Archive for the 'Events' Category

Announcing EntrepreneurCamp Houston

Published on July 3, 2009 in Events. 0 Comments

Entrepreneur Camp Logo

What is Entrepreneur Camp?

Entrepreneur Camp is a participant-driven gathering of like-minded individuals also known as an ‘unconference’ with the goal of bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, VC’s, business leaders, and anyone interested in starting a business to network, share ideas, and explore opportunities.

The first Entrepreneur Camp will be held in Houston, Texas on August  7th, 2009 starting at 9:30am at the Houston Technology Center 410 Pierce Houston, Texas 77002

Please Register Here:

http://entrepreneurcamp.eventbrite.com/

Who is Invited?

Anyone who is interested in entrepreneurism and business! We welcome those who want to form a startup, those who already have a startup, those interested in investing in startups, and anyone else looking to learn from the entrepreneur community.

Why is it Called a Camp?

Our event is a community-driven conference in the style of BarCamp. “Camp” implies that the event is informal with an emphasis on face-to-face interaction with other attendees. “Community-driven” means that the attendees of the conference actually run the conference by discussing topics appropriate to the subject of the event. The presentation schedule is determined on the morning of the conference and anyone who attends is welcome to present.

Attending the camp is FREE!

To all of those that attend, the camp is free, and supported by sponsors, volunteers, and the community.

What’s Different About Entrepreneur Camp Houston?

We wanted to take the un-conference a step further, and offer a bit of structure to some of the event to make it more dynamic and rewarding for all of those involved. Because of this, we will have a separate room dedicated to those with startup ideas or existing companies that wish to pitch their company to a panel of investors and business leaders. The participating companies will have 2 minutes to make their elevator pitch to the panel. The winner of the pitch contest will win a 1 hour consulting session with the investors and business professionals to evaulate their idea or startup!

Tickets to present your company to the panel will go on sale a week before the camp, July 31st, and are $25 to purchase.

Become a Sponsor!

Sponsoring Entrepreneur Camp has many benefits, including:

  • The satisfaction of helping entrepreneurs and fostering economic growth.
  • Publicity for your brand!
  • Link love – you’ll get your logo with a link to your website on this page and our home page
  • Sponsor Profile Page – We’ll give you a page on our site that’s just about you including a link to your site.
  • Add your benefit here…really, let us know how we can server you better as a sponsor
  • $250 – Bootstrapped              $500 – Incubated                    $1,000 – Funded
  • These need not be strictly monetary – we need food, printed materials, t-shirts, stickers, and promotion

Please Register Here:

http://entrepreneurcamp.eventbrite.com/

For More Information, please visit us at :

http://entrepreneurcamp.pbworks.com/

Follow us on Twitter: @Untrepreneur

http://www.facebook.com/EntrepreneurCamp

The wordpress website:

http://entrepreneurcamp.wordpress.com/

SparkStart & Houston Startup Happy Hour

Published on June 4, 2009 in Events, Houston Startup Happy Hour, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding. 0 Comments

There is just one week left until the Microsoft BizSpark sponsored SparkStart event in Dallas, register here: http://sparkstart.eventbrite.com/

Christian Thilmany, (@uxarchitect) the User Experience Architect for Microsoft, is hosting the event and several Houston folks, including your favorite Network Partner (email mnathan – @- houstontech.org for details) will be panelists.

bizspark-logo

SparkStart is a full day of business and technology discussion (open format) and learning event for startups (“startup bootcamp”). This event will also be a networking opportunity for those startups who are new to the BizSpark program and not yet enrolled in the program and would like to mingle and learn from key business and technology influencers. It will also be an event for those startups who are recently enrolled and need to keep the momentum going by learning key strategies for success, both in business, and in technology.

Also, don’t forget Houston Startup Happy Hour tonight:

6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Saute Bistro at 2303 Richmond Avenue.

We welcome anyone who has a startup, who is in a startup, or who is interested in startups (ie. Entreprenuers, Developers, Inventors, Technology Enthusiasts, Service Providers, & especially Investors) to enjoy real-time social networking at its finest.

startup-houston-happy-hour

April Houston Startup Happy Hour and BioCamp Houston ‘09 Kickoff Party

Published on March 29, 2009 in BioTech/Life Science, Events and Houston Startup Happy Hour. 0 Comments

BioCamp Houston '09

We took March off for SXSWi but are back in full swing for the April 2009 Houston Startup Happy Hour this upcoming Thursday, April 2nd from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Saute Bistro at 2303 Richmond Avenue. This will be a dual purpose happy hour in that we are also kicking off BioCamp Houston ‘09 Weekend. The weekend will start with the happy hour Thursday night, move into the 6th Annual BioHouston Chili Cook-off 2009 held by our friends at BioHouston on Friday from 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. and then BioCamp Houston ‘09 at Rice University’s Keck Hall from 9:00 a.m. until we close her down. We’ll conclude the weekend at Valhala, Rice’s on campus graduate student pub.

