Are You ready to get Married?

Investing in early stage companies is not unlike getting married -- it follows the same steps.  In many cases the time some investors spend in a deal is longer than some people spend staying married.  The average length of a marriage today is 8 years. I know many investors who are in deals for ten years or more.

Here’s a comparison between getting married and investing in a startup.

Marriage                        Investing in a Startup

Longing                          Seeing others make a profit

Introduction                  The entrepreneur pitch

Dating                             Getting to know the team

Engagement                  Due Diligence

Marriage Ceremony     Signing the terms sheet

Honeymoon                   Excitement of joining a new co.

Post-honeymoon          Day to day work on the business

I draw this comparison because I see many investors rushing through the “dating” process only to find they picked the wrong one.

As an investor you’ll spend quite a bit of time with the startup over the coming years so you want to check compatibility with the management team.  The key areas to look for alignment are:  hiring people, managing budget, and building culture.  Products and strategy will change to fit the market and the current business conditions. 

If you’re investing in a startup you’re about to get married.  Make sure you’ve done the necessary due diligence on the people.

Best regards,

Hall T. 

The Searchfund—Another Investment Innovation

Entrepreneurs typically come up with their own ideas and invest time in building a basic business at which point they seek funding to grow it.  There’s a method called the Searchfund in which an entrepreneur raises funding to find a business which can then be funded for acquisition and growth.  The concept comes from Stanford. you can see more at this link about the basics.  

The search fund concept originated in 1984 and has become increasingly well known among business schools and private investors. A search fund is an investment vehicle to allow an aspiring entrepreneur the opportunity to search for, acquire, manage, and grow a company.  They raise an initial seed amount of funding to support the search effort which typically takes two to three years.  Once they have identified the acquisition target, they raise a round of funding to acquire and grow the company. The follow on funding can be in the form of debt, seller equity rollover, earnouts, traditional senior and subordinated loans, and equity financing from new investors.

One can find opportunities from retired CEOs or trade association presidents, brokers, or other personal contacts.  Skills needed for a  Searchfund program are the same as for an entrepreneur --  a wider view of the world, attention to detail, perseverance, ability to build relationships, and strategic thinking.

Benefits of running a Searchfund include expanding one’s view to a wide range of industries in a short amount of time. One can find a target company to acquire and then lead that company to success with the potential for a high financial gain.  About one in five Searchfund ends without finding a target acquisition

The returns match those of venture funds and angel deals.  The Search Funds 2011 study shows the asset class at 34.4 percent IRR and 11.1x multiple of investment.  Results from the Stanford experiment with search funds provided the following results:

“As of December 2011, 26 principals or partnerships were either looking for a company to buy or raising funds for acquisition; 50 had acquired companies that were still in operation; 3 had deviated from the search fund model; and 71 were classified as “terminal.” Of the 71 terminal search funds, 23 acquired and exited a business, 17 acquired then shut down a company, and 31 concluded without an acquisition.”

I know several investors interested in pursuing a Searchfund. If you are interested in being a part of Searchfund, please contact me.

Best regards,

Hall T.

Greg Leman Talks about the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative

Greg Leman Talks about the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative

Where are you from originally?

I am a Midwest guy.  Grew up in NE Indiana

What university did you go to?

Studied Chemical Engineering at Purdue University, and after working a few years at Dow Chemical, went to grad school at University of Illinois, Urbana campus where I earned a masters and PhD in Chem E as well.

What brought you to Austin?

The opportunity to leverage what I learned over 25 years in research, product development and business leadership to create a new program in Technology Entrepreneurship at Baylor University brought me to central Texas.   I quickly became connected to IC2 Fellows at Baylor  and others who introduced me to the Austin community of tech business innovation.

What is your group’s mission?

Enable accelerated commercialization of things that matter.  In our view this is possible only when we focus on both the innovation and the innovator – sustainable positive impact through tech ventures demands development of leadership as well as technologies.

What need does it fulfill?

As Baylor emerges as a much more research-focused institution, the local need is for easy-to-utilize commercialization pathways that help these research insights to make a manifest difference in society.  More broadly, we are responding to the need for new companies and the SME segment of the commercial world to drive economic growth and create jobs.

What exactly does it bring to startups?

Since we are an accelerator, our key deliverable is commercialization process coaching.  The processes we have developed have proven to be successful in taking ventures to their next key milestone at a 75% rate.  For startups the next major milestone is usually funding the next phase.  In our system most of these startups achieve that funding by a reformulating their plans, which happens as they gain deeper insight into the opportunity set (often significantly altering their prioritized path forward to reach cash positive state more quickly) and also by doing a much better job communicating a compelling value proposition.  Further, we find that teams that have been through our highly iterative process gain such a comprehensive understanding of how all the pieces of their plan depend on each other that when reality happens and they need to reformulate on the fly, they can do so quickly and knowledgably.  We teach them how to skillfully pivot.

What type of startup would benefit from your group?

