Marc Nathan Thursday, 7th of January 2010 at 10:25:51 AM
While it’s neither of the two companies involved are actually ‘Houston Startups’, BMC is far from its startup days and Phurnace is based in Austin - it was funded by DFJ Mercury – making it the Houston-based early stage Venture Capitalists first exit. It nice to see a win for the hometown team and this gives them the opportunity to look at more deals in our area:
BMC Buys Phurnace Software
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Houston-based BMC Software said this morning that it has acquired Austin’s
Phurnace Software, which develops automation software for deploying and
configuring Java applications. Financial terms of the deal were not
disclosed. According to BMC, it will sell and support Phurnace’s products
as BMC BladeLogic Application Release Automation, and will embed
Phurnace’s technology into its BMC BladeLogic Server Automation Suite.
Phurnace was venture backed by S3 Ventures and DFJ Mercury, and had raised
around $5M in funding.
The Greater Houston Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has put together a rad video of Houston life set to music by local band The TonTons. With great shots of the downtown skyline, Discovery Green and lots of Houston culture and nightlife, the video aims to change Houston’s image for those skeptics who’ve never had the privilege of an extended visit.
kurtstoll Monday, 4th of January 2010 at 03:32:10 PM
Houston is producing an active iPhone Developer Community that continues to grow. Below are just some of the examples of how Houston’s iPhone Application Developers are working to establish Houston as a major Mobile Applications Development Hub in 2010.
ChaiOne, headed by Gaurav Khandelwal, has seen a lot of impressive growth and activity in the last year. They secured a contract to develop iPhone applications for the Hearst Corporation, which owns/includes Chron.com. They established a new non-profit called the Mobile Application Community to promote application development (see more below). And they also scooped up two of the more prominent technology evangelists in town in Kelsey Ruger and Marc Nathan to expand their operations. I expect to see a lot more growth out of ChaiOne in 2010.
Even though Phodder was founded in College Station, their CTO, Aaron Farnham is based here in Houston. Phodder has also been very busy in the past year. Phodder just developed the new iPhone App for CultureMap. Phodder is also blazing a trail in the corporate iPhone applications arena.
FreeTime Studios was started by Nathan Eror (co-creator of Natuba) and with the support of Hush Labs, and is focusing on creating games for the iPhone and other mobile platforms like Android/NexusOne, and others.
Their first game SlapHappy! is expected to be released some time in the first quarter of 2010. If you are interested in being a beta tester, contact them here.
App: ForeFlight Mobile (FFM) as an iPhone application for Pilots that offers information on weather, airports, hotels, aircraft registrations, flight plan filing, and more.
App: FUZZYLUKE connects your car diagnostic computer directly to the Internet using your iPhone to let you check fuel consumption, run diagnostics, and get other analysis.
Overall I would say that Houston has as much chance as any other city out there to become a leader in the Mobile Applications Development Space (although I think it will take a lot more of this). It certainly seems that there are a lot of people coming together to make that happen. What do you think? Also, were there any Applications/Companies/Events/Organizations that we missed? Make sure to list them in the comments for this post!
Marc Nathan Wednesday, 30th of December 2009 at 06:47:09 PM
Houston’s favorite venture capitalists are at it again, funding an Austin/Houston startup company in the very hot bio-informatics industry that marries software and healthcare.
Cgate Health creates software to provide simple, flexible and cost effective Electronic Health Record (EHR) solutions. Unlike the current landscape of complex, incomplete and expensive Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems, Cgate’s proven software delivers integrated access with a consolidated view of the complete patient record – a gateway to the health record. Healthcare providers and commercial vendors use Cgate’s platform to achieve their goals of productivity, quality and compliance with Federal mandates.
Both CEO Rob Donnelly and CTO Bryan Haardt have a long history of entrepreneurship and startups in Houston between them. Rob was the COO of the Houston Technology Center and later helped found Genesis Park, an early stage venture and private equity investment group. Bryan is no stranger to tech startups, acting as the HTC’s first CTO then going on to become the founder of 10X Labs, a very successful software developer. They are both DFJ Mercury Venture Advisors
The company will be implementing software for the healthcare space via some Fortune 5 (not 500) partners and hopes to fulfill the promise of truly integrated and efficient healthcare system that patients, providers and insurers can use properly.
