Historically, SXSW is the peak season for applications to Austin’s technology accelerator program Capital Factory. The program has run during the Summer for the past 3 years. Capital Factory is announcing that the program schedule going forward is going to align with the SXSW Interactive Festival and Conference. There are several reasons for the shift including: Companies in the program enjoying the mild winters in Texas Mentors and supporters typically taking vacations in the summer [...]
The finalists have been announced for the SXSW Accelerator 2012. A handful of Austin-based companies made the cut out of the 670 that submitted. Here are the local companies you will be seeing up on stage! Umbel Austin, TX umbel.com Umbel empowers publishers, advertisers and agencies with a deep understanding of audience engagement by leveraging vast amounts of aggregated, real-time social data. The knowledge and insights Umbel provides to clients translates into more effective research, [...]
mobileTech Tuesday, by Steve Guengerich Chances are, you may have never heard of Dewey Winburne, especially if you are somewhat new to Austin. I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long time to help change that possibility, in a small way. Because, regardless of whether you never met Dewey Winburne before he died in 1999 or have never even heard the name before, Dewey is a symbol for Austin and its tumultuous, joyous, [...]
How would you like to launch your startup into the stratosphere at the hottest of all hot tech conferences, Southby? Who wouldn’t? Well, it won’t happen if you don’t get off your tail and apply this week. This is your chance to get seen by thousands of interested people, investors, bloggers, press, and media of all kinds. The fourth annual SXSW Accelerator will take March 12-14 at the 2012 SXSW Festival in Austin Texas. A [...]
If you had the opportunity to attend the Austin Tech Happy Hour the day before SXSW started, you were able to get an up close and personal demonstration of SpeedMenu as they launched the application in the iTunes App Store, and as a Windows Mobile 7 application.
The application deadline for Austin-based Capital Factory’s 2011 program is Sunday, and momentum for tech startups and entrepreneurship in general are riding high as the SXSW Interactive festival wraps up. Signs of the frenzy include an increase in Startup Buses from one to six this year, a busload of MBA students from Michigan who are out to networks with startups, and recent tech investor Ashton Kutcher making an appearance at the Foursquare party. With the number of technology accelerators on the rise, the most frequent question I get asked is how Capital Factory is different from other programs. I posed this question to FamigoGames co-founder Q Beck. “One difference we found very important is the fact that the program mentors are also the investors in the fund, and they’re active practitioners themselves,” Q told us. “With only 5 companies in the program, and 20 mentors you get some very hands-on advice and a lot of attention compared to other programs we looked at.”
Here’s a brief 1-minute video I made at Kenichi, where Hurricane Party was holding a fundraiser for victim’s of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. The team at Hurricane Party pulled this even together in less than 24 hours, and raised a significant amount of money for relief efforts. Many thanks to Kenichi for donating food, drinks, and space. There were many silent auction items that were donated, but the only one I remember was Tito’s Vodka. [...]
mobileTech Tuesday, by Steve Guengerich My apologies for the tardiness of our post this week. But, to paraphrase a line from one of the more memorable #SXSW tweets I saw this past week, “am covered in sweat after 3 hours of scheduling and have only gotten through Sunday!” Yes, no doubt that the depth and breadth of SXSW is so great that the question will be debated again this year whether or not the conference [...]
If you’re an entrepreneur coming to Austin for SXSW 2011, here are the events you won’t want to miss!
by Sam Nachbar, guest mobileTech Tuesday (Cross-posted from The Appconomy) In Part 1 of this Markets overview for the live music industry, we covered issues related to live music recording, promotion, and sales and the role of mobile technology. In this post, we pick up on other issues that touch culture, process, and business practice changes that are occurring in the music business, and their impact by and for mobile tech. 4. New Venues Reinforce the Importance [...]
