While building a tiny home in Austin last March, Rusty Fincke turned to his neighbors and friends to find an electrician. “I was using Nextdoor and asking friends for referrals,” he said. That sparked the idea for RealWork Labs, which creates lead generation marketing software for the home services industry. Fincke joined with Pierce Birkhold, […]
RealWork Labs Lands $2.5 Million for its Software that Helps Home Service Providers Attract New Customers
From a Cold Email to an IPO: DISCO, a Story of Domain Strength, Grit, Collaboration, and Serendipity
By Krishna Srinivasan, Chairman of the Board, DISCO and co-Founding Partner, LiveOak Venture Partners In October 2013, we received a cold email – it had all the elements on first glance that begged to be ignored. The email came from a person named “CeCe” who talked about a founder called “Kiwi” and a company called “DISCO” […]
LitLingo Raises $7.5 Million for its AI-Powered Business Communications Platform
LitLingo, which makes specialized software that allows businesses to monitor and correct real-time communications, announced that it has raised $7.5 million. Breyer Capital led the Series A round of funding with participation from former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano and existing investors LiveOak Venture Partners, Clarke Nobiletti and James Marsico. To date, LitLingo has raised $9.5 […]
Iris Plans Lands $5.1 Million to Take the Pain out of Managing Long-Term Illness
By LAURA LOREK Publisher with Silicon Hills News For Dr. Stephen Bekanich, treating long-term illnesses early on with advance care planning is a personal mission. Dr. Bekanich’s grandmother had metastatic breast cancer and his grandfather had dementia. “Even as a physician I felt ill prepared to be able to take them through this,” Dr. Bekanich […]
Austin-based Telestax Lands $4.7 Million in VC Funding
Telestax announced this week it has raised $4.7 million in funding. Austin-based LiveOak Venture Partners led the funding round. The company plans to use the money on product development, customer support and marketing. “We are thrilled to bring Telestax into our portfolio of promising companies. The exceptional team, high-value technology and resulting customer adoption of […]
Hive9 Receives $5.4 Million in Venture Capital
Hive9, which makes marketing software, announced Tuesday it has received $5.4 million in funding from LiveOak Venture Partners and Silverton Partners. The Austin-based startup plans to use the money to hire five or more additional employees and for product development and marketing, said Darin Hicks, its CEO. “Hive9 helps companies concentrate their marketing spending on […]
San Antonio-based Infocyte Lands $500,000 in Funding
By LAURA LOREK Reporter with Silicon Hills News Infocyte Inc. just landed $500,000 in seed stage funding led by Austin-based LiveOak Venture Partners. The San Antonio-based startup plans to use the funds to further develops Pulse, its cyber security assessment platform. This is LiveOak’s first investment in San Antonio. “The Infocyte team has a storied […]
StepOne Closes on $ 4 Million in Venture Capital
StepOne, an Austin-based startup that makes customer support software, announced that it secured $4 million in venture capital. LiveOak Venture Partners led the round with participation from Silverton Partners. The company plans to use the money to add employees and to expand sales and marketing efforts. StepOne has already landed Telstra, Australia’s largest telecomm company, […]
Written.com Wants to Bring Content and Companies Together
By TIM GREEN Reporter with Silicon Hills News As advertising becomes more pervasive (is that even possible?), it’s harder for companies to find ways to make their brands stand out. One way is to associate the brand with authoritative and objective content that makes the reader more knowledgeable about what the company sells. But getting […]
LiveOak Venture Partners Sees Lots of Quality Startup Deals in Austin and Texas
By LAURA LOREK Founder of Silicon Hills News Right now is the best time to be in the venture capital business in Austin. In 2000, during the Dot Com boom, an enormous amount of money flowed into companies even though they did not have viable ideas and were also not disciplined with spending money, said […]