Pre-funded startups will benefit greatly because we accelerate their path to clear, executable strategy that delivers on proven customer needs.  These teams often have a macro-level understanding of how their technology could solve an important problem, but are very weak on the details of that need, how various customers will find solutions to it and thus what business model will enable a profitable solution delivery system. 

Startups with a successful launch behind them with revenues from their initial target customers in place will benefit by using our process to investigate, prioritize and execute on growth in adjacent opportunities.  By aligning operational, financial, product development and strategic implications for each choice or series of targets, these startups typically discover better rollout options than they had in mind, and gain insight into the talent acquisition challenges they will have over time, allowing them to solve problems proactively.

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?

We ourselves are in effect a startup – The BRIC just opened its doors in January of this year, and Baylor has never before had a tech biz accelerator in place.  On the other hand, we are drawing on the experience of a senior coaching team and an acceleration process that team has developed over the past 7 years.  This process created a highly experiential learning environment that mixed venture-teams with student-analysts, so we in fact have a well-proven product.  Still, branding and market awareness have been two of our biggest challenges.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Commit deeply to your purpose  - your intent to “make meaning,” as Guy Kawasaki described it.  Then, you will be better at focusing on the things that keep you on your path, rather than on just any chance to turn a buck and survive another day.  Conversely, be much more flexible in the details of how you will create that meaning, and work much harder than you think you have to, so that you can truly understand what customers, investors, and other stakeholders can teach you about the process.

What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

The network.  Every time I have needed to add to our team or gain insight into a particular issue, it seems I end up tapping folks who either are or have been part of the Austin venture scene.

Links:

www.baylor.edu/launch

www.baylor.edu/bric

Steve Pearson Talks about Business Intelligence for Early Stage Companies

Steve Pearson Talks about Business Intelligence for Early Stage Companies

Where are you from originally?

I was born in Denver and moved to Boise, Idaho, in 7^th grade. After high school, I moved to Texas to join my family’s home state and get a job. That’s a long way to say that I call Texas my home!

What university did you go to?

The University of Texas at San Antonio.

What is the idea behind your startup?

To provide business intelligence in the early phase of a need or idea development, when that information is most valuable.

For example, if you want to explore where a market is moving many years down the road, wouldn’t you want to know that another company already holds a patent similar to your technology?

Or, would you want to know about an adjacent technology that could disrupt your market and make it much smaller in the near future?

What need does it fulfill?

Many of the small to medium-sized businesses we help are used to keeping idea generation and development in-house. Only when the idea is fairly mature will due diligence be performed to verify future market sizes, patentability, technical feasibility and so on.

We believe this approach wastes time and money. A small amount of early phase due diligence is much more cost and time effective than lots of money invested in medium-to-late stage development.

What exactly does it do?

Our consultants are well versed in technology, markets and intellectual property. We bring in the appropriate expertise for each client’s needs to supply competitive intelligence and work together to develop innovation and strategy most likely to succeed.

Who is it for?

Our typical client is a vice president or director at a small to medium-sized technology, energy, transportation or consumer products company. Any company or institution can be a great fit, but only if they have a culture open to outside input.

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up?

Our challenges are similar to many other start-ups: too little time and forging new channels to bring in appropriate clients. Our business is so novel that it can take 20 minutes to educate a prospective client about what we do and how we can meet their needs.

What is the next step for you and your business?

Persuading satisfied clients to endorse our work publically. It is no surprise that many clients see a competitive advantage to keeping themselves and their companies anonymous.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Make your plans, obtain your financing and network to establish relevant contacts as quickly as possible. Get as far down the road as possible before leaving your current position.

What resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

Input from friends, colleagues and my network. Honest input from a friend beats 10 lost clients on any day.

TiE Dallas Talks about TiECon SW 2013

TiE Dallas Talks about TiECon SW 2013 

Where are you from originally?

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), was founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals with roots in the Indus (Indian subcontinent) region.

TiE is the world's largest not for profit organization for entrepreneurs. It is spread across 61 chapters in 17 countries. The strength of TiE is its global network of 13,000 members worldwide including over 2500 charter members.

What is your group’s mission?

TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, and education. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiE’s focus is on generating and nurturing our next generation of entrepreneurs.

What brought you to North Texas?

TiE Dallas has been serving as a networking, mentoring and educational resource to the DFW Entrepreneurial community for over 10 years by organizing valuable events for its members and non-members alike. 

This year, for the first time, the Dallas, Austin and Houston chapters of TiE are collaborating on a conference, and bringing TiECon SW 2013 to the North Texas region. This conference is a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurs, investors and corporations to connect, learn and create new opportunities and relationships

What need does it fulfill?

The conference brings entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, university and corporate representatives, all under one roof. By providing one venue to bring together the key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, TiECon SW 2013 serves as a platform to raise funds, to find mentors and advisors, for business development, to create partnerships, to learn from experts and from each other, and most importantly to network and build connections.

What exactly does it bring to startups?

