How to Launch a Successful Start-up Technology Company: “The Basics of Starting, Growing, and Funding a New Business”
Wednesday – Thursday, July 23-24, 2007, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
McNair Hall, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University.

Early registration deadline: July 11!

This 2-day entrepreneurship course describes, in depth, the key steps required to commercialize technology and successfully launch a new company.  The workshop will be taught through a series of lectures and presentations from venture capitalists, investors, entrepreneurs, and other leaders in the technology entrepreneurship community.

The instructors for the course include active venture capitalists and angel investors in the Houston region.  The course provides a unique opportunity to learn first hand what is required to get funding for your emerging company and to meet the individuals who make these investment decisions on a daily basis.

The course has sold out every year, so we recommend early registration.

Cost: $95 for Rice Alliance 2007-2008 members, HTC client companies, and members of an academic institution. $165 for the general public (registration by July 11).

The Rice Alliance is currently seeking applications from energy and clean technology companies to present at this exciting, one-day event to be held on Thursday, September 25, 2008. This event represents networking and learning opportunities for entrepreneurs, researchers, investment professional and business executives serving the energy industry.

Who should apply to present?
Energy & Clean Technology companies involved in (but not limited to):

• Alternative, clean or sustainable energy
• O&G exploration and production
• O&G refining and marketing
• Electricity and power generation
• Energy storage, transportation, efficiency or conservation
• Environmental remediation
• Software applications for the energy/clean tech industry

What are the presentation categories?

• Business Plan:
  Five companies will be selected to give a 10-minute business plan presentation ad receive feedback from an investor panel.
• Elevator Pitch:

Up to 40 companies will be selected to give a 90-second elevator pitch.

• Company Showcase:

Up to 40 companies will be selected to participate in this trade-show style event featuring tabletop displays, 4:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Why should companies apply to present?

• To gain access to potential funding
• To gain visibility and traction within the life science community
• To attract potential customers
• To cultivate alliances or partnerships
• To increase networking
• Go gain other kinds of business support

How to apply

Submit an electronic version of your two-page, non-confidential executive summary to tvforum@rice.edu by Friday, August 8, 2008

For suggested guidelines for preparing an executive summary, read this.

Deadline for Submitting Executive Summaries:  Friday, August 8 (5:00 pm CDST)
For complete competition and application details, click here.

Perhaps you were driving around the downtown Houston area recently and came across a white and green electric vehicle transporting some environmentally conscious passengers to their next business meeting. If you see it again, waive hello to the guys from REV Houston, Houston’s newest FREE and GREEN transportation service.

REV (or Ride Electric Vehicles) currently operates one vehicle in the downtown-midtown area of Houston with plans to add a second vehicle in the next few weeks (the second vehicle will be a 6 seater versus the 4 seater they currently have). The vehicles are GEM Vehicles from Chrysler and are 100% electric powered:

“GEM battery-electric vehicles are classified as low-speed vehicles, or neighborhood electric vehicles, and are street legal in nearly all 50 states on public roads posted at 35 mph or less. With a top speed of 25 mph, GEM cars have a range of up to 30 miles on a charge and are great for traveling around neighborhoods, city centers or job sites. GEM vehicles are battery-electric, operate on a 72-volt battery system and plug into a standard 110-volt outlet. What makes GEM vehicles so unique is that they can be recharged anytime, anywhere a 110-volt outlet is available and recharge in approximately six to eight hours.”

To request a ride simply call 1.877.Go.REV.Go or visit one of the company’s “REV Stops” for a code you can text to Qtags (another great Houston startup we profiled last year). The stops are as follows:

• The Coffee Groundz (REV1)
• The Rice Lofts (REV2)
• El Patio (REV3)

The only cost for the ride is a gratuity. The company plans to subsidize their costs initially by selling advertising space on the vehicles.

“It was Opening Day 2007 for the Houston Astros,” states Erik Ibarra, co-founder of REV Houston. “I went for a ride on a pedi-cab and thought, ‘This guy would have it so much easier if he had a golf cart.’ I started looking into street legal electric vehicles for about a year and the concept blossomed from there.”

Ibarra also mentioned that the company plans to test additional markets within Houston for expansion, such as Rice Village, Washington Avenue and Westheimer in the future.

P.S. Erik, you need to talk with Matt and Ned at the Caroline Collective and add that as a stop as well.

The Houston Business Journal reported today that Houston was first in the nation for manufacturing jobs over the past year.

“Evanston, Ill.-based Manufacturers’ News Inc. (MNI) reports Texas gained 4,579 industrial jobs, representing a half percent increase, from April 2007 to April 2008. The 2008 manufacturing report indicates a smaller increase than posted by the state in prior years. However, Texas is still in a better position than much of the U.S., which suffered significant employment losses over the year.”

