The Rice Alliance is currently accepting applications from Information Technology [...]]]> 9th Annual Information Technology & Web Venture Forum
Call for Presenters DEADLINE TODAY 5 pm:
Apply to present your entrepreneurial company to over 400 investors and industry leaders
Application Deadline: Friday, October 14, 2011, 5:00 pm
Event Date: December 8, 2011 – Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University

The Rice Alliance is currently accepting applications from Information Technology and Web companies to present in front over 450 venture capitalists, investors, business leaders and industry experts. Past start-up companies at Rice Alliance Technology Venture Forums have raised over $1.6 billion in funding!

NEW: Investor Office Hours!! In addition to presenting at the Venture Forum, early-stage IT and web companies who are selected will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with up to 10 venture capital firms, angel network groups, and accelerators in a private Investor Office Hours session on Wednesday, December 7, 2011. This is an opportunity to get a private introduction to venture capitalists and angel investors.

NEW: Private Investor Reception!! Selected companies will also be invited to a private investor reception on the evening before the event.

To apply to present: CLICK HERE. There is no cost to apply. Simply submit your executive summary.
For more information: Click Here
For guidelines (template) for preparing your executive summary: Click Here

BlackLocus, one of this years winners from the Rice Business Plan Competition raised $2.5m led by DFJMercury (who awarded the company $100,000 at the competition as the Tech winner) and Silverton Partners. The company also received support funding from InnovationWorks in Southwestern Pennsylvania where the company was founded and will be splitting their offices between [...]]]>

BlackLocus, one of this years winners from the Rice Business Plan Competition raised $2.5m led by DFJMercury (who awarded the company $100,000 at the competition as the Tech winner) and Silverton Partners. The company also received support funding from InnovationWorks in Southwestern Pennsylvania where the company was founded and will be splitting their offices between there and Austin.

BlackLocus offers Pricing-as-a-Service that uses a dynamic search model to discover the best pricing strategy for identical products sold through e-commerce.

CEO, Rodrigo Carvalho explains:

“Our system automatically determines who is selling the same products and what prices they are charging for those items.  We then analyze inventory levels to recommend the optimal price for any products in an e-tailer’s catalog.

The underlying technology relies on sophisticated machine-learning, text-mining, and image recognition algorithms from the Computer Science department at Carnegie Mellon.”

As one of the judges for the company during the Rice Competition, I was impressed with the company’s vision of providing sophisticated pricing information to small and medium sized ecommerce companies. It’s also good to see that business plan competition winners can get funded in the real world, outside of the rules of a structured competition.

The Rice University Business Plan Competition is the world’s largest and richest graduate-level business plan competition. It is hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship which is Rice University’s flagship initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. This is [...]]]>

Register for the Event

The Rice University Business Plan Competition is the world’s largest and richest graduate-level business plan competition. It is hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship which is Rice University’s flagship initiative devoted to the support of entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. This is the 11th year for the competition. In that time, it has grown from nine teams competing for $10,000 in prize money in 2001, to 42 teams from around the world competing for more than $1 million in cash and prizes.

The competition is designed to give collegiate entrepreneurs a real-world experience to fine tune their business plans and elevator pitches to be able to generate funding to successfully commercialize their product. Judges will evaluate the teams as real-world entrepreneurs soliciting start-up funds from early stage investors and venture capital firms. The judges are asked to rank the presentations based on which company they would most likely invest. 76% of judges surveyed considered investing in a team that presented at the 2008 RBPC or referred a team to a third-party investor.

There are still two weeks left to register to attend what has become Houston’s single most important event for the technology startup community – the Rice IT/Web 2.0 Venture forum. This is where startups pitch deals and VC’s from all over the state come to tell us what they want to see. It’s [...]]]>

There are still two weeks left to register to attend what has become Houston’s single most important event for the technology startup community – the Rice IT/Web 2.0 Venture forum. This is where startups pitch deals and VC’s from all over the state come to tell us what they want to see. It’s also an incredible networking opportunity for people who are thinking about starting a company to gain some insight as to the trends, language and people involved with our community. I can’t overemphasize enough what a ‘can’t miss’ event this will be (and not just because I’m pitching this year as one of the fifty other startups).

