Posts Tagged ‘GameSalad’

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The Austin Technology Incubator’s Influence Continues to Permeate the Austin Startup Scene

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

For the last 3 years, Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOm, has wrote about the up and coming Austin startups to watch for during SXSW and the Austin Startup Crawl. Of the list of 30 companies compiled in 2010, 2011 and 2012, 8 companies, notably more than 25 percent, are currently or have been connected in some way to the Austin Technology Incubator, a not-for-profit unit of the IC2 Institute 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 hundreds of companies, helping raise close to $1 Billion in investor capital.    

Here is the list of the ones to watch, a little background information and their connections to ATI:

Calxeda, a.k.a. Smooth-Stone, a successful ATI alumni company, offers a processor platform for hyperscale servers that will allow data centers to slash IT costs and energy consumption by as much as a factor of 10.  Calxeda, with its industry-disrupting ultra-low power processors powering servers and data centers, closed an impressive $48 million funding August 2010, and launch its first product with global impact via a partnership with Hewlett Packard November 2011.

GameSalad, a.k.a. Gendai Games, and successful alum of ATI, is an online community that empowers everyone to express and share their ideas through games. GameSalad provides a platform used by creators to rapidly design, publish and distribute original games that have been played by millions of people worldwide. It is currently the number one platform for iOS development and boasts 300,000 developers. 30,000 games have been built with the GameSalad Creator since its 2007 founding. Now at 60 employees and growing, all this was accomplished with just a little over $7 million funding since inception.

Ordoro participated in the SEAL program as UT Austin business students before joining ATI in 2010. Ordoro is a Web-based order and inventory manager. With just a login and a password, online retailers can use Ordoro to process orders, print shipping labels, drop-ship orders and track their real-time inventory at all times. Ordoro helps small and medium online retailers grow their business by spending less time processing orders, tracking inventory and dealing with confusing IT systems.

Ravel, an ATI member company, provides the tools to rapidly discover and integrate knowledge from disconnected data. Ravel’s KnowledgeStream and GoldenOrb products are used by company consultants and clients to acquire, transform, integrate, and utilize large data sets from enterprise databases and web sources.

Wheel InnovationZ, founded by serial entrepreneur Srini Gurrapu, CEO, and a new member of the Austin Technology Incubator, Wheel InnovationZ is privately funded, and still in stealth mode, with its 1.0 product in the hands of early adopter customers by summer 2012.  Wheel is building a Unified Application Store that helps enterprise manage the demands – and needs – of users accessing a variety of applications on a variety of devices.  Wheel will truly enable the ‘any app on any device’ vision with both local and cloud based access with a Unified Application Store enterprise management platform that reduces TCO, and improves security and productivity.

Hurricane Party, free mobile app that helps friends find, share, and create spontaneous parties; moving online experiences offline to make social networking more social, participated in ATI’s 3 Day Startup in 2010.

Macheen is a leading enabler of “Internet Included,” connected devices. Its multi-tenant cloud-based platform makes it easy to sell and market pre-connected devices that sustain profitable relationships with the consumers who buy them. Macheen enables new business models for device makers, retailers and network operators alike. Macheen CEO, Richard Schwartz, is on the Wireless Advisory Board formed in 2011, and was a featured speaker at ATI’s 2011 Texas Wireless Summit (TWS).

ATX Innovation, the company behind the TabbedOut app, participated in the ATI’s 2009 Wireless Seed Stage Forum (WSSF). The TabbedOut app is a secure and easy-to-use mobile payment solution that allows patrons to open, view and pay their tab with a smart phone, eliminating time waiting in line to close your tab and the need to even take your credit card out of your wallet, let alone give it to a stranger. TabbedOut is securely integrated directly into the merchant’s point of sale (POS) system.

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Austin Technology Incubator Graduates Seven Wireless Companies Including Axelo, Famigo, GameSalad, Nitero, RFMicron, Unwired Nation and Wimax.com

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Tonight, at a special graduation and alumni event, the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit part of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), will graduate 21 companies.  Of those 21, seven companies were part of ATI’s Wireless portfolio, including Axelo, Famigo, GameSalad, Nitero, RFMicron, Unwired Nation and Wimax.com.  These companies have collectively achieved impressive business successes, such as garnering $20 million in funding and collaborating on an international scale.

