepreneurs fast pitched their ventures on stage at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center to other entrepreneurs, investors and the media. Here’s my top eight:

Apptive – Chris Belew, an experienced entrepreneur, founded the site, which allows anyone to make a mobile phone app easily without having to know how to code. Prices start at $300. The company is signing up re-sellers to market its services. Its customers include attorneys, chambers of commerce and small businesses. The company is looking to raise $500,000 in the next three months.

The Daily Dot – Nick White, co-founder and CEO, worked for the traditional newspaper industry for years, but saw a new opportunity online. “People live their lives online,” White said. But the media didn’t get that memo, he said. They still cover the Internet like an industry and not like a community, he said. That’s the sweet spot for The Daily Dot, which bills itself as the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web. “It’s the paper of record for the Internet,” he said. “It covers what happens online.”

Forecast – Rene J. Pinnel, the CEO of Hurricane Party, was a 2010 Capital Factory finalist. The company created an app called Hurricane Party, which it introduced at the last SXSW Interactive. Forecast is the company’s latest app. The app launched eight weeks ago and has 27,000 users in private beta testing right now. With the app, users broadcast their plans to friends. The company is raising $250,000 in seed funding and has about half of the money already committed.

Greenling – Mason Arnold, one of the founders, wants people to eat healthier to save their lives. He created an online shopping and grocery delivery service in Austin and San Antonio with more than 5,000 customers. The company plans to expand to Houston and Dallas next year. “The food system is changing,” Arnold said. “It has to change and Greenling is here to save the day.”

Infochimps – Dhruv Bansal, one of the founders, created a marketplace for data. His two-year-old data services company aggregates and sells data sets. He also made news at the event with the announcement that Infochimps acquired another Capital Factory finalist from 2010, Keepstream, a social media curation site.

Loku – Dan Street, the founder, wants people to plug into the local scene. His company provides information on local establishments from coffee shops to bars and provides graphics and maps and reviews. The company is raising $1.5 million in its first round of venture capital funding.

Ricochet Labs – Rodney Gibbs, a seasoned entrepreneur, founded Ricochet Labs to encourage people to play more games. The company created a gaming platform called Qrank, which lets people play a question and answer trivia game. “We make it easy for anyone with content to make mobile games out of that content,” Gibbs said. The Texas Tribune, Kirkus Review and others are currently using the game to engage and reward their readers.

Stormpulse – Matt Wensing, founder, wanted better storm tracking data for his family. So he wrote some software and created Stormpulse in 2006. He lives in Jupiter, Florida, which is in Palm Beach County. The site now has all kinds of big companies as customers like FedEx, Disney, IBM and JetBlue. The companies need the most accurate weather information to run their business. In addition, government agencies like NASA and the Navy use StormPulse, but Wensing said he was totally blown away when he was eating his breakfast cereal one morning and he got a call from the White House. The White House situation room uses Stormpulse to keep track of pending storms. Wensing’s currently seeking funding to expand the site.

Doing the Austin Startup Crawl

September 9, 2011 / / 0 Comments

After the action-packed Capital Factory Demo Day, techies hit the hotspots on the Austin Startup Crawl tour to network, nosh on snacks and drink.

More than 700 people RSVP’ed to the event on Facebook and Plancast, said Josh Baer, one of the Austin Startup Week founders.

Bob Metcalfe talks with entrepreneurs

San Antonio-based Rackspace sponsored the event which included shuttle buses taking people from stop to stop. The event was very well organized and a lot of fun.

One of the largest stops was at Capital Factory’s offices on the eighth floor of the Omni Building downtown. All of the Capital Factory finalists were in attendance to talk about their companies along with some other startups. Bob Metcalfe was there too. People mingled and ate pizza, drank beer and margaritas.

The next stop was Infochimp’s offices. It just bought another Capital Factory alumni, Keepstream. They served up beer from a keg and had a bottle of vodka on ice.

Visitors hanging out at Infochimps offices

Other shuttle bus stops included HomeAway’s offices, UShip, Cloudmasons and more. For the complete list of companies participating in the Austin Startup Crawl visit its Facebook page.

