Author Archive for Josh TabinPage 2 of 18

Aug24th2008

Save The Dates: BioCamp and GreenCamp Houston

BarCamp

Building off of the sucessful showing we had at BarCamp Houston 2008, we are announcing two additional “Bar-Camp” themed events: BioCamp Houston and GreenCamp Houston.

BioCamp Houston will be held October 11, 2008 at the Houston Technology Center from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. BioCamp Houston is an informal, participatory, unconference BarCamp event to bring college/graduate students, postgraduate trainees, junior academic faculty, entrepreneurs, would be entrepreneurs and inventors as well as, technology champions from the Greater Houston area together to learn and network.

The conference will be focused on life sciences - biotechnology, medical devices, biomedical solutions, bioproducts and related topics. During the day there will be WiFi available, a catered lunch and great networking opportunities.

GreenCamp Houston will be held December 13, 2008 at a location still to be determined. GreenCamp Houston will be focused on all aspects of Green and Clean Technology and related topics. GreenCamp will discuss best practices for making a Global difference in energy conservation, material reuse and recycling and reduction of both personal and business waste.

You can sign up on both wiki sites under the attendees section. The wiki password is c4mp for both events. See you there. You can also follow news on both events via Twitter: BioCamp & GreenCamp. Facebook pages are coming soon.

Aug23rd2008

Shameless Plug: Avert Ye Eyes If This Bothers You

So I have wrestled internally about doing this, but times have gotten that I need to make a point of distinguishing my professional life from what I do for the startup community in Houston. I am often asked to meet with members of our community to provide an evaluation of their business, introductions into the community and ideas on capital connections. Given my involvement and influence in the community, I have been happy to oblige almost anyone who requests my time. Unfortunately, I need to alter my unwritten contract with you, the technology startup community, so that we are clear on the rules of engagement. I suspect that this may ruffle a lot of feathers, but this conversational medium that we operate in is about transparency, openness and frank dialog.

Let me start off by stating clearly that I enjoy meeting with each and every one of our readers, as often as I can. The energy I get from hearing about a new startup feeds me and keeps me excited about Houston and all the wondrous changes I see. My background has been in technology startup companies for years and I enjoy the environment tremendously. I originally moved to Houston back in 1995 to start a new life with my then girlfriend, now wife, and was surprised on the diversity that this city offered. After a brief, five year, stint in San Antonio, I came back to Houston amazed at what had changed (I even went downtown at night, something I never would have considered before I left). After a couple of years at another high growth startup, I decided a change was in order and branched out on my own.

When I started evaluating opportunities for myself, I recognized that there was a lack of strategic resources available to small-mid sized companies and even less to startups. Most companies are extremely capable at tactical analysis and decision making, but often are unable to bridge those tactics into strategic thinking. For example, the first client I picked up was looking at several potential acquisitions and assumed the best source of financing was mezzanine capital. After some discussion, I was able to convince them of the value they would give up with mezz and helped them secure debt from a senior lender in town that effectively saved them millions out of there own pockets. It is often that early stage companies use their CPA firms to advise them on financial matters and that is like asking your plumber to fix your pool. I have nothing against CPA’s and in fact, refer them often when issues of accounting and tax arise. However, most accounting is tactical and backward-looking. What I do is think about right now and the future and it is not something everyone is good at. I’m just lucky like that.

Today, I have clients from around the country who call on me for advice on capital allocation, economic analysis, capital sourcing, internal reviews and business plan development…among other things. Those roles range from advisory board member to contract chief financial officer and almost always are fee and equity based.

In Houston, I have been extremely generous with my time as you can often see me at Coffee Groundz or any number of Starbucks “holding court” with any number of startup visionaries. Startup Houston has been a fantastic vehicle for that and I only hope that we have provided enough value to the community to date. My current problem is that those demands for my time have become more than I can logistically handle and not forgoe cash flow which is important to my survival.

I am not sure how to address this because I really don’t want to stop meeting people. However, starting today, I will need to figure out a better balance and frankly, may even propose a fee based engagement to offer my service to companies that are in need of them and can afford to pay me for my time. This pains me to do, but I cannot continue to sacrifice my family’s financial stability to favor yours; being a good husband and father trumps everything that Startup Houston has to offer.

