Posts Tagged ‘central texas angel network’

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SunTex Urban Farms Wins Best Pitch at Entrepreneur’s Workshop

Sunday, December 18th, 2011

On Thursday, November 17, ATI, the Rice Alliance – Austin Chapter and the Central Texas Angel Network hosted the final session of its fall 2011 Entrepreneurs’ Workshop, which offered aspiring entrepreneurs the basics of starting and growing a successful business over a nine-week course. Receiving the expertise of successful entrepreneurs, investors, and CEOs, participants in the course learned how to construct a business plan, market the product, and communicate with investors. In this last session, they had the opportunity to deliver an elevator pitch to an audience of potential investors and members of the Central Texas Angel Network. The audience voted, and the highest-scoring entrepreneur was invited to make a 5-minute presentation to the Central Texas Angel Network.

Of some twenty-odd elevator pitches, participant Joseph Ward won the support of the audience: SunTex Urban Farms, a farming technology that
would produce food with 800-900% less water. Congrats, Joseph!

Stay tuned for installments from our next Entrepreneurs’ Worskhop!

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Startup Funding – What You Need to Know

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

Last Thursday, October 27, 2011, ATI hosted the fifth session of the Entrepreneurs’ Workshop. Sponsored jointly with the Rice Alliance and the Central Texas Angel Network, the Workshop is a tremendous resource for aspiring entrepreneurs. During weekly meetings taught by successful investors, experienced executives, and experts on startup companies, students in the class learn the processes involved in starting a new venture. The Workshop culminates with an opportunity to deliver an elevator pitch to investors.

Previous meetings have covered the basics of writing a business plan, validating the market, building a successful team, and protecting intellectual property. This last week the Central Texas Angel Network’s founder and chairman Jamie Rhodes talked about funding options.

His key points:

  • Angel funding can be critical for startups. For every company started by VC, there are 25 started by angels.
  • Venture capital funding becomes a preferred option when a company needs to raise more than $2 million.
  • It can be tougher to find deals in the $2 million – $4 million range – Angels generally want to invest less than $2 million, while VCs (especially if they manage a large fund) can want to put more than $4 million to work.

For our sixth session, Thursday, November 3, 2011, Blair Garrou, Managing Director of DFJ Mercury, will talk about effectively communicating a funding deal.

Teel Liddell is a recent graduate of UT, where she studied English and Biology and participated in the Plan II liberal arts program. Over the summer Teel worked in the Health Inequalities Unit at the UK Department of Health in London. Now returned to Austin, she interns at ATI, helping with grant proposals, managing the ATI/Rice Alliance/CTAN Entrepreneur’s Workshop, and providing research assistance. Teel plans to attend medical school in the fall of 2012.

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The Nuts and Bolts: Business Law and Intellectual Property for the Entrepreneur

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

Last Thursday, October 20, 2011,  ATI hosted the fifth session of its weekly Entrepreneur’s Workshop, an endeavor sponsored jointly with the Rice Alliance and the Central Texas Angel Network. The Workshop is designed for a class of 30 entrepreneurs interested in starting a new venture or expanding their existing start-up. Each session is taught by experts in their respective fields, including investors, venture capitalists, CEOs, and legal, accounting, and marketing professionals. This week we received the expertise of Alex Allemann, an attorney with Winstead, P.C., and intellectual property lawyers Loren T. Smith and Temple Keller of Hulsey, P.C. Here is what we learned:

The Nit and Grit of Business Law

  • How the entrepreneur organizes and chooses an entity
  • How to split the equity among founders
  • Options for financing the new venture
  • How to seek venture capital

Protecting IP

  • What is covered under Intellectual Property
  • How and when to file a patent
  • The limits and legalities of patent protection
  • The differences between patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets

For more information, go to http://www.hulseyiplaw.com and http://www.winstead.com.

Teel Liddell is a recent graduate of UT, where she studied English and Biology and participated in the Plan II liberal arts program. Over the summer Teel worked in the Health Inequalities Unit at the UK Department of Health in London. Now returned to Austin, she interns at ATI, helping with grant proposals, managing the ATI/RiceAlliance/CTAN Entrepreneur’s Workshop, and providing research assistance. Teel plans to attend medical school in the fall of 2012.

