What does GameWager do?
Simply put, we’re creating the “Dave & Buster’s” for online PC Games. Gamers earn tokens for kills and other in-game achievements (capturing the flag, rescuing hostages, etc.). These tokens can be turned in for the opportunity to win really cool prizes. In addition, we are adding a number of social community features and have many other innovative ideas in the pipeline.
What kind of prizes?
Seriously really cool ones! We’ll have daily, weekly, monthly and yearly drawings. Based on the drawing, we’ll award gamers anything from t-shirts and hats to video cards or a new laptop. We will be offering one lucky gamer a 2008 Ferrari!
How does GameWager work?
It’s ridiculously simple. Our sign-up process takes 10 seconds for a gamer to register on our site. Once they’re registered, they simply click on our “Play” tab and find game servers we’ve GameWager-enabled. We have approximately 20 game servers that are enabled which allows us to collect each gamers’ performance/statistics. Gamers can view their accuracy rate, favorite weapon, and other relevant in-game statistics.
What games are you working with so far?
It’s only PC-based games right now. We’re currently supporting Counter-Strike Source and Counter-Strike 1.6. They are First Person Shooter (FPS) games.
Is the system up and running?
Yes it is. We probably launched a little early, but we’re working very hard to add more features and flesh out the site. We wanted to get it out there and begin receiving feedback from the gaming community. Our philosophy is to release early and release often.
I see you are from Houston. How did you come to Austin?
We believe the first five or so people you hire in the company are the most important. We looked at Dallas, Houston, and Austin, and felt like the technical talent here made this the best spot.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Jessica Hanover of ATI Bioscience Talks about Moving to Austin
Where are you from?
I moved here from San Francisco. I had been working at a medical device company in Redwood City in California so when we moved here I thought I would do the same. There are several medical device companies in particular orthopedic companies here. After talking with Isaac Barchas, I decided to take up the position in the ATI.
What medical device company was that?
It was called FoxHollow and we developed and marketed an atherectomy catheter that essentially shaves plaque out the arteries in the leg and physically removes the plaque from the body. It was acquired by another company.
Where did you go to school?
I did my undergraduate work at Harvard and my graduate work at University of California at San Francisco. I met my husband while doing my PhD work in neurobiology. We lived in Chicago for awhile.
What did you think of that?
It was cold. We left because it was too cold. After three years we moved back to California. That was one of our criteria for moving. It couldn’t be cold. So tell me about CTAN.
We have 50+ members. It‘s a member-led group. We have 6 rounds of deal flow this year which includes a screening meeting and a presentation meeting. Every member writes their own check for how much they want to. We do have a Life Science subgroup which includes about 8 people with experience in the life science field. They preview the deals and make recommendations on which ones to recommend to the screening meeting.
What kind of deals does CTAN see?
We get a wide variety including medical devices, therapeutics, healthcare IT and more. We have a funding raise limit of $2M or less so that cuts out a number of therapeutics because they’re way beyond that level. Also, we see a number of electronic medical record deals but that’s pretty much a non-starter with the group because it’s a competitive space with large players in a changing regulatory environment. We do see a number of life science deals from San Antonio and Houston as syndicated deals.
So how many life science deals do you see?
We collected ten over the summer to preview. We get 5 more a quarter from San Antonio and Houston. Where do you think the life science growth opportunity is here in Austin?
The medical device sector is strong here. The diagnostics and tool companies are a key opportunity – such as LabNow. I think UT is a rich resource that we should explore more. I’ve talked with the CEO’s of many companies. They wish there was a bigger ecosystem here for life science companies. I bet in five years we’ll see many more companies here in the life science area.
What about bioinformatics?
I haven’t thought about it as much. What do you see?
Applied Biosystems bought Ambion and then moved their bioinformatics arm to Austin because of the rich software resources here in town. Just a thought.
Best regards,
Hall T.
I moved here from San Francisco. I had been working at a medical device company in Redwood City in California so when we moved here I thought I would do the same. There are several medical device companies in particular orthopedic companies here. After talking with Isaac Barchas, I decided to take up the position in the ATI.
What medical device company was that?
It was called FoxHollow and we developed and marketed an atherectomy catheter that essentially shaves plaque out the arteries in the leg and physically removes the plaque from the body. It was acquired by another company.
Where did you go to school?
I did my undergraduate work at Harvard and my graduate work at University of California at San Francisco. I met my husband while doing my PhD work in neurobiology. We lived in Chicago for awhile.
What did you think of that?
It was cold. We left because it was too cold. After three years we moved back to California. That was one of our criteria for moving. It couldn’t be cold. So tell me about CTAN.
We have 50+ members. It‘s a member-led group. We have 6 rounds of deal flow this year which includes a screening meeting and a presentation meeting. Every member writes their own check for how much they want to. We do have a Life Science subgroup which includes about 8 people with experience in the life science field. They preview the deals and make recommendations on which ones to recommend to the screening meeting.
What kind of deals does CTAN see?
We get a wide variety including medical devices, therapeutics, healthcare IT and more. We have a funding raise limit of $2M or less so that cuts out a number of therapeutics because they’re way beyond that level. Also, we see a number of electronic medical record deals but that’s pretty much a non-starter with the group because it’s a competitive space with large players in a changing regulatory environment. We do see a number of life science deals from San Antonio and Houston as syndicated deals.
So how many life science deals do you see?
We collected ten over the summer to preview. We get 5 more a quarter from San Antonio and Houston. Where do you think the life science growth opportunity is here in Austin?
The medical device sector is strong here. The diagnostics and tool companies are a key opportunity – such as LabNow. I think UT is a rich resource that we should explore more. I’ve talked with the CEO’s of many companies. They wish there was a bigger ecosystem here for life science companies. I bet in five years we’ll see many more companies here in the life science area.
What about bioinformatics?
I haven’t thought about it as much. What do you see?
