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.

Website

Facebook

Twitter Hashtag #HATCH2012

Flickr

Foursquare

The main event [...]]]> Grace Rodriguez (DFJ Mercury & Culture Pilot) has been very busy planning the third year of Houston@TXSW (formerly known as Houston@SXSW) that supports and promotes Houston’s creative community — highlighting its film, interactive/tech, and music talent — by bringing them together and spotlighting Houston at a single event during the annual SXSW conference.

The main event is:

http://houstontxsw2011.eventbrite.com/

Monday, March 14th starting at 4pm

Republic Live
301 West 5th Street
Austin, TX 78701

The kick off event is:

Thursday, March 3

8:00pm - 10:00pm

The Fairview

More info (and Sponsor opportunities):

info@houstontxsw.us

http://www.houstontxsw.us

http://twitter.com/houstontxsw

http://facebook.com/HoustonTXSW

The comments of this post would be a [...]]]> Hopefully everyone that is going to SXSW has confirmed places to stay, picked panels and parties and broken in those comfortable shoes (can’t over emphasize that enough) and those that are staying here have unfollowed their Austin-bound friends and blocked the hashtag #SXSW for the next week.

The comments of this post would be a great place for any one from Houston to leave your name and twitter handle as well as recommend anything interesting from panels, to food, to non-badge events. I’ll start:

Marc Nathan @marc1919

Google Spreadsheet of almost all parties and events

http://blogs.zdnet.com/weblife/?p=1508 15 Can’t Miss Parties and Meetups

Texas Coworking Meetup
Sat, March 13, 6pm – 8pm
Where: 200 E. 6th Street, 3rd Floor

Live Taping of This Week in Startups (TWiST)
Jason Calacanis is interviewing Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos.com
Sat Mar 13 4pm – Sat Mar 13 7pm
Where: Six Lounge 117 W Fourth St Austin, TX 78701

and of course, the Houston@SXSW party on Monday March 15:

Monday, March 15 from 7:00 pm to 2:00 am
Where: Hudson’s 301 W 5TH., Austin TX 78701

Date: Tuesday March 9, 2010 Time: 6:00pm – 9:30pm Location: Caroline Collective 4820 Caroline Houston, Texas 77004 RSVP on Facebook

Since that starts at 6, you can then go to the monthly NetSquared meetup – generously sponsored [...]]]> Even if you’re not planning on coming to Austin for SXSW, you should plan on coming to the Houston@SXSW Pre-party at Caroline Collective

Date: Tuesday March 9, 2010
Time: 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Location: Caroline Collective 4820 Caroline Houston, Texas 77004
RSVP on Facebook

Since that starts at 6, you can then go to the monthly NetSquared meetup – generously sponsored by Schipul, The Web Marketing Company where I’m giving a talk on why Non-profits need to foster a vibrant Tech Startup Community and vice versa.

Date: Tuesday March 9, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Stag’s Head Pub 2128 Portsmouth St. Houston, TX 77098
RSVP on Meetup

On Wednesday, you can show up to the Social Media Shin-Dig hosted by new marketing firm, The Black Sheep Agency but only if you’re one of the lucky first 100 to RSVP:

Date: Wednesday March 10, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Beaver’s 2310 Decatur Street Houston, TX 77007-7519
RSVP on Pingg

Oh, and that bonus

fourth

event this week: There is an intimate little gathering of 25,000 in Austin starting on Friday that you might not have heard of called South by Southwest. Don’t forget to register for the Houston@SXSW party on Monday night starting at 7pm

For those that don’t know, South by Southwest (also known as SXSW) is a two week event held in Austin during Spring Break that is two parts conference, two parts pub crawl and two parts social experiment. SXSW marries the largest number of live music acts in the world, movie premiers and of special note [...]]]>

For those that don’t know, South by Southwest (also known as SXSW) is a two week event held in Austin during Spring Break that is two parts conference, two parts pub crawl and two parts social experiment. SXSW marries the largest number of live music acts in the world, movie premiers and of special note to the startup community ‘interactive’ companies showcasing their ideas and new products.

The Interactive part is basically summer camp for geeks. Its five days of caffeine and alcohol fueled interaction with 10,000 of the smartest people in the world who are all gathered to meet, greet and talk about the future of the technology world. The most forward thinking, buzz-worthy and advanced ideas in web development, web design, and social media are brought together to morph and mutate into the kinds of things that we use every day – Twitter being the prime example.

Speaker panels are the core aspect of the entire event. SXSW has an open panel policy where anyone can submit their ideas to discuss during the conference. The voting is open to people who are registered with SXSW and that vote is weighed against a blue-ribbon group of event organizers for inclusion into the program. Having a panel chosen to even make it to the vote is a big deal, and actually getting to speak is a huge deal because it basically helps set the agenda for the rest of the year when it comes to the technology and mainstream media.

The SXSW panel picker (http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/) has opened up today and they will be taking votes until September 4th.

The Houston Tech community should have very a strong showing this year, not just in attendees but panelists. Schipul, the Web Marketing Company has again put together a list of Houston related panels that you should consider voting for to keep the Houston presence visible: http://www.schipul.com/sxsw2010/

P.S.

I have a panel up for consideration and I would certainly appreciate your vote: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/4859

‘Seed Combinators’: Startup Incubators 2.0

1. What is a ‘Seed Combinator’?
2. How can this help my Startup?
3. Is this program right for my startup?
4. How can I get started with this program?
5. What’s the difference between this and tradtional VC’s, Angels or Incubators?
6. Am I going to give up too much equity too early?
7. I’m a mentor, how do I get involved?
8. How do I start a Seed Combinator in my area?
9. What do I need to make a Seed Combinator successful?
10. How does the investment world view something like a Seed Combinator?

Description:
The ‘Seed Combinator’ is the concept of mashing up angel investing, OpenCoffee Club meetups, tactical workshops, and Coworking that is giving rise to a new class of software and new media startups. Local investors are giving aspiring entrepreneurs capital and intensive mentorship under names like YCombinator, TechStars and Capital Factory.