Announcing EntrepreneurCamp Houston

Published on July 3, 2009 in Events. 0 Comments

Entrepreneur Camp Logo

What is Entrepreneur Camp?

Entrepreneur Camp is a participant-driven gathering of like-minded individuals also known as an ‘unconference’ with the goal of bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, VC’s, business leaders, and anyone interested in starting a business to network, share ideas, and explore opportunities.

The first Entrepreneur Camp will be held in Houston, Texas on August  7th, 2009 starting at 9:30am at the Houston Technology Center 410 Pierce Houston, Texas 77002

Please Register Here:

http://entrepreneurcamp.eventbrite.com/

Who is Invited?

Anyone who is interested in entrepreneurism and business! We welcome those who want to form a startup, those who already have a startup, those interested in investing in startups, and anyone else looking to learn from the entrepreneur community.

Why is it Called a Camp?

Our event is a community-driven conference in the style of BarCamp. “Camp” implies that the event is informal with an emphasis on face-to-face interaction with other attendees. “Community-driven” means that the attendees of the conference actually run the conference by discussing topics appropriate to the subject of the event. The presentation schedule is determined on the morning of the conference and anyone who attends is welcome to present.

Attending the camp is FREE!

To all of those that attend, the camp is free, and supported by sponsors, volunteers, and the community.

What’s Different About Entrepreneur Camp Houston?

We wanted to take the un-conference a step further, and offer a bit of structure to some of the event to make it more dynamic and rewarding for all of those involved. Because of this, we will have a separate room dedicated to those with startup ideas or existing companies that wish to pitch their company to a panel of investors and business leaders. The participating companies will have 2 minutes to make their elevator pitch to the panel. The winner of the pitch contest will win a 1 hour consulting session with the investors and business professionals to evaulate their idea or startup!

Tickets to present your company to the panel will go on sale a week before the camp, July 31st, and are $25 to purchase.

Become a Sponsor!

Sponsoring Entrepreneur Camp has many benefits, including:

  • The satisfaction of helping entrepreneurs and fostering economic growth.
  • Publicity for your brand!
  • Link love – you’ll get your logo with a link to your website on this page and our home page
  • Sponsor Profile Page – We’ll give you a page on our site that’s just about you including a link to your site.
  • Add your benefit here…really, let us know how we can server you better as a sponsor
  • $250 – Bootstrapped              $500 – Incubated                    $1,000 – Funded
  • These need not be strictly monetary – we need food, printed materials, t-shirts, stickers, and promotion

Please Register Here:

http://entrepreneurcamp.eventbrite.com/

For More Information, please visit us at :

http://entrepreneurcamp.pbworks.com/

Follow us on Twitter: @Untrepreneur

http://www.facebook.com/EntrepreneurCamp

The wordpress website:

http://entrepreneurcamp.wordpress.com/

Help the Houston Startup Happy Hour find a new home

Published on July 3, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

We’re looking for a new venue for the Startup Houston Happy Hour held every first Thursday of the month from 6pm – 8pm.

The venue should be easily accessible to most people – even the Katy-Sugarland-Woodlands-Clear Lake area folks. In the past we’ve held it at Sonoma Wine Bar, the Tasting Room on Alabama and most recently at Saute Bistro.

Ideally, we would like lots of cheap or free parking, drink specials ($2-3 beer, $5-6 wine sounds about right) and plenty of  space for 100 or so startup entrepreneurs and the people who love them to chat in an open, comfortable environment. We’re not looking for ’scenesters’ or blaring music of one kind or another, just a place that startup people can talk shop with a little social lubrication.

We have to pick a place before the next one rolls around on August 6th.

Here are a few suggestions – leave any you can think of in the comments and we’ll add them to the poll.

New Happy Hour Venue?

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No Happy Hour Tonight

Published on July 2, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

Have a happy 4th of July and a safe weekend!!! We’ll see everyone next month at a new location. More details to come next week.

Venture Capital in Houston

Published on June 20, 2009 in Interviews and VC and Angel Funding. 0 Comments

Purva Patel, one of the journalists at the Houston Chronicle who ‘get it’ about emerging businesses recently wrote up an interview she had with Dennis Murhpree of Murphree Venture Partners: http://www.chron.com/disp/discuss.mpl/business/6489409.html#

Murphree Ventures Partners - logo

Mr. Murphree is stalwart advocate of the VC community in Houston and has taught investment management at the University of St. Thomas and the venture capital course at the Rice University Jones Business school for several years.  In short, when he speaks, people listen and his opinion matters. Even though he is personally trying to bring more investment here, he laments the fact that there simply isn’t enough capital in Texas to support our high growth business and we have to outsource 85% of our capital out of state.