Applied Biosystems bought Ambion and then moved their bioinformatics arm to Austin because of the rich software resources here in town. Just a thought.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Brian Ferry of JawDrop Development Talks about Split-shore Software Development
What is JawDrop Development about?
We provide offshore software development with an on-shore presence. We have done a good job about putting project management into place to manage each project. We’re now going to a direct business model. In the current climate where many businesses are cutting back but still need development, we offer them an alternative. The client doesn’t have to take on the overhead.
We have a pretty good run of customers and are getting significant value from our services. We offer 12 month contracts our experience shows that clients prefer to have dedicated resources and the comfort of our longer term partnership
How do you price it out?
We charge a monthly fixed cost, that ends up being less than half of the cost of a local developer. We provide statements of work to set expectations, deliverables and timeline, along with a local project manager, weekly reports and access to code. It’s based on a typical 40 hour work week.
How many people work there?
We have a seasoned team of developers with a range of skills sets on staff full-time in Lahore, Pakistan and here in headquarters in Austin,. We want to provide the local communication needs so the customer doesn’t have to deal with the time difference. Currently we have approximately 70 employees and we are in process of building our US based project management team.
Is it mostly web work?
Yes, we have expertise is custom applications, software mash up, and mobile platform work. Also, some firmware.
What software languages do you work with?
It’s a wide range but lately more Ruby on Rails work. It’s grown legs and there are more inquiries. Our development team is strong in JAVA, NET and Web 2.0 technologies with most current languages.
What’s driving the interest in RoR?
I think it’s the current flavor of the month. From what I know there’s no great advantage over Ajax or the others.
What do you code on the mobile platform?
Windows Mobile and now we’re doing more on the iPhone.
Do you take equity for work?
Sometimes. We can be creative.
What’s it like for a company to work with an outsourced programming team?
From the business perspective it makes sense. But people have had flawed experiences in the past. That’s the biggest challenge. We’ve doing this for several years in stealth mode, with a few companies, so we have the support team built up. We provide career paths for our development teams and most are UK / US-educated. Many of them attend UT for education and then when they go back they take their English-speaking skills with them.
What do you do that’s different?
We develop a partnership so we can provide agile development programming techniques rather than working on a project by project basis. Also, we dedicate a programmer to the same project rather than moving it around to different people. Our experience shows that the developer is much more effective working on one project, than boucning around trying to understand other applications.
What kind of collaboration tools do you use?
We use Montras which is a codetracker and debugger tool. Weekly conference call and written reports are part of the package too.
What are some success stories?
We’ve worked with Clearcube for four years. ReachForce is ramping up a bit with. Edioma is a longer term one. We have done projects in the financial and travel sectors too.
What is the next step for JawDrop?
We’re opening an office in Dubai.
Why Dubai?
That’s where the action is.
Best regards,
Hall T.
We provide offshore software development with an on-shore presence. We have done a good job about putting project management into place to manage each project. We’re now going to a direct business model. In the current climate where many businesses are cutting back but still need development, we offer them an alternative. The client doesn’t have to take on the overhead.
We have a pretty good run of customers and are getting significant value from our services. We offer 12 month contracts our experience shows that clients prefer to have dedicated resources and the comfort of our longer term partnership
How do you price it out?
We charge a monthly fixed cost, that ends up being less than half of the cost of a local developer. We provide statements of work to set expectations, deliverables and timeline, along with a local project manager, weekly reports and access to code. It’s based on a typical 40 hour work week.
How many people work there?
We have a seasoned team of developers with a range of skills sets on staff full-time in Lahore, Pakistan and here in headquarters in Austin,. We want to provide the local communication needs so the customer doesn’t have to deal with the time difference. Currently we have approximately 70 employees and we are in process of building our US based project management team.
Is it mostly web work?
Yes, we have expertise is custom applications, software mash up, and mobile platform work. Also, some firmware.
What software languages do you work with?
It’s a wide range but lately more Ruby on Rails work. It’s grown legs and there are more inquiries. Our development team is strong in JAVA, NET and Web 2.0 technologies with most current languages.
What’s driving the interest in RoR?
I think it’s the current flavor of the month. From what I know there’s no great advantage over Ajax or the others.
What do you code on the mobile platform?
Windows Mobile and now we’re doing more on the iPhone.
Do you take equity for work?
Sometimes. We can be creative.
What’s it like for a company to work with an outsourced programming team?
From the business perspective it makes sense. But people have had flawed experiences in the past. That’s the biggest challenge. We’ve doing this for several years in stealth mode, with a few companies, so we have the support team built up. We provide career paths for our development teams and most are UK / US-educated. Many of them attend UT for education and then when they go back they take their English-speaking skills with them.
What do you do that’s different?
We develop a partnership so we can provide agile development programming techniques rather than working on a project by project basis. Also, we dedicate a programmer to the same project rather than moving it around to different people. Our experience shows that the developer is much more effective working on one project, than boucning around trying to understand other applications.
What kind of collaboration tools do you use?
We use Montras which is a codetracker and debugger tool. Weekly conference call and written reports are part of the package too.
What are some success stories?
We’ve worked with Clearcube for four years. ReachForce is ramping up a bit with. Edioma is a longer term one. We have done projects in the financial and travel sectors too.
What is the next step for JawDrop?
We’re opening an office in Dubai.
Why Dubai?
That’s where the action is.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Discussion with Megan Clark of UT about CTAN Funding Process
Megan Clark of UT’s MBA program focuses on entrepreneurship and helps a Bolivian incubator start up their angel network.
What is the UT program called?
Basically it is a program called Ford Fellows, which is an LBJ/MBA program. It includes a two-week research project during the summer. I got paired up with an incubator in Bolivia and they just set up the country’s first angel network. So what they want to do is benchmark against US angel networks to see what best practices have come out, how deals work here, and so forth. They not only need to set up the network to be functional and sustainable, but also need to educate investors about how angel networks work.
Sure, so how do they do it down there?
They have the typical early stage friends and family financing, and past that the only thing available is debt, but very few of these early-stage companies can do that.