Over 20+ years, ATI has developed and refined industry specific capabilities, currently organized into Information Technology, Wireless, Clean Energy and Bioscience sectors. In each industry sector, ATI brings its portfolio companies deep domain expertise and market- and technology-specific networks of advisors and investors. Tonight’s graduation event showcases successes in all four sectors, including seven amazing companies in wireless.

ATI, in partnership with UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) and the City of Austin, launched its Wireless program in 2006, ahead of the smart phone/iPhone/Android explosion. Now, as the world approaches 50 billion connected devices, ATI continues to build on the wireless expertise in Austin with its current companies and these seven successful graduates. ATI-Wireless and WNCG also co-host the Texas Wireless Summit and works with the Central Texas Angel Network to host the Wireless Seed-Stage Forum annually. In addition, ATI-Wireless has a special relationship with the Wi-Fi Alliance, the international wireless standards and certification organization, which moved to Austin in part due to support from ATI and was housed at ATI until it outgrew its facilities in 2010.  ATI-Wireless also works closely with MobileMondayAustin, the second oldest chapter in North America of the global MobileMonday network.  The seven Wireless graduates include:

Axelo is developing breakthrough hardware and firmware solutions for 3D motion-sensing products. Axelo, Inc. patented the first 3D motion-based PC controller, which led to a successful solution for spatial disorientation and motion sickness. Currently, Axelo is embedding its technology into sports headwear to provide a preventable solution for contact sports traumatic brain injuries. ‘Letters of Intent’ have been procured from two leading manufacturers of sports equipment.

Famigo makes mobile technology work for families. Famigo creates a better mobile experience for parents and kids by providing them will the tools to discover, manage and enjoy content & apps on smartphones and tablets. Famigo simplifies app discovery through our reviews and recommendations on Famigo.com and makes Android devices kid-safe with our free app, Famigo Sandbox. Famigo’s proprietary technology captures and crowdsources user behavior to provide the best reviews and recommendations available. Famigo’s products have received praise from outlets like Forbes.com, WSJ Online, Killer Startups, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Vator News, VentureBeat, Austin Chronicle, and Famigo Sandbox was rated CNET’s 2011 Best App of the Year for Parents.

GameSalad is an online community that empowers everyone to express and share their ideas through games. GameSalad provides a platform used by creators to rapidly design, publish and distribute original games that have been played by millions of people worldwide. It is currently the number one platform for iOS development and boasts 300,000 developers. 30,000 games have been built with the GameSalad Creator since its 2007 founding. Now at 60 employees and growing, all this was accomplished with just a little over $7 million funding since inception.

Nitero, a fabless semiconductor company with a design center in Melbourne, Australia and headquarters in Austin, Texas, has developed a standards-based, next-generation 60GHz Wi-Fi solution for smartphone, tablet, Ultrabook™ and gaming platforms, bringing multi-gigabit-per-second video and data transfer with extreme low power and latency. Nitero is a great success story demonstrating the power of collaboration between experienced Austin entrepreneurs and top Australian universities and research institutions, such as the University of Melbourne and National ICT Australia. In 2011, Nitero raised an additional $1.6 million after receiving a $1.4 million grant from Commercialisation Australia.

RFMicron is the first in the wireless tracking industry to offer a complementary hardware and software package, consisting of RFVlink, a web-based software platform and RFMicron’s own passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, configured with RFMicron’s proprietary Chameleon technology; allowing any reader to read RFMicron tags from 30 feet on any material, and anywhere in the world. RFMicron joined ATI in 2007, and in 2010 garnered $1.5 million in funding and added three directors to its board. RFMicron was named one of the Most Promising IT and Web Companies at the 8th Annual Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship IT and Web Venture Forum in Houston in 2010.

Unwired Nation has evolved ahead of the wireless space since its founding in 2004. Today, Unwired’s platform helps B2B web application companies with unique customer branding requirements transition to native apps across all major mobile platforms. Unwired Nation’s ability to rapidly deploy mobile apps leveraging customer’s existing web applications and customer relationships has attracted companies like VoiceTech and Q2ebanking, leaders in pharmacy and financial services, respectively. It also attracted $6.5 million in funding, which closed at the end of 2011.