The Austin Business Journal got some of the facts wrong because they misread a recent SEC filing, since the vehicle for the deal was an old company, but DFJ did make a seven-figure investment in CGate.
CGate Health Inc. closed an $88,200 round of financing.
The Austin-based health records mobile application developer received the capital from a lone investor, according to a Dec. 29 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
CGate, which was founded earlier this year, is listed as a portfolio company of DFJ Mercury, a Houston-based venture capital firm. DFJ is vested in other Austin tech companies including ActaCell Inc., the developer of lithium ion batteries, and Illumitex Inc., which develops light-emitting diode, or LED, technology.
CGate CEO Robert Donnelly couldn’t be reached for comment.”
Marc Nathan Tuesday, 22nd of December 2009 at 05:58:09 AM
Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Automattic, and recognized leader of the Wordpress revolution is coming back home to Houston for the holidays. He’s going to be giving the RefreshHouston talk tonight at Poplab’s new Westchase Technology Center. Around this time last year, Matt spoke at HTC to a huge crowd and gave them one of the best unscripted, from the heart and powerful talks you could ever get from technology entrepreneur. Expectations are high for this evening, but we’re absolutely certain that they will be exceeded.
Topic: Matt Mullenweg Presentation & Q&A Forum
Who: Matt Mullenweg
What: Matt will be presenting on the state-of-the Web, status of Wordpress and other Automattic endeavors
When: Tuesday, Decemeber 22, 2009 / 6:30pm
Where: Westchase Technology Center
Address: 7850 Parkwood Circle Dr. Ste. B3 (upstairs)
kurtstoll Monday, 14th of December 2009 at 04:55:37 PM
Sorry for the last minute post, but I wanted to get this out there in the hopes that you (the community of Houston startups/techs/entrepreneurs/investors) will be able to provide some input.
I, along with several others, very recently received an invitation to attend a meeting with members of the Houston City Council, to talk about how they can best support Innovation amongst Houston’s Startups and Entrepreneurs. Now, I have my own ideas about what the City should be doing to help grow and foster Innovation in Houston (hint: it starts and ends with $$$), but I would really like to get thoughts from the entire community. After all, this discussion is meant to help grow the community (ie. you), therefore shouldn’t the ideas come from you as well?
The meeting is at 8:30 tomorrow morning (Tuesday), so please comment quickly!
Here is the invitation I received, so you can get the full gist of the meeting:
By most counts, Houston is the nation’s leader in innovation. But how do we make Houston itself an innovative city? Council Member Jarvis Johnson and the Houston Innovation Initiative would like to hear your thoughts on how our innovative industries can better our city, and how our city can spur economic growth for our industries. We’d like to hear your ideas on how to implement plans for collaboration, creative financing, education, and other programs.
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Update: I wanted to go ahead and list what my ideas so that it could start the discussion. I will also make sure to mention each and every one of your comments at the meeting, in addition to my own.
Here are my thoughts on what the City of Houston should consider doing to help foster Innovation in Houston
Look to Replicate what other successful Startup Cities have done: $$$ I was pointed to a couple of great articles by Paul Graham (thanks to Brian Armstrong) on what ingredients are necessary to create an innovative city culture that leads to successful startups.
Most of my following comments stem from some of the points that Paul makes in his articles/posts.
Promote a Geographical Area for Innovators and Startups to Concentrate/Congregate: $ Companies get started when there are a lot of like minded people in close proximity. Houston is very spread out and so efforts must be made to define a small Geographic Area within the city for like-minded technology professionals to get together and discuss tech, and hopefully, starting new companies. I took a stab at this a while back with my concept for the Houston Startup Corridor.
More Industry Speakers: $$ Nothing helps to inspire innovation more than hearing from those who have gone out and achieved success. Houston needs to bring in additional thought leaders and speakers from outside of Houston to come in and talk about how they became successful and, more specifically, how that success might be replicated in Houston. This speaker could be mixed in with some other speakers from Houston.
Establish a Home-Base for Tech Meetups: $$ Some meet at different restaurants or pubs around town, but I have yet to see a place with the perfect setup. I have seen one that has come close. Maybe the City could partner with CoffeeGroundz to absorb some of the cost of leasing the space next door to them, which is perfect for events and has plenty of coffee, food, and other beverages that can be purchased to help offset the cost.