You can download the free iPhone app for the event here: iTunes App

To give you an better idea about some of the speakers:

Chip Davis runs one of Houston’s largest private equity shops and has invested in early stage technology companies.

Blair Garrou really needs no introduction – he effectively is the Venture Capitalist for early stage technology startups and has more passion for helping entrepreneurs and more experience in dealing with startups than just about any other individual in Houston.

Morris Miller is an entrepreneur in his own right and had the vision to angel invest in three kids running a web hosting firm at Trinity that turned into the Cadillac of Web Hosts, Rackspace.

Nicholas Seet was the 2005 winner of the Rice Business Plan Competition that has since gone on to secure VC funding and deploy a video ad network management system across the net.

Doug Erwin is one of Houston’s most successful tech business leaders who has several wins under his belt including Compaq, RLXTechnologies, PentaSafe and most recently The Planet who just completed a merger with web hosting firm SoftLayer earlier this month.

Thursday,December 9th, 2010
8:00am – 6:30pm
Rice University Jones School

Event Info and Registration Here

Registration Prices:
Early Registration (before Dec. 6 at 5 p.m.): $75
Walk-up Registration: $100
Rice Alliance members, underwriters, or sponsors: Free
Rice faculty, staff, or student: Free

Description and Agenda:

More than 40 of the most promising early-stage I.T companies have been hand-picked to present and showcase their new venture to an audience of more than 400 venture capitalists, early-stage investors, successful entrepreneurs, academic and business leaders. Attendees will benefit from networking and learning opportunities.

8:00 – 9:00 AM Registration

9:00 – 9:15 AM Welcoming Remarks

Brad Burke, Managing Director, Rice Alliance

9:15 – 9:45 AM Opening Keynote - Tomasz Tunguz, Redpoint Ventures

Business Plan Presentations and Feedback

9:45 – 10:00 AM Introductions – Venture Capital Feedback Panel

Charles L. (Chip) Davis, Managing Director, SMH Private Equity Group
Mike Dodd, Venture Partner, Austin Ventures
Blair Garrou, Managing Director, DFJ Mercury
Morris Miller, Managing Director, Cutstone Ventures
Alan Ying, Venture Partner, Chrysalis Ventures

10:00 – 10:30 AM Business Plan Presentations

10:30 – 11:00 AM Networking Break

11:00 – 12:00 PM Business Plan Presentations (continued)

12:00 – 1:00 PM Lunch and Networking

1:00 – 1:15 PM Afternoon Remarks and Introductions

Brad Burke, Managing Director, Rice Alliance

1:15 – 1:45 PM Afternoon Keynote – Nicholas Seet, Founder, Auditude

1:45 – 2:30 PM Elevator Pitches – Session I

2:30 – 3:00 PM Networking Break

3:00 – 3:45 PM Elevator Pitches – Session II

3:45 – 4:15 PM Company Updates

4:15 – 4:45 PM Closing Keynote – Doug Erwin, Former Chairman and CEO, The Planet

4:45 – 5:00 PM Announce “Top 10 Rising Ventures”

5:00 – 6:30 PM Company Showcase and Networking Reception

Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

One of the biggest individual events for Houston-based early stage technology startups is the 8th Annual Rice Alliance IT/Web 2.0 Venture forum being held on December 9th. This is a perfect venue to hone your pitch skills and rub elbows with fellow entrepreneurs – not to mention the Who’s [...]]]>

Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

One of the biggest individual events for Houston-based early stage technology startups is the 8th Annual Rice Alliance IT/Web 2.0 Venture forum being held on December 9th. This is a perfect venue to hone your pitch skills and rub elbows with fellow entrepreneurs – not to mention the Who’s Who of the active VC and Angels in our region.

Rice puts on an extremely well polished event and more than a few companies have been able to acquire interest from press, investors, partners and end users. Presenting is much better for startups than simply attending, so bite the bullet and register.

They are asking for a Two-Page Executive Summary – http://www.alliance.rice.edu/alliance/Default.asp (hint: this is a good guide as well from DFJMercury). There is no fee to apply, but they will ask for $75 if you are selected to present. Before anyone comments that this is a “pay to pitch” event – the fee is for the tradeshow booth space, food and printed materials.

Call for Presenters Flyer

Contact tvforum@rice.edu or 713-348-3443

I recognize that [...]]]> The 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!