Saturday, May 2, 2015

Viktoria Krane talks about Crowdlending -- Lendoor


Viktoria Krane talks about Crowdlending -- Lendoor

Where are you from originally?

I was born and raised in Bulgaria. I came to the US as a student almost 20 years ago.  Since then, I had lived and worked mostly in New York, but also spend couple of years in London, Hong Kong and LA.


What university did you go to?

University of Oklahoma. I’m a Sooner. Don’t hold it against me.


What brought you to Austin?

Crowdfunding. I came to Austin for the first ever Texas crowdfunding roundtable.


What is your group’s mission?

Our mission is to help start-ups and small businesses in Texas get crowdfunded loans from friends, customers and supporters — instead of bankers — with terms that work for both sides. 


What need does it fulfill?

Affordable growth capital is crucial but hard to secure for small business.


What exactly does it bring to startups?

Through technology, we re-invent and improve the traditional friends and family market for small business financing.  We make it more efficient, official, transparent, and automated, which is better for both sides.


What type of startup would benefit from your group?

A startup with strong social network and cashflow. If your are expecting sufficient cashflow to service a loan, you should consider crowdlending.


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

Perhaps educating people about crowdfunding. There is great deal of misunderstanding and confusion, especially with the new Texas rules.


What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Everything takes twice as long and cost twice as much. Plan accordingly.


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


TEN has been a great partner in Austin. Local knowledge is very important. 

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Jason Taylor talks about Codelaunch and their upcoming Pitch Day

Jason Taylor talks about Codelaunch and their upcoming Pitch Day


Where are you from originally?

The President of Code Authority and Founder of CodeLaunch, Jason W. Taylor, is from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.


What university did you go to?

University of Oklahoma


What brought you to Austin?

We are based in Dallas (Frisco) Texas


What is your group’s mission?

The CodeLaunch mission is to offer a venue for very early stage App ideas to get seed funding and launched as a service to the hopeful entrepreneurs and active angels in the North Texas community.


What need does it fulfill?

CodeLaunch is an App startup funding and investment venue. We invite the general public to bring their “app ideas”, line-of-business concepts and other ideas that could benefit from software development services to compete for an invitation to our annual event in August.
Along with our own investment, we hope get third party investors will also help seed fund some of the competitors.


What exactly does it bring to startups?

The “overall winner” of Pitch Day gets investment from the software development services company that produces the event, Code Authority Custom Software. In short – they get a partner, not a vendor. They can get their app built for free.

There are many other benefits, awards, and ways to benefit, as well as representatives from Angel groups and VC at the event and networking reception which follows. Competitors can potentially be funded even if they are not the “Overall Winner”.

What type of startup would benefit from your group? Any Embryonic Stage, or Early Stage Software Application (or simple “App”) startup.


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

This is CodeLaunch’s 5th year. We have started 6 companies in our history and helped 2 others connect with 3rd party funding at Pitch Day.  While we have one recent “Exit” we are proud of, and have provided thousands of hours of free labor to the various benefactors, the most challenging aspect is getting people to know this medium exists and is credible.


What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Have the guts and mental toughness to get back up every time you get knocked down when working on your startup ideas.


Key Information
http://www.codelaunch.com/
Applications Accepted via website through May 31, 2015.
Finalists’ Pitch Day event: August 13, 2015 Frisco TX 2:45-5pm, Networking Reception follows.

CodeLaunch is produced for the benefit of the startup community by Code Authority Custom Software and a group of sponsors and partners. http://www.codelaunch.com/.

To attend CodeLaunch Pitch Day RSVP to Sarah Mix, 469-656-5023, 

2013 Winner RentEval “Exit”

More information here.