Archive for the 'VC and Angel Funding' Category

Jul2nd2008

GlobalPitch Secures Initial Round of Funding

Published
by
Josh Tabin
on July 2, 2008
in IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding
. 2 Comments

GlobalPitch

GlobalPitch, Inc. announced today that the company has secured an initial round of funding through an agreement with members of the Houston Angel Network (HAN).

“We are pleased to accept this first round of outside investment with a solid team of investors that we view as both investors and partners in the continued growth of GlobalPitch,” Syd Kain, founder and Chief Executive Officer, said.

GlobalPitch provides job seekers the ability to create and distribute a comprehensive online profile of their background and experience. Going beyond the limits of a traditional resume, a GlobalPitch profile allows job-seekers to communicate more of who they are rather than simply what they have done.

Funds will be primarily used for further marketing and development of the Internet service.

Disclosure: Josh Tabin is an advisor to GlobalPitch through Mosaic CFO, Mr. Tabin’s financial advosry firm.

Jul1st2008

Next Houston Startup Happy Hour is this Thursday, July 3rd

Published
by
kurt
on July 1, 2008
in Events, General, Houston Startup Happy Hour, 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

Start JULY off with a BANG at the Houston Startup Happy Hour!!!

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!

This month we will feature a demo from one of Houston’s hottest startup companies: SnapStream Media !!

 

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 SnapStream’s new TV search software!
  • ->   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 July Houston Startup Happy Hour features a live presentation of SnapStream’s latest release of their TV search software. SnapStream’s consumer product was showcased by Bill Gates in his keynote at the Windows XP Launch in 2001 and since then it’s received lots of industry awards and recognition, including PC Magazine Editor’s Choice. Snapstream’s newest product, SnapStream Enterprise, allows organizations to record and search within thousands of hours of TV recordings. It’s used by 1) presidential campaigns, 2) city/state/federal governments, 3) TV shows (like E!’s The Soup), 4) K-12 schools and universities, and many more. Come meet the founders and see a demo of their TV search software in action at Thursday’s Houston Startup Happy Hour!

Thanks again to SnapStream for also being the sponsor of the July Houston Startup Happy Hour!

 

The Tasting Room

When:
Thursday, July 3rd
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, July 3rd’

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

houston_startup_happy_hour_minilogo_1.png

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

houston_startup_happy_hour_minilogo_1.png

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

Demo by Strongroom Solutions

 strongroom_solutions_logo2.jpg

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

phillipsreiter_logo3.jpg

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’

Apr23rd2008

Guy Kawasaki is speaking at the Houston Technology Center tomorrow night (Thursday)

Published
by
kurt
on April 23, 2008
in Conversations, Events, General, IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding
. 3 Comments

guy.jpgAs we wrote here, Guy Kawasaki is coming to Houston to speak at the Houston Technology Center about his book, The Art of the Start.  We will be there covering the event and asking questions that we hope will help Houston’s entrepreneurs and startups.  In addition, we’d like to ask for your input. 

What questions would you like to see us ask Guy that you think would help entreprenuers and startup companies in Houston to succeed?  Add your questions in the comments section.

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

 houston_startup_happy_hour_minilogo_1.png

 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. 

jamsbio_logo_whitebg.gif

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.

DSC00444 DSC00432

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.

Apr4th2008

Angels Staying in the Outfield

Published
by
Josh Tabin
on April 4, 2008
in VC and Angel Funding
. 0 Comments

Center for Venture Research

Angel investors are approaching investments with a more cautious eye given recent market volatility claims a recent research report by the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. The 2007 Angel Market Analysis showed that the growth of investments were relatively steady while the amount invested grew at a slower pace implying that deal size was on the downswing.

Since angels invest their own capital, unlike venture funds that invest funds of their limited partners over a set time frame, any economic downturn is likely to cause a retraction in the amount typically invested by angels. For those without a finance background, increased volitilty is tantamount to increased risk, which is not an investor’s friend. Granted that there is a risk-reward relationship which implies that angel investing has inherent high risk in order to meet ample returns. However, when usually stable investments (such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc.) become more volatile, angels need to reduce their overall exposure which tends to result in lower angel investing.

Interestingly enough, the report shows that 27% of angel investing went to software firms with biotech/life sciences getting 31%. The remainder went to indutrial/energy and retail to round out the top groups.

All of this just builds on earlier comments I made about the changing landscape for early stage comapanies.

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

 guy.jpg 

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’

Mar3rd2008

Alert Logic Rasies $8.25 Series C Round

Published
by
Josh Tabin
on March 3, 2008
in IT and Web 2.0 and VC and Angel Funding
. 0 Comments

Alert Logic

A litttle bird mentioned to me that Alert Logic Inc., a Houston-based provider of on-demand IT network security solutions, raised some add-on funding. Today I confirmed $8.25 million in Series CB funding, according to a regulatory filing. Updata Partners led the round, and was joined by return backers Hunt Ventures, DFJ Mercury, Access Venture Partners and OCA Ventures. The company had previously raised $7.5 million.

Alert Logic was founded in 2002 by Misha Govshteyn and has shown solid growth recently with the addition of a new CEO, Michael Turner, whose pedigree include NetQoS and NetSolve.