Archive for the 'Houston Venture Capitalists' Category

Jun3rd2008

Next Houston Startup Happy Hour is this Thursday, June 5th

Published
by
kurt
on June 3, 2008
in Events, Houston Startup Happy Hour, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding
. 0 Comments

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Startup Houston and the Houston Technology Center are proud to present
The June Houston Startup Happy Hour.

Open Call for Demos! Show up and Show Off!

The June Houston Startup Happy Hour features an open call for any startups who want to demo their sites to just show up and demo. We will have an area in the back to set up for laptops with power and wireless access. We will be putting together a video of all demos and promoting them on our site. Come one, come all and show Houston what you’ve got!  There will also be an open mic opportunity for all startups to share recent announcements with the rest of Houston’s startup community.

Email us if interested: events “@” startuphouston.com  

New Location! New Format!

Here is your chance to meet Houston’s growing network of emerging startups, entreprenuers, investors, and technology enthusiasts to share drinks, tips and beta invites. Swap business cards and war stories and learn something new about Houston’s Tech Scene!

Join Us For:

  • Free drinks for the first 25 people
  • Wine-by-the-glass drink specials from 6 pm to 8 pm
  • Complimentary hors d’oeuvres
  • An open call for startups to demo
  • Open mic for all startups to make announcements and provide sneak peeks of their latest sites and services
  • Meet Houston’s hottest innovative startups and entrepreneurs

The Tasting Room

When:
Thursday, June 5th
6pm - 9pm

Where:
The Tasting Room @ River Oaks
2409 W. Alabama
(713) 526-2242
(Click here for map)

RSVP (here)
 Continue reading ‘Next Houston Startup Happy Hour is this Thursday, June 5th’

Apr30th2008

Join us for the next Houston Startup Happy Hour on Thursday May 1st

Published
by
kurt
on April 30, 2008
in Conversations, Houston Startup Happy Hour, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding
. 0 Comments

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Startup Houston and the Houston Technology Center are proud to present
The May Houston Startup Happy Hour.

Demo by Strongroom Solutions

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The May Houston Startup Happy Hour features a live presentation of StrongRoom Solutions. StrongRoom Solutions offers a B2B service called the Payables Lockbox that is an online bill-pay service that lets business customers view, approve, and pay invoices online. There will also be an open mic opportunity for all startups to share recent announcements with the rest of Houston’s startup community.

New Location! New Format!

Here is your chance to meet Houston’s growing network of emerging startups, entreprenuers, investors, and technology enthusiasts to share drinks, tips and beta invites. Swap business cards and war stories and learn something new about Houston’s Tech Scene!

Join Us For:

  • Free drinks for the first 25 people
  • Wine-by-the-glass drink specials from 6 pm to 8 pm
  • Complimentary hors d’oeuvres
  • A live demo of the Strongroom Solutions site
  • Open mic for all startups to make announcements and provide sneak peeks of their latest sites and services
  • Meet Houston’s hottest innovative startups and entrepreneurs

The Tasting Room

When:
Thursday, May 1st (tomorrow)
6pm - 9pm

Where:
The Tasting Room @ River Oaks
2409 W. Alabama
(713) 526-2242
(Click here for map)

RSVP (here)
Sponsored by Phillips & Reiter, LLC

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Our sponsor for the May Startup Happy Hour is Phillips & Reiter, LLC. Phillips & Reiter is a new kind of law firm, offering an innovative approach to managing legal services. Their senior legal executives provide counsel to growing organizations on an as-needed basis, at a fraction of the cost compared to hiring a full-time General Counsel or traditional law firms. P&R has offices in Houston, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth. Continue reading ‘Join us for the next Houston Startup Happy Hour on Thursday May 1st’

Apr8th2008

April Houston Startup Happy Hour Jams with JamsBio

Published
by
kurt
on April 8, 2008
in Events, General, Houston Startup Happy Hour, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0, VC and Angel Funding and Video
. 0 Comments

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 We had a great time at the April Houston Startup Happy Hour this past Thursday with the JamsBio launch.  The turnout was greater than we expected and filled the entire bar area (see photos and video below).  We went with a different venue (The Tasting Room) and format (Demos + Networking) for this month’s startup happy hour and I’ll have to say that while we still have some tweaking to do, it was a great event. 