Should be an amazing weekend so all of you researchers, doctoral students, biopreneurs, doctors, Hooters’ waitresses, and other bioenthusiasts come and help make it a weekend to remember.

Capital Factory launches to help Startups

Published on March 28, 2009 in Events, General, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding. 1 Comment

Capital Factory Logo

Through my work at Houston Technology Center (http://www.houstontech.org) and Katy Dock (http://www.katydock.com), I’ve learned a lot about the Houston Startup scene and how we’re perceived regionally and throughout the business world. For the last ten years, I’ve helped promote the City of Houston as a hub for high-tech entrepreneurship and startup investment, and I think that we’re well on our way to gain the recognition that our startups have earned.

It may seem somewhat ironic that as my inaugural post to StartupHouston I’m going to talk about something that is mostly based in Austin. Austin has enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a high-tech hub since the first dotcom boom and crash, and I’ve made it my personal and professional mission to demonstrate that the rest of Texas shares the spotlight – not by taking Austin down, but by building Houston (and Dallas and San Antonio) up.

With that said, I want to tell you about a group that I was honored to join recently, Capital Factory (http://www.capitalfactory.com/). It’s a collection of successful high-tech entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts who are banding together to provide cash, services and most importantly, mentorship to qualified startup companies. The model for Capital Factory was originated by Paul Graham (http://www.paulgraham.com) through YCombinator (http://www.ycombinator.com) and is based on an application/acceptance policy that focuses a small amount of equity capital and a heavy dose of hands-on mentoring for a specific period of time. TechStars (http://www.techstars.org) based in Boulder, Colorado stole appropriated the model three years ago with great success (two exits to date). Capital Factory stole borrowed this model and added their own twist, by adding more advisors and services to the mix. I strongly believe that this hybrid incubator/angel organization is the future of seed stage investments and it certainly seems that way to me and some other groups have sprung up regionally like Shotput Ventures (http://www.shotputventures.com/) in Atlanta , DreamIT Ventures (http://www.dreamitventures.com/ ) in Philadelphia and Lauchbox Digital (http://www.launchboxdigital.com/) in Washington D.C. with more on the way.

This is an email I recently put out that explains Capital Factory in more detail:

Do you know any entrepreneurs who could use $20k in cash, $20k in free stuff and 20 mentors for their startup?

I need your help to get the word out to entrepreneurs about a program that may help them.

I am a mentor and investor in Capital Factory, a new seed capital and mentorship program in Austin. We’re choosing 3 startups to spend 10 weeks here to build their company. They receive $20k in cash, $20k in free stuff, and 20 successful mentors as investors. The 10 weeks end in August with a Demo Day to potential investors. It’s the mentor’s job to ensure they head in the right direction, and introduce them to potential customers and investors.

http://capitalfactory.com | twitter: @capitalfactory | facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Capital-Factory/62503086648

This is an unbeatable opportunity for a technology-based entrepreneur to get an accelerated start, especially in tough times. The reason I’m emailing you is the deadline of April 3 to apply is fast approaching. I want any entrepreneur in your network to have the opportunity to consider this program.

Could you take a few minutes to forward this to your network? Or introduce me to someone who may be interested?

If you’re on Twitter or Facebook, please update your status with:
RT @CapitalFactory get $20k in cash, $20k in free stuff, and 20 mentors to help launch your startup http://capitalfactory.com (please RT)

I appreciate your help. Think of it as rebuilding our economy one startup at a time!

The deadline for applications is Friday April 3rd: http://www.capitalfactory.com/apply.html

Some recent press about Capital Factory:

TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/26/capital-factory-gives-austin-its-own-startup-incubator/

Venture Beat: http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/26/capital-factorys-joshua-baer-on-incubating-startups-in-austin/

San Antonio Startups: http://www.sanantoniostartups.com/2009/03/27/san-antonio-startups-and-starups-to-be-heres-20k-in-cash-20k-in-free-stuff-and-20-mentors-for-your-startup-not-a-misprint/

If you have any questions about the program, please feel free to contact me:

Marc Nathan
mnathan – at – houstontech.org

What will you present at BioCamp?

