Rice Alliance – Retrospective

I am exhausted and exhilarated all at once right now. Spending an entire day talking startups, venture capital and networking tends to do that to me. Today was no exception.

First off, thanks to Brad Burke and the Rice Alliance for putting on one heckuva show. The presenters were excellent, the forum was well run and the cumbayah effect was a wonderful touch. I was definitely feeling the luv.

So here were my takeaways from today:

• There is no shortage of good deals in Houston;
• There is no shortage of VC’s looking to invest in good deals;
• VC’s have a different view of a good deal than I do;
• Stacey Higginbotham writes a great blog;
• In Web 2.0, anyone can build a business, anyone;
• Following startups are hobbies to some people;
• You can never have enough business cards or enough types of business cards;
• Age has impacted my memory;
• Blair Garrou is the best thing to happen to Houston since air conditioning;
• Marc Nathan is officially Web 2.0 with those new spectacles;
• Walter Ulrich‘s “win one for the Gipper” speech was awesome;
• Speaking in front of a group is easier without a time limit;
• Drinks should have been served before the elevator pitches;
• Next week’s OpenCoffee will be packed!

Kurt’s going to talk about the companies we met. I will try and fill in the gaps after his post.

What a day!