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Stephen Newman, Matt Williams and the rest of the JamsBio crew did a great job with their demo as well as bringing lots of free T-shirts for everyone and we were excited to be part of their launch.  Also, many thanks to JamsBio for also sponsoring the event so that we could offer free drinks to many of you who made it by early.

http://www.vimeo.com/877795

I learned of two new social media startups at the event that are due to launch in private beta soon, and one established startup that just successfully secured their second round of funding.  Unfortunately, I can’t report on them yet, but there are a lot of details that will be coming out soon.  Marc Nathan of the HTC also announced Guy Kawasaki’s upcoming appearance at the HTC to give a presentation on The Art of The Start.  Overall, very exciting to see the many new things going on in Houston’s startup community.

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Here are some of the other startups and tech companies that were seen at the event:

Based on our April experience, here is how we plan to run the May event.

  • We are looking for a startup company to demo their latest and greatest features or newest version of their site. Please send an email to [events 'at' startuphouston 'dot' com] if interested.
  • The demo will be held in the back room (called The Wine Cellar) of The Tasting Room on the big Plasma screen TV.  This will help to cut down on some of the crowd noise we experienced in April’s event and will let the demoing company present longer if needed.
  • We are also looking for sponsors for the event.  The cost is $200 and goes directly back into promoting the event.
  • The startup that is demoing their company can also be the sponsor, but does not have to be.  It does make some sense though because the funds will be used to drive more people to the event who will also see the demo.
  • We will provide as much promotion as possible for both the demoing company and the sponsoring company

Let us know your thoughts.  Did you make it to the Happy Hour?  Was it a good event?  Did you meet new and interesting startups and people?  Did you like the demo or would you recommend another way to show off Houston’s hottest startups?  Tell us what you think in the comments section.

Apr2nd2008

Guy Kawasaki to speak at the Houston Technology Center, April 24th

Published
by
kurt
on April 2, 2008
in Conversations, Events, General, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0, Interviews and VC and Angel Funding
. 2 Comments

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I found out today via Marc Nathan and also via Dwight Silverman’s TechBlog that Guy Kawasaki is coming to the Houston Technology Center to speak about The Art of The Start on Thursday, April 24th at 7pm. I can’t tell you how excited I was to hear this news as this is obviously the type of speaker that could increase visibility for Houston in the startup world.

Apparently Guy was pretty impressed by all of the Houstonians at SXSWi and asked Dwight if he could set up an opportunity for him to come to Houston and speak.  With all of the great minds in the Houston tech and startup communities, I’m sure we’ll have a lot more to impress Guy with when he gets here.

You can find more details over at Dwight Silverman’s Chron TechBlog.

You can register for the event on the Houston Technology Center site (here)

Also, we’re putting together a list of startup questions for Guy, so if you have any good ones that you would like to share or get answered, make sure to add them in our comments section.

Update: Hurry and register now because I’m told that they are already nearing capacity

Apr1st2008

Join Us for the April Houston Startup Happy Hour this Thursday

Published
by
kurt
on April 1, 2008
in Events, General, Houston Startup Happy Hour, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding
. 0 Comments

houston_startup_happy_hour_minilogo_1.png

Startup Houston and the Houston Technology Center are proud to present
 The April Houston Startup Happy Hour.

Sponsored by JamsBio

The April Houston Startup Happy Hour features a completely new format including a live presentation of JamsBio.com launched publicly this week by Mouth Watering Media LLC. JamsBio is a new and unique website created by and for music lovers to exchange memories about life experiences and the music associated with them. There will also be an open mic opportunity for all startups to share recent announcements with the rest of Houston’s startup community.

New Location!  New Format! 