Startup Houston is about technology startups but a critical ingredient for a strong startup environment is a strong regional economy. We often talk about how Houston needs to build its technology infrastructure and support high tech. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the core of Houston is industrial and it is what has kept this city mostly insulated from the worsening macro-economic conditions. Places like New York are under seige from the recent financial crisis while Middle America is drowning in $4 gas and growing food costs.

Think I’m wrong? Let me hear your thoughts.

Alert Logic, a leading provider of on-demand IT compliance and security solutions to mid-sized organizations, today announced that it has won a Red Herring 100 Award, a selection of the 100 most innovative private technology companies based in North America. Alert Logic was presented with the award at the Red Herring North America event on May 13, 2008 in San Jose, California.

From a quick glance, it looks like Alert Logic is the only Houston-based company, which is not as much of a surprise as the fact that the majority of Red Herring 100 winners are usually culled from California. I used to work at a Red Herring 100 company back in the day when Red Herring was also in print; that, along with $8 will get you a decent buzz at Supercuts. Nothing against the team over at Alert Logic, who I think are doing a bang up job; it’s just that Red Herring used to be relevant but has basically failed to adapt and has become a remnant of an older bubble time.

Kudos to Misha and his team who are kicking a$$ and taking names. Keep your eyes on this company to be one of many Houston stars that shine on the global stage. Knowing where most award winners end up, this company is going places.

Don’t call it a comeback
I been here for years
Rockin my peers and puttin suckas in fear
Makin the tears rain down like a MON-soon
Listen to the bass go BOOM
Explosion, overpowerin
Over the competition, I’m towerin
Wreckin shop, when I drop these lyrics that’ll make you call the cops
Don’t you dare stare, you betta move
Don’t ever compare
Me to the rest that’ll all get sliced and diced
Competition’s payin the price

LL Cool J, Mama Said Knock You Out

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance is out with their Best Cities 2008 report and Houston has topped the list this year. With a cost of living well below the national average and the highest job growth in the country, Houston has made its comeback. #2 in the home for Fortune 500 companies behind New York City, Houston has also become a destination city for a diverse and robust technology sector as well.

This is no surprise to me or our readers who have known about Houston’s greatness for sometime. It is nice to see the rest of the country take notice.

Come on people, let me hear you scream!!!

P.S. Hey Stacey, Austin made the list too….

BarCamp Houston III is coming soon. Are you pumped yet? Check out these links for updates as they come. I predict that this will be a seminal event in the technology startup community so plan on being there, no matter what it takes:

• BarCamp Houston III Wiki
• Facebook event
• Meetup event
• Upcoming event

Be there or be square!

This past Thursday night I attended the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston’s annual Men’s Night Out event. This year’s speaker was Nando Parrado, a member of a Uruguayan rugby team that in 1972 crashed with his team in the Andes and survived against all odds over 14,000 feet in the mountains for 72 days before being rescued due to his own courage and conviction. Nando’s speech was both inspirational and heart wrenching to almost everyone in attendance. One of the things that stuck with me the most was that he believed that the greatest factor that contributed to his survival was luck: not survival instinct or teamwork, luck. Here were some examples:

• Nando sat in row 9 of the plane; everyone in rows 10 and up died instantly upon the plane’s first crash against the mountain’s peak.
• An avalanche claimed more lives on day 16; the avalanche also created a warm habitat for the survivors in the plane’s fuselage and provided additional nourishment (if you have seen Alive, then you know what this means) for the survivors.
• One of the survivors’ mother had taught him to sew at an early age. With this skill, he was able to create a sleeping bag for the group that kept them warm in the cold night.

Most at this point might be saying to themselves, “Luck? What kind of luck is it to see your mother, sister and friends die in a horrible crash and then get stranded without food or water for over 2 months?”

Life is not black and white. History is full of stories where a seemingly horrific event brings about an even greater good. Nando himself talk about how the events of those two months in the Andes helped shape who he is today and brought his daughters into the world. Who is to say what eventual good comes out of anything.

I have often said that entrepreneurial success is 5% having a good idea, 10% having the brass to take a chance on making it happen and 85% pure unfiltered luck. Where would Apple and Microsoft be today if they hadn’t “discovered” and “borrowed” the GUI from Xerox PARC back in the late 1970’s? Most of Thomas Edison’s inventions were the byproduct of luck by his own admission, although his definition of luck differs somewhat. Hard work is important but the best product with the best management team will fail if the market timing is off. Remember the Apple Newton?

Bottom line: after you have your great idea and work yourself to the bones in trying to make it happen, recognize that, as the famous Roman politician Seneca once was quoted as saying, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Have a great and long weekend, unless you are in a startup: if so, then get back to work and try and generate some good luck!