WiMax.com provides equipment, resources and tools that enable operators to deploy high-speed 4G wireless broadband networks. The company is technology agnostic and works with most fixed broadband wireless technologies. The company also provides news, analysis, expert opinions and case studies on the industry at www.wimax.com.

“These seven wireless companies continue the incredible legacy of wireless technology innovation in Austin and demonstrate that ATI-Wireless retains a prominent role in the next wave of technologies – whether hardware or software,” said Kyle Cox, Wireless Director.  “ATI-Wireless has a great partnership with UT from its relationship with WNCG to its support of several courses and events for students.  ATI-Wireless has also helped the Austin community to become a prominent source of innovation while the wireless industry has rapidly evolved in the last several years.”

Contact:

Laura Beck for ATI

laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com

512-786-1098

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Austin Technology Incubator Holds Graduation For 21 Companies, Celebrates Beginning 23rd Year of Incubating Central Texas Companies

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

One week from today, the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit unit of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), will host a graduation and alumni event to celebrate more than two decades of incubating Central Texas technology companies.  On January 26, at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center at The University of Texas at Austin, ATI will recognize the “graduation” of 21 companies who have moved on from ATI over the past few years.

ATI will also announce the winner of the Laura J Kilcrease Civic Entrepreneurship Award. And, for the first time in many years, ATI will bring
together over 300 of the hundreds of technology influencers who have been part of the ATI family as executives of portfolio companies, advisors, investors, business partners, UT student interns, and ATI staff.  This alumni gathering will celebrate the community that ATI has created and hundreds of amazing business successes ATI has had a hand in.

The 21 companies to be honored as ATI graduates on January 26 include businesses focused on information technology, wireless, clean energy, and biosciences technology.  They are:

  • Agile Planet
  • Atonometrics
  • Axelo
  • Calxeda
  • Dorsan Biofuels
  • Famigo
  • Firefly LED Lighting
  • GameSalad
  • Ideal Power Converters
  • itzbig
  • Nitero
  • Notice Technologies
  • OpenAlgae
  • Qcue
  • RFMicron
  • RRE Solar
  • Savara Pharmaceuticals
  • Spredfast
  • Terapio
  • Unwired Nation
  • WiMax.com

View the full press release at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9120155.htm.

Press interested in attending the January 26th event and/or speaking with executives from ATI or the graduating companies can contact Laura Beck at 512-786-1098 or laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com.

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Communicating Your Venture

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Last Thursday, November 3, we hosted the sixth 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 marks our seventh workshop.

At this meeting Robert McKee of the Rice Alliance and Isaac Barchas of ATI talked about effectively communicating the deal.

Their key points:

•     Tell the truth in a compelling way. Investors can detect exaggeration and will doubt your credibility if you overstate your financials.

•     You only have one minute to communicate your idea in the elevator pitch. Concentrate on sparking investors’ interest, stating the value proposition, target market, development stage and capital needs. Rehearsal is important. The pitch should sound natural but be repeatable.

•     The PowerPoint presentation should be 10 to 12 slides and 20 minutes long without Q&A. Be completely in command of your narrative, prepared to improvise if technology fails. Be able to state in a sentence what you want the investors to understand and remember from each slide.

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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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GameSalad Graduates From the Austin Technology Incubator

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a unit of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), congratulates web and mobile game platform GameSalad on its graduation from the program. GameSalad graduated at the end of 2010 with a well rounded and experienced executive team, solid funding, and an industry-changing mobile and web gaming platform. Throughout GameSalad’s year and a half in ATI, ATI was present at every milestone:  providing guidance on fundraising, legal issues, operations planning and corporate positioning.

“From introductions to insight, Austin Technology Incubator has been by our side helping GameSalad grow our business” said Michael Agustin, GameSalad founder. “Bart Bohn, and the team at ATI have drawn on their real world experience and individual expertise to guide us as we grew to maximize the potential of GameSalad.”

GameSalad’s flagship product, GameSalad Creator, is a groundbreaking software tool that empowers anyone, regardless of technical skills, to design, publish and distribute sophisticated original games, using a visual, drag-and-drop interface that requires no coding. Once the game has been designed, developers can choose to publish to the iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Web, simply by clicking a button. Popular among both established and aspiring developers, GameSalad Creator has been used to create over 18,000 games, including more than 40 top 100 Games in Apple’s App Store. With the addition of HTML5 publishing in June 2011, GameSalad allowed developers to expand beyond iOS and reach a market of over a billion people currently using a web browser.    