Establish a Seed-Fund for Houston Tech Startups: $$$
Organizations such as Y-Combinator and TechStars have proven that it does not take a lot of money to fund successful startups (relatively speaking). The question is more one of focus. If Houston wants to see more successful tech startups, then it needs to put its money where its mouth is (and I’m not just talking about the City, I’m talking about all organizations/investors with investment capital looking for a good home) and start a seed fund. Oh, the things we could do with just $500k – $1m.
Plug in the Colleges: $
Get students and professors from the Computer Science schools at all of the Houston Universities to come together for a single event such as BarCamp and also help to attract major Tech speakers to come to the events (see above).
Focus your Vision and then Throw Everything You’ve Got at it: $$$
Whether its trying be the next iPhone App Startup Leader, the Cloud-Based Computing Startup Leader, or the Web 3.0 Startup Leader (whatever that is), Houston needs to set a focused and audacious goal of becoming the world leader at some new emerging IT/Web/Mobile technology and then throw every resource it has at accomplishing that goal. It is only this kind of focused, all-out, goal setting that will get us ahead of the curve and give us enough time to become established and noteworthy in that area before other cities have a shot at it.
Leverage what is Cool and Unique about Houston: $$$
Houston has a lot of things about it that are cool and innovative. I especially love Houston’s art scene. If Austin is known for their Tech and Live Music, then why can’t Houston be known for Tech and Art. Both Tech and Art involve innovation and creativity { just ask any programmer } and I would like to see more events sponsored that combine these things together into a street festival. (Think EOTribe/Information Superhighway/BarCamp Houston + Westheimer Block Party/Art Car Light Parade/ArtCrawl Houston)
kurtstoll Monday, 7th of December 2009 at 02:43:29 PM
Hurry and Register Now for the Rice Alliance I.T. and Web 2.0 Venture Forum, taking place this Thursday, Dec. 10th! StartupHouston will be also be there LiveBlogging the Event!
7th Annual Rice Alliance Information Technology and Web 2.0 Venture Forum Event Date: December 10, 2009
Registration: 8:00 amProgram: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Company Showcase: 5:00 pm Location: Jones Graduate School of Business, McNair Hall, Rice University Early Registration Deadline: Monday, December 7, 2009
To register and for more information: Click Here To view the full agenda – Click Here Early Registration Deadline: TODAY, Monday, December 7 at 5:00 pm
First 400 attendees will receive copies of the book:1,000 Dollars and an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire by Texas-billionaire Sam Wyly, courtesy of Trailblazer Capital.
Learn about ChaCha, which may be the next Internet homerun, like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. ChaChais the fastest growing website in 2009. ChaCha has answered over 300 million mobile text questions in the last two years. ChaCha’s marketing platform provides advertisers with a way to engage millions of young adults and teens on their mobile phones. Advertisers include Walmart, AT&T, ABC Family, Palm, P&G, IKEA, J&J, Coca Cola, and Paramount.
Register now to attend the largest Information Technology and Web 2.0 venture capital forum in the Southwest. We’re excited to bring you the best IT and Web 2.0 Venture Forum yet!
Hear from 13 leading venture capitalists fromTexas to Silicon Valley, including Garage Technology Ventures (founded by Guy Kawasaki) and others.
Marc Nathan Wednesday, 2nd of December 2009 at 06:33:50 PM
The company welcomes the Houston Digital Community to a happy hour in honor of the growing ChaiONE team:
Thursday, December 3, 2009
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Avant Garden
411 Westheimer
Houston, TX 77006
Facebook RSVP here
ChaiONE is a team of seasoned professionals that offer clients reliable and communication-oriented strategic advice and tactical implementation involving technology, design and user experience solutions, specializing in commercial web and iPhone applications. For more information please email ingrid@chaione.com.
Thursday, 7th of January 2010 at 10:25:51 AM
Houston is producing an active iPhone Developer Community that continues to grow. Below are just some of the examples of how Houston’s iPhone Application Developers are working to establish Houston as a major Mobile Applications Development Hub in 2010.
} and I would like to see more events sponsored that combine these things together into a street festival. (Think 
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