An explosion of entrepreneurship at Demo Day 2011

September 8, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Ariane Fisher, founder of Storymix, presents at Demo Day 2011

Like a hungry mob at an all you can eat buffet, people gorged themselves on entrepreneurship information Wednesday at the third annual Capital Factory Demo Day 2011.
The day-long event at the AT&T Conference Center in downtown Austin kicked off with a keynote speech by Bob Metcalfe, the co-inventor of the Ethernet, founder of 3Com and now a professor of electrical engineering and director of innovation at the University of Texas at Austin.
Metcalfe offered great advice to the entrepreneurs in the crowd. He said a lot of young entrepreneurs appeared to be “on the verge of dying.” But, instead of pulling all nighters and eating ramen noodles, he told them to get in shape, sleep at least 8 hours and eat healthy meals. The crowd seemed skeptical.
Metcalfe also advised the entrepreneurs to write all the time, give speeches and learn about selling to pitch the company’s products.
“Some entrepreneurs think sales people are lower than whale shit,” Metcalfe said. “Sales people are a different species but they’re carbon-based like you.”
And sales people are essential to the success of a startup, he said.
Metcalfe praised Austin’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovators like Michael Dell of Dell and John Mackey of Whole Foods.
To further foster young entrepreneurs, Metcalfe also launched the one-semester start-up at the University of Texas. Joshua Baer, co-founder of the Capital Factory, is also an instructor.
Following Metcalfe, the five Capital Factory 2011 Finalists pitched their companies in eight-minute presentations with slides. At the end, SwimTopia won the applause meter reading as the audience favorite.

Brian Sharples, co-founder of HomeAway talking entrepreneurship at Demo Day 2011

At noon, Brian Sharples, founder of HomeAway, talked about pursuing his passions and launching his company at the age of 44 after making a lot of other mistakes.
“Surround yourself with as much experience as possible,” Sharples said.
Also, do your homework, Sharples advised. Before he and his co-founder Carl Shepherd started HomeAway, they spent more than six months researching the vacation rental market. They knew very little about the market. They soon discovered Expedia bought VacationSpot in 1999, but the business failed within a year. They found the former CEO of Expedia to find out what went wrong. Turns out Expedia tried to turn the business into a hotel business and get rid of the subscription fee model that customers liked. Owners also liked to interact with renters before leasing their properties. Expedia took away that conversation. HomeAway brought it back.
HomeAway, which recently went public, acquired more than 70 companies to create a business to make it as easy for consumers to find, book and stay in a vacation rental home, as it is to book a hotel.
“If you have a good idea be quiet about it until you’re ready,” Sharples said. For three or four years while HomeAway built its business and acquired competitors, the company didn’t talk to the press, Sharples said.
Sharples told entrepreneurs to be humble, to worry about competitors, to be passionate and to remain flexible. Also, entrepreneurs must have a profit model. The days of starting a business with no clear idea of how to make money, like Twitter, don’t work, he said.
“Never settle, always try to make things better,” Sharples said.
During lunch, investors mingled with entrepreneurs at an actual all you can eat buffet of veggies, chicken, beef, mashed potatoes, salad and desserts.
Silicon Valley Bank, Silverton Partners, AustinVentures, RedHouse Associates, Clearstone Venture Partners, Wildbasin Investments and Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas sponsored the event.
Following lunch, 17 entrepreneurs gave three minutes pitches on their companies. They included Apptive, CopperEgg, The Daily Dot, Forecast, Greenling, Hoot.me, ihiji, Infochimps, Loku, OwnLocal, NightRaft, Ravel, Ricochet Labs, Rockify, Spanning, Stormpulse, VolunteerSpot and WPEngine.
Next, Auren Hoffman, CEO and co-founder of Rapleaf, talked about recruiting and hiring tech talent. He seemed to contrast sharply with Metcalfe’s advice from the morning. Hoffman advised entrepreneurs to work long hours and hire others who work long hours six days a week. He also advised them to return calls and e-mails in a timely fashion.
The day-long Demo Day ended with a call to action. Baer advised everyone to go to the closest bar to talk and then to take the shuttle bus to join the Startup Crawl, a series of stops at various high-tech businesses around town to meet the companies, drink and mingle.

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