In addition to a lineup of dynamic speakers, we have three diverse panels on highly relevant topics for today’s environment. Our panels cover Funding Choices for Startups, Big Data Trends and Cross Border Trade and Innovation. This year, for the first time, we also have a Mentoring Roundtable, where over a working lunch, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to seek advice on specific business issues from experienced startup executives and entrepreneurs. And of course, the most exciting event of the day is the Elevator Pitch Competition, when finalists, shortlisted from an extremely competitive pool of applicants, will get the opportunity to pitch their business idea to a panel of judges composed of angel investors and VCs. This is the opportunity for startups to get in front of investors and take the first step to secure funding for their business.

What type of startup would benefit from your group?

TiE does not have an industry or stage focus, we welcome any and all entrepreneurs.  From technology to hospitality we have a wide variety of members that can not only learn from each other but also provide advice to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Take advantage of these networking and mentoring opportunities. Learn more about TiE and TiECon SW 2013 at http://tieconsw.org

As a member of the Texas Entrepreneur Network, you receive a 15 percent registration discount. To register, click here, select register today, enter your email address, select non member. After you complete the registration page, enter discount code Partner in the promo code field at the bottom of the page to receive your 15 percent discount. 

Greg Jacobson talks about KaiNexus

Gregory Jacobson, MD, CEO, KaiNexus

1. What is the idea behind your company?

The idea behind KaiNexus is that organizations who want to create and sustain a culture of continuous improvement need a way to harness the collective brain power of their staff, and to track the progress and impact of the resulting improvement initiatives.

KaiNexus provides this solution with a web-based communication platform that enables everyone in any organization to collaborate on innovation and opportunities for improvement that drive immediate, measurable impact to bottom line performance. The platform architecture is such that it is easily implemented via a SaaS business model.

2. How did you come up with the idea?

I am a doctor who, during my residency, found that improvement ideas from front line staff in the Health Care industry were consistently being lost or ignored because there was no systemic solution to manage these ideas to fulfillment and impact. A lot of these ideas didn’t need a complicated process and heavy-footprint project management solution; in many cases, these ideas could be more effectively addressed locally in changes that the staff themselves made. The complex, large-scale project management solutions available at the time impeded the progress of improvement. I identified this gap in available technology, and realized that an easier, more user-friendly platform for managing improvement work needed to be developed.

3. How long have you been in operations?

My co-founder Matt Paliulis and I worked on the architectural ideas and built a pre-production early adopter version on nights and weekends from 2005-2010, eventually licensing the resulting technology content from Vanderbilt University. Friends and family invested and a Beta Version that went live in January of 2011, and the first paying customer was secured in the Fall of 2011. This was followed by the KaiNexus 1.5 release with additional project management and event management functionality in summer of 2012, which is the current version today.

4. Did you seek investment when you started the company?

Yes. It was a very difficult process that took four months of hard work. Approximately $600K was raised from friends and family. 5. Did you bootstrap the company? Yes. Matt and I both worked at other jobs until March of 2010. I still works two weekends a month to keep up my medical skills and generate further development ideas for new product features. We were also able to bring in an influential thought leader early in the company, for sweat equity. Early customers have had massive impact on the product design features. The vision of KaiNexus is still the same, and fundamentally the way the software works is the same, but the nuances of how it works as well as all of the major features have been enhanced and refined based on customer feedback. The KaiNexus team has learned a lot in the last two years. Sales and delivery methodologies have been aligned to customer buying profiles, and customer traction is dramatically accelerating with an average of two new customers being added each month.  6. What was the most challenging aspect of starting your business? Neither Matt nor myself have any real experience in marketing and selling, so learning these skills was the most challenging barrier to growth to overcome. An experienced software sales executive joined the advisory board in 2012, which helped greatly. There was also significant “learning on the job” experience as each new sales prospect was converted into a customer. Another experienced software entrepreneur has joined the team, and greatly contributes to the sales, marketing and business development abilities of the team. 7. What is the next step for your business? Our next step is to raise a $1M Series A investment to be channeled toward developing greater sales and marketing capacities. In particular, we will be focusing on automation of the marketing process so as to drive sales prospects successfully through the funnel, and to put in place the necessary sales talent to close deals from this growing pipeline. A new platform version will also be developed and released in late 2014. KaiNexus 2.0 will contain additional modules that can create upsell opportunities with current customers as we also expand the user count in these customers. This additional module portfolio in the product will also create additional selling opportunities in other vertical markets beyond healthcare, such as Transportation, Logistics, Financial sector, etc. 8. What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs? Being truly passionate about solving the problem your company is trying to solve is vitally necessary to withstand the many obstacles that you will encounter. Make sure that you really believe in, and care about, the work that you do.  Be patient; raising the necessary funds requires time, effort, and dogged persistence.  Be willing to talk to your customers; figure out what their problems are and how you can solve those problems is critical. Be willing to adapt your product to better solve those problems.  Arrange your family finances in a way that allows you to bootstrap as long as possible. 9. What Texas-based resources have you found to be the most helpful and why? Austin and Houston in particular have very active Angel networks. It has been good to have an experienced entrepreneur as part of the team who has raised money in these markets for software companies in the past and has a solid network of contacts. It is also great that the Angel groups TEN and Incubators like ATI and Capital Factory also augment CTAN.

