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 Josh Tabin  Monday, 15th of December 2008 at 02:51:33 PM 
So we had a wonderful Thursday and recouped on Friday only to get geared up again Saturday morning for GreenCamp Houston ’08. Now for those of you who are still not familiar with the BarCamp style conferences, the best way to learn more would be to actually attend one. Many of the attendees of GreenCamp were first-time BarCampers having no idea of what to expect, but were generally open to the format.
Before I get into the day itself, a special thanks to all of our sponsors:
Some major thanks to my co-organizers and helpers:
Continue reading One Crazy Week, Part 3
Josh Tabin Sunday, 14th of December 2008 at 10:55:30 PM
 In part 1, I talked about December 11th at the Rice Alliance IT & Web 2.0 Venture Forum and the day’s experience. Shortly after the event wound down, we headed over to Saute Bistro, the new restaurant from local tech community member Kevin Lacobie of Agoric Source.
As I posted earlier, this Happy Hour brought to you by Startup Houston, the Houston Technology Center and GreenCamp Houston ’08 was a multipurpose event:
- One-year anniversary of the happy hour;
- Post Rice Alliance cool down and social; and
- GreenCamp Houston ’08 kickoff party.
As expected, this was a very diversely attended event and a great time was had by all. Halfway into the party, Marc Nathan of the Houston Technology Center and I raffled off 4 tickets plus parking for this afternoon’s football game between the Houston Texas and Tennessee Titans (and what a game it was). The winner of our raffle was Victor Koosh of Caesar Systems, an elevator pitch presenter from the Rice event earlier. The tickets were generously donated by our friend Bill Arend, Regional Manager for Oracle for which we are very thankful.
This last quarter, we have been lapse in honoring the happy hour for several reasons, both intentional and unintentional. On the unintentional side, both Marc and I are one-man wrecking crews with tons of things in the hopper. Couple that with Ike and you get a hiccup; planning for this just fell to the side. I did have some ulterior motives in not pushing to get this event done as I felt that we had been infiltrated by serial networkers that were neither tech, entrepreneur or investor. This was bound to happen and I think that the hiatus along with the advent of the InHouston group meetings has effectively cleared this up. Please don’t mistake this as effrontery to anyone looking for connections. I like that group but do not believe that they offer value to what we are trying to accomplish.
With this event behind us, Marc and I have committed to resetting the 2009 schedule so that no dates get missed…this goes for the Open Coffee meetings as well.
In part 3, we move to Saturday and GreenCamp Houston ’08, which was a rousing success…you should’ve been there but if you weren’t, we will be doing this again…and soon.
Josh Tabin Sunday, 14th of December 2008 at 09:56:59 PM
 First off let me apologize for my lack of content as of late. As many of you know, this is not my primary gig so my time has been more recently directed to client work and business development than posting. Last week, was an exception as the community enjoyed a thoroughly exhausting week of events. After getting my kids down for the night (we went and saw Bolt in the theaters today, which I recommend highly), I now have some time to fill those in who might have missed some of the week’s wackiness.
Rice Alliance’s IT & Web 2.0 Venture Forum
I confess that I was not able to attend the early session with Jeff Dachis and the Business Plan Presentations, which the latter is something I would have liked to have seen. Personally, I was a bit upset that Mr. Dachis did not stick around for the remainder of the day’s events but I am not too surprised: guys like that do us the honor of their wisdom and presence but have high powered projects of their own to tend to. Hanging out in Houston to see what’s going on doesn’t always resonate. The VC panel is almost always a waste of time for me personally because I know that nothing real will be said by any of them…VC’s are generally way to polite to say what they really feel (which is a decent trait to have but it wastes a lot of people’s time.)
Early feedback I received from friends at the event was that NutshellMail and Rudder presented very well, Austin’s Moximity was a hit and that I need to spend time and meet the team from Gendai Games. I have not heard much about Net Watch Solutions so if anyone can fill me in, please do so. Anyone in Houston knows how great the Rudder and Nutshell guys are so nothing unexpected there and I’ve seen Moximity and know they are headed for success.
After grabbing lunch, we all headed back to the main hall where Jaime Casap from Google did a bang up presentation that really grabbed the audience’s attention. Overall, he was engaging and a likable cat, but I have heard his talk about the changes we are experiencing through social network expansion before in a variety of flavors. I suspect that there are still Houstonians that are not all that web savvy and if he helped move some of them closer to a better understanding then kudos to him. I was tempted at one point to ask him where Google kept these clouds he was talking about. Do they seep out of the data centers they hold them in?
