Category Archives: Events

Events in Austin

Austin Tech Happy Hour is Tomorrow (5/24)

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Last change to pre-register and buy the cheap tickets to happy hour tomorrow. It’s $7.50 if you pre-register, $10 at the door, and we give everyone two drink tickets. We’ll be at Molotov from 6pm – 8pm with all your friends from the Austin tech scene, so please come on by and say hello!

Register Here.

This event wouldn’t be possible with the generous support of Hostway and the Austin Painpoint Job Fair.

Hostway Corporation is one of the world’s largest providers of managed, cloud, and hybrid hosting and email and applications – delivering scalable, customizable Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions to over 600,000 customers worldwide. We are committed to providing SMBs and large enterprises alike with enterprise-class business solutions at a cost-effective price. Hostway also boasts an award-winning partner program to help your business capitalize on the fast-growing cloud computing marketplace.With our flexible server configurations and consultative approach, we help you get an efficient, custom solution that grows with you.

Austin’s Painpoint Job Fair(Jun 29) is completely focused on only four software roles: Java, .NET, User Interface Design, and Quality Assurance. Candidates are being attracted locally, statewide, and nationally who want to move to Austin.  If your company is hiring one of more of these roles, you need to be there.  Visit us at the ATHH to learn about this job fair, and our quarterly Hiring Painpoint Survey that indicates employer’s highest priority software jobs in the major cities in Texas.

Startup Showdown A Welcome Addition To ATC’s Second CEO Summit

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The second day of ATC’s CEO Summit wrapped up last Friday with the Startup Showdown, featuring Baytan Labs, MapMyFitness, Convergence Wireless, VivoGig, and Toopher. We captured some tweets along with commentary and have more coverage planned this week, so stay tuned. We used Storify’s tool to craft the original piece. You can see that version here.

Baytan Labs kicked things off by showcasing their Guardian Trace app, a local positioning service (LPS) for the iOS platform that addresses personal security. It uses Google maps and provides emergency contacts with the users last known location. I caught up with the Baytan team and heard from CEO Mike Davis on markets outside of personal security. They plan to market to enterprise customers as well, providing a cloud-based offering that employees can use to set up monitoring through their department, on a per-seat basis. As good as that sounds, the consumer is still the main focus, with a commercialization strategy that hinges on the home monitoring market.

The next pitch came from Convergence Wireless. They’re in the red hot energy efficiency sector, focusing on tech that delivers wireless-based automation around things like lighting controls. Local startup advisor Ben Dyer told us the company is well positioned with a solid portfolio of IP. We’re hearing it might skip the company build-out and license its IP to someone like Schneider Electric.

The third pitch was from MapMyFitness, a company positioning itself in the health and wellness industry. The guys did a great job conveying the market potential for its approach. They’ve built a solid social network around fitness enthusiasts but were quick to point out the other areas ripe for expansion. They emphasized the fact that there’s really no companies addressing the fitness and diet market on large scale. Their CEO said the number one thing prescribed by doctors to combat illness is 30 minutes of exercise. The other most prescribed was diet.

Needto.com was next up, a company positioning itself to disrupt a few spaces. Their marketplace serves the adhoc tasks and jobs market. At first glance, you’d think the company’s competitors are solely the Craigslists and Angie Lists of the world. But if you grasp where they’re headed, the competition is actually closer to companies like ServiceMagic and RedBeacon. They plan to take the best of what traditional directory services do, and throw in some Craiglsist-esque features to drive user participation and scale. If they can fill in some voids that some of the incumbents aren’t providing — like richer profiles and commerce, watch out. This space is ripe for disruption.

If you were there, there wasn’t any doubt who put on the best show. It’s tough to beat a guy that pulls out a blender. But it wasn’t all show for Toopher’s mobile authentication technology — they pulled out the win. Like some of its peers, Toopher’s market spans across a few sweet spots: identity theft and the broader market for newer security apps. Replacing older methods for logging into apps and services — like USB fobs — is the obvious one. They’re taking that further, though. Because they piggyback on existing logins with location services, your mobile essentially becomes an extra level of security by pushing each request to your phone and giving you the option to approve. Toopher likely has some additional work to do as it moves upstream, especially in larger enterprises and public sector environments. Simplicity and a strong mobile and security combination seem to working for them now, with more visibility sure to come with the ATC win..congratulations.