You know, it’s a Third World country, so there aren’t any venture capital firms or investor networks. Plus the country is moving toward a more socialist system. The president is nationalizing a lot of their most profitable industries like natural gas. So that creates an additional level of risk and uncertainty.
What kind of deals do they normally do?
They seem to be doing a lot of technology startups related to the country’s major industries. But I haven’t seen their portfolio so I don’t know what else they are doing. You can read more about them on their website , though they don’t have an English section yet. I do know that they’ve just finished their first angel forum. 4 projects were selected to present from among 70 applicants. And three of those got financed through the event.
So how long have you been with Central Texas?
We’ve been in business for 2 years now. We focus on a diverse set of deals including software, consumer products, wireless, healthcare, IT, and other things such as gaming and films. We look for deals that are raising two million dollars or less, have a complete or near-complete product, and based here in Texas. We look at 30 deals at a time and choose 4 to present to the group.
Is this every month?
Well every other month, we have about 6 rounds of dealflow per year. A screening meeting and a presentation meeting and we don’t do too much in the summer so we did 4 rounds in the spring and will do 2 in the fall. It’s a member-led group and everyone decides what they want to write a check for.
So it’s not like a true fund that everybody pools in to.
That’s right. It’s a network group. But it’s not that different from the family and friends in whom everybody writes a check for the amount they want. I believe we’re more rigorous on due diligence, than family and friends might choose to be. We’re seeing a lot of deals since many businesses have downshifted from 5-10 million dollars raise in the 1990s to a $500,000 raise today.
Why is that?
Several factors such as off shoring, outsourcing, and better business services that are available today.
So what questions do you have for me today?
First thing they are looking for is what the network rules are? I saw that you’re a non-profit corporation.
That’s right, it’s a Texas non-profit.
I saw on your website, something through the membership page, there are rules of membership and conduct and a membership agreement. Generally what do your members agree to?
Everyone is responsible for their own due diligence. Also if you have any interests other than investing such as performing consulting work or contract work you make that known to the other members.
Do your members pay to be in the group?
That’s right. There are annual dues of $1500/person/year.
And do the VCs pay more?
Commercial membership is $3000.00 per member and they get 2 chairs in each meeting.
Can you walk me through the process from _ an application to actual investment?
Well it begins with the application on the website. We use a package called Angelsoft that all members have access to. So when we have our screening meeting we take the list of deals that are available and we send it to the members and they each sign up to lead the discussion on a deal. The members come together and we go around the table and discuss each deal and at the end we each get 4 votes. The top 4 vote winners go to the presentation meeting a few weeks later.
How many people are there in the screening meeting?
Typically about half the group comes to the screening meeting. We review 20-25 deals in the meeting. But the idea is if a deal some votes it can go to the next screening gets meeting. If it doesn’t get any votes then it’s declined out at that point. So some deals go from time to time because we only accept 4 in and if we get more than 4 good deals at a time – sometimes you get 6 or 8 good deals – it takes a couple of rounds before they get in.
So no one does pre-screening of the deals?
I do that. Our three basic criteria to consider a deal are– based in Texas, complete or near-complete product, and two million dollars raise or less.
How does it work if they are voted into a presentation meeting?
They each get to pitch for ten minutes with a five minute Q&A session. They get a table on the back of the room for their demo or brochures. There’s a networking time at the beginning and the end of the meeting. We’ve place signup sheets on the table and everybody signs up for the deals they are interested in and the following week I call a meeting at their office for 2 hours and we go back through their slides and ask lots of questions.
What are you looking at in that first selection at the first meeting?
It’s a one-pager. We have a form that they basically paste in their executive summary. If it goes to the follow up meeting then the angels go on the website and start reading the business plan in advance. So as you go further down the path people are going to be spending more and more time with it.
And then after they see it at the follow-up meeting how do they handle due diligence?
We do share the due diligence but each member is responsible for their own. The idea is if there is a term sheet on the table and there is money _ then you go into due diligence. If not, then we negotiate the terms sheet at a high-level. Quite often it turns out to be an iterative thing – do some due diligence and find out how that changes the terms, go negotiate and do more due diligence.
I see and then all the angels agree to the same term sheet?
Yes that’s the key that we’re all on the same term sheet and that is one challenge. We have to do it. We have to negotiate as a group not individually; you can't have five different negotiations going on, you have to have one negotiation going on. And that’s what we do is try to get everybody to a common offer.
Do you have a standard terms sheet.
Yes when we vote the deals into the presentation room we send them a blank terms sheet so they can educate themselves on the key beforehand and understand what are the trade-offs are. Then when the negotiations occur they are ready.
How did come up with that terms sheet?
Over time we just started seeing the same things over and over again. Also the character of the group determined that we wanted equity not convertible debt. The members want liquidation preferences. So over time we started seeing the same things over and over again and it was finally codified into a term sheet. If people don’t have anything it helps to give us a starting point as opposed to starting with a blank sheet of paper, which is very hard of course.
How do you handle valuations?
It’s a negotiation of course, but if the entrepreneur has the product ready to go to market and the team is in place and the IP is strong, then they get a better valuation. If somebody does not have a product ready to go to market, the chances are someone else does and that’s kind of a filter.
What is they already have a terms sheet?
Well if they already have a term sheet negotiated, and quite often they do, then it’s easier for the members to jump on board.
I’m still wondering about the full term sheet and how it works. Why would you want equity over convertible debt?
With convertible debt the idea is you sign an agreement now and they will convert at a future time when an equity raise is done. And in theory as the company goes down the road it gets more value so it sets a better price in the future than today. That’s the theory. In some cases there was no equity raise and then the valuation gets set arbitrarily. So that’s why the members like equity because valuation is set now and you know what it’s going to be.
And what happens after the angels make their investment?
The angels make the investment and then follow the progress of the company. The entrepreneur should be keeping the investors up-to-date with a monthly or quarterly statement. In some cases we negotiate it up front so that every quarter you’re going to be sending the financials and a summary of what is happening to the investors.