Listening to the Elevator Pitches was interesting (you can hear them all courtesy of the BusinessMakers Radio Show…thanks Russ) and as a judge, I made a point of analyzing them more technically than I usually do. Although no one pitch really made me jump out of my seat, several stood out as being better than the rest: Fictionaut, Hourville, JamsBio, MyCityRocks, Piryx, Plura Processing, Smooth-stone, Socialware and VideoHires. My congratulations to everyone who had the onions to get in front of the crowd and make themselves known; it’s not an easy thing to do.
Of course my favorite part of the day was the Texas Web 2.0 Bloggers and Innovators Panel (I am not sure which one I am supposed to be) moderated by a great guy and good friend, Blair Garrou of DFJ Mercury. It was awesome finally meeting Alex Muse of Texas Startup Blog and Dean McCall from IdeaGin in person. I’ve met Bryan Menell of Austin Startup before but it was still great seeing him again. Blair managed to incite us with just the right questions and we responded in kind with some great insight (mostly from Alex, Bryan and Dean…I am just the village idiot in these groups there for comedic support.) Hopefully, someone got some use out of our blabber.
The event wrapped up with Bruce Dunlevie of Benchmark Capital Management, a marquee venture capital firm located in the epicenter of venture activity on Sand Hill Road. I have to see that I thoroughly enjoyed Bruce’s presentation as humble and insightful all in one. Although I tend to find myself in disagreement with the mainstream venture investing model, Bruce showed me that all VC’s are not useless and some really are out in the market making a difference. He’s a class act and I am thankful he came back to Rice for the event. Good grab, Brad!
In part 2, I will talk about the Houston Startup Happy Hour at Saute following the Rice Alliance event.
Josh Tabin Friday, 5th of December 2008 at 08:07:22 PM
Startup Houston and the Houston Technology Center invite everyone to join us in celebration of a plethora of December events:
- This will be our One Year Anniversary for the Houston Startup Happy Hour. To give y’all some history on the event, “when local blogger and entrepreneur Laura Mayes brought her business partners from New York and North Carolina to Houston in December 2007, it was the perfect excuse to show them a little Texas hospitality and introduce them to our vibrant and diverse technology startup community. They liked Houston so much that they’re co-hosting their own marketing conference here, the Mom2Summit on February 19-21 in partnership with another leader in the Houston Technology Community, OpMom.”
- One of the reasons we decided to have the event on the 2nd Thursday instead of the usual 1st Thursday this month was to coincide the happy hour with the wrap-up of the Rice Alliance’s 6th Annual I.T and Web 2.0 Venture Forum. Since we will have my fellow Texas startup dudes in from around the state (Alex, Bryan and Dean), Marc and I thought it’d be nice to make it so they could stick around if they’d like and you would have a chance to get to know them better, in a more social setting. I spoke to Brad Burke about this and he is all for us having this follow on to the forum. Super cool!
- GreenCamp Houston ’08 is being held the following Saturday at the Houston Technology Center so we are going to make this our official kick-off event. Registration for the event is still ongoing so please register and carve out time to come by and join us for a BarCamp style day devoted to Green Houston. So far, we have received sponsorship from the new climate change practice at Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell and local venture capital sensation DFJ Mercury. Sweet Leaf Tea has generously donated cases of tea for the event as well and more sponsors are lining up. We are expecting some incredible attendees and hope to spur awesome dialog about all things green in Houston.
The happy hour will be at a brand new Houston venue this time: Saute. Founded by Connie Lacobie (and co-owned by Houston software entrepreneur and technology community leader Kevin Lacobie) also the founder of Té House of Tea, Saute is a strong believer in fair trade concepts and supports international culture by highlighting international recipes, art, and dance. They are also firmly attached to our local communities, and strive to bring you local produce and free-range products, and local art and dance connections. Here are the details:
When: December 11, 2008
Time: 6:30pm until we get tired, bored or too hammered to press on…
Where: 2303 Richmond Ave., Houston TX 77098
Between Kirby and Greenbriar, sharing the parking lot with Blue Fish Sushi, Hobbit Cafe, & LZ Pub .
This ought to be a grand event and one you should not miss. We’ll see you there and Happy Holidays!
Graham Randall Tuesday, 11th of November 2008 at 11:35:37 AM
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the chance to see and critique a lot of early-stage company presentations. One criticism that comes up again and again is that scientist-entrepreneurs waste too much time talking about the details of their discovery and not enough time on the business opportunity.
When you’re pitching to investors, don’t spend more than a quarter of the time describing the science.
In one presentation I saw, the title slide was something like, “Inhibition of Protein X by blah blah blah.” I groaned. I knew what was coming. In a ten minute talk, the presenter spent 13 minutes discussing the details of his technology and 2 minutes on the market potential. The scientist felt that it was important for his audience to understand his technology and to convince them that it works.
