Oct29th2008
Authors Sarah Lacy and David Wallace will be at Caroline Collective this Saturday, November 1, from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. to talk about their books: Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good and One Nation Under Blog. Sarah is a well known journalist and David is the former Mayor of Sugarland. Both are great speakers and excellent authors. There’ll be food and refreshments at the event so make a point of coming out.
It is stuff like this that makes Caroline Collective such a valuable asset for the Houston community. Thanks to Erica O’Grady for all of her efforts as well.
Oct27th2008
On Tuesday, November 18th, the Houston Technology Center will host its Gulf Coast Innovation Conference. It will include 30-40 fast paced emerging technology company presentations. This day long conference will feature two panel presentations and finish up with a networking cocktail reception all to take place at the InterContinental Hotel near the Galleria. The first panel includes a distinguished group of University leaders and it will be moderated by Michael Garfield, the High-Tech Texan®. The topic will be “Bridging Research to Successful Commercialization.” The second panel is an Entrepreneur Panel moderated by Jeff Moseley, President & CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, and they will discuss ”Entrepreneurship, Driving Successful Commercialization.” This unique event will include award announcements from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and feature Leo Linbeck, III as Keynote Speaker. Leo will address “Entrepreneurship Life Cycle, Early Stage to Seed Capital and the Implications of Current Economic Trends.” For additional information visit: http://www.houstontech.org/en/cev/746 or call 713-658-1750.
Oct13th2008
Startup Weekend veteran and local developer Robert Gremillion has launched CalFeed this week to provide users with a guide of events hosted online. Robert and I talked through the idea almost a year ago and I am pleased to see that he has followed through on his idea.
CalFeed is best described as a Digg for online events. The application aggregates and categorizes online event information from many sources. It then allows visitors to vote on those events so that the more popular online events rise to the top for you to find. CalFeed servesas both a promotion tool for online events and aggregator for those looking to plug into a world of presentations, podcast, webinars and such.
If you are interested in a demo of CalFeed, Robert will be at the Houston Ruby Meetup tomorrow night.
Oct13th2008
Houston-based Voxofon has become the first VoIP company to provide service for the new Android platform built by the Open Handset Alliance according to a company release. The new service, which offers transparent cost optimization for roaming and international calls, will be available for use on Android phones when they become available later this year.
Earlier this year, the company launched an iPhone version of their application with some success. “The Voxofon application on an Android phone will help users save money on international calls without any extra steps on their part, says Alexey Goloshubin, president and CEO. “They can simply place calls on the phone as usual, using the phone’s address book or keypad, and Voxofon will just sit in the background and re-route the international calls. It’s the perfect add-on for anybody calling or traveling abroad.”
With the introduction of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, the mobile application market is poised to take off in 2009 and beyond. Several large scale venture funds have been launched specifially targeted and seeding mobiole phone applications for both the iPhone and Android.
Oct13th2008
It’s time again for the Rice Alliance I.T. & Web 2.0 Venture Forum. Last year’s event was well received and included Web 2.0 for the first time. It was an event where Laura Mayes of Kirtsy (p.k.a. Skirt) stole the show with her mints and charm. I expect this year’s forum to outshine previous events (partially because I will be participating in a blogger’s forum with a few other Texas startup guys like Bryan Menell, Alex Muse and Dean McCall).
You can get all the materials you need to register as a presenter at the ITVF site so head on over and get yourself on the list of great presenters. The event is very well attended by venture capitalists, angel investors, media and other technology enthusiasts…definitely a must for all startups throughout Texas.
See you there!
