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HATCH is a pitch competition at the SXSW 2012 Startup Village for startups with revolutionary ideas. Fifteen finalists will be selected to present their business plans to a panel of corporate, angel, and venture investor judges in front of a well-connected SXSW audience on March 11th, 2012 in Austin, TX. The event, presented by Houston [...]]]>

HATCH is a pitch competition at the SXSW 2012 Startup Village for startups with revolutionary ideas. Fifteen finalists will be selected to present their business plans to a panel of corporate, angel, and venture investor judges in front of a well-connected SXSW audience on March 11th, 2012 in Austin, TX. The event, presented by Houston Technology Center, is geared toward tech startups with an interesting or disruptive product and strong growth potential.

HATCH is looking for companies in the following categories:

•           Cloud tech and services

•           Mobile and connected devices

•           Web tech

•           Collaborative tech

•           Big data

•           Virtual tech

•           Media and entertainment

•           Health and healthcare IT

Learn more about this exciting program at www.hatchpitch.com.  Spread the word to your network.  If you know of someone who may be a candidate, please encourage them to apply online at www.hatchpitch.com.

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Daniel Wu writes:

Unity3D Houston hosts a showing at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Tuesday 11/15 at 7 pm to view an immersive simulation of ancient Mayan culture used [...]]]> This is a Guest post from Daniel Wu – a startup entrepreneur who is using the Unity 3D engine for some very interesting rapid prototyping applications.

Daniel Wu writes:

Unity3D Houston hosts a showing at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Tuesday 11/15 at 7 pm to view an immersive simulation of ancient Mayan culture used to educate kids.  Tony Butterfield of the museum is sharing the latest on his project that uses the Unity3D game engine.

The Unity3D Houston monthly meetup is a group of designers and developers who use the Unity3D engine to develop games/simulations that can be published via multiple platforms including web, iOS app, and more.

http://www.meetup.com/Unity3DHouston/events/38091882/

Robert Brackenridge started the Houston Unity 3D group back in August of 2010 to get the game design engine enthusiasts together to discuss ways to implement and push the platform. Robert is the founder of Game Factor-E, a game design studio and was the former Director of IT Entrepreneur Development at the Houston Technology Center.

Javid Jamae: http://javidjamae.com/2011/11/05/startup-weekend-a-schedule-and-plan-of-action/

Austin Fatheree: http://www.rivvir.com/startup_weekend_toolbox/

The Squarefoot: http://www.thesquarefoot.com/houston/startup-weekend-houston-entrepreneurs-kauffman-foundation

After reading these, how could you not want to participate?

RedHouse hosted a party at their offices at 802 Lovett that featured beer, food, Lemonade Day (they raised $7000 from the party-goers, that was split with a group supporting Navy SEALS), and more beer along with over [...]]]> There’s a new player in the Houston investment scene and they launched in a big way last Thursday night.

RedHouse hosted a party at their offices at 802 Lovett that featured beer, food, Lemonade Day (they raised $7000 from the party-goers, that was split with a group supporting Navy SEALS), and more beer along with over 300 people from the investment (think bankers and VC’s) and technology (think developers, product managers  and service providers), most of whom had worked for the principals of RedHouse at some point in their careers.

RedHouse Associates is an angel investment and consulting firm made up of a tight-knit group of seasoned enterprise software veterans based here in Houston. Their focus is on cloud-based, enterprise companies that are looking to ramp up their existing sales processes. To say that these are “Brand Name” people is a bit of an understatement. Mike Clark and Keith Kreuer have a long history of starting (and more importantly, finishing) enterprise software companies, the most well-known being PentaSafe. The two of them have been privately investing as angels in other companies like BBS Technologies and R1Soft for several years. They are both venture advisors to DFJMercury, the most active early-stage VC firm focused on tech in the Houston and Mid-Continent areas.   Mike and Keith joined forces with their long-time friend Doug Erwin – a man who needs no introduction to those in the Houston technology community. Doug was most recently the CEO of the Planet who engineered several successful mergers before selling the whole consolidated company to SoftLayer in Dallas a few months ago. Doug is widely known as a world-class CEO, who has a career spanning IBM, BMC, RLX, PentaSafe and the Planet in leadership and sales roles. The other two principals are Doug’s son Ben Erwin (a successful executive in his own right) and Joseph Horzepa, the General Counsel to many of their portfolio companies.

Back in the height of the PentaSafe days, they would throw legendary beer bashes and crawfish boils every quarter at this location. When PentaSafe merged with NetIQ, they went all out with a beach themed party and flew in The Beach Boys to play for the crowd. The fact that Surge Accelerator is now housed there, along with several of the RedHouse Associates portfolio companies like Eric Elfman’s OnIt Software are an indication that this party is one of many more to come, which means that Samantha Vilaysane, the “Ruler of the House” will have the chance to do what she does best – plan awesome parties.

RedHouse is a big deal for the Houston technology community and will fit in very well with the existing infrastructure of HTC, Rice and DFJMercury, while adding a great deal of experience and talent to our ecosystem.

Global Entrepreneur Week starts today. Originally started by the Kauffman Foundation in 2007, it’s expanded to 118 countries this year on six continents. The point of the program is to celebrate entrepreneurship in all of its forms. It’s also one of the reasons that so many StartupWeekend‘s are happening around this time. Use this initiative [...]]]>

Global Entrepreneur Week starts today. Originally started by the Kauffman Foundation in 2007, it’s expanded to 118 countries this year on six continents. The point of the program is to celebrate entrepreneurship in all of its forms. It’s also one of the reasons that so many StartupWeekend‘s are happening around this time. Use this initiative as an excuse to finally finish that project, release that product or launch that company.

Startup Weekend is just a few days away and you really have no excuse not to register. It’s the single best place to find co-founders, coders and designers interested in startups in a single place. The organizers have taken great pains to make sure that the program is balanced between work and keynote speakers and [...]]]>

Startup Weekend is just a few days away and you really have no excuse not to register. It’s the single best place to find co-founders, coders and designers interested in startups in a single place. The organizers have taken great pains to make sure that the program is balanced between work and keynote speakers and Javid Jamae has even put together a timeline that demonstrates how to get the most out of the experience.

The stakes are higher this time because both the Kaufmann Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are funding a global initiative for the winners of the regional Startup Weekends. There’s real prize money as well as tools and recognition for people who participate.

I’m honored to be a judge again this year and I can promise that the quality of startups ideas will be very strong.