So where did people go to find out about the group?
They can go to our seminars which we run with the ATI and get general information about the funding process.
Best regards,
Hall T.
What is the UT program called?
Basically it is a program called Ford Fellows, which is an LBJ/MBA program. It includes a two-week research project during the summer. I got paired up with an incubator in Bolivia and they just set up the country’s first angel network. So what they want to do is benchmark against US angel networks to see what best practices have come out, how deals work here, and so forth. They not only need to set up the network to be functional and sustainable, but also need to educate investors about how angel networks work.
Sure, so how do they do it down there?
They have the typical early stage friends and family financing, and past that the only thing available is debt, but very few of these early-stage companies can do that.
You know, it’s a Third World country, so there aren’t any venture capital firms or investor networks. Plus the country is moving toward a more socialist system. The president is nationalizing a lot of their most profitable industries like natural gas. So that creates an additional level of risk and uncertainty.
What kind of deals do they normally do?
They seem to be doing a lot of technology startups related to the country’s major industries. But I haven’t seen their portfolio so I don’t know what else they are doing. You can read more about them on their website , though they don’t have an English section yet. I do know that they’ve just finished their first angel forum. 4 projects were selected to present from among 70 applicants. And three of those got financed through the event.
So how long have you been with Central Texas?
We’ve been in business for 2 years now. We focus on a diverse set of deals including software, consumer products, wireless, healthcare, IT, and other things such as gaming and films. We look for deals that are raising two million dollars or less, have a complete or near-complete product, and based here in Texas. We look at 30 deals at a time and choose 4 to present to the group.
Is this every month?
Well every other month, we have about 6 rounds of dealflow per year. A screening meeting and a presentation meeting and we don’t do too much in the summer so we did 4 rounds in the spring and will do 2 in the fall. It’s a member-led group and everyone decides what they want to write a check for.
So it’s not like a true fund that everybody pools in to.
That’s right. It’s a network group. But it’s not that different from the family and friends in whom everybody writes a check for the amount they want. I believe we’re more rigorous on due diligence, than family and friends might choose to be. We’re seeing a lot of deals since many businesses have downshifted from 5-10 million dollars raise in the 1990s to a $500,000 raise today.
Why is that?
Several factors such as off shoring, outsourcing, and better business services that are available today.
So what questions do you have for me today?
First thing they are looking for is what the network rules are? I saw that you’re a non-profit corporation.
That’s right, it’s a Texas non-profit.
I saw on your website, something through the membership page, there are rules of membership and conduct and a membership agreement. Generally what do your members agree to?
Everyone is responsible for their own due diligence. Also if you have any interests other than investing such as performing consulting work or contract work you make that known to the other members.
Do your members pay to be in the group?
That’s right. There are annual dues of $1500/person/year.
And do the VCs pay more?
Commercial membership is $3000.00 per member and they get 2 chairs in each meeting.
Can you walk me through the process from _ an application to actual investment?
Well it begins with the application on the website. We use a package called Angelsoft that all members have access to. So when we have our screening meeting we take the list of deals that are available and we send it to the members and they each sign up to lead the discussion on a deal. The members come together and we go around the table and discuss each deal and at the end we each get 4 votes. The top 4 vote winners go to the presentation meeting a few weeks later.
How many people are there in the screening meeting?
Typically about half the group comes to the screening meeting. We review 20-25 deals in the meeting. But the idea is if a deal some votes it can go to the next screening gets meeting. If it doesn’t get any votes then it’s declined out at that point. So some deals go from time to time because we only accept 4 in and if we get more than 4 good deals at a time – sometimes you get 6 or 8 good deals – it takes a couple of rounds before they get in.
So no one does pre-screening of the deals?
I do that. Our three basic criteria to consider a deal are– based in Texas, complete or near-complete product, and two million dollars raise or less.
How does it work if they are voted into a presentation meeting?
They each get to pitch for ten minutes with a five minute Q&A session. They get a table on the back of the room for their demo or brochures. There’s a networking time at the beginning and the end of the meeting. We’ve place signup sheets on the table and everybody signs up for the deals they are interested in and the following week I call a meeting at their office for 2 hours and we go back through their slides and ask lots of questions.
What are you looking at in that first selection at the first meeting?
It’s a one-pager. We have a form that they basically paste in their executive summary. If it goes to the follow up meeting then the angels go on the website and start reading the business plan in advance. So as you go further down the path people are going to be spending more and more time with it.
And then after they see it at the follow-up meeting how do they handle due diligence?
We do share the due diligence but each member is responsible for their own. The idea is if there is a term sheet on the table and there is money _ then you go into due diligence. If not, then we negotiate the terms sheet at a high-level. Quite often it turns out to be an iterative thing – do some due diligence and find out how that changes the terms, go negotiate and do more due diligence.
I see and then all the angels agree to the same term sheet?
Yes that’s the key that we’re all on the same term sheet and that is one challenge. We have to do it. We have to negotiate as a group not individually; you can't have five different negotiations going on, you have to have one negotiation going on. And that’s what we do is try to get everybody to a common offer.
Do you have a standard terms sheet.
Yes when we vote the deals into the presentation room we send them a blank terms sheet so they can educate themselves on the key beforehand and understand what are the trade-offs are. Then when the negotiations occur they are ready.
How did come up with that terms sheet?
Over time we just started seeing the same things over and over again. Also the character of the group determined that we wanted equity not convertible debt. The members want liquidation preferences. So over time we started seeing the same things over and over again and it was finally codified into a term sheet. If people don’t have anything it helps to give us a starting point as opposed to starting with a blank sheet of paper, which is very hard of course.
How do you handle valuations?
It’s a negotiation of course, but if the entrepreneur has the product ready to go to market and the team is in place and the IP is strong, then they get a better valuation. If somebody does not have a product ready to go to market, the chances are someone else does and that’s kind of a filter.