Here is your chance to meet Houston’s growing network of emerging startups, entreprenuers, investors, and technology enthusiasts to share drinks, tips and beta invites. Swap business cards and war stories and learn something new about Houston’s Tech Scene!

Join Us For:

  • Free drinks for the first 25 people
  • Wine-by-the-glass drink specials from 6 pm to 8 pm
  • Complimentary hors d’oeuvres
  • A live demo of the new JamsBio site, launching this week!
  • Free T-Shirts, compliments of JamsBio
  • Open mic for all startups to make announcements and provide sneak peeks of their latest sites and services
  • Meet Houston’s hottest innovative startups and entrepreneurs

The Tasting Room

When:
Thursday, April 3rd
6pm - 9pm

Where:
The Tasting Room @ River Oaks
2409 W. Alabama
(713) 526-2242
(Click here for map)

RSVP  (here)

Meet Houston’s most innovative startups and entrepreneurs!

The Tasting Room at River Oaks has a great venue where there is room to socialize with the group, as well as areas to have side conversations. Try some great wines (and other mixed drinks) and share the latest and greatest info on yourself and your new tech venture. The wine cellar room also has a plasma screen TV and laptop that can be used to give other demos and show off your site.

Continue reading ‘Join Us for the April Houston Startup Happy Hour this Thursday’

Mar7th2008

Houston Startup Happy Hour for March is Cold, Wet, & Fun!

Published
by
kurt
on March 7, 2008
in Events, General, Houston Startup Happy Hour, Houston Venture Capitalists and IT and Web 2.0
. 3 Comments

houston_startup_happy_hour_minilogo_1.png

Thanks to all who braved the rain and cold and made it out to our March Houston Startup Happy Hour.  All in all we had about 40 people show up, had several new faces, and had a great time.  Here are some of the pics:

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Click here to see more of the March Startup Happy Hour photos on Flickr. 

Here are some of the startups and tech companies that came out:

Let us know how we can make the April Startup Happy Hour even better in our comments section!

Feb20th2008

Don’t Forget: OpenCoffee Club is Tomorrow - Thursday, Feb. 21

Published
by
kurt
on February 20, 2008
in Conversations, Events, General, Houston OpenCoffee Club, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding
. 2 Comments

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Join us for the next OpenCoffee Club!

About : The Houston OpenCoffee Club encourages open and informal discussion and networking among entrepreneurs, technology enthusiasts, and investors to help grow startup companies in the Houston area.

Thursday, February 21st, 2008
8:00AM - 10:00AM

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The Coffee Groundz
2503 Bagby St
Houston, TX 77006
(713) 874-0082
Map

You can RSVP and see who else is attending here.

You can find additional information on the Houston OpenCoffee Club on our Meetup page and on the StartupHouston blog. You can also find information about how OpenCoffee Club got started and what it is all about here and here.

Feb7th2008

Rice Alliance hosts largest Business Plan Competition in the World

Published
by
kurt
on February 7, 2008
in BioTech/Life Science, Energy, Events, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0, NanoTech and VC and Angel Funding
. 1 Comment

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The Rice Alliance has gone and outdone themselves again by nearly doubling the amount of funds that will be awarded at this year’s Business Plan Competition.  They will be awarding over $600,000 dollars in funds for approximately 36 different graduate teams from around the world, which enables them to lay claim to hosting “the largest and richest intercollegiate MBA/graduate-level business plan competition in the world, with more prize money, more teams competing, and more judges than any other competition.”  (Somebody please tell me they are videotaping this thing, because I think this would make a great reality show).  Also, according to their web site, every team will receive some type of cash award so noone goes home empty handed. 

Are you a graduate team with a killer business plan?  You can still register your team by submitting your executive summary before February 21st here and you can find all of the complete details about the event here.

Feb6th2008

The February Houston Startup Happy Hour is this Thursday

Published
by
kurt
on February 6, 2008
in Events, General, Houston Startup Happy Hour, Houston Venture Capitalists, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding
. 1 Comment

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If you love <3 Startups as much as we do, then you don’t want to miss our next Houston Startup Happy Hour this Thursday (tomorrow), Feb. 7th!

