Startup Houston

How to Launch a Successful Start-up Technology Company: “The Basics of Starting, Growing, and Funding a New Business”
Wednesday - Thursday, July 23-24, 2007, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
McNair Hall, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University.

Early registration deadline: July 11!

This 2-day entrepreneurship course describes, in depth, the key steps required to commercialize technology and successfully launch a new company.  The workshop will be taught through a series of lectures and presentations from venture capitalists, investors, entrepreneurs, and other leaders in the technology entrepreneurship community.

The instructors for the course include active venture capitalists and angel investors in the Houston region.  The course provides a unique opportunity to learn first hand what is required to get funding for your emerging company and to meet the individuals who make these investment decisions on a daily basis.

The course has sold out every year, so we recommend early registration.

Cost: $95 for Rice Alliance 2007-2008 members, HTC client companies, and members of an academic institution. $165 for the general public (registration by July 11).

Perhaps you were driving around the downtown Houston area recently and came across a white and green electric vehicle transporting some environmentally conscious passengers to their next business meeting. If you see it again, waive hello to the guys from REV Houston, Houston’s newest FREE and GREEN transportation service.

REV (or Ride Electric Vehicles) currently operates one vehicle in the downtown-midtown area of Houston with plans to add a second vehicle in the next few weeks (the second vehicle will be a 6 seater versus the 4 seater they currently have). The vehicles are GEM Vehicles from Chrysler and are 100% electric powered:

“GEM battery-electric vehicles are classified as low-speed vehicles, or neighborhood electric vehicles, and are street legal in nearly all 50 states on public roads posted at 35 mph or less. With a top speed of 25 mph, GEM cars have a range of up to 30 miles on a charge and are great for traveling around neighborhoods, city centers or job sites. GEM vehicles are battery-electric, operate on a 72-volt battery system and plug into a standard 110-volt outlet. What makes GEM vehicles so unique is that they can be recharged anytime, anywhere a 110-volt outlet is available and recharge in approximately six to eight hours.”

To request a ride simply call 1.877.Go.REV.Go or visit one of the company’s “REV Stops” for a code you can text to Qtags (another great Houston startup we profiled last year). The stops are as follows:

• The Coffee Groundz (REV1)
• The Rice Lofts (REV2)
• El Patio (REV3)

The only cost for the ride is a gratuity. The company plans to subsidize their costs initially by selling advertising space on the vehicles.

“It was Opening Day 2007 for the Houston Astros,” states Erik Ibarra, co-founder of REV Houston. “I went for a ride on a pedi-cab and thought, ‘This guy would have it so much easier if he had a golf cart.’ I started looking into street legal electric vehicles for about a year and the concept blossomed from there.”

Ibarra also mentioned that the company plans to test additional markets within Houston for expansion, such as Rice Village, Washington Avenue and Westheimer in the future.

P.S. Erik, you need to talk with Matt and Ned at the Caroline Collective and add that as a stop as well.

Alert Logic, a leading provider of on-demand IT compliance and security solutions to mid-sized organizations, today announced that it has won a Red Herring 100 Award, a selection of the 100 most innovative private technology companies based in North America. Alert Logic was presented with the award at the Red Herring North America event on May 13, 2008 in San Jose, California.

From a quick glance, it looks like Alert Logic is the only Houston-based company, which is not as much of a surprise as the fact that the majority of Red Herring 100 winners are usually culled from California. I used to work at a Red Herring 100 company back in the day when Red Herring was also in print; that, along with $8 will get you a decent buzz at Supercuts. Nothing against the team over at Alert Logic, who I think are doing a bang up job; it’s just that Red Herring used to be relevant but has basically failed to adapt and has become a remnant of an older bubble time.

Kudos to Misha and his team who are kicking a$$ and taking names. Keep your eyes on this company to be one of many Houston stars that shine on the global stage. Knowing where most award winners end up, this company is going places.