Below is the comment I left on the Chronicle website but the bottom line is that I believe:

We need more money and more focused money

These are exactly the kinds of stories Houston entrepreneurs need to hear – especially from someone who has established himself as a leader in the venture investment community over a number of years. Mr. Murphree is well-respected because he tells it like it is and knows what he’s talking about. ‘85% of funding comes from outside our borders? That’s both a little bit sad and just a touch frightening when you think about the spirit of independence and bootstrapping that drives most Texas entrepreneurs. Of course we need more money and $100m in a seventh fund certainly helps this effort. We also need more diverse sources of that money, so that pool of capital is spread over a wider variety of ventures. Demonstrating to investors who are used to putting their capital in the ground (Oil) or on the ground (Real Estate) that there is also value in the Cloud (Internet) is a real challenge for software and internet related ventures, but it is getting a little better. Thankfully this environment has proven that many internet based startups require a lot less cash to get going than in the past, but they still need investors who have expertise in the space and the willingness to roll up their sleeves to help these new style of startups.

Marc Nathan
Director of Entrepreneur Development, Information Technology
Houston Technology Center

How to uncover and secure the right PR support for your company

Published on June 9, 2009 in Education. 1 Comment

Suzanne Tormollen of Atingo Public Relations is a 13 year PR veteran of the tech scene who has worked with many venture-backed companies in the Austin and Houston areas.  You can view her work history at www.atingo.com.  Suzanne is a new contributor to Startup Houston.

Ok. You’ve secured funding; created a solid leadership team; and have a product in the market.  Now you want to increase exposure and awareness for your company.  But how?

I’ve been involved in several new business meetings over the past few months in which this has been the prevailing question.  And, I’m glad to report, people are turning to PR to help them raise market awareness.  With that said, there is a lot confusion, or lack of education, on how to make the right PR choice.  I thought I’d provide some suggestions on what to look for when shopping around for your PR consultant or agency.

Accessibility: Be wary of PR firms that send only their senior executives to the new business meetings.  This may be the only time you see them.  Ask who will be doing the day-to-day work for your company, how many other clients they are supporting ,and how many years of experience they have in the industry and at the firm.  Ensure you meet the individual team members who will be doing the work.

Chemistry: It’s important to view your PR team as an extension of your own team.   You’ll need to work closely with your PR contact and provide them with access to vital company information in order to achieve a successful PR campaign.   Do the people who would be working on your account have your same work values, desire, drive for excellence?

Creativity: Since you live and breathe your company every day, having eyes and ears on the outside can bring new and fresh ideas to the table.  While the tried-and-true PR tactics are important to every PR program, it’s good to try something different. Don’t be afraid to ask for examples of how a PR group has increased exposure for a company in a not-so-conventional way.

Consistency: The PR team is the face of your company.  They are the first point-of-contact for a reporter.  There’s no room for errors such as typos in a news release or misspelled words in an email pitch.  You don’t want any surprises when it comes to your PR program.  You want a team that provides high-levels of work, consistently.  Ask for references of other clients so you can ensure the team is solid.

In addition to these general attributes, you want to ensure the PR support you choose has in-depth knowledge and experience with the core PR elements inherent to every PR program – media relations, analyst relations, and trade show support.   Some other key questions to ask:

  • Can they write a compelling news release? Media pitch? Bylined article?
  • Do they have experience working with reporters at publications that cover your market?
  • What’s their technical knowledge?

Whether you choose an individual PR consultant or a PR firm, implementing a PR program for your company can be a beneficial and rewarding experience for everyone involved.  Remember accessibility, chemistry, creativity and consistency.

Houston’s Premier Coworking Site is turning One!

Published on June 4, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

The Caroline Collective, the largest coworking site on the planet and southern book end of the Houston Tech Corridor is celebrating its one year anniversary on Saturday. It’s only been twelve months, but @carolineco has established itself as strong supporter of the Houston Startup and Arts scene and a good friend of freelancers everywhere. Congratulations to the hard work, vision and preserverance of the founders, Matthew Wettergreen and Ned Dodington along with their friends and tenants like Monica Danna and Grace Rodriguez who helped make an abandoned and decrepit warehouse into a hotbed for entrepreneurial activity.