The last pitch came from Daniel Senyard and the Vivogig team.They describe themselves as a live music photography platform, but hearing Senyard and their head of strategy pitch, you can see the broader opportunities. They’re a content company that enables a huge audience segment (music fans) to create content. And increasingly that creation is happening in real-time and on mobile devices. Musicians and artists are in dire need of tools to get closer to fans, so while that might carry them, it’s easy to see how brands, events, and even sports franchises could tap into VivoGig’s stream. They’ve built a nice web front-end, but more importantly their capturing data. And that data is gold to companies building businesses around advertising and content. You might think of Facebook first, but I heard them mention a linkage to Billboard’s music group. That seems like a viable match. Being the source of data for artists to grow their brand is attractive, but the better bet might be providing real-time fan sentiment and content to the business side of the music industry.

We’ll be publishing some pieces on a few of the other panels, but before that, here’s a few items that were relevant to the competition. John Stockton (not the hoopster) at Mayfield Fund had a few zingers during the VC panel, not the least of which was captured by Doug Bain below.

One of the more colorful VCs was NEA’s Jimmy Treybig. His quote below was particularly timely as much of the second day’s discussion focused on how big the market opportunities need to be to even get the attention of many venture capitalists.

Lastly, let’s not forget the ATC Council team and their hard work. It’s these kinds of events that help connect the ecosystem of entrepreneurs, business leaders and passionate Austinites. Great job on a great event.

Rackspace Chairman Graham Weston at ATC Summit [Video]

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Rackspace CEO Chairman Graham Weston makes the case that the Austin-San Antonio region is one of the fastest growing technology regions in the country. His main thesis: It’s not about the city, it’s about the region.

Who remembers when a drive from Austin to San Antonio meant that your cell phone coverage dropped for about a half hour until you hit the greater San Antonio area? Today the drive from Austin to San Antonio down I-35 is packed with growing cities. It’s not too dissimilar to the drive from San Jose to San Francisco.

Austin Tech Happy Hour on May 24th at Molotov

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We’re pleased to announce the next Austin Tech Happy Hour on Thursday, May 24th at Molotov from 6pm – 8pm sponsored by Hostway!

Full invitation here: http://athhmay2012.eventbrite.com

Hostway Corporation is one of the world’s largest providers of managed, cloud, and hybrid hosting and email and applications – delivering scalable, customizable Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions to over 600,000 customers worldwide. We are committed to providing SMBs and large enterprises alike with enterprise-class business solutions at a cost-effective price. Hostway also boasts an award-winning partner program to help your business capitalize on the fast-growing cloud computing marketplace.With our flexible server configurations and consultative approach, we help you get an efficient, custom solution that grows with you.

River City Circle Hosts Tweetup May 24

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The River City Circle will hold a tweetup May 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Geekdom, 112 Pecan Street. Investors in the group will celebrate the San Antonio debut of Lobo and Lobo Negro brewed by the Pedernales Brewery, based in San Antonio.
“We’re celebrating what I would term a Populist form of fund raising to begin operations,” Jim Montgomery, one of the River City Circle’s founders, said. Investors bought one to two shares valued at $10,000 each to fund the brewery, Montgomery noted.
Austin and San Antonio investors who want to know about the funding process behind the River City Circle can go to this link: www.ez.com/hhun.

Geekdom is growing in its reputation as a collaborative space in San Antonio, Montgomery said. Many entrepreneurs, technologists and developers are now working at the facility, located on the 11th floor of the Weston Center.

Austin Technology Council Hosting Second Annual CEO Summit

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Austin Technology Council (ATC) today announced it will be hosting its second CEO Summit, after a great debut in May 2011.  After being absent from the Austin technology landscape for 10 years, ATC brought back the CEO Summit in 2011, drawing in 100 CEOs from Austin area technology companies. 2012 plans include separate tracks for CFOs and CTOs, and will welcome C-level executives from technology companies statewide.  The program, which has been expanded to two days, is now open for registration for qualifying executives, at www.austintechnologycouncil.org.

“Last year’s turnout was indicative of the industry’s intent on making Austin a tier-one market for technology,” said Austin Technology Council president, Julie Huls.  “This year’s Summit, like last year, will be focused not just on discussing some of the industry’s challenges, but on what we can do, collectively, to remove those obstacles for faster, more efficient growth.”

Austin Technology Council hosted the 2011 CEO Summit in May 2011, which brought together 100 Austin area CEOs, and featured speakers such as Texas Governor Rick Perry, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Stratfor CEO George Friedman.  Dialogue was centered around talent acquisition, specifically the challenge of “recycling” talent amongst recruits that arrived around Austin’s tech boom in the mid- to late-1990s.  Sixteen weeks later, the organization led a West Coast recruiting trip where 30 Austin company leaders spent time in Silicon Valley, talking with candidates about Austin.