Chris Haskell talks about making a career change to a startup

What is your group’s mission?

For every employee in Austin to be able to advocate for their career, resulting in a dramatic increase in productivity and employee engagement. 

What need does it fulfill?

A 2012 study of over 1,000 companies showed over 65% of the current workforce is dissatisfied with their job. A lot of this dissatisfaction comes from people not taking the time to plan a career that is a good fit for them. There is a better way to approach career planning.

What exactly does it bring to startups?

Someone about to enter the startup space can be blindsided by the reality of what they are entering into. We help with the most important step, the planning and preparation stage.

What type of startup would benefit from your group?

Because we are focused on the individual and their ability to understand where they fit in the world of work, we can benefit any organization.

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?

Narrowing our target market and refining our ‘go-to-market message’

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Don’t undervalue the importance of engaging with a personal board of directors, or advisory board. The success or failure of your business may be up to you, but it doesn’t mean people won’t help you out if they have been through a similar experience.

What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

Honestly it has been the spirit of camaraderie from other local business owners. It is good for Austin when businesses succeed, and local entrepreneurs really take that to heart. I have loved the ‘let’s go get it done’ mentality of a lot of the early stage community I have interacted with.

Where are you from originally?

Anchorage, Alaska. But I got to Texas as fast as I could! 

What university did you go to?

I have a BBA in Finance from University of North Texas and a M.Ed. in Counseling Education from University of Texas in Austin

What brought you to Austin?

I visited a few times when I was an undergrad and liked this city so much I moved here without a job two weeks after I graduated in 2005. I got a job in three quick, and I don’t plan on ever leaving! 

Corey Egan and Swapnil Bora Talk about iLumi

Corey Egan and Swapnil Bora Talk about iLumi

Where are you from originally?

Corey is from Dallas, Texas and Swapnil is from Nasik, India

What university did you go to?

We met while graduating at the top of our MBA class at the University of Texas at Dallas

What is the idea behind your startup?

We believe that through innovative technology and design, even the simplest things in life can become extraordinary, and we’ve started with light.

What need does it fulfill?

LED lighting, lighting control, and specialty lighting are all rapidly growing lighting markets, however despite their benefits their inherently complex, expensive, and limited.  ilumi packs all the benefits of these types of systems into a series of sleek and sexy LED lights you control right from your mobile device.

What exactly does it do?

By simply screwing in any combination of ilumi lamps (bulbs) and downloading the ilumi app, you get complete control over your lighting.  Conveniently turn ilumi on/off, adjust the brightness and color, or even program your lighting to do amazing things.

Who is it for?

ilumi is about getting the most out of your space and is perfect for the home or commercial locations like restaurants, bars, or hotels.  It’s a lot less expensive than installed lighting control systems and actually pays for itself in energy savings!

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up?

There have been many technical and business challenges to starting a technology company.  One of the most challenging aspects overall is moving all efforts forward at a similar pace.  All elements of the technology, the market, and the required capital to get where you need to go.

What is the next step for you and your business?

We’ve now launched a Kickstarter campaign to further build the ‘ilumi nation’ community and generate some additional funds to propel us through manufacturing and into customers’ hands by the end of the year.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Go for it with all you’ve got! An idea at rest will stay at rest… an idea in motion can change the world.

What resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

As a first time entrepreneur we’ve taken it upon ourselves to reach out to the entrepreneurial and tech communities near and far.  From our crowdfunding supporters, to organizations like the CleanTech Open, to other Entrepreneurs themselves, there is a fervor about these communities that is inviting, challenging, and extremely motivating.  

Abid Malik with the TEN Group talks about moving to Austin and helping IT Startups

Where are you from originally? California

What university did you go to? Sacramento State University, CA

What brought you to Austin? Business expansion/ base  in a hi-tech city

What is the idea behind your startup? Help start ups build successful companies

What need does it fulfill? It helps companies with their strategic planning

What exactly does your product do? It offers an automated process of filling gaps in a business before and after the funding

Who is it for? Start ups in IT & Health Care

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business? Finding uniqueness  or niche in a competitive market

What is the next step for you and your startup? Find start ups that need funding, team, and consulting

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs? Have strategic planning before you start any business

What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?Austin has a vibrant and supportive start up ecosystem and I've found the Texas Entrepreneur Networks to be a valuable resource for finding the right place to seek help.

Charlette Stallworth talks about Temples Scott & White Tech Transfer

Charlette Stallworth talks about Temples Scott & White Tech Transfer

Where are you from originally?  

I am from Atlanta, Georgia, but I have been in Texas for 10 years.  I lead the Office of Research Business Development at Scott & White Healthcare (S&W) in Temple, TX.