Saturday June 6th

6pm – 10pm

Caroline Collective

4820 Caroline St.

Houston, TX 77004
facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184256345206

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SparkStart & Houston Startup Happy Hour

Published on June 4, 2009 in Events, Houston Startup Happy Hour, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding. 0 Comments

There is just one week left until the Microsoft BizSpark sponsored SparkStart event in Dallas, register here: http://sparkstart.eventbrite.com/

Christian Thilmany, (@uxarchitect) the User Experience Architect for Microsoft, is hosting the event and several Houston folks, including your favorite Network Partner (email mnathan – @- houstontech.org for details) will be panelists.

bizspark-logo

SparkStart is a full day of business and technology discussion (open format) and learning event for startups (“startup bootcamp”). This event will also be a networking opportunity for those startups who are new to the BizSpark program and not yet enrolled in the program and would like to mingle and learn from key business and technology influencers. It will also be an event for those startups who are recently enrolled and need to keep the momentum going by learning key strategies for success, both in business, and in technology.

Also, don’t forget Houston Startup Happy Hour tonight:

6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Saute Bistro at 2303 Richmond Avenue.

We welcome anyone who has a startup, who is in a startup, or who is interested in startups (ie. Entreprenuers, Developers, Inventors, Technology Enthusiasts, Service Providers, & especially Investors) to enjoy real-time social networking at its finest.

startup-houston-happy-hour

Rasmus Lerdorf, PHP Creator, In Houston June 10th

Published on June 3, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

UPDATE: Here are some videos from the event:

http://www.vimeo.com/5174186 http://www.vimeo.com/5294735

This from Joao Prado Maia of the Houston PHP Users Group:

Rasmus Lerdorf, creator of the PHP language, will be in Houston in June and graciously volunteered to do a presentation to our group! Sorry about the last minute modification, but we will need to move our meeting from our usual date/time to Wednesday June 10th at 6:00pm. The presentation details below from Rasmus himself:
————

Architecture, Performance, Optimization and Security.

I take a look at the performance of some popular PHP applications and go
through and show the common mistakes people make and show how much of a difference just a little bit of optimization makes.

Then, if there is still time and interest I’ll explain the current state
of XSS on the Web with some live examples of XSS issues on some local
sites. I usually like to have 2-3 hours, but I can squeeze it into less.

————-
I hope to see you all here for this great opportunity!

– Joao

Facebook gets the Nut

Published on May 29, 2009 in General, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding. 1 Comment

nutshellmail-logo

Techcrunch has just announced the 20 winners of the fbFund, headed by startup rockstar Dave McClure (who you should all be following on twitter). One of our own homegrown startups & Houston Technology Center client, NutshellMail made the final cut and received another $25K to go with the first $1K they got for making the Top 50. The real benefit for the company is that they get to participate in the brand new Facebook Incubator program modeled on ‘Seed Combinator‘ programs like Y Combinator, TechStars and Austin’s own (and one I’m involved with personally) Capital Factory , called REV. NutshellMail founders Mark Schmulen, David Lyman and David Neubauer are heading to Palo Alto in the middle of June to take part in intensive mentoring sessions and network with Silicon Valley’s best and brightest over the summer. Congratulations to these hard-working guys who are making Houston proud.

fbFund Logo

Apple plans $1 billion ’server farm’ – Why Not in Houston?

Published on May 27, 2009 in General. 2 Comments

 

Hey All, Kurt Here.  Long time, no write.

Anyway, I was just reading on CNN’s SciTechBlog how Apple might be shopping around for a location for a new $1 billion server farm and thought to myself ‘Why Not in Houston?’  We are already home to the Number 1 dedicated server hosting provider in the world.  Why not Apple’s server farm as well?  Does anyone know whether the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston Technology Center’s Emerging Technology Council, or the Mayor’s Office is pursuing this?  If not, they should.  It is moves like this that help to build solid technology foundations for a city.

Apple plans $1 billion ’server farm’

Apple appears to be planning a major upgrade to its online capabilities. Reports indicate the company is shopping around for a location to build a $1 billion server farm. This cluster of networked computers would power Apple’s future Web operations.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivers his keynote speech at Macworld on January 9, 2007 in San Francisco.

The iTunes and the iPhone app store are certainly growing, but this massive project suggests Apple may have something new up its sleeve — or is the $1 billion price tag expected given the Apple gear that will likely be used?

Data Center Knowledge writes:

The size of the project raises interesting questions about Apple’s ambitions for its online operations. The $1 billion price tag is nearly twice the $500 to $600 million that Microsoft and Google typically invest in the enormous data centers that power their cloud computing platforms.

While the location of the data center is not yet decided, the Associated Press reports North Carolina lawmakers are salivating at the prospect of of bringing a billion dollars to their state. Legislators have proposed tax breaks for Apple that could amount to $46 million in the next decade, assuming the company reaches its $1 billion investment target within nine years:

Though the Apple site is initially expected to employ fewer than 100 full-time workers, legislators said the potential prize was so juicy it justified changing the state’s corporate tax formula to benefit a single company.

Come on Houston!  Don’t let North Carolina walk away with this!  Let’s bring Apple to Houston!!