Bottom line is that I want to continue to hear from you and will meet with people as I can. What I suggest is that you contact me via email and let’s evaluate where you are and what your needs are before we sit down. I try to be a reasonable person and want to do the right thing.

I really dislike the idea of doing this post but am at a loss to see another way to communicate the rules of engagement that I need to follow going forward. Feel free to call me out and comment away. I welcome the feedback.

Best regards,

Josh Tabin, President of Mosaic CFO & Startup Houston Nutcase

Aug20th2008

OpenCoffee Tomorrow Morning at Coffee Groundz in Midtown

Houston Open Coffee ClubMarc Nathan and I have been so busy lately that we neglected to send out a notice for tomorrow’s Houston OpenCoffee Club meeting. Well, as they say, better late than never.

Marc and I will be at Coffee Groundz in Midtown tomorrow, August 21, from 8:00-10:00 a.m. and are looking forward to reengaging with everyone to get the monthly morning meetup back up and running again.

For those of you not familiar with the OpenCoffee Club, once a month on the 3rd Thursday of each month, local entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts and investors come together over some java to talk about Houston, tech investing, trends and whatever else keeps you chatting. It is the first community event we started and is the foundation for everything we’ve done since.

We promise to get the mailing list and notifications back up and running again before next month’s event so send me your contact info if you’d like to be on the distribution.

See y’all tomorrow!

The Houston OpenCoffee Club is a joint event brought to you by Startup Houston and the Houston Technology Center.

Aug20th2008

Rice Alliance Event Calendar 2008-2009

Rice Alliance for Technology and EntrepreneurshipThe Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship is a flagship Houston program designed to showcase both technologies and entrepreneurs from the Greater Houston Region through educational workshops, venture forums and the national recognized Business Plan Competition. Every event is well attended and manages to attract the best and brightest minds year after year.

I recognize that I am a little late on getting this out, but wanted to provide everyone with the upcoming schedule of events for the Rice Alliance:

  • 9th Annual Rice Alliance Kick-Off Celebration: Thursday, August 28, 2008, 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
  • 6th Annual Energy & Clean Technology Venture Forum: Thursday, September 25, 2008, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
  • 6th Annual IT & Web 2.0 Venture Forum: Thursday, December 11, 2008, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
  • 8th Annual Nanotechnology Venture Forum: Thursday, February 12, 2009, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
  • 2009 Rice University Business Plan Competition: Thursday - Saturday, April 16-18, 2009
  • 7th Annual Life Science Technology Venture Forum: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

The best way to make a point of being at each event is to become a Rice Alliance member, like me. I like all of the events, personally, but would rank the clean tech and nanotech as ones not to miss. See you there!

Aug16th2008

We’re Getting a Facelift…Now We Need a New Face

So we are deep into the site redesign and I figured a new logo would be warranted as well. Our current logo leaves much to be desired and I thought instead of having one person focus on it, I’d open it up to the entire creative community of Houston.

So if you want to take a stab at redesigning our logo, go ahead and send your submission to me via email (josh<at>startuphouston.com) or upload them as a comment to this post.

The winning designer will get full credit on our site and get free advertising on our site.

Deadline for submissions is August 31st.

Aug10th2008

BarCamp Houston 2008: I Am Still Exhausted

The Schedule

If you did not get a chance to attend the happy hour at Caroline Collective Friday night or BarCamp Houston on Saturday at the Houston Technology Center, you missed out on two fantastic opportunities to socialize, collaborate and gain an education on why Forbes magazine calls Houston a, “bubbling entrepreneurial tech scene.” Here are some things that I walked away with after the event:

  • Never underestimate the value of strong sponsor support. Many of the sponsors for the weekend had a strong showing at the event through their financial support (C-TREC, BlogCatalog and BizTools), their attendance (Ryma, DFJ Mercury and TopSpot Internet Marketing) and their presentations (Spur Interactive’s Business and Social Media Workshop, BeagleBoard.org’s demo and Clearpoint Technology’s session). Our biggest debt of gratitude goes out to Marc Nathan (as well as his wife and family) and the Houston Technology Center for letting us take over both buildings for a day.
  • Bringing lunch in was the best idea I ever had. Last year, we all broke away for lunch and the event fizzled out after that. This year, we brought in Pappas BBQ and I believe it was a huge hit. Thanks to Ed Schipul for taking charge during feeding time to speed up the process. Most everyone was surprised that lunch was catered and it helped us recharge for the afternoon sessions.
  • Houston needs more events like this. Our early survey showed that over half of the early attendees had not been to a BarCamp before and left with a nice buzz. Based on several conversations throughout the day, I have already started coordinating two more BarCamp events for Houston: GreenBarCamp Houston and BioBarCamp Houston. If you are interested in being part of the planning for these events, sign up on the wikis. In addition, REBarCamp Houston is already scheduled.