The 2011 CEO Summit also helped propel ATC forward as a critical nexus for technology leadership in Austin.  After the Summit, membership grew 40% with new additions to the ATC board include local high regarded tech visionaries and seasoned tech execs. The organization also signed on industry partners—technology companies focused on regional growth– including AMD, Cyrus One, Google, Homeaway, Microsoft and Samsung.

The 2012 CEO Summit has expanded to two days with sessions added for CFOs and CTOs. ATC is also extending invitations beyond Central Texas C-level executives to welcome leaders from other cities in Texas, including Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

The two day Summit, Thursday and Friday, May 17 and 18, will be held at the Hilton Austin.  Admission is $399 through April 30 and late registration of $599 through May 11.  Registration will close at 5 p.m. May 11. Companies that purchase a membership to ATC will receive $100 off of registration. Registration is currently open at www.austintechnologycouncil.org. Information including agenda, speakers, and sponsors will be announced on the ATC website as updates are available.

Austin Tech Happy Hour, April 19th

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Austin Tech Happy Hour is coming up on April 19th from 6pm – 8pm at Molotov, courtesy of our sponsor Turnstone! The registration form is below, so make sure to register today! It looks a little funky in the iFrame below, but you can scroll around in it to get the information, or go to the event page directly. We’re also looking for one more sponsor, so contact us if you’re interested.

Shapiro Interview pt 2

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The second part of an interview conducted by Matt Scherer with Gary Shapiro the president of the Consumer Electronics Show. Gary is the featured speaker at this Thursday’s InnoTech set at the Henry B. Gonzalez convention center in San Antonio.

Q. How can we compete with nations like China in the marketplace?

Shapiro: China is an interesting case. Here we have an economy that is essentially where the United States was 100 years ago: Heavy on manufacturing and factory jobs. Given China’s inherent advantages – a large and low-cost workforce and natural resources – we can’t compete with China on that level. Rather, the United States must continue its trajectory of building an economy based on a highly skilled labor force, the Internet and technology. We already have built-in advantages to help us maintain our edge, but we’re not doing enough to advance it. As of April 1, the United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world and we have a regulatory environment that chokes business. Given the tools, America’s innovators will do what they do best, but if we straitjacket business flexibility we shouldn’t then be surprised when foreign competitors take our place.

Q.San Antonio has a growing reputation as a technology center in information assurances, medical – or biomed – and cloud computing. What can our city leadership do to enhance technology?

Shapiro: It can follow the example set by former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who made growing his state’s tech sector a focus of his administration (1998-2002). Specifically, Gov. Gilmore created the nation’s first state Secretary of Technology, established a statewide technology commission, and enacted the first Internet regulatory policy that essentially said: Hands off. Now, Virginia is known as a tech mecca, largely because of Gov. Gilmore’s foresight. San Antonio should pursue a similar strategy that puts city government on the side of businesses and innovators. This doesn’t mean central planning and the picking winners and losers. Rather, it means focusing all policies toward the end of attracting investment and empowering innovators with the freedom and resources they need.

Q. Is there anything else you would like to add about your talk?

Shapiro: We are at a critical moment in American history. While our economic superiority is under threat from foreign competitors, we are mired in out-of-control government spending and a poisonous political climate, which means that the passion for rebuilding America’s economic engine must come from Americans themselves. We can’t wait for Washington to get its act together. And we’re not. Two years ago, CEA launched the Innovation Movement to bring together an engaged community of citizens who believe innovation is critical to American global leadership and economic growth. Today, the Innovation Movement has 200,000 members, but we need more to help us successfully influence policy. I urge your readers to sign up for the Innovation Movement at DeclareInnovation.com. Together, we can help restore American prosperity by expanding America’s innovative engine.

San Antonio InnoTech named six finalists for Beta Summit

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Six south Texas technology-based businesses have qualified for the InnoTech Greater Chamber of Commerce’s Fourth Beta Summit set for April 5 at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center.

Local business executives evaluated a dozen applicants Friday at Geekdom’s office at the Weston Centre.

The six winners will present their products and services to a room of investors, business executives and technology managers.

Named as finalists were:

Zippy Kid, a Word Press consulting and hosting service;

CallGrader, a telephone marketing coordination service;

CommonSense, a web site landing site development firm;

BudgetDoc, a medical insurance web portal;

SnappTours, a museum interactive application development firm;

PC Junkies, a Kinnect development firm.