ATI met GameSalad (then Gendai Games) in 2008 at a Texas Funding Symposium.  Inspired by GameSalad’s vision for game development ATI’s IT and Wireless Director Bart Bohn invited the company to the 2008 Wireless Seed Stage Forum.  In March 2009, ATI included GameSalad in the prestigious Entrepreneur’s Lounge at SXSW, and in July 2009, the company was formally admitted into ATI.

At SXSW in March 2010, GameSalad was an urban legend come true: an investor wrote them an angel check on the spot at the TECHCocktail event.  ATI introduced GameSalad to DFJ Mercury’s Blair Garrou, and that angel check snow balled into a $1.1 Million Series A round with DFJ Mercury in place as GameSalad’s first and lead investor.

GameSalad’s momentum continues:  In recent months the company appointed former Disney executive CEO Steve Felter, expanded the company’s reach exponentially with the launch of HTML5 publishing and announced a $6.1 Million Series A-1 funding round that included original investor, DFJ Mercury, and brought in in Steamboat Ventures (Disney’s investment arm); Greycroft Partners; DFJ Frontier and ff Asset Management.  This recent funding qualified GameSalad to graduate from the ATI program. 

“Seeing GameSalad at SXSW this year, 2011, was such a fantastic validator for all the hard work they’ve done and phenomenal success and momentum,” said Bart Bohn, ATI IT and Wireless Director who has worked closely with GameSalad for the past two years.  “We at ATI truly appreciate GameSalad letting us come along for the ride.  To see the progress, from 2 years ago until today, and the trajectory they are on now…this is why we do our jobs.”

View the full press release HERE.

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ATI-Alum GameSalad Raises $6.1 million from Investors in Second Round Funding

Monday, April 4th, 2011

 

In a March 31 article in the Austin American-Statesman, tech writer Lori Hawkins reported that Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) alum GameSalad, raised $6.1 million in its second round of funding from Steamboat Ventures (Disney’s investment arm); Greycroft Partners; DFJ Mercury; DFJ Frontier and ff Asset Management.

GameSalad uses the social web to allow members to design, publish and distribute original games without programming knowledge, and play with others across multiple platforms, such as the iPhone, iPad, Mac and any other Internet-connected device.

GameSalad, the largest third-party game development tool for Apple’s mobile platforms, offers its basic services for free and charges for a professional version. To date, GameSalad users have created over 4,500 games, including 30 games that have made it into the top 100 ranks of Apple’s U.S. App Store, which is quite impressive.

“We are focused on growing GameSalad into a world-class gaming company,” said CEO Steve Felter and Disney alum. “By making game creation accessible to anyone with a passion for games, we’ve empowered a new breed of game designers.”

GameSalad, who was founded in 2007 and joined ATI in 2009, raised $1.2 million from investors, including Steamboat Ventures, in its first round of funding last year.

For the full Statesman article read here.

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SXSW Day 5 – The cool moments of SXSW

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

The following is a post by Bart Bohn, Director of ATI’s IT & Wireless Incubators.

Today, there were two cool moments that typify the awesomeness of SXSW Interactive.  The first was a conversation relayed by a founder of a media startup.  He mentioned to a potential technology partner that his company wanted to become the “@%^%$# of media” and the technology partner responded with – “oh, wow.  The CTO of company @%^%$# stayed at my house this weekend and he is looking for a startup to engage with, I will make the introduction.”  Are you kidding me?  That is the serendipity of SXSW.  You have to have a very clear message going into SXSW and not be shy about sharing it with all the different kinds of people you meet because sooner or later, someone you talked with is BFF’s with the single person that is the exact right fit for your needs – whether it is a CTO, investor, co-founder, first customer, etc., that person is highly likely to be at SXSW.