Published on March 12, 2009 in BarCamp, BioTech/Life Science and General. 0 Comments

BioCamp Houston 2009Contrary to popular belief, the last rule of BioCamp isn’t, “if this is your first BioCamp, you have to present.” We recognize that not everybody wants to get up in front of a crowd of people and start talking. That said, the format of BioCamp doesn’t work unless a non-trivial fraction of attendees volunteer to present something.

I presented at my first BarCamp, although I had no intention of presenting when I arrived that day. “Unconferences”, like BarCamp and BioCamp, start with a completely open agenda. At the beginning of the day, one of the organizers will grid out a whiteboard with the available rooms and half-hour time slots. Then, anybody who wants to present walks up to the board and writes the title of their presentation in an open timeslot.

At my first BarCamp, I was standing by the whiteboard watching people fill in their titles when a friend asked me if I was presenting anything. That was the impetus for me to volunteer to talk about entrepreneurship in Houston. I didn’t have any slides, just a vague outline in my head. But if you read my blog, you know it’s something I think about a lot.

So I want to encourage everyone who is attending BioCamp this year to start thinking about topics they can talk about. The audience at BioCamp will be a mix from academia, industry, finance, and services, so you’ll want to gear your presentation to a general audience. And I want to stress that BioCamp is an opportunity to talk about “the Big Picture.”

If you’re an academic, this isn’t the environment to present your latest findings on the electrostatics of DNA-DNA juxtapositions. Rather, we’d like to hear your ideas about how to improve the NIH funding process, or the future of scientific publishing, or open source science. If you’ve got an idea for a biotech startup, this is a great environment to test your thoughts and see if they generate any interest.

If you’re not an academic, we want to hear from you too. Investors might want to talk about how the current economy has affected their approach to biotech investments. Attorneys could talk about developments in intellectual property law that affect biotech. I’m hoping we’ll get some participants from NASA to talk about the unique biomedical challenges they’re facing in planning for the upcoming missions to the moon and Mars.

This is going to be our first BioCamp in Houston, and it’s one of the first BioCamps in the country. I hope y’all will turn out, present your big (and not so big) ideas, and have fun!

BioCamp Happy Hour: Thurs., Apr. 2 at 6pm at Caroline Collective.

BioHouston Chili Cook-Off: Fri., Apr. 3 at noon at BioHouston

BioCamp Houston: Sat., Apr. 4 from 9am-4pm at 100 Keck Hall, Rice University.

By the way, if you use Twitter, you can now follow BioCamp Houston.

One month until BioCamp!

Published on March 4, 2009 in BarCamp, BioTech/Life Science and General. 0 Comments

BioCamp Houston 2009BioCamp Houston is now just one month away! BioCamp is based on the BarCamp concept that has taken off in popularity among the IT crowd. It’s an “unconference.” There are no agendas or invited speakers. If you want to present something, you simply volunteer the morning of the conference by choosing a time and a room. We expect that there will be people who present on biotech entrepreneurship, open source biology, the future of scientific publishing, biofuels, etc. I’m even going down to NASA on Friday to see if I can recruit some rocket scientists to present something about space life sciences.

BioCamp Houston will be the last of three days of bio-related festivities in Houston, which begin with a happy hour at the Caroline Collective on Thursday night, the BioHouston Chili Cook-off on Friday, and BioCamp on Saturday. Valhalla will be open Saturday afternoon so you can cap off the event with a relaxing beer in the shade of an oak tree.

Please go to biocamp.ning.com to register.

We hope to see you all there!

BioCamp Happy Hour: Thurs., Apr. 2 at 6pm at Caroline Collective.

BioHouston Chili Cook-Off: Fri., Apr. 3 at noon at BioHouston

BioCamp Houston: Sat., Apr. 4 from 9am-4pm at 100 Keck Hall, Rice University.

The First Houston Startup Happy Hour of 2009

Published on February 3, 2009 in Events. 3 Comments

Startup Houston and the Houston Technology Center invite everyone to join us in celebrating 2009 with our first Houston Startup Happy Hour of the year.