Scientists, pay attention. Raising money from investors isn’t like raising grant money. When raising grant money, the quality of the science is the whole game. You have to convince the reviewers that your methods are sound and your findings are correct. Reviewers care about the details of your protocols and your publication history. But the reason things work this way is because the only return granting organizations are looking for is more high quality science.
Investors are interested in a different kind of return. They’re interested in economic returns. Thus, in your initial conversations with investors, you’ll find that they’re willing to assume that the science works, in order to dive in on questions of market size, IP protection, and management. As one of the VCs at last week’s Texas Life Science Conference put it, “I’ll spot you the science, now how am I going to make money?”
That’s not to say that investors don’t care at all if the science works or not. They’re just filtering out opportunities in a different order. Due diligence on the technology comes after considering the market potential and the talent of team.
Look, I know that the science is the interesting part. I understand that it’s your life’s work and the most important thing in the world to you. But nobody is going to invest in your idea if you don’t tell them how it’s valuable to them.
Josh Tabin Wednesday, 29th of October 2008 at 03:28:46 PM
Authors Sarah Lacy and David Wallace will be at Caroline Collective this Saturday, November 1, from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. to talk about their books: Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good and One Nation Under Blog. Sarah is a well known journalist and David is the former Mayor of Sugarland. Both are great speakers and excellent authors. There’ll be food and refreshments at the event so make a point of coming out.
It is stuff like this that makes Caroline Collective such a valuable asset for the Houston community. Thanks to Erica O’Grady for all of her efforts as well.
Josh Tabin Monday, 27th of October 2008 at 12:36:13 PM
On Tuesday, November 18th, the Houston Technology Center will host its Gulf Coast Innovation Conference. It will include 30-40 fast paced emerging technology company presentations. This day long conference will feature two panel presentations and finish up with a networking cocktail reception all to take place at the InterContinental Hotel near the Galleria. The first panel includes a distinguished group of University leaders and it will be moderated by Michael Garfield, the High-Tech Texan®. The topic will be “Bridging Research to Successful Commercialization.” The second panel is an Entrepreneur Panel moderated by Jeff Moseley, President & CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, and they will discuss ”Entrepreneurship, Driving Successful Commercialization.” This unique event will include award announcements from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and feature Leo Linbeck, III as Keynote Speaker. Leo will address “Entrepreneurship Life Cycle, Early Stage to Seed Capital and the Implications of Current Economic Trends.” For additional information visit: http://www.houstontech.org/en/cev/746 or call 713-658-1750.
Josh Tabin Monday, 13th of October 2008 at 07:32:01 PM
Startup Weekend veteran and local developer Robert Gremillion has launched CalFeed this week to provide users with a guide of events hosted online. Robert and I talked through the idea almost a year ago and I am pleased to see that he has followed through on his idea.
CalFeed is best described as a Digg for online events. The application aggregates and categorizes online event information from many sources. It then allows visitors to vote on those events so that the more popular online events rise to the top for you to find. CalFeed servesas both a promotion tool for online events and aggregator for those looking to plug into a world of presentations, podcast, webinars and such.
If you are interested in a demo of CalFeed, Robert will be at the Houston Ruby Meetup tomorrow night.
Josh Tabin Monday, 13th of October 2008 at 06:40:24 PM
Houston-based Voxofon has become the first VoIP company to provide service for the new Android platform built by the Open Handset Alliance according to a company release. The new service, which offers transparent cost optimization for roaming and international calls, will be available for use on Android phones when they become available later this year.
Earlier this year, the company launched an iPhone version of their application with some success. “The Voxofon application on an Android phone will help users save money on international calls without any extra steps on their part, says Alexey Goloshubin, president and CEO. “They can simply place calls on the phone as usual, using the phone’s address book or keypad, and Voxofon will just sit in the background and re-route the international calls. It’s the perfect add-on for anybody calling or traveling abroad.”
With the introduction of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, the mobile application market is poised to take off in 2009 and beyond. Several large scale venture funds have been launched specifially targeted and seeding mobiole phone applications for both the iPhone and Android.
Josh Tabin Monday, 13th of October 2008 at 06:08:27 PM
It’s time again for the Rice Alliance I.T. & Web 2.0 Venture Forum. Last year’s event was well received and included Web 2.0 for the first time. It was an event where Laura Mayes of Kirtsy (p.k.a. Skirt) stole the show with her mints and charm. I expect this year’s forum to outshine previous events (partially because I will be participating in a blogger’s forum with a few other Texas startup guys like Bryan Menell, Alex Muse and Dean McCall).
You can get all the materials you need to register as a presenter at the ITVF site so head on over and get yourself on the list of great presenters. The event is very well attended by venture capitalists, angel investors, media and other technology enthusiasts…definitely a must for all startups throughout Texas.
See you there!
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