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“10,000 Ways That Won’t Work”: Validating Your Market and Killing Your Failures Early

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Last Thursday evening we hosted the third meeting of our Entrepreneur’s Workshop here at ATI. A joint collaboration with the Rice Alliance and the Central Texas Angel Network, the Workshop meets weekly and offers aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn from experienced startup executives, investors, and service professionals in a classroom setting.  This has been a hugely successful resource for new entrepreneurs in the past: The founders of GameSalad, Inc. went through entrepreneurial training with the Rice Alliance team in 2009, moved into ATI, and launched their now burgeoning company in 2010.  This fall kicks off our seventh workshop.

Last Thursday’s session was delivered by Dr. Rob Adams, superstar entrepreneur, investor, author, strategy consultant, and faculty member in the McCombs School of Business.  A graduate of Babson College’s Olin School of Management, Dr. Adams is a nationally recognized speaker and author on entrepreneurship.  At Thursday’s meeting Dr. Adams discussed his recent book If You Build It Will They Come? Three Steps to Test and Validate Any Market Opportunity (Wiley, 2010).  His key points are summarized below.

Ready, Aim, Fire

Why is it that 90% of all startup businesses fail?  It’s not technology, manufacturing, accounting, or operations that determines the success of a startup.  Critical to a new business’s taking off is market sales.  Before investing all that money in product development, you should probe, test, and endorse your market opportunity with the following steps.

Ready

Do a fast triage of your idea to understand if more time and effort should be invested.  Consider where your product stands on the lifecycle of your market.  Investors want to invest where there is increasing demand for a product, not where the industry has been exhausted.  Find out how your competitors fix the market problem.  Asking consumers their three least favorite features of your competitor’s product may illuminate how you can improve yours.

Aim

Develop a product with unique, differentiable features compelling to your target audience.  By interviewing potential consumers, you can determine whether there is demand for your product and target a particular consumer profile.

Fire

Get a market-oriented product out.  Tackle narrow markets and have a product with minimally acceptable features.  Perfection is unimportant for now.  Introduction of your preliminary product will ensure time to fine-tune with later editions and the opportunity to kill unmarketable features early in the development process.

Market Validation is a systematic, proven approach that will make or break your business.  As Thomas Edison once observed, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Market validation prevents unsuccessful ventures by weeding out market failures and targeting a specific product that a specific audience will buy.

For more information, go to www.drrobadams.com.

Teel Liddell is a recent graduate of UT, where she studied English and Biology and participated in the Plan II liberal arts program. Over the summer Teel worked in the Health Inequalities Unit at the UK Department of Health in London. Now returned to Austin, she interns at ATI, helping with grant proposals, managing the ATI/Rice Alliance/CTAN Entrepreneur’s Workshop, and providing research assistance. Teel plans to attend medical school in the fall of 2012.

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Austin’s Premier Entrepreneur’s Workshop Upcoming

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

The Rice Alliance – Austin Chapter, Austin Technology Incubator, and the Central Texas Angel Network have assembled a team of some of Austin’s most experienced entrepreneurs to present a nine-week Entrepreneur’s Workshop that will cover the basics of starting and growing a successful business.

The Workshop is designed for entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a new venture or are currently working to expand their existing start-up. The Workshop will meet weekly over a nine-week period and will be conducted in a classroom environment. Each weekly session will be taught by experts in their respective fields, including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, private investors, CEOs, and legal, accounting and marketing professionals. Speakers will include Rice Professor Al Napier; Rob Adams, an entrepreneur and lecturer at UT’s McCombs school; Jamie Rhodes, chairman of the Central Texas Angel Network; and Blair Garrou, a venture capitalist with DFJ Mercury Partners.

At the end of the program, participants will make a quick pitch of their business plan to an audience of potential investors, partners and mentors at the Elevator Pitch session followed by a reception. The pitches will be judged by the audience members and the presenter whose pitch scores highest will be invited to make a 5 minute presentation to the Central Texas Angel Network.

This will be our sixth workshop. Three companies formed by entrepreneurs who attended past workshops have received venture capital or angel funding.

When: March 24th-May 19th 

Where: WPR Building (formerly MCC) 3925 West Braker Lane, Austin TX 78759

Time: Thursdays 4:00PM-6:00PM

Price: $125 – includes all 9 sessions and materials

For more information visit:

http://www.alliance.rice.edu/alliance/Upcoming_Events.asp?SnID=2118172573

Registration is limited to the first 35 participants. Sign up now!  