What is they already have a terms sheet?
Well if they already have a term sheet negotiated, and quite often they do, then it’s easier for the members to jump on board.
I’m still wondering about the full term sheet and how it works. Why would you want equity over convertible debt?
With convertible debt the idea is you sign an agreement now and they will convert at a future time when an equity raise is done. And in theory as the company goes down the road it gets more value so it sets a better price in the future than today. That’s the theory. In some cases there was no equity raise and then the valuation gets set arbitrarily. So that’s why the members like equity because valuation is set now and you know what it’s going to be.
And what happens after the angels make their investment?
The angels make the investment and then follow the progress of the company. The entrepreneur should be keeping the investors up-to-date with a monthly or quarterly statement. In some cases we negotiate it up front so that every quarter you’re going to be sending the financials and a summary of what is happening to the investors.
So where did people go to find out about the group?
They can go to our seminars which we run with the ATI and get general information about the funding process.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Alan Pita, President of Logic Refinery, Inc. Talks about System Verification
What is the problem Logic Refinery is trying to solve?
More than 50% of system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs come back from their
first tape-out event with hardware that simply doesn't work well enough to ship. The multimillion-dollar engineering costs associated with doing another tape-out (called a "re-spin") are typically dwarfed by the cost of lost time-to-market.
How are you solving that?
The common approach to verification is to write a software program called a "testbench" to verify virtual models of the chip using software simulation, and sometimes hardware emulation. This approach worked very well for simpler designs. The industry has discovered that it simply doesn't give verification teams enough leverage to verify the more complex SoC designs in a reasonable time.
Our product is a software program we have named the "Strategen Verification Engine". It's the first tool designed to fully solve the system verification problem, and it's vastly more effective than the testbench-only approach. Applying Strategen to their verification plan accelerates and enables the whole system verification effort, allowing all of the critical bugs to be found and fixed before the
first tape-out.
How will your customers estimate the value of our product?
Applying Strategen does have a substantial productivity benefit; however, the real value of Strategen is not merely a function of team acceleration. For the management of SoC design firms, verification is seen as a risk management game. The industry is at a crisis point because they simply can't make the risk of failed SoC tape-outs go away with staffing, schedule, and existing tools. The approach behind Strategen has the ability to close this business risk for management, enabling them to plan for "first silicon success".
Who are you targeting to buy the system?
Firms that are doing system-on-a-chip design, especially the more complex SoC designs with hundreds of IP blocks. There are hundreds of these firms, with thousands of tape-out events every year.
Do you have any customers so far?
We are presently scheduling demos and initiating Alpha testing at customer sites. We'd like to convert some of these Alpha sites into paying customers over the next 6 months or so.
How much will you need to get the company up and running?
Our advisors estimate between four and eight million dollars will be needed in several funding rounds to take us all the way to exit. We’ll start with a first round of about $1.5M USD to get the product and associated business processes prepared for a full-on sales and marketing effort and get the first few paying customers signed up.
What is your beachhead market –say the first 20 customers you’ll go
after?
Basically there are 195 ARM licensees. These are our ideal customers. Again, the verification problem is something that all of our customers recognize and they can't spend enough money to solve it.
Best regards,
Hall T.
More than 50% of system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs come back from their
first tape-out event with hardware that simply doesn't work well enough to ship. The multimillion-dollar engineering costs associated with doing another tape-out (called a "re-spin") are typically dwarfed by the cost of lost time-to-market.
How are you solving that?
The common approach to verification is to write a software program called a "testbench" to verify virtual models of the chip using software simulation, and sometimes hardware emulation. This approach worked very well for simpler designs. The industry has discovered that it simply doesn't give verification teams enough leverage to verify the more complex SoC designs in a reasonable time.
Our product is a software program we have named the "Strategen Verification Engine". It's the first tool designed to fully solve the system verification problem, and it's vastly more effective than the testbench-only approach. Applying Strategen to their verification plan accelerates and enables the whole system verification effort, allowing all of the critical bugs to be found and fixed before the
first tape-out.
How will your customers estimate the value of our product?
Applying Strategen does have a substantial productivity benefit; however, the real value of Strategen is not merely a function of team acceleration. For the management of SoC design firms, verification is seen as a risk management game. The industry is at a crisis point because they simply can't make the risk of failed SoC tape-outs go away with staffing, schedule, and existing tools. The approach behind Strategen has the ability to close this business risk for management, enabling them to plan for "first silicon success".
Who are you targeting to buy the system?
Firms that are doing system-on-a-chip design, especially the more complex SoC designs with hundreds of IP blocks. There are hundreds of these firms, with thousands of tape-out events every year.
Do you have any customers so far?
We are presently scheduling demos and initiating Alpha testing at customer sites. We'd like to convert some of these Alpha sites into paying customers over the next 6 months or so.
How much will you need to get the company up and running?
Our advisors estimate between four and eight million dollars will be needed in several funding rounds to take us all the way to exit. We’ll start with a first round of about $1.5M USD to get the product and associated business processes prepared for a full-on sales and marketing effort and get the first few paying customers signed up.
What is your beachhead market –say the first 20 customers you’ll go
after?
Basically there are 195 ARM licensees. These are our ideal customers. Again, the verification problem is something that all of our customers recognize and they can't spend enough money to solve it.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Julie Gomoll of LaunchPad CoWorking Talks about the Shared Office Space Trend and Her New Startup
Julie Gomoll of LaunchPad Coworking Talks about the Shared Office Space Trend and Her New Startup
What is LaunchPad Coworking and how is it different from conjunctured workspace?
LaunchPad is very much a for profit business while conjunctured workspace is a shared workspace that is not necessarily a business. They are trying to get enough people to pay the rent and provide space to their members. We’re doing very high end desk space for rent in an open floor plan. We have 30 individual workspaces, 6 meeting rooms, and a built-in café that’s open to the public.
How much will it cost for someone to use the facilities?