What university did you go to?  

I received my MBA from Baylor University.

What is your group’s mission?  

To identify and realize research business opportunities via collaborations with physicians, scientists, staff, pharmaceutical and device companies, academic institutions, government entities, and investors - which ultimately improve patient care.

What need does it fulfill?  

We help to bring S&W physician inventions – therapeutics, devices, apps, and diagnostics – from the bench to the bedside. 

What exactly does it bring to startups?  

Technology transfer and commercialization; innovative clinical technologies; pre-clinical R&D; manufacture of protein and immunotoxin therapeutics for phase I clinical trials; flexible clean rooms for custom projects; feasibility studies; and clinical trials  

What type of company would benefit from your group?  

Start-ups, bio-tech companies, academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and device companies

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?  

Communicating our services to the market has been the most challenging aspect.  I really appreciate this opportunity to talk about what we do.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?  

Focus on your objective while being responsive to intermediate results.

What local resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?  Our network of partners from Dallas to Austin to Houston has been the most helpful resource, because it allows us to find unique ways to move projects forward.  

Bill Combes talks about MicroCOO

Where are you from originally?  

Originally from Hauppauge, NY and town on Long Island

What university did you go to? 

University of Kansas

What brought you to Austin?  

I met my business partner for my first company, AnythingWeather at the KU.  We decided Austin was the place we were going to start our business so we left Lawrence KS in July 1995 for our move to Austin.

What is the idea behind your startup?

My main goal is to help others avoid the pitfalls of starting a running a company.  I want to help others succeed.  My company MicroCOO covers two areas of interest.  The first is operations.  For companies that cannot afford or are not ready to hire a COO, that is where I come in.  I can provide fractional COO services and the fraction of the cost of a traditional COO.  The second is social media.  I developed a product called Social Storm Marketing which provides social media management for companies at a fraction of the cost of hiring someone full time to complete those tasks.  

What need does it fulfill?

We provide valuable services that are cost effective to the small to medium sized business using them.  A company may have a need for a chief operating officer but not $200,000 a year to hire one.  Instead of a full time COO, we can provide that service at a reduced rate.  The same thing applies to social media.  A full time content and social media manager (just about a requirement for every business nowadays) will run a minimum of $3000 a month.  We can provide the same service for between $500 and $1000 a month

What exactly does your product do?

The COO service covers sales, marketing, operations, human resources, and any operational functions.  Social Storm Marketing covers all aspects of a company’s social presence online.  We manage the entire social environment for our clients.

Who is it for?

Our main client base is small to medium sized businesses.  However we are managing social for several Massage Envy locations in the Denver metro region.  

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?

Getting my first client to believe in me!  Now I depend on referrals and networking to make it happen.

What is the next step for you and your startup?

Continue to grow at a steady pace and make sure every client we work with is absolutely satisfied with the services we provide.  

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

To have a plan, never give up and make sure you have a close group of advisors that you can turn to with questions avoiding family if you can for that advice.

What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

My long standing relationship with the Business Success Center and Jan Triplett was recently rekindled.  I met Jan back in 1995 when we started AnythingWeather.  Her events have really helped get my name out.  I try to attend as many networking groups as I can.  My connections with TEN and also with the WEN network in Williamson County have been helpful.  Really meeting as many people as I can and connecting with them on LinkedIn has helped business a lot.

Charlotte Vorkinn talks about the Norwegian Entrepreneurship Program in Houston

Charlotte Vorkinn talks about the Norwegian Entrepreneurship Program in Houston

Where are you from originally?

I was born in Lillehammer, Norway but I am a so called “Oil-brat” and I am raised in different cities around the world.

What university did you go to?

I have a bachelor’s degree in International Marketing from BI Norwegian Business School and had a year abroad in Singapore to complete my degree at Nanyang Technological University.

What brought you to Houston?

I got an internship at Innovation Norway Houston who, amongst other things, facilitates the Norwegian Entrepreneurship Program (Gründerskolen).

What is your group’s mission?

The Gründerskolen program in Houston is a joint cooperation between Oslo University’s School of Entrepreneurship, Rice University’s Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Innovation Norway and young, growing companies in the Houston area. The overall objective of this collaboration is to give the participating students a taste of entrepreneurship, to help them better understand local business culture, and to stimulate ideas that can be of value to them in the future. 

The Gründerskolen program in Houston is a required component of a MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship offered at several universities in Norway. For three months the participating students work full-time on an unpaid basis with local start-up companies while attending evening classes at Rice University studying innovation and entrepreneurship.

As a formal partner to the Entrepreneurship Program, Innovation Norway coordinates the placement of students in start-up companies abroad. 

What exactly does it bring to its participants?

The purpose of the program is to give students a “real-world” experience in an entrepreneurial environment, providing them with insight into the operation and management of a company in the start-up phase.

Who would benefit from your program?