Click here to register: 

https://ricemba.wufoo.com/forms/entrepreneurs-workshop-spring-2011/

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Fourth Annual Wireless Seed Stage Forum to Connect Startups and Investors

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

wssf_logo-squareThe fourth annual Wireless Seed Stage Forum looks to continue its position as the premier stage for wireless startups to pitch to leading venture capitalists, angels and strategic investors. The Austin Technology Incubator’s Wireless Incubator, in partnership with the Central Texas Angel Network, is proud to host this year’s Forum, December 1, 2010, at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas.

The Forum will match promising early stage wireless and mobile startups with vetted angel, venture capital, corporate and public investors. The WSSF is seeking early stage companies in the wireless industry or leveraging wireless technologies in other markets.

In the Forum’s first three years, nearly 50 percent of participating companies have gone on to receive funding, representing various sectors of the wireless industry. Companies have successfully presented from several sectors, including biomedical, smart grid, healthcare, mobile gaming, location-based advertising, wireless infrastructure, wireless hardware and others.

Recently, five WSSF alumni announced significant funding events

  • Edioma, a company that brings web-based language instruction to mobile devices, closed a $650,000 VC series-A funding round this summer, led by Cottonwood Technology Fund and Austin-based Daylight Partners (class of 2007).
  • Calxeda, the ARM-based, low power server company and ATI-graduate, announced a $48 million investment led by Battery Ventures, which included Flybridge Capital Partners, Highland Capital Partners, and three strategic investors (class of 2008).
  • GameSalad, maker of the do-it-yourself iPhone game development platform and an ATI-member company, closed a DFJ Mercury led $1.2 million VC Series-A round this summer (class of 2008).
  • Tabbed Out, maker of the web-based application that lets you pay your tab from your smart phone, closed a $750,000 seed round in late 2009 and recently announced a $2M Series A from NEA (class of 2009).
  • Spacetime Studios, the 3D mobile MMO gaming company – and winner of the “Best Pitch” at the 2009 WSSF, recently announced an undisclosed amount of Series-A funds from Insight Ventures.

The Wireless Seed Stage Forum is specifically seeking to fill the funding gap between $100,000 and $2 million in required funding. If you are a start-up that is currently raising a seed round, or is preparing for a Series A round in the next 6 – 12 months, and has the below items, you could be a strong candidate:

  • Has a pre-production or demonstrable product
  • Seeks less than $2 million in a first round of external funding
  • Is recently established (less than 2 years old) and has a small headcount (less than 10 full time employees)

For more information, please visit http://seedstageforum.com.

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FireFly LED Closes More Than $300,000 in Series-A Funding Round with Texas Angels

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit arm of The University of Texas at Austin, announced today that its member company, FireFly LED Lighting, Inc., raised more than $300,000 in its series A funding round with investors from Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) and Concho Valley Angel Network (CVAN).

Austin,Texas (PRWEB) July 28, 2010 — The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit arm of The University of Texas at Austin, announced today that its member company, FireFly LED Lighting, Inc., raised more than $300,000 in its series A funding round with investors from Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) and Concho Valley Angel Network (CVAN).

FireFly’s full range of LED bulbs enables direct replacement of existing incandescent and fluorescent bulbs, both indoor and outdoor, to lower energy and maintenance costs for customers by up to 90 percent. More than reducing costs, FireFly’s “Smart LED” bulbs come loaded with sensors to make lighting infrastructure smarter from the hallway to the flood light to the street corner.

FireFly CEO Steve Barcik said the funding will go immediately to accelerate FireFly’s engineering and manufacturing, processes the company has established in Texas. In addition, he said, the funds will enable initial demonstration projects and sales.

Barcik said the initial funding round was crucial in honing FireFly’s message and direction as a company. “Going through the process with CTAN and CVAN really helped us differentiate ourselves,” Barcik said. “It was a great experience for myself and the company.”

Participating in FireFly’s series-A round was CTAN’s first substantial investment in a clean technology-focused company, Randall Crowder, the network’s director, said. “FireFly is going after a large market with significant competitors,” Crowder said. “It says a lot about their technology and management that they have done so well raising money from local angels.”

FireFly formed in June of 2009 and became an ATI member company in October of the same year. The company’s stage in growth made them an ideal fit for the ATI’s value proposition, ATI-Clean Energy Incubator director Mitch Jacobson said.