It will cost $12 to $15/hour for an individual space and $30 to$90/hour for a meeting room.
Do you have any members signed up so far?
Conjunctured workspaces sign up members while we’re offering it on an hourly basis. Having said that I do have a number of people verbally committing to use the space. We’re building a reservation system to support it.
When do you plan to open and where will it be?
We plan to open in October and it’s located at 8th and Brazos.
Why downtown?
It’s the heart of our demographic. I think Austin can support a lot of these. It’s the future of how we’re going to work. The population downtown is growing due to the high rises going up. We’re within walking distances of 13 hotels. Our primary target is the independent worker in Austin. Our secondary target is out of town companies that come here for recruiting, interviewing students, and those who come to the convention center.
What else are you offering besides space?
We’re fortunate to already have fiber in the building. We can offer a gigabyte connection to our users. Someone with incredible foresight in the 1970s put fiber all over town. It was already there.
How did you get involved with this?
In my 20s I wanted to open a bar where interesting people came and had smart conversations. I later found out that smart people do not hang out in bars all day and that interesting conversations rarely happen there at 2pm. I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole career and in these last eight years I’ve been working in coffee shops and it’s so not working. They’re crowded. The idea started as a coffee shop that was conducive to working with outlets and workspaces and it grew into working space with a coffee shop inside it.
Coworking is growing trend?
You see it growing around the world. I like what they are doing with conjunctured workspace. I like the spirit of what they are doing. Our values are similar but I want a nice place to work with a professional appearance. For people traveling and coming to town, they can bring clients and get the services they need.
What about other services?
We’ll offer videoconferencing., and our café will serve healthy local food, specialty coffee drinks, and beer & wine.
Best regards,
Hall T.
What is LaunchPad Coworking and how is it different from conjunctured workspace?
LaunchPad is very much a for profit business while conjunctured workspace is a shared workspace that is not necessarily a business. They are trying to get enough people to pay the rent and provide space to their members. We’re doing very high end desk space for rent in an open floor plan. We have 30 individual workspaces, 6 meeting rooms, and a built-in café that’s open to the public.
How much will it cost for someone to use the facilities?
It will cost $12 to $15/hour for an individual space and $30 to$90/hour for a meeting room.
Do you have any members signed up so far?
Conjunctured workspaces sign up members while we’re offering it on an hourly basis. Having said that I do have a number of people verbally committing to use the space. We’re building a reservation system to support it.
When do you plan to open and where will it be?
We plan to open in October and it’s located at 8th and Brazos.
Why downtown?
It’s the heart of our demographic. I think Austin can support a lot of these. It’s the future of how we’re going to work. The population downtown is growing due to the high rises going up. We’re within walking distances of 13 hotels. Our primary target is the independent worker in Austin. Our secondary target is out of town companies that come here for recruiting, interviewing students, and those who come to the convention center.
What else are you offering besides space?
We’re fortunate to already have fiber in the building. We can offer a gigabyte connection to our users. Someone with incredible foresight in the 1970s put fiber all over town. It was already there.
How did you get involved with this?
In my 20s I wanted to open a bar where interesting people came and had smart conversations. I later found out that smart people do not hang out in bars all day and that interesting conversations rarely happen there at 2pm. I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole career and in these last eight years I’ve been working in coffee shops and it’s so not working. They’re crowded. The idea started as a coffee shop that was conducive to working with outlets and workspaces and it grew into working space with a coffee shop inside it.
Coworking is growing trend?
You see it growing around the world. I like what they are doing with conjunctured workspace. I like the spirit of what they are doing. Our values are similar but I want a nice place to work with a professional appearance. For people traveling and coming to town, they can bring clients and get the services they need.
What about other services?
We’ll offer videoconferencing., and our café will serve healthy local food, specialty coffee drinks, and beer & wine.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Raymond McGlamery of DARE talks about Improving Guitar Acoustics
What does DARE do?
DARE Music Group is a musical instrument company, specifically electric and acoustic guitars and basses and after market products. We have an acoustics physicist and instrument maker in Wichita, Kansas who has patents on nose cones for jet planes and many other applications related to the acoustic properties of air . He came up with some designs for acoustics that could be built into guitars or added onto them. So it’s both an aftermarket product and a production product. Ten million acoustic guitars are sold every year and we can make each of them sound better.
What does it do?
We call it an O-Port and it increases the energy inside the guitar and gives you better resonation and better tone. It works the interior of the guitar harder so when the sound waves come out they have more focused energy and tone to it. It also happens to kill feedback. You no longer need your feedback buster which is a plastic piece which kills some of the acoustics and changes the sound of your guitar. Our device has the energy coming out so strong that you can turn the gain down half way which is what causes the feedback.
What is the go-to-market strategy?
One of our partners was starting a guitar company with a roster of musicians behind it including some of the best known players in the music business. We can get our guitars on stage in their tours. We will be establishing distribution channels through Best Buy, Guitar Center, and more. We have contacts at the Hard Rock Café which will help us on the roll out.
What is the price point?
It’ll retail for around $25 which some consider to be low. It can upgrade any acoustic guitar and make it sound better. We have other patented products that will work in conjunction with our first device.
How about the patents?
We have worldwide patents on it including the phase-plug with more on the drawing board.
What about manufacturing?
We’ve tested the prototype and have the manufacturing for the add-on will be in the US and our guitar lines will be made in Romania and Asia. The Eastern Bloc countries do quality work but their prices are starting to go up because it’s the hot new spot. We also plan to differentiate ourselves by adding an attractive design on the product. We have a team of high profile artists wanting to design graphics for our instrument lines.
Best regards,
Hall T.
DARE Music Group is a musical instrument company, specifically electric and acoustic guitars and basses and after market products. We have an acoustics physicist and instrument maker in Wichita, Kansas who has patents on nose cones for jet planes and many other applications related to the acoustic properties of air . He came up with some designs for acoustics that could be built into guitars or added onto them. So it’s both an aftermarket product and a production product. Ten million acoustic guitars are sold every year and we can make each of them sound better.