The student placement program can be thought of as a combination of a traditional internship and a consulting engagement. Depending on your company’s needs, a team consisting of up to 4 students can work with and examine your company’s processes, and provide in-depth recommendations for necessary improvements. A typical project might involve the development or distribution of a new product; how to streamline a purchasing process; creating an annual sales forecast procedure; market research; or exploring the capital appropriation process.

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?

Locating suitable start-ups in the Houston area to host student interns for three months requires that we have ongoing insight into Houston’s entrepreneurial environment. As we have experienced in previous years, some start-ups are simply too young to take on interns as they do not have the available resources required to supervise and mentor these students.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

If you are a Houston area start-up or know of any that could benefit from hosting one or more of our interns, please do not hesitate to contact me (Charlotte Vorkinn) or Eric Namtvedt for more information.

What Houston-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

Our ongoing cooperation with the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has been invaluable to the programs’ success. We attend all of their Venture Forums throughout the year as they serve as excellent arenas for meeting new exciting start-ups from the Houston Area. 

For additional information regarding the program see: http://innovationnorwayhouston.wordpress.com/

Chelsea McCullough talks about the statewide technology community

Where are you from originally?

Lafayette, LA

What university did you go to?

University of Texas at Austin

What brought you to Austin?

I visited the city with a family friend when I was a sophomore in high school and I knew right away this was the city I wanted to be my home base.  So I spent the next two years making sure I would be accepted at UT. 

What is the idea behind your startup?

We’re not a start-up, but we help start-ups all over the state. Our mission is to inform, educate and connect the statewide technology community relative to three key issues: education, entrepreneurship and infrastructure.

What need does it fulfill?

The technology community is an important contributor to economic prosperity for the State of Texas. It’s important for the entrepreneurs and executives that drive innovation to understand and participate in the policies that shape this reality. All too often, the technology community is so busy creating market solutions that they overlook the policies that enable those products to flourish. An example of that is access to high-speed Internet and wireless connection. Without this critical infrastructure, every Internet transaction and every app is stalled in its tracks. That is why we talk so passionately about keeping regulations in check so the private sector can continue to invest in building out the network. 

What exactly does your product do?

We connect the technology community in Texas with elected officials. 

Who is it for?

In a broad scope, our mission affects every Texan, as consumers are the ones who benefit from innovation in technology. But in the purest sense, we exist to serve the technology community of Texas.  

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?

The answer I hear most often from entrepreneurs is “access to capital and a skilled work force.” However, that’s only because we have access to broadband networks and high-speed wireless connections. If those two things didn’t exist or if our networks don’t keep evolving to keep up with demand, I would bet “consumers being able to download or access my product” would become the #1 challenge. 

What is the next step for you and your startup?

We are seeking new partners and welcome the high tech community to join us in our mission to educate, inform and connect the tech community to public policy issues. 

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Make sure customers need the product/service you are providing for them. You can have the greatest, most well executed, most well-funded idea, but if no one thinks they have to have it, there’s really no point. One of my mentors once said, “Nothing happens until somebody buys something.” That has always stuck with me and it always rings true. 

What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

Austin Technology Incubator. They are an unsung hero and impact the tech community in so many ways, many of which are never headlines in the newspaper. They deserve a lot of credit for where the tech community is today. 

Elijah May talks about SocialGood.TV and the ATX Entrepreneur Scene

Where are you from originally?
A very small town outside of Asheville, North Carlina

What university did you go to?
The University of Southern California

What brought you to Austin?
Kid number one. We wanted a good place to raise her that still a film and television industry.

What is your group’s mission?
My company, SocialGood.TV, brings attention to funding the social entrepreneurs, defined as those with a balance of profit and purpose, but we also participate in the ATX Entrepreneur Scene, the express purpose of which is to create a space for conversation and collaboration amongst the leaders of Austin's various entrepreneur groups.

What need does it fulfill?
 One of Austin's greatest assets, initiative, sometimes doubles as its greatest challenge, division. While it is wholly unrealistic for a city full of natural leaders (what can we say, Austin attracts them) to choose an alpha individual or organization and fall into line, it is possible for those in leadership roles to make time - and space - for one another. While collaboration on every project isn't practical, or even possible, we can almost always compliment, support, and promote one another's efforts, so that Austin has the best overall entrepreneur infrastructure in the United States. We want to see more startups succeed here in Austin than anywhere else, not just because more people here are inclined to try, but because we have better peer networks, better access to technology, better mentors, better investors, and better places to go to work building a company.

What exactly does it bring to startups?
 Individual startups benefit, in turn, from the collaborative evolution of events like the RISE Conference for Entrepreneurs, programs like Tech Ranch's Venture Forth, and spaces like Capital Factory.

What type of startup would benefit from your group?
All of them, if we have our way.

Grace Lanni Talks about Avinde

Grace Lanni Talks about Avinde

Where are you from originally?

Syracuse, NY


What university did you go to?

Syracuse University (biomedical/electrical engineering)


What brought you to Austin?

