StartupHouston Event Videos
StartupHouston Recommends These Books for Startups
|
 Josh Tabin  Monday, 7th of April 2008 at 03:05:26 PM 
The first ever Small Business Marketing Unleashed Conference is being planned by the team behind Search Engine Guide and Small Business Brief, two sites that have long devoted themselves to demystifying online marketing for small business owners. They’ve taken the feedback their readers have shared about other marketing conferences and decided to put their own spin on this event to help small business owners get the knowledge they need to market themselves online.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux9V_NRfxC8&eurl=http://unleashed.smallbusinessanswers.com/details.html[/youtube]
Instead of hearing a panel of speakers share four different viewpoints, (leaving you to figure out which one is right) they’ll give the stage to one expert who knows how to explain the nuts and bolts of their topic to the small business audience. You’ll get the information that’s vital to improving your online marketing techniques and you’ll get it without the techno-talk and industry jargon so common to larger online marketing conferences.
On day two, they’ll take things a step further, breaking the show down into intensive work-shops that actually walk you through the process of beginning to market your site. Whether it’s keyword research, viral marketing, paid search advertising or a variety of other topics, their expert marketers will walk you through the actual steps of launching your online marketing campaign and will send you home with the knowledge you need to finish the job.
Cost: $975 (includes breakfast, lunch and dinner)
Discount: STARTUPHOUSTON = $125 off
When: April 21-22, 2008
Where: Northwest Forest Conference Center, Cypress, Texas
View Larger Map
Josh Tabin Monday, 7th of April 2008 at 12:00:52 PM
Friend of Startup Houston and all-around good egg, Bill Erickson got some spotlight from the Mays Business School online recently. Bill is a frequent Houston visitor and part of the Creative Space in Bryan/College Station we wrote about some time back. His biggest claim to fame so far has been his involvement in creating and organizing BIL conference in Monterey earlier this year.
Buy his stock; it’s on the upswing
P.S. Great picture Bill. Is that the “one-eyebrow” lift pose?
Josh Tabin Friday, 4th of April 2008 at 09:18:53 PM
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.
Josh Tabin Friday, 4th of April 2008 at 02:51:10 PM
New startup BidMyCleaning.com launched this week in Houston and San Diego. The company founder and CEO, Raymond Aker, moved to Houston from San Diego in 2005 to open and manage the local office of AW Cleaning Services. According to company materials, the founding team’s goal in founding BidMyCleaning was
“to remove the pain involved in finding cleaning services for the customer and to allow providers to do what they do best instead of spending their time on logistical issues and marketing efforts.”
The site is touted as a “one-stop-shop” for all of your cleaning services needs where you can bid, screen, select, schedule, rate and even pay for those services online. Along with a nice dashboard, there is a Cleaning Calculator which records all of the details of your home or office and then provides specific quotes back to you on your job requests.
One thing that stood out was their resources section that provided information about “green cleaning.” I could not determine if there were any service providers listed that offered “green cleaning” but if there was, that would be an interesting competitive advantage.
Check out the site and let us know your thoughts. Our community should be about constructive feedback and support. Best of luck to the BidMyCleaning.com team!!!
Josh Tabin Friday, 4th of April 2008 at 12:31:43 PM
Houston based Vision 20/20 (a wholly owned subsidiary of ThinAir Wireless) has launched three new services targeted towards safety minded consumers and touted as Peace of Mind (POM) products:
My first encounter with the Vision 20/20 team was some time ago when Tech Crunch had done a write up about the POM Offender Locator last year. The product is basically a mashup of sex offender data and Windows Live Maps.
The POM Alert System at first glance seem very similar to First Alert System Text, which Ed Schipul introduced me to some time ago, although F.A.S.T. is more focused on disaster events while POM Alert can be more user-designed.
POM Pilot is a more robust GPS system that I will let the team at Vision 20/20 explain.
Josh Tabin Friday, 4th of April 2008 at 12:09:34 PM
I had a chance to catch up with Kurt this morning and heard that last night’s event was a stellar occasion. Looking through the pictures makes me really miss seeing everyone. Unfortunately, I have been under a cloud of allergies and a sinus infection which kept me bedridden for most of yesterday. Sounds like we may need to make a few tweaks to the format but overall it was a huge success.
So we do this event and the Open Coffee event (with the HTC): what else would you like to see us do? I am all ears (now that they have unclogged).
Josh Tabin Wednesday, 2nd of April 2008 at 09:37:28 AM
AeA, the nation’s largest technology trade association, released Cyberstates 2008: A Complete State-by-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry report on national and state trends in high-tech employment, wages, and other key economic factors today. According to the report, Texas ranks behind California and ahead of New York in tech job employment with 459,500 high-tech workers in 2006 (yes, 2006 data…apparently that is the most recent data available).
So the report is a very slightly dated:
“With another solid year of growth under its belt, Texas’ tech industry continues to be on the upswing – much like the technology industry as a whole,” said Douglas J. Bartek, chairman of the AeA Texas Council and chairman emeritus and co-founder of Dallas-based Tango Networks. “In addition, this report shows that tech industry workers are well paid in Texas, and signs point to continued growth in that area.”
Here is the breakdown by industry segment:
-
1st in computer training employment with 1,600 jobs
-
2nd in engineering services with 88,100 jobs
-
2nd in computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing employment with 20,200 jobs
-
2nd in semiconductor manufacturing employment with 36,000 job
I find it unfortunate that in today’s world, state economic data is only available with a one year lag while national data is relatively current. that being said, woohoo!!! Go Texas!
kurt Wednesday, 2nd of April 2008 at 01:26:36 AM
Speaking of Guy Kawasaki, he has recently started a new company called AllTop, where they aggregate and categorize all of the leading news and commentary from across all of the top news and blog sites. Several Houston personalities and startup companies have been featured recently such as Erica O’Grady, OpMom, and Sk*rt, and now StartupHouston has been added to the AllTop section for startup blogs. You can find us listed at http://startups.alltop.com . Many of the other sites listed are also excellent resources for all different types of things startup-related with information on everything from funding to partnering to exiting.
Check it out and let us know what you think or also tell us if you’ve been listed somewhere within AllTop in the comments. http://startups.alltop.com
kurt Wednesday, 2nd of April 2008 at 01:05:41 AM
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
kurt Tuesday, 1st of April 2008 at 10:41:52 PM
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
|
|
Recent Comments