Monica Danna, editor of the Houstonist blog stopped by today to do some guest blogging. You can check out her first post here.
Monthly Archive for September, 2007
So how do the people here at StartupWeekendHouston decompress after a long day or development session. Why Yoga of course! At least a version of it that Gwendolyn Bell shared with us. Here is the video below.
http://www.vimeo.com/324065StartupWeekendHouston does Yoga to relax from Startup Houston on Vimeo.
Want to take some time to decompress? You can also see all of the other videos that we have taken at StartupHouston for the event on Vimeo here and see all of our Flickr photos here.
So now that we have the first 24 hours of Startup Weekend – Houston under our belt, here are my initial thoughts:
- Developers, developers, developers;
- It is hard to avoid the feature creep;
- Everyone is a marketing expert;
- Market research is of UTMOST importance;
- Pizza can get old quickly; and
- Developers, developers, developers.
Here is what the team has been able to accomplish so far:
- Business model well defined
- User interface done (for the most part)
- Positioning is forming, but we keep getting stuck in the weeds on small stuff
- Development work coming along but slower than hoped due to lack of development resources
This is turning out to be an eye opening experience as it relates to Houston, Web 2.0 and entrepreneurship. I plan on packing it in shortly but will be back online tomorrow to dish out some more tips on the experience.
The top names are:
- TipDish
- MediaConnectr
- MediaMatchup
Right now it looks like the group is leaning towards TipDish. It’s catchy, and it has 8 characters or less in it’s name (which is what Gwendolyn Bell tells us) and we’ve come up with a way to use the name to describe people who use the service (Tippers for the PR firms that use the service and Dishers for bloggers and other media outlets that will cover their info).
Update: We have officially decided to go with TipDish as our business name. Keep your eyes on TipDish.com for more.
Last night was a blast and today looks like it should top it. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:
- WiFi without power is a problem (Erica to the rescue);
- Coffee and Macs don’t mix (my heart goes out to you Gwen);
- People seem to gravitate towards form over function…perhaps it is easier.
The project seems to be gaining momentum as we hash out differences on business model. We are still in need of additional developer horsepower so if you have some time to spare, take trip over.
More in a few.
Well, as luck would have it, VoSnap couldn’t handle the amount of text we gave it to try and decide who the winning idea would be, so everyone wrote their votes down on used coasters from the bar. So I guess we’re using 0.5 technology to decide what our Web 2.0 app will be. The coasters were gathered together in a glass jar and counted out (we’ll have the video in a follow up post)
The coasters have spoken and the application we have settled on is….
You can see the official tally on the StartupWeekend site or also via the VoSnap site (counted after the fact) here.
http://www.vimeo.com/324002StartupWeekendHouston Idea Vote from Startup Houston on Vimeo.
We are going around the room now and listening to everyone’s top three votes for which ideas they like the best for StartupWeekend Houston. Here are my votes:
- Media directory (would provide a directory of all blogs and social media site contacts)
- Startup tracker (would track all startups, including those that end up in the deadpool)
- Regifting (A site to trade and sell gifts that you don’t want)
Here are Josh’s votes:
- Media directory
- Startup tracker
- Regifting
Hey, wait a minute. Both of our votes are the same. Well, I guess great minds think alike (sorry, couldn’t resist).
We’ll find out soon who the chosen one is.
If you are light on free cool t-shirts, then Startup Weekend is waiting for you. There are still a few seats available for the weekend which kicks off tonight at the Stag’s Head Pub. If you are not there, you will be one of those who said, “I had tickets to Lollapaloooza I but decided to sleep in that weekend instead” or “When they said they were heading over to tear down the wall, I didn’t think they meant literally tear down the Berlin Wall…I decided to go to a Nitzer Ebb concert instead” (I know I am dating myself here).
This is a once in a lifetime chance to show the world what Houston is made of. All I hear from people is how H-town gets a bad rap…now is the time to change that.
Come tonight. I’ll be there.
P.S. Keep up with the events this weekend with me and Kurt here at Startup Houston. We’ll be posting like mad dogs.
Today is the 5th Annual Rice Alliance Energy & Clean Technology Venture Forum held at the Jones School (McNair Hall) , Rice University. Here is an overview of the event:
- One of the largest energy venture forums in North America
- Emerging energy technology companies will showcase their new ventures in front of an audience of 400-500 investors and venture capitalists, industry representatives, business leaders, advisors/mentors, service providers
- Several keynote speakers will share their insights
- 45-60 companies will give an elevator pitch
- 5 companies will present their business plans
- 35-40 companies will participate in the Technology Company Showcase.
- Plus, learn how major oil companies and venture capitalists make decisions to invest in early stage technology companies
If you get a chance to make it today, say hello to Kurt Stoll who is there today.
I had the pleasure of meeting with the two founders of WHAMtext℠ this morning, Jeff Lerner and Matt Whitney. The company offers on demand text message coupons to users of their service. The premise here is that this is demand based so there is no “opt-in” requirements which will you get bombarded by SMS spam.
Here’s how it will work: just text a business name or product and a location (zip code or school code) to 469426 (GoWHAM) and a customized deal will be texted right back to you.
The initial launch plans will focus on college towns and college students, then growing their base in major metropolitan areas over time. To date, these guys have self funded, sought additional support from friends and family and now have the backing of angel investment, primarily out of Dallas.
Although the company is based in Houston, they have not found the support they were hoping for from this market. “If we invented a pipe fitting to go on an oil rig, we would have found funding very easily. However, there seems to be a lack of understanding about information technology and advertising models in Houston which made our search for capital difficult,” said Lerner. “We are committed to Houston and plan to stay here despite advice from others for us to relocate to Austin.”
Historically, their business has been providing discount and savings cards to college students through WHAMcard. “Moving towards an SMS-based model seemed to make sense now that the technology is there to leverage off of,” says Whitney. “Our competition is not consistent and acts more like SMS spam. We feel that we have a unique model that can scale very well.”
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