Best Houston OpenCoffee Club Meetup Ever!

 

Pardon my excitement, but yesterday’s OpenCoffee Club event had our best attendance ever (between 40 - 50 people).  I think the coverage that OpenCoffee Club and StartupHouston received at the Rice Alliance IT and Web 2.0 Venture Forum helped and I also think the mention by Marc Nathan at the HTC Orientation event helped as well.  We saw lots of new faces and, as always, found new companies to report about.  Here are some of the things I heard and saw:

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  • Spoke with a new company called REV that is trying to set up all-electric vehicles in downtown Houston and at special events for short-hop taxi service.  They should be operational in a couple of months with some help from the city.  They are looking to branch out from here and serve other dense metro areas.  I like what this company is trying to do, as we need more green technology here in Houston.
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  • Saw John and Carrie Pacini talking with Erica O’Grady about OpMom.
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  • Spoke with Dayna Marcum about what she and her company Local Reach / NeedToFinda are doing to serve the hyper-local market in Houston and how to connect small businesses with people who need their services.
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  • Spoke with Brent Williams about AptConnect and how they provide an online social environment for apartment communities that helps them to retain and enrich residents. (Disclosure: I have just joined the Advisory Panel for AptConnect) 
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  • Hung around with Erica O’Grady, Chris Pitre, Marc Nathan, Dayna Marcum and Josh Tabin for JELLY, heard some new ideas, and learned a lot of cool new things (which is what JELLY is all about anyway).  I’m definitely looking forward to the next JELLY get together on November 30th, at Solento.  I also found out that Erica is looking for someone to donate space for a permanent Coworking group.  I tell ya, this town wouldn’t be the same without Erica and we are lucky to have her.

Did you attend OpenCoffee Club?  Did you meet new people and have a good time?  Do you have a new startup that we didn’t cover in this post?  Have any suggestions for the next one?  Let us know in the comments section of this post or in our forums section.  It’s a great time to be in Houston’s startup scene!