Oct3rd2008
Now that Ike is pretty much behind me, I’ve been able to catch up on a few things, mostly e-mail and blog posts. Here are a few items of note regarding Houston technology startups:
- Houston-based MarineCFO, a developer of software for managing marine fleet operations, said last week that it has raised a Series A funding round. Amount of the investment was not disclosed. The round was led by EmergingISV Capital Partners, as well as undisclosed customers and individuals in the transportation and energy industry. MarineCFO said the funding will go to accelerate sales and marketing, plus towards new versions of the firm’s software (courtesy of Texas Tech Pulse);
- Houston-based Ingrain, which develops technology used in the oil and gas exploration industry, said Thursday that it has raised $15M in a second round of funding for the firm. According to Ingrain, it received the funding from Energy Ventures, Shoaibi Group, Klaveness Invest AS, Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP), and Stanford University, along with its executives. Ingrain is developing digital reservoir rock property measurement technology, which the firm says helps simulate fluid flow measurement in reservoir rocks, allowing oil and gas companies to better understand the potential of their reserves (courtesy of Texas Tech Pulse);
- David and Mark of NutshellMail presented at TechCrunch50 last month. They received some great coverage from Forbes and apparently had some great introductions. Here is a writeup from IEEE Spectrum;
- AlwaysOn announced its coveted GoingGreen 100 Top Private Companies Awards last month and named Houston-based and DFJ Mercury funded GlycosBio a category winner in Clean Manufacturing. GoingGreen is where cutting-edge greentech CEOs meet the movers and shakers from the biggest industries on earth. Green technology innovators are transforming the global energy, water, agriculture, transportation, construction, manufacturing, and resource recovery establishments. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features CEO presentations and high-level debates on the most promising emerging green technologies and new entrepreneurial opportunities. GlycosBio has acquired and developed a number of platform technologies which will attempt to reduce production cost with environmentally friendly technologies as an alternative to petrochemical-based manufacturing;
I’m sure that there were others…tell me what I missed.
Oct3rd2008
I personally cannot understand why so many people are taken aback by recent events in the capital markets. From my perspective, this is the only possible outcome from decades of failed oversight and unbridled expansion. Regardless of who or what you blame for our current mess, some new economic realities face entrepreneurs that are important to get your head around before making any rash moves with your startup.
The number one question that I have been asked as of late is what impact will this have on my ability to get access to capital for my startup? The short answer is that it will have an impact but to what degree depends on several factors. Here are some of my thoughts.
If you are seeking less than $1.5 million, which places you squarely in the angel investor space, the impact will likely be great. Angel investors allocate a portion of their investable assets towards stable and risky investments. Historically, stocks and bonds have been the stable investment vehicle of choice but with the amount of volatility in the markets, the typical allocation for an angel investor is on its head these days. But even this depends because not all angels are created equal. The typical angel investor nationally invests around $45,000 a piece; this type of angel will think harder about his startup investments in turbulent financial times.
The other type of angel tends to have enough wealth that they invest more like a venture capital firm (I call this group “superangels”). Superangels tend to be somewhat insulated from economic peaks and valleys and likely are not overly focused on macro conditions from an investment perpective. We’ll talk more about this group in a moment.
Those companies that are further along and looking to raise investment north of $3 million will see some impact but in unlikely places. Venture capital firms (and some “superangels”) tend to get a bit antsy when Wall Street struggles even thought that venture money is already committed and desperately seeking a good home (nice Fast Company article on this: hat tip to Jeff Cornwall). The impact will be felt in the diligence stage where your model may be discounted a bit more than usual to adjust for uncertain economic growth opportunities. In economic contractions like a recession, companies reduce spending which flows through the economy a limits revenue growth potential early on. Many times, you can spin this in your favor if you have a recession resistant (be careful about this…don’t kid yourself about what’s real) business model or if you are in a nascent market that will not likely start taking off for a few years anyway. Investing at the low points is always best (”Buy low, sell high.”)
One thing I advise all of my clients to do is not panic. I always say that good deals get funded and if yours doesn’t, it may not be as good as you think. Capitalism does not go into hibernation in rough times and opportunities abound for those with a strong stomach for the roller coaster.
I am curious, though…what are you seeing the market?
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