1999 - First S/W StartUp - VP Professional Services & Sales.


What is your group’s mission?

AVINDĒ’s Mission: Educate diverse women who have skills to launch and lead scalable businesses in multiple markets from idea to validation to funding readiness locally, nationally, and internationally; be the go-to voice for scalable women’s businesses.


What need does it fulfill?

AVINDĒ empowers women who know they want to launch their first startup, and aren’t plugged into the Austin entrepreneurial scene. These women are subject matter experts, and are often looking to exit corporate and want to design a $MM business. AVINDĒ is a place where they can learn from multiple seasoned entrepreneurs, share the ride with 25 other new entrepreneurs, and get answers on everything involved operationally to launch their first startup. We also provide relevant women’s considerations regarding self-promotion, IP-protection, fundraising, negotiation, etc.


What exactly does it bring to startups?

In one word, empowerment. Our women founders are supported, challenged, and guided. Many women go from idea to validation to business model design to pitching investors throughout the 15 week program. Others have launched and have revenue, but can’t get their business to the $1M/yr mark. It is wonderful to watch these women entrepreneurs achieve their goals.


What type of startup would benefit from your group?

It’s really for women who want to design, validate, and launch a scalable business. The diversity in product/market and in experience allows us to focus on specific issues in the 1-1 mentoring sessions.


What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the initiative?

This is the first non-profit I’ve launched. There is a lot to learn about the mechanics of the business.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
Be part of a diverse, supportive mentor community.


What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

Capital Factory & TechRanch Events as partner communities: AVINDE works with entrepreneurs from the time they decide - I want to be a CEO of a $MM company. Our ideation and tech transfer support allows those entrepreneurs who don’t yet have their idea to flourish. Once the idea is validated, Capital Factory & TechRanch might be a great next step for our entrepreneurs. Online local Resource - Bijoy Goswami’s - stay connected to other startup communities.
http://www.mindmeister.com/24358308/austin-entrepreneurship-scene

Jan Triplett talks about the First Look Forums and the Business Success Center

Where are you from originally?
Corpus Christi, Texas

What university did you go to?
DU (Masters) UT (Ph.D.)

What brought you to Austin?
Get my doctorate at UT

What is the idea behind your startup?
To make it possible for businesses of any kind to find a mentor to help them ramp up through the First Looks Forum mentoring program.

What need does it fulfill?
It gets and keeps business owners on course.
What exactly does your product do?
Business Success Center ramps up new businesses and scales up existing businesses. Our focus is on sales, marketing, and financial management vision, strategy, and implementation of structure.

Who is it for?
Business owners of independently owned and operated businesses.

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?
There are a lot of details in managing the First Looks Forum program. It brings in new mentees from new industries each month with new problems. They need to be prepared for meetings with potential mentors and followup sessions with us on what else they should consider. It also requires a lot of coordination with existing mentors plus adding and preparing new mentors to constantly improve the program.

What is the next step for you and your startup?
Find additional ways to strengthen the program and the working arrangement with Texas Entrepreneur Networks, our strategic ally for First Looks.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?
To bring in experts to help before you need them. The other advice is to make sure that there is one person examining that advice. That expert guide needs to make sure the ideas work together and not just create more work. The danger is wasting time sorting through all the ideas for ramping and scaling a business that don’t work together holistically.

What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?
I have found the Austin Business Journal and its Ask the Experts section extremely useful. I am one of the ABJ experts but I learn a lot reading what the others say on a variety of business questions.  They are always short and to the point.

Samantha Snabes of re:3D Talks about Her Startup

Samantha Snabes of re:3D Talks about Her Startup

Where are you from originally?

Detroit Michigan

What university did you go to?

The University of Michigan

What brought you to Austin?

In 2006 I brought my former start-up to Austin due to the favorable economic climate. After selling the company in 2009, I went to work supporting NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. In 2012 I returned to Austin as a Social Entrepreneur in Residence for NASA HQ. After reconnecting with the start-up and social enterprises community in Austin, re:3D chose to Headquarter in Austin TX where three of our co-founders reside.

What is the idea behind your startup?

re:3D was founded in January 2013 by a team of six dynamic entrepreneurs with diverse professional backgrounds, yet united by one singular vision: to transform the tangible world through 3D printing. Our founders have more than 50 years of combined experience in engineering, manufacturing, tool and die, research and entrepreneurship.  For detailed descriptions of our team member backgrounds, please visit our website at www.re3d.org.

Based in Austin, TX, re:3D is committed to trailblazing new frontiers in 3D printing. Our flagship technology, the Gigabot, is a high-performance, robust, affordable 3D printer with a build volume of 8 cubic feet -- 30 times the build volume of a standard consumer device. re:3D is also at the forefront of material science, developing novel printer feedstocks including recycled plastics and enriched composites. With a global online marketplace and a localized presence in Latin America, re:3D is reaching untapped emerging markets worldwide.

What need does it fulfill?