What does it do?
We call it an O-Port and it increases the energy inside the guitar and gives you better resonation and better tone. It works the interior of the guitar harder so when the sound waves come out they have more focused energy and tone to it. It also happens to kill feedback. You no longer need your feedback buster which is a plastic piece which kills some of the acoustics and changes the sound of your guitar. Our device has the energy coming out so strong that you can turn the gain down half way which is what causes the feedback.
What is the go-to-market strategy?
One of our partners was starting a guitar company with a roster of musicians behind it including some of the best known players in the music business. We can get our guitars on stage in their tours. We will be establishing distribution channels through Best Buy, Guitar Center, and more. We have contacts at the Hard Rock Café which will help us on the roll out.
What is the price point?
It’ll retail for around $25 which some consider to be low. It can upgrade any acoustic guitar and make it sound better. We have other patented products that will work in conjunction with our first device.
How about the patents?
We have worldwide patents on it including the phase-plug with more on the drawing board.
What about manufacturing?
We’ve tested the prototype and have the manufacturing for the add-on will be in the US and our guitar lines will be made in Romania and Asia. The Eastern Bloc countries do quality work but their prices are starting to go up because it’s the hot new spot. We also plan to differentiate ourselves by adding an attractive design on the product. We have a team of high profile artists wanting to design graphics for our instrument lines.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Scott Bils of Conformity talks about the SAAS Market
Scott Bils of Conformity talks about the SAAS market, the growth, the challenges, and the hot areas.
Why do you call your new company ‘Conformity?’
We work with SAAS applications and focus on providing companies conformity across their usage of those applications. Typically, users have no common oversight over their SAAS applications so that’s what we provide. It’s conformed usage of the application.
What’s a typical scenario in which your product works?
A typical user has a number of SAAS applications – say Salesforce.com for CRM and Google applications for a number of functions, and NetSuite for ERP. Today, you have to setup credentials for each package separately and then track usage, access rights, etc, separately. It’s usually distributed across the organization. We enable control and usage tracking in a central platform for better management of resources.
How is the SAAS market doing?
We see SAAS adoption by companies, particularly enterprises, accelerating in the coming years. Today, a typical midmarket company has around three SAAS applications and they are being managed by silo. We’re finding enough SAAS applications out there now that you can get what you want to build out your company. ERP has some gaps but for most applications there’s a SAAS application out there.
What are the challenges in using SAAS applications?
Companies find they need to centralize access to those applications since they need to know who has access to what. Customers also want to track usage of the applications. There also needs compliance management as well.
What is your beachhead market for this?
We’re going after the mid-range 250 to 1000 employee company in verticals that have been aggressive early adopters of SAAS, including technology, financial services and business servicest. Wherever Salesforce is deployed tends to be a target customer for us.
Do you have any customers yet? Any market validation?
We have several that are Beta testing the product now, and have built an early pipeline of prospects that have indicated strong interest in our solution
Why do they choose SAAS?
The overall cost is lower and the operational model is easier to implement and maintain. Business users love it because they don’t have to get IT involved. It’s a double-edged sword. If you’re a user you like the ability to get up and running quickly, but if you take the IT view, you want some control for compliance and security issues.
Within the SAAS arena what applications are hot?
HR usage is hot right now. Talent and performance management are big.
Do you sell to legal or healthcare companies since they have regulatory control?
Eventually, it will be sold there but not much yet. But that’s the problem we’re solving. For a company that wants the benefits of SAAS but needs some control we can help them. Someone trying to achieve Sarbanes-Oxley compatibility is a key target for us.
How do you price your software?
It’s not based on number of applications but by employee user per month.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Why do you call your new company ‘Conformity?’
We work with SAAS applications and focus on providing companies conformity across their usage of those applications. Typically, users have no common oversight over their SAAS applications so that’s what we provide. It’s conformed usage of the application.
What’s a typical scenario in which your product works?
A typical user has a number of SAAS applications – say Salesforce.com for CRM and Google applications for a number of functions, and NetSuite for ERP. Today, you have to setup credentials for each package separately and then track usage, access rights, etc, separately. It’s usually distributed across the organization. We enable control and usage tracking in a central platform for better management of resources.
How is the SAAS market doing?
We see SAAS adoption by companies, particularly enterprises, accelerating in the coming years. Today, a typical midmarket company has around three SAAS applications and they are being managed by silo. We’re finding enough SAAS applications out there now that you can get what you want to build out your company. ERP has some gaps but for most applications there’s a SAAS application out there.
What are the challenges in using SAAS applications?
Companies find they need to centralize access to those applications since they need to know who has access to what. Customers also want to track usage of the applications. There also needs compliance management as well.
What is your beachhead market for this?
We’re going after the mid-range 250 to 1000 employee company in verticals that have been aggressive early adopters of SAAS, including technology, financial services and business servicest. Wherever Salesforce is deployed tends to be a target customer for us.
Do you have any customers yet? Any market validation?
We have several that are Beta testing the product now, and have built an early pipeline of prospects that have indicated strong interest in our solution
Why do they choose SAAS?
The overall cost is lower and the operational model is easier to implement and maintain. Business users love it because they don’t have to get IT involved. It’s a double-edged sword. If you’re a user you like the ability to get up and running quickly, but if you take the IT view, you want some control for compliance and security issues.
Within the SAAS arena what applications are hot?
HR usage is hot right now. Talent and performance management are big.
Do you sell to legal or healthcare companies since they have regulatory control?
Eventually, it will be sold there but not much yet. But that’s the problem we’re solving. For a company that wants the benefits of SAAS but needs some control we can help them. Someone trying to achieve Sarbanes-Oxley compatibility is a key target for us.
How do you price your software?
It’s not based on number of applications but by employee user per month.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Andy O’Neil and Gavino Morin of Bluepoint talk about the Gaming Industry and their Game Engine Development System
You guys have built a game engine, is that right?