“Since coming on board, we have assisted them in company and market strategy and direction,” Jacobson said. “We’ve also helped them to raise funds from private and public sources, introduced them to key individuals in our network and assisted them in finding talent for their company. We are very high on Steve and his team and on the Firefly business model and will continue to go down the road of success with them.”

Immediately following acceptance as a member company, FireFly got its feet wet after the ATI team urged them to compete in October, 2009’s Clean Energy Venture Summit. “The Clean Energy Summit was our first and biggest pitching event,” Barcik said. “It got the community on board, lined up investment and got our company in front of top venture capital teams.”

About the Austin Technology Incubator

The Austin Technology Incubator is a nonprofit unit of The University of Texas at Austin that harnesses business, government and academic resources to provide strategic counsel, operational guidance and infrastructure support to its member companies to help them transition from early stage ventures to successful technology businesses. Since its founding in 1989, ATI has worked with over 200 companies, helping them raise close to $750 million in investor capital. ATI is a key program of the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. For more information, visit www.ati.utexas.edu

About FireFly LED Lighting

FireFly provides full range of “Smart LED” light bulbs for direct replacement of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. FireFly’s LED Lights are low energy, low heat and have a long life allowing customers to reduce heat and energy costs by up to 90 percent. With control and sensors built into the lamps to create a smart building from the socket down, we provide a worldwide range of options for reducing energy and improving efficiency. FireFly has designed lights that meet customer and market demand for light output and reliability. Any where you see a light source you will see FireFly lamps, bulbs, and fixtures. For more information, visit www.fireflyledlight.com.

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Clean Energy Venture Summit Enables Emerging Clean-Tech Companies to Plug into $29 Million Alternative Energy Project

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Austin, Texas (PRWEB) July 27, 2010 — The fourth annual Clean Energy Venture Summit (CEVS), a partnership between the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) and Austin Energy, will showcase the nation’s leading clean energy technology startups as they vie for their spot in Austin’s $29 million smart grid and smart home demonstration project. CEVS serves as a gateway for early-stage companies to participate in the nationally acclaimed Pecan Street Project Energy Internet Demonstration, a non-profit smart grid and clean energy research and development organization headquartered at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Pecan Street Project aims to develop and implement an energy internet in Austin’s 700-acre Robert Mueller mixed-use redevelopment community. The $29 million project is funded by a U.S Department of Energy grant, the City of Austin and the National Science Foundation. The Pecan Street Project will integrate with Austin Energy’s next-generation smart grid platform to create, operate and evaluate an open platform energy internet; a type of smart grid that allows two-way electricity and information flow modeled on the architecture of the Internet.

“A key goal of our conference is to connect emerging companies with both investors, players in the Pecan Street Project and leaders at Austin Energy to create the smart grid of the future,” said Isaac Barchas, director, Austin Technology Incubator. “CEVS offers a unique platform for being part of one of the most sophisticated and revolutionary clean energy projects in the nation.”

The summit, to be held September 29-30, has confirmed the attendance of over a dozen leading venture capitalists, angel and institutional investors, including: DFJ Mercury, Central Texas Angel Network, LiveOak Venture Partners, Houston Angel Network, North Texas Angel Network, Concho Valley Angel Network, Silverton Partners, Battery Ventures, Yellowstone Capital Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, TKO Energy, Applied Ventures, 21 Ventures, Access Venture Partners, Cottonwood Technology Fund, Buffalo Jump Energy Corp. and Business Earth. As one of the most prolific funding resources of its kind in the country for emerging clean tech companies, investments for each company selected to present historically average from $300,000 to $1 million.

The summit will feature a competition of 20 early stage clean energy companies in the Pecan Street Project’s seven focus areas, including: energy management; building-integrated energy efficiency technologies; smart appliances; energy information systems; smart resource management (electricity, water, gas and waste); distributed energy storage; and distributed fueling for transportation. Summit judges will evaluate entries based on innovation, overall market opportunity, stage of development, intellectual property position, resource requirements, environmental impact and potential return on investment.

In addition to connecting entrepreneurs and investors, the CEVS provides a unique networking opportunity for companies and investors in the smart grid and smart building arenas. The summit includes a half-day entrepreneur workshop featuring presentations and panel discussions from investors, IP attorneys and other industry experts. Entrepreneurs have the opportunity to network with industry peers, investors and a range of clean energy leaders.