Note:  want a complimentary pass to see the Beta Summit and most of InnoTech?  Drop me a line at mattscherer (at) gmail (dot) com.  I’ll provide you with the link to the event.

 

Four For You, One For Me #SXSW

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Now that Larry Chiang has been at SXSW for a few days, he has some mid-conference words of wisdom. A few people have told me that it’s hard to understand what Larry is saying. His thinking is about 3 steps ahead of the rest of us, and he’s always looking at everything with thoughts about how to hack it. For those of you with issues, I’ve decided to translate (in bold). I hope it helps.

This SXSW is for me and the entity that I control: Duck9.

It’s my four-for-you-and-one-for-me theme here at SXSW.

Enclosed are answers to frequently asked questions, confessions and live action business case studies. There are also patterns to recognize so you can pattern iterate and pattern replicate.

Programmers study design patterns. Entrepreneurs should study patterns too. Larry is telling you to recognize the successful patterns, add your own twist on them to improve them, and then keep doing them again and again. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?

I started coming to SXSW right as Duck9 was peaking. It was 2008. I met Hugh Forrest at a sf mixer for SXSW and flew out for 24 hours to catch (and blog) the Mark Zuckerberg Sarah Lacy interview.

SXSW didn’t grant me a press pass, but Duck9 was blowing and going, so what did I care about spending 2k to blog SXSW for GigaOm. It was the same year that Twitter exploded.

SXSW Rising. Duck9 Falling.

I spent $55k one year. It was 2010. That was a great SXSW.

Duck9 wasn’t so great. A bill had passed US Congress’ lower house that initially was going to kill the credit card lead generation industry. The dems had control of both houses and the executive branch. I had Obama’s cell so I was able to beg, cajole, man-charm in a last-minute addendum to this credit card industry killer bill called the Card Act.
http://whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog/2011/05/13/how-to-get-a-law-passed-to-kill-your-competition-dead-for-under-17k/

Larry details his ability to persuade government officials to make changes to the law that favored his business. Knowing Larry, he probably found people who were already well on the road to doing this, and he jumped on the bandwagon using his unique knowledge of how to amplify their position using technology, crashing parties, and hacking life in general.

My addendum to the Card Act was
-1- FICO score
-2- Income
-3- age agnostic if you had a high enough FICO

According to my calculations, I had just gone from hero to zero.

Back to hero.

This law essentially gave me a monopoly.

No other credit company was being run by an engineer with a background in credit card sales. Good news right?!

Wrong.

All lending of any type stopped in America.

Duck9 was dead in the water.

Using the momentum I had built up at SXSW, I pivoted to venture capital.

After all, the VC is an industry that relies on lead generation. And it was pretty broken long before I started to disrupt it.

I got my initial momentum from SXSW when I moderated the VC Secrets panel. That massive uptick in personal brand allowed me to get over 1,000 cell phone numbers of [Computer Science] majors. It also helped me to start #reverseVC franchise.

Enter Stanford University

When hobbies collide… The third triumvirate is Stanford. I’m now teaching my third summer there. I head up the Summer Program on Getting Engineers Street Smart. It’s part of ENGR 145.

Teaching at Stanford let me pivot Duck9 to a venture firm.

I use a credit card with a Reverse Annaul fee as my vc lead gen product. It’s a product with a launch party at SXSW.

And come to my Jay Z party. (You don’t think I thought you cared about me do you?! But as a thanks for reading all the way to the bottom…

See Jay Z #AmexDuck9 #sxsw show Monday night at 7pm
http://whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/see-jay-z-live-at-sxsw-with-amex-duck9/

Apologies that this didn’t go to press in time. Larry, please link in the comments to the MVBP’s that won people tickets!

Thanks to SXSW, it revitalized my company, Duck9

Here’s my schedule
http://bit.ly/vc0310-1111

It’s the same one I sell for $189

Oh, my perpetual promotion machine is no longer a secret. Here is how I did it.
http://bit.ly/vc0310z

To wrap up, Larry is giving you a free gift of his personal calendar during SXSW. One that he apparently sells. He likes find you deals, dear Austinites. When he talks about the “perpetual promotion machine” he’s trying to teach you how to take an anchor event like SXSW, The Oscars, TechCrunch Disrupt, or whatever event is important in your industry, and creating satellite events with your brand leveraging off the anchor brand. With a little creativity (and no cash) you can even get brand name famous people to come to your events, thus legitimizing them. I don’t think he’s that cryptic, but there you have it. My secret decoder ring for Larry Chiang guest blog posts.