Just in time for South by Southwest, bar patrons can now access their PayPal account to pay for a bar tab thanks to Austin-based Tabbedout, the mobile payment solution that enables customers to open, view and pay their bar or restaurant tab with their phone.
No need to carry around a bunch of credit cards during the insanity that is SXSW. Instead, Tabbedout works on any iPhone or Android mobile phone. The free app lets you settle a bar or restaurant bill with PayPal at select Austin locations.
“PayPal is enthusiastic about giving our consumers the choice to make payments any time, anywhere and in almost any way they want,” Scott Dunlap, vice president of emerging opportunities for PayPal said in a news statement. “Being offered within the Tabbedout mobile app is another way we’re delivering consumers a fast, secure way to pay without ever pulling out their wallets.”
Tag: technology (Page 17 of 25)
Storymix Media graduated from Capital Factory in Austin last year.
Since then, Mike and Ariane Fisher, the husband and wife founders, have expanded and diversified the startup’s product line from wedding videos to business, bar mitzvahs and personal videos.
“Now when people think of Storymix video we’re not just a wedding video maker,” Mike Fisher said. “We’re the perfect site to get a video for any event you’re going to.”
Storymix Media, based in Oak Park, Il., also released a free iPhone app. It works when someone buys a video production package. They get a code to activate the iPhone app, Fisher said.
Storymix Media has also launched an affiliate program that it has developed so that event planners can re-sell or refer its services to their clients.
On March 11, Storymix Media will be among 15 finalists that will present their companies in a four minute pitch at HATCH, an event being held as part of the new SXSW Startup Village.
The top three companies to gain the most “virtual dollar” votes from the judges win.
“We looked at this as an opportunity to be able to showcase what we’re doing,” Fisher said. “It’s a great chance for us to get in front of investors outside of Chicago. Investors from different areas of the country.”
Storymix Media is looking for $1.5 million in seed stage funding.
One of Storymix’s wedding videos for a client
Omni Water Solutions won the Clean Energy Venture Summit last October.
Now the Austin startup, which makes a portable water purifying system, just landed $7.9 million in a first round financing deal led by Austin Ventures. Backers also included investors “connected to land, oil, and gas in the Eagle Ford Shale region of Texas,” according to Omni’s news release.
Omni plans to use proceeds from the financing to create water treatment units for oil and gas operations where water can be treated and re-used instead of discarded.
Founded in 2010, Omni has patent-pending technology that allows it to treat a high volume of contaminated water effectively with its portable systems at remote locations.
“Omni has an industry-leading approach, which has resulted in successful pilot tests with several marquee exploration and production operators,” Clark Jernigan, Venture Partner at Austin Ventures, said in a statement. “We believe that as domestic energy exploration continues to expand, Omni’s advanced technology will become increasingly important to companies that are looking for economical solutions to water conservation and re-use.”
Omni Hippo System – Oil & Gas Market from Omni Water Solutions on Vimeo.
Austin is one of the best cities for young entrepreneurs as ranked by Under30CEO.com, which listed the city third in 2011 for startups behind New York and San Francisco, according to the Future Forum at the LBJ Library.
The Future Forum recently held a panel discussion on the “state of Austin entrepreneurship.” Joshua Baer, one of the panelists, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of OtherInbox, uploaded this video of the event to Youtube. Other panelists included Clayton Christopher, Founder of Sweet Leaf Tea and Deep Eddy Vodka and Adam Dell, entrepreneur and parter at Austin Ventures.
In 1984, Michael Dell started his computer company in a dorm room at the University of Texas and now he is one of the world’s richest men and runs Austin’s largest company.
Since then, hundreds of entrepreneurs have launched ventures while at the university or upon graduating.
To put the spotlight on entrepreneurship, a group of student leaders at the University of Texas have planned the first entrepreneurship week, from March 5 to 9, to foster further collaboration and networking among student entrepreneurs and community innovators.
Fifteen university organizations and institutions organized the event.
“We want to encourage students to network, share their ideas and help each other succeed,” Nick Spiller, co-founder and President of uThinkTank, a student startup that connects other student entrepreneurs to critical resources, said in a news statement.
Events include a stop on the SXSW Startup Crawl, a talk from Pike Powers, a big promoter of Austin’s technology industry, Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of the Ethernet, founder of 3Com and professor of innovation at the UT, a talk from Kevin Koym, founder of Tech Ranch Austin.
For a schedule of events and to RSVP, visit UT Entrepreneurship Week. You can also follow announcements on Twitter at @TheUThinkTank and @nick_spiller.
Brett Hurt, CEO and founder of Bazaarvoice, photo courtesy of McCombsToday.org
The social media marketing company stock debuted on the Nasdaq, priced at $12 a share, Friday morning and rose as high as 41 percent to $17.16 in the afternoon.
The stock, traded under the stock symbol BV, opened at $15.77 a share, up 33 percent, when trading began. The company raised $114 million in its initial public offering. Check Yahoo Finance for its most recent trading activity.
It’s Austin’s first IPO for a tech company this year.
Bazaarvoice provides online social marketing services and software to companies. It helps companies capture and display reviews on their websites and promote their brands online. Its customers include Cabela’s, Footlocker.com, Petco, Sephora USA, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Philips Consumer, Proctor & Gamble, Newell Rubbermaid, Orbitz and USAA, among others. The company reported revenue of $64.5 million in 2011 and a net loss of $20 million.
Bazaarvoice has raised $20 million in venture capital from Battery Ventures, First Round Capital and others, according to TechCrunch.
Bazaarvoice plans to offer 9.5 million shares of stock in its initial public offering, raising $114 million.
The stock, priced at $12 a share and traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol, BV, will begin trading Friday morning, according to a news release from Bazaarvoice.
The Austin-based company is offering 9 million shares and other stockholders are offering the remainder.
Initially, when Bazaarvoice filed its S-1 registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public last summer, the company planned to raise $86.3 million with its stock priced at $10 per share.
Bazaarvoice provides online social marketing services and software to companies. It helps companies capture and display reviews on their websites and promote their brands online. Its customers include Cabela’s, Footlocker.com, Petco, Sephora USA, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Philips Consumer, Proctor & Gamble, Newell Rubbermaid, Orbitz and USAA, among others. The company reported revenue of $64.5 million in 2011 and a net loss of $20 million.
Bazaarvoice has raised $20 million in venture capital from Battery Ventures, First Round Capital and others, according to TechCrunch.
For more information, check out Lori Hawkins’ story in the Austin American Statesman. Reuters also filed a story late Thursday.
On Kickstarter, Casey Hopkins of Portland, Oregon, set out to raise $75,000 to create the Elevation Dock for the iPhone. He ended up raising $1,464,706 from 12,521 backers.
He saw a problem. He found a solution. And the marketplace responded with a huge demand for his product.
He was one of the first companies to break the $1 million fundraising mark on Kickstarter, according to Silicon Florist, which has been following Hopkins’ story from the beginning.
Now a couple of Austinites hope their “The Mounty,” a simple, durable mount for the iPhone and other smartphones of similar dimensions will be a big hit. It was designed to work on a bike’s handlebars but it has many other uses for mounting on baby strollers, shopping carts and more. So far, Eleanor and Kevin have raised $10,303 from 266 backers on Kickstarter. Their project will not be funded if they don’t reach their goal of $29,000 in the next nine days. Watch the video and the back these innovative product designers. The Mounty looks like a useful tool for anyone with a smartphone. Full disclosure: I backed The Mounty with a $20 donation.
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