While 3D printing has the potential to democratize manufacturing, the technology continues to reside among highly trained engineers and hobbyists in the U.S. and Western Europe. re:3D seeks to expand the frontiers of 3D printing through global outreach, hardware innovation, and social mission:   

Mass customization meets the human scale.  

The vast majority of home 3D printers have a build volume of less than 1 cubic ft, which limits the ability to create at human scale. Gigabot enables printing in the 8 cubic ft range.  Imagine household, industrial, and educational applications. For example, communities are already envisioning 3D-printed furniture, tools, decorative artwork, storage containers, and other functional objects.  Architectural firms can now create in-house rapid prototyping at a larger, high-quality scale.  Conversely, small production companies can now affordably complete in-house set design.  Imagine a micro-entrepreneur in Latin America creating composting toilets and rainwater catchment systems for local sanitation and water conservation projects.  Think big, print big. 

Alternative feedstocks: challenging existing paradigms for material sourcing. 

The materials we use to create products defines the lifecycle of our economies.  3D printing opens new avenues for sourcing and producing objects that will reposition fabrication in a post industrial world.  Recognizing this, re:3D is developing an extruder technology to transform recycled materials into plastic filament.  "3D re:purposing" will not only drive down input costs, but create new markets for recycled materials, thereby reducing landfill waste and resource depletion.

Social innovation with global reach.  

Modern society is facing complex, dynamic challenges that require solutions capable of spanning local needs with global demands. re:3D's vision is to harness the rapid growth potential of 3D printing technology to create employment opportunities and new end users in Latin America and other emerging markets.  By leveraging relationships with local educational institutions, governments, non-profit organizations, and corporations, re:3D builds communities around customized 3D printing solutions. 

What exactly does your product do?

3D printing is a massive market opportunity. It's democratizing manufacturing and allowing rapid customization of tangible objects.  Thanks to the current desktop 3D printer market, we’re getting better and better at creating iphone cases, puzzle toys and bobble heads and handheld objects... but what about tools, furniture, and architectural models --- functional objects at the human scale that truly meet human needs??

At re:3D, we're tackling the two biggest obstacles constraining 3D printing: scale and cost.

Our flagship technology, the Gigabot, is an affordable, industrial 3D printer with a build volume of 8 cubic feet -- 30x the scale of other printers on the market.  Imagine, with this technology you can now run your own rapid prototyping system, at a sliver of the cost of traditional injection molding systems.  Now, we are working hard to develop a device convert plastic trash into filament, reducing the cost barrier to 3D printing and opening high growth markets worldwide.

Who is it for?

re:3D’s innovative solutions address global needs across multiple industries, including education; waste reduction & repurposing; water management; sanitation; agriculture; and impact investing, just to name a few. By physically meeting contributors in related open source outlets, we are facilitating community between makers and end users. The beginnings have been very quick to come - we started the company less than six months ago - but we are committed to pushing the frontiers of 3D printing throughout the life of our company. Success begets success, and it's important for us to be distributed in multiple industries because of the close interaction between all social entrepreneurial endeavors.

What was the most challenging aspect of starting up a business?

Any engineering endeavor is a balancing act between the opposing forces of physics: form vs. function; precision vs. speed; feature vs. necessity. Matthew Fiedler, Chief Hacker of re:3D, optimized Gigabot for performance and size at a highly affordable price point for serious hobbyists and small businesses alike.

A second obstacle has been maintaining effective lines of communication within a distributed team.  The re:3D founders are currently spread across four distinct geographies: Austin, TX; Santiago, Chile; Houston, TX; and Syracuse, NY.  We’ve overcome the distance by rigorously maintaining biweekly video chat tag-ups, and prioritizing face-to-face meetings whenever possible.  We also leverage multiple communication channels including Google Hangouts, Skype chat, and e-mail.

What is the next step for you and your startup?

Our current efforts are focused on delivering high quality products to our Kicksterter backers and showcasing product improvements at the Detroit MakerFaire and New York Makerfaire. In the upcoming months, we’ll also be expanding research in recycled plastics and growing the company and brand through stepwise incremental development.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Don’t be afraid to break the rules. In a world where new crowdfunding, communication tools, accelerators, and open source resources are launched daily, anything is possible and norms for business are evolving.  As a result not only manufacturing, but entrepreneurship is being democratized and individuals and teams are empowered to define the standards for how start-up form and succeed. 

What Austin-based resource have you found to be the most helpful and why?

SXSW.  re:3D launched the Gigabot Kickstarter campaign at the SXSW Interactive conference in the Company’s backyard of Austin, TX.  Showcased at Startup Chile’s trade show booth, re:3D ran a live demo of Gigabot printing in action for hundreds of SXSW participants. The demo generated significant buzz and media attention, which catapulted our Kickstarter campaign. In just 24 hours, Gigabot had met its Kickstarter goal, only to double it the following day.  Gigabot’s Kickstarter campaign ran through May 9, 2013 raising over $250,000.