GameFly, a Sequoia and Lehman-backed startup that is providing video game rental services, appears to be following in the footsteps of Apple, HP, Google and PayPal. The Los Angeles-based company is advertising for an operations manager to run a new Austin distribution center. This will be the second distribution center for the Company, as it recently opened one in Pittsburgh, its first outside of Los Angeles, to serve East Coast and Midwest customers. It is [...]
BreakingPoint Systems, an Austin-based privately held company founded in September 2005, has landed its first customers and begun shipping its first product, the BPS 1000. According to the Austin Business Journal, BreakingPoint, focused on the development and sale of network test equipment, has sold the BPS 1000 to two companies, and has another 25 potential buyers evaluating the product. Juniper Networks Inc., a leading maker of networking hardware, is rumored to be one of BreakingPoint’s [...]
Marc Andreesen has a grea blog for those looking at the startup arena. Rather than news, here are some great resources. Here is a great series of posts to get you started: pt 1: Why not to do a startup pt 2: When the VCs say "no" pt 3: But I don’t know any VCs! pt 4: The only thing that matters pt 5: The Moby Dick theory of big companies Enjoy!
Just a few weeks ago we wrote about Austin-based startup Itzbig. Founded by recruiting industry veterans Jim Hammock and Hank Stringer, the company hopes to bring some 21st century ideas to the tried and true recruiting business. The company has now engaged in some high profile paid marketing. Here is a screen capture of Itzbig’s new banner ad on TechCrunch. TechCrunch has over 500,000 subscribers, and is one of the top technology blogs in the [...]
Today’s Plugged In section of the Austin American Statesman breaks the news that Black Sand Technologies has come out of stealth mode. The report says that the company has been incubated quietly by Austin Ventures for the past two years, and they have provided initial funding of $8.2M. The company has a website which details their co-founders, who are former executives from Silicon Labs. The website also lists some job openings that make it obvious [...]
Austin-based NexTech Solutions, Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer of automated optical inspection systems used in the production of flat panel displays, and FAS Technologies, LLC, a Dallas-based company widely recognized for the development of the digital fluid dispense pump and spinless coating technology, announced this week that they have merged. The merger positions the newly combined company to become a dominant competitor in the flat panel display and semiconductor markets, opening diverse sales channels and [...]
Austin-based Monebo technologies today announced that it has secured Series B financing, but has not disclosed the amount. The round was led by Fairway Medical Technologies, a portfolio company of the Baylor College of Medecine venture arm. The money will be used to continue to commercialize the company’s products; the CardioBelt Wireless ECG System, and the ECGAnalyzer Interpretation Algorithm. In conjunction with the financing, Leo Womack, the chairman of Fairway Medical, will join the board [...]
Builder Homesite is a consortium of 38 of the nation’s largest homebuilders. They have a website at www.newhomesource.com which is a consumer website for comprehensive information about new homes. NewHomeSource has teamed up with Yahoo! Real Estate to provide a way for Yahoo! users to search new home listings from across the country. Above the fold on the Yahoo! Real Estate page is the search interface for real estate. There is now a specific radio [...]
It’s been a somewhat quiet week for technology news in Austin this week, so let me take this opportunity to make you aware of Austin Tech Happy Hour coming up on Thursday, August 2nd. It’s a great place for technology professionals to come and mix, network, and make contacts. Plus there’s nothing like a few free drinks to make you forget about the rain. This month’s happy hour is sponsored by Porter Novelli, which provides [...]
One of Austin’s favorite restaurant start-ups, Freebirds World Burrito, a startup originally formed by two college students in 1987 with 4 locations locally, was sold yesterday to Tavistock Restaurants LLC of Emeryville, California. Tavistock Restaurants owns eight restaurant concepts, including Freebirds, ranging from fast casual to fine dining, and is part of the Tavistock Group, a private investment company founded by Joe Lewis with business interests in life sciences, sports teams and events, manufacturing and [...]