To apply to present or register to attend, visit www.cleanenergyventuresummit.com.

You can follow @CEVS2010 on Twitter and join the conversation with #CEVS2010. Through the Web site you’ll also be able to connect with CEVS on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About the Austin Technology Incubator

The Austin Technology Incubator is a nonprofit unit of The University of Texas at Austin that harnesses business, government and academic resources to provide strategic counsel, operational guidance and infrastructure support to its member companies to help them transition from early stage ventures to successful technology businesses. Since its founding in 1989, ATI has worked with over 200 companies, helping them raise close to $750 million in investor capital. ATI is a key program of the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. For more information, please visit: www.ati.utexas.edu

About Austin Energy

Austin Energy is the nation’s 10th largest community-owned electric utility. Austin Energy powers the capital city of Texas through a diverse generation mix including nuclear, coal, natural gas and renewable energy sources. Located in Austin, TX, Austin Energy created the top performing renewable energy program in the nation and is committed to helping Austin become the Clean Energy Capital of the World. The company owns the nation’s first and largest green building program and is home to one of the nation’s most comprehensive residential and commercial energy efficiency programs. For further information, please visit: www.AustinEnergy.com.

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Notes From Entrepreneur’s Workshop: Market Validation

Friday, April 16th, 2010

The following blog post was written by Iva Paleckova and Justin Bowes, ATI marketing and law interns.

The Rice Alliance – Austin Chapter, Austin Technology Incubator, and the Central Texas Angel Network have assembled a team of some of Austin’s most experienced entrepreneurs to present a nine-week Entrepreneur’s Workshop that will cover the basics of starting and growing a successful business.

The Workshop is designed for entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a new venture or are currently working to expand their existing start-up. The Workshop will meet weekly over a nine-week period and will be conducted in a classroom environment. Each weekly session is taught by experts in their fields, including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, private investors, CEOs, and legal, accounting and marketing professionals.Last week’s session on Market Validation was delivered by Dr. Rob Adams, one of the best lecturers at the McCombs School of Business.

Here is what we learned about Market Validation:

90% of all start-up businesses fail. The most common reason is not inferior technology, bad manufacturing, accounting or operations, but rather the failure of entrepreneurs to analyze and understand their markets and base product offerings on market requirements.

How do you define and size the market?
•       Who are your potential customers?
•       Segment the customers in your market – what are the different customer profiles?
•       How many customers are there in each segment? How much will they buy?
•       How quickly are the different segments growing?
•       Begin with secondary resources to find out more about the market: libraries, the internet, and business periodicals are all great places to start
•       Next consult primary resources.  Dr. Adams recommends that every entrepreneur should devote 5% of R&D resources to market validation of her product, and a lot of that should go to primary research. Entrepreneurs must survey their customers by phone or email, or create a web-based survey (www.surveymonkey.com is an example).

Every entrepreneur – before she decides to launch the product and often even before she creates the demo – should pick up the phone and talk to 100 of her potential customers first. After doing that, she will know a lot more about the industry, its buzzwords, potential customers and their needs.  This knowledge translates into better products and a more successful business.

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Austin Alliance: Austin’s Premiere Entrepreneur’s Workshop Spring 2010

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

The Rice Alliance – Austin Chapter, Austin Technology Incubator, and the Central Texas Angel Network have assembled a team of some of Austin’s most experienced entrepreneurs to present a nine-week Entrepreneur’s Workshop that will cover the basics of starting and growing a successful business.

This will be the fourth workshop. Past speakers have included Rob Adams, an entrepreneur and lecturer at UT’s McCombs school; Rice Professor Al Napier; Blair Garrou, a venture capitalist with DFJ Mercury Partners and Brett Hurt, CEO of Bazzarvoice.

The Workshop is designed for entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a new venture or are currently working to expand their existing start-up. The Workshop will meet weekly over a nine-week period and will be conducted in a classroom environment. Each weekly session will be taught by experts in their respective fields, including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, private investors, CEOs, and legal, accounting and marketing professionals.

Where:
JPW Building (formerly the MCC Building), 3925 West Braker Lane, Austin

Time:
Thursday’s 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM, starting 3/25/2010

Fee:
$100 – includes all sessions and materials

Read more..

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