If you want to read other perspectives of BarCamp Houston III, check out some of these attendees’ posts:

The photos that Michael Cummings took are available on his Flickr page.

BarCamp Houston Crew

Thanks to everyone for making this a great event.

Jul30th2008

Countdown to BarCamp Houston 2008!!!

It\'s hotter in Houston!

In 2008, Houston’s finally seemed to break through the public relations barrier on the national stage with some major dap provided but such notables as Forbes, Newsweek, and Kiplingers. The tech community is thriving, entrepreneurs are coming out of the woodworks and we seem to be getting some traction on the venture capital front (more on this at a later date.) So what could make things get any better?

BarCamp baby!!!

For those of you not familiar with the BarCamp concept, think of it as an open-source conference where subject matter and presentations are determined by the conference attendees the day of the event. The day can start on one path and end somewhere left of Tibet. It is a fantastic place to network, get to know your fellow community members and take the opportunity to present an idea or conept that you feel is ripe for discussion. Before you get too excited, let me tell you what else we have in store for the weekend.

Friday night, August 8, kicks the weekend off with the Startup Houston Happy Hour on a Friday instead of the usual first Thursday. The event will be at Caroline Collective and will include drinks provided by us through BarCamp’s sponsors. We’re still working on the details but plan to show up around 6PM and we’ll go to until we get kicked out. Alongside of us will be the Houston Business Meetup Group and AIR Houston who’s members have been invited to join us for the event. Should be an awesome party!

Saturday morning, BarCamp begins at the Houston Technology Center. A debt of thanks go out to Walter Ulrich and Marc Nathan for making this happen with little notice (our other site choices didn’t pan out.) Marc has assured us that this year we will have free range of the building to use multiple conference rooms and not be confined to the downstairs like we were last year. Parking might still be tight but since the event is free, suck it up!

Thanks to our sponsors this year, we have raised enough money to also bring lunch in for the event. Check out the wiki for updates but I am ordering BBQ for everyone so the more accurate count I can get before the event, the more likely there will be enough food for everyone. You can still saunter out for your own fare, but you may miss the craziness so go at your own risk.

After the day simmers down, we will then kick things back up and head over to Caroline Collective again to wrap up the festivities. Hopefully, we will not go through all the drinks we squared away for the weekend but if we do, we’ll figure things out.

Bottom line here, folks: miss this event at your own peril. Last year’s BarCamp was a seminal event and this one will exceed expectations…but only if you come!

‘Nuff said.

Jul29th2008

Site redesign underway

I am in the process of revamping the site and making it more functional and user-friendly. If you experience any major problems, please let me know. Posts should still be visible but the calendar and directory will be mostly unavailable. I expect that we will have the new site up and running in no time but please bear with us as we work through making Startup Hosuton even better than before.

Jul29th2008

Forbes Showing Houston Lots-o-love: Best City to Buy a Home

I’m not sure what sparked this but the writers at Forbes have come to realize what we’ve known for some time. Besides being a Top 10 Up-And-Coming Tech City, Houston has topped the list of Best Cities to Buy a Home. What jumped out at me while reading this was the following statement:

“Well known as an energy industry hub, this growing metro area recently made Forbes.com’s Top 10 Up-And-Coming Tech Cities thanks to the Houston Technology Center and bubbling entrepreneurial tech scene.”

I wonder what they could be referring to when they say “bubbling entrepreneurial tech scene?” Any one have an idea?

Jul24th2008

Help Us Redesign Startup Houston

Please help!!!

We are all about change…and want to walk the talk. That being said, we also know what we are and are not.

The site has been functional (and non-functional at times) but needs to better reflect the diversity of Houston’s startup community. So I am placing an all points bulletin to anyone with some skillz (which I lack) that is interested in helping us revamp the site to reflect some expansions we want to implement.

If you are interested in donating your time, either comment on this post or email me (josh@startuphouston.com) so we can discuss what we need done. Startup Houston wants you!