The happy hour will be at a new Houston venue, same as our December event: Saute. Founded by Connie Lacobie (and co-owned by Houston software entrepreneur and technology community leader Kevin Lacobie) also the founder of Té House of Tea, Saute is a strong believer in fair trade concepts and supports international culture by highlighting international recipes, art, and dance.  They are also firmly attached to our local communities, and strive to bring you local produce and free-range products, and local art and dance connections. Here are the details:

Saute Logo

When: February 5, 2009
Time: 6:30pm until we get tired, bored or too hammered to press on…
Where: 2303 Richmond Ave., Houston TX 77098
Between Kirby and Greenbriar, sharing the parking lot with Blue Fish Sushi, Hobbit Cafe, & LZ Pub .

This ought to be a grand event and one you should not miss. We’ll see you there and let’s get started!

HTC Web Based Business Seminar Series 2009

Published on January 13, 2009 in Events. 1 Comment

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Please join us at the kickoff of the Houston Technology Center’s 2009 Web-Based Business Start-Up School series tomorrow, January 14, 2009 from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM where I will represent Startup Houston as the feature presenter for Web Trends – 2009. This series is sponsored by Houston’s own, The Planet and will be held at the Houston Technology Center.

The topic will address Startup Houston’s perspective on what should be hot on the Web in 2009 as well as revisit my presentation from 2008. See you there and bring some lunch.

The Technology Center of West Houston & Katy Dock to Open Doors September 17th

Published on September 10, 2008 in Events. 0 Comments


Houston continues to demonstrate its focus on early stage technology startups with the launch of two additional supporting cast members: The Technology Center of West Houston and The Katy Dock.

The Technology Center of West Houston (TCWH), a Katy Area Business Incubator and Accelerator, has created an exciting new opportunity for early-stage technology companies in the Katy/West Houston area. The mission of the TCWH is to enable, launch and accelerate technology companies in Katy/West Houston and thereby create jobs and economic growth.

TCWH matches entrepreneurs and inventors with seasoned business professionals experienced in commercialization in several fields, including engineering, internet technology, hardware and software development, energy, medical related technology. Assistance is offered in strategy development, planning, capital funding, and professional areas. The TCWH is a joint initiative of the Katy Area Economic Development Council, HCC-Katy, Houston Technology Center, Smalley Institute at Rice University, JBMA, Inc., and the IP law firm of Patterson and Sheridan.

Along with the TCWH, West Houston will also be getting its first coworking facility with the Katy Dock. The Katy Dock allows Katy/West Houston area entrepreneurs, inventors, consultants, developers, and designers to work in a creative business atmosphere and successfully grow a company. The new Katy Dock facilities are available through the Katy Commerce Center. Professional advice, business mentoring and other consulting services are available through the onsite TCWH office. Pricing for Katy Dock starts at ‘free’ for once-a-week drop-ins to pricing levels for private desk space and dedicated offices. Warehouse, fulfillment and light manufacturing space is also available onsite, all at a fraction of the cost of traditional office leasing arrangements.

The grand opening for the TCWH and Katy Dock will be held at the new facility next Wednesday, September 17, 2008. Here are the details:

When
Wednesday, September 17th

Where
Katy Commerce Center
1773 Westborough Drive
Katy, Texas 77449 [map]

Pre-Registration
Jean Stout, Katy Commerce Center 281-206-0162

Program Agenda
4:00pm Site Tour – Katy Commerce Center / Katy Dock Coworking Site
5:00pm Networking – Exhibitors and Refreshments
6:15pm Panel Discussion – Funding and Financing Options for Small Business Growth
7:30pm Q & A + Closing Remarks
8:30pm Door Prize Drawing

Make a point of clearing your day to be at this grand occasion. You don’t want to miss being part of the incredible transformation that the greater Houston area is undergoing. I will see you there.

REBarCamp coming to Houston

Published on September 10, 2008 in BarCamp. 1 Comment
Real Estate BarCamp Houston, TX

Real Estate BarCamp Houston, TX

If you know me well, you’ll know that I have a passion for collaboration and events like BarCamp. Mike Price of MLBroadcast.com has coordinated Real Estate BarCamp in Houston next month on October 22, 2008.

Taking directly from the site, REBarCamp is:

REBarCamp Houston is a gathering of minds and open format event where real estate and technology professionals can learn and share discoveries and trends happening in the business, and discuss the future of the industry.

BarCamp is open to anyone. And anyone who wants to can attend and host sessions.

I am a huge advocate of these specialized events. That is why I have been working with various groups around town to have a BioCamp and GreenCamp in Houston this year. Do you have an idea for a Barcamp-esqe event? Let me know if I can help.