The second moment was courtesy of GameSalad, formerly known as Gendai Games, which is a recent graduate of ATI. It was a year ago at SXSW that the urban legend of an investor writing a check on the spot after a demo actually happened to them.  That angel check eventually snow balled into their Series A round led by DFJ Mercury.  Since then, they have brought on a couple high-impact executives and are hitting performance numbers that are stunning.  At some point, the performance numbers will come out, and trust me, they are amazing.  This year at SXSW, they have a full fledged booth on the trade show floor and matching t-shirts.  They also hosted a party complete with three bands and drink tickets.  Talking with the co-founders at the party directly brought home why I love my job – I get to work with incredible individuals that are incredibly passionate and are doing incredible work.  The reward of sharing from the periphery in their success is a great feeling and I appreciate the GameSalad team for letting me come along for the ride.  I think this reward is the primary reason so many members of the Austin community are so generous with their time and thoughts – we at ATI certainly could not succeed without this generosity and hopefully all of those folks who have volunteered their time to a startup get to experience this kind of satisfaction.  More broadly, this is the rush of SXSW as there are teams all over the conference going through the same ride that GameSalad is on and the collective energy is infectious and invigorating.

I am looking forward to hearing about the next generation of GameSalad’s that “hit it big” at this year’s conference and tracking them as they ramp to next year.  Good luck.

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Wireless Seed Stage Forum Key Connector for First-Class Startups and Informed Investors

Friday, December 10th, 2010

wssf_logo-squareAustin, TX (PRWEB) December 7, 2010 – Nineteen leading wireless startups gathered in Austin Dec. 1st to flex their innovative muscles for more than 40 venture capitalists and angel investors at the fourth annual Wireless Seed Stage Forum. The Austin Technology Incubator’s Wireless Incubator, in partnership with the Central Texas Angel Network, hosted the Forum at Austin’s Long Center for the Performing Arts.

In WSSF’s first three years, nearly 50 percent of participating startups have gone on to receive funding. Looking to continue its position as the premier stage for wireless startups to connect with investors, WSSF selected five of the 19 participating companies to give a 10-minute pitch and field five minutes of questions on their venture.

Joining the likes of Calxeda, Tabbed Out, Edioma, Spacetime Studios and GameSalad, who have each closed series-A funding from leading venture capital firms, the following five presented to the Forum crowd.

  • Famigo – (Winner of WSSF 2010 Best Pitch) The mobile social gaming platform for families.
  • SocialSmack – Socially-filtered consumer ratings and reviews platform powered by game technology, and a unique engagement model for brands to join the conversation. 
  • Waldo Health – Developing disruptive technology for use in home-based care and management of chronic illness.
  • Nitero – Provides the next generation of multi-gigabit Wi-Fi in an industry-leading, low-power and low-cost package.
  • Audiotoniq – Builds more affordable, easier to use and easier to acquire hearing aids and complementary smartphone applications so everyone with hearing loss can have a better life.

As in years past, participating companies represented various sectors of the wireless industry, including biomedical, mobile gaming, location-based advertising, wireless infrastructure, wireless hardware and others. “In addition to our five stellar pitches, the fourteen demo companies to round out the floor at this year’s summit represented the full breadth of Austin’s compelling wireless startup scene,” said Bart Bohn, director of ATI-Wireless Incubator and host of WSSF.

Below are the remaining 14 companies who demonstrated at this year’s Forum.

8th Evolution
Anatasol
Argia
BestBuzz
GetYa Learn On
Hurricane Party
Innovate Wireless Health
justtext.me
LifeProof Cases
MogoTXT
SMSRGENCY
SurfaceInk
Wellala
Wibole

More than renewing its vow to showcase sheer entrepreneurial talent and the future leaders of the wireless industry, this year’s Forum also played host to a refined class of investors, better positioned to give more than just money.

“From the beginning, it’s been a goal of ours to help investors deepen their understanding of and engagement in the wireless space,” said Bohn. “As evidenced by the insightful Q&A sessions and in-depth one-on-one engagement at the demo tables throughout the afternoon, our work has paid off. Many of our participating entrepreneurs told us this was the best pitching event they’d been to, precisely because the large number of high quality investors.”

The Forum is the ATI-Wireless Incubator’s second event in two weeks this fall, coming just in the wake of the eighth annual Texas Wireless Summit. The Nov. 16th keynote- and panel-driven Summit put under one Austin roof some of the wireless industry’s most compelling thought leaders and hottest startups.

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 more than 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 http://www.ati.utexas.edu.

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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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