Our last Houston Startup Happy Hour was such a smash (over 100 people) that we decided to make it part of a full time schedule. From now on the happy hour will always be on the first Thursday of every month, starting with our next event on Thursday, February 7th (tomorrow). Sonoma Wine Bar has a great venue where everyone feels instantly relaxed, can try some great wines (and other mixed drinks), and share the latest and greatest info on themselves and their new tech ventures.

So here is your chance to meet Houston’s growing network of emerging startups, entreprenuers, investors, and technology enthusiasts to share drinks, tips and beta invites. Swap business cards and war stories and learn something new about Houston’s Tech Scene!

Here are more of the specifics:

When: Thursday, February 7th (tomorrow), 6pm - 9pm
Where: Sonoma Wine Bar
Map: Click Here
RSVP: Click Here

Hope to see you there!

A Few Updates:

• I just confirmed with Sonoma that we will have a screen, projector, and laptop (and free wifi) there for people to be able to show off their sites. This is a great chance to show people more about what you do or give them a sneak peek at that beta you’ve been working on.

• Rakesh Agrawal of SnapStream will be giving away a couple of “Set” decks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(game)) at the happy hour.

• And, last but not least, if you are an experienced developer, sales engineer, or office manager, SnapStream is currently looking to fill these positions and you can find out more from Rakesh at the happy hour or see the info on their site here.

Jan19th2008

HTC Education Series - Raising Capital in Texas Today - Session III: Raising Funds for Growth

Published
by
Josh Tabin
on January 19, 2008
in Energy, Houston Venture Capitalists and VC and Angel Funding
. 0 Comments

This past Friday morning I had the pleasure of getting out of bed early (again) to attend the Houston Technology Center’s Education Seminar Series on Raising Capital in Texas Today. Today’s session was entitled, “Raising Funds for Growth: Series B and Beyond“. The moderator for the event was Scott Crist of Aegis Texas Ventures. Our panel of experts for this seminar were:

You can read through the presentation at the link above but here is an overview of what was discussed:

  1. The three represented a nice variety of business capitalization history: venture funding (SalvageSale), self-funding (CyrusOne) and bootstrapping (Merrick Systems).
  2. Merrick Systems’ need for additional capital was to accelerate growth in both organic and new markets. Rather than look at an equity solution, Merrick Systems put together a senior credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank. This is something that many small business startups fail to look into mostly due to a lack of understanding of this segment of the market. The majority of the startups that I have been involved with were able to secure quality credit from the “venture tech banks” like Silicon Valley Bank, Comerica (through their Technology and Life Sciences team), Square1 Bank and Bridge Bank (if you need any introduction to one of these lenders, send me an email).
  3. SalvageSale’s recent financing seemed more like a leveraged MBO than growth capital, although the new investment from Spire Capital is likely a good way to both recapitalize the company and partner with a solid fund with a track record in successful buyouts.
  4. CyrusOne effectively sold the company to a private equity group but still has a very active management. Abry Partners has a history here in Houston with their purchase of Caprock back in 2006. What is nice about what Dave Ferdman did was recapitalize the existing investors and provide an infusion of additional capital to fund CyrusOne’s continued growth in data center development.

The biggest takeaway from me is how important your early rounds are in the long term outcome of the company. As in most things, the early decisions tend to have a more material impact on a company’s velocity than do the latter ones. Merrick Systems was able to grow without much of any dilutive impact and is now poised to further grow through senior debt, the second least costly capital next to public debt. SalvageSale confessed to seller’s remorse with their early stage investors but were able to break through and now have a bright road ahead of them. CyrusOne recognized that the future required deeper pockets and made an excellent decision to partner with a long term investor rather than sell out to short term needs for liquidity.

All in all, the three gentlemen were excellent presenters and provided attendees with another quality HTC educational event.