Yes, we built the Bluepoint Engine which targets next generation consoles.
What is the capital for game engines on average?
Building a game engine from scratch is expensive. A high-end game engine takes tens of programmer-years to build and can cost millions of dollars to develop and test, and you won’t know how well it will work until after you’ve sunk all that time and money into it. This is why so many game developers license the technology from third parties. A lot depends on the platform; it’s easier to build an engine for a well-understood platform like a PC than for a next generation console such as the PS3.
So what market are you going after with your game engine?
Our engine is targeted towards high-end console developers. We built the Bluepoint Engine with two overriding design principles in mind. First, we designed it to produce high-performance games. This means that developers can use the Bluepoint Engine to develop games with better graphics, more features and more interesting game play.
Our second design principle was to develop a product that significantly accelerates game development. Our team has decades of combined experience developing game engines, so we have some pretty clear insight as to how to accomplish this. One way our game engine accelerates development is by allowing designers the ability to perform tasks normally only assigned to programmers. So, for example, changing game mechanics generally requires programmer time (which in some cases can mean days of extra work). But developers who use the Bluepoint Engine can tweak game mechanics with a few mouse clicks. When you consider just how much tweaking goes on when you’re building a game, you start to appreciate the benefit of our approach. Now, you’ll never eliminate the need for programmers, but there are a lot of tasks currently performed by programmers that can be done faster and cheaper by designers. Another example of how our game engine helps speed-up development is by giving artists tools they need, like an interactive shader editor. This allows artists to create assets faster and cheaper.
What tools do the artists have, is it like a Photoshop type of tool or a graphics tool…?
Most game studios use one of the Autodesk products. Our engine is tightly integrated with Autodesk Maya, which is a product familiar to most artists.
What’s the status of your engine, when do you think you might release your final version?
We have a beta version right now that is substantially complete, it’s been tested and three products have been built and shipped using this version of the engine. In fact the first downloadable game available in the U.S. for the PS3 was built entirely with the Bluepoint Engine.
We have several licensees who are building some very interesting game prototypes with our engine. To give you an idea of how flexible the Bluepoint Engine is, it’s been used to develop various game prototypes including a third person action/adventure game, a side scrolling 2½d shooter game, a racing game and a rhythm action platform game.
Right now the engine can be used to create games for the PS3 and the PC. We’re planning on having Xbox 360 and Wii versions by the end of the fourth quarter of ’08. Our first fully commercial version will be ready sometime in the first quarter of ’09.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Yes, we built the Bluepoint Engine which targets next generation consoles.
What is the capital for game engines on average?
Building a game engine from scratch is expensive. A high-end game engine takes tens of programmer-years to build and can cost millions of dollars to develop and test, and you won’t know how well it will work until after you’ve sunk all that time and money into it. This is why so many game developers license the technology from third parties. A lot depends on the platform; it’s easier to build an engine for a well-understood platform like a PC than for a next generation console such as the PS3.
So what market are you going after with your game engine?
Our engine is targeted towards high-end console developers. We built the Bluepoint Engine with two overriding design principles in mind. First, we designed it to produce high-performance games. This means that developers can use the Bluepoint Engine to develop games with better graphics, more features and more interesting game play.
Our second design principle was to develop a product that significantly accelerates game development. Our team has decades of combined experience developing game engines, so we have some pretty clear insight as to how to accomplish this. One way our game engine accelerates development is by allowing designers the ability to perform tasks normally only assigned to programmers. So, for example, changing game mechanics generally requires programmer time (which in some cases can mean days of extra work). But developers who use the Bluepoint Engine can tweak game mechanics with a few mouse clicks. When you consider just how much tweaking goes on when you’re building a game, you start to appreciate the benefit of our approach. Now, you’ll never eliminate the need for programmers, but there are a lot of tasks currently performed by programmers that can be done faster and cheaper by designers. Another example of how our game engine helps speed-up development is by giving artists tools they need, like an interactive shader editor. This allows artists to create assets faster and cheaper.
What tools do the artists have, is it like a Photoshop type of tool or a graphics tool…?
Most game studios use one of the Autodesk products. Our engine is tightly integrated with Autodesk Maya, which is a product familiar to most artists.
What’s the status of your engine, when do you think you might release your final version?
We have a beta version right now that is substantially complete, it’s been tested and three products have been built and shipped using this version of the engine. In fact the first downloadable game available in the U.S. for the PS3 was built entirely with the Bluepoint Engine.
We have several licensees who are building some very interesting game prototypes with our engine. To give you an idea of how flexible the Bluepoint Engine is, it’s been used to develop various game prototypes including a third person action/adventure game, a side scrolling 2½d shooter game, a racing game and a rhythm action platform game.
Right now the engine can be used to create games for the PS3 and the PC. We’re planning on having Xbox 360 and Wii versions by the end of the fourth quarter of ’08. Our first fully commercial version will be ready sometime in the first quarter of ’09.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Welcome Back – Upcoming Events for Angel Investors for Fall 2008
Now that summer is nearing its end and people are making their way back to Austin, I would like to highlight a few upcoming events for the angel investor and entrepreneur. Listed chronologically, we have the following:
TIE Austin Funding Event – September 9th which highlights funding for startup companies in the expansion phase.
ATI Wireless Funding Forum -- October 14 which showcases wireless companies seeking funding.
Open4Business Conference – November 11th provides entrepreneur education for those starting up new businesses.
SxSW—“So You Want to be an Angel” session will run at SxSW Interactive in the spring, but please vote for this event here.
There are a number of conferences outside Austin you may want to take note of below.
Inc 5000 Conference
September 18-20, 2008
Washington, DC
Inc Magazine assembles the best of America's business leaders, experts, and entrepreneurs for three days of learning, networking, and celebrating with a community of peers. ACA members and friends may receive a $495 discount off of the non-member price (for a total fee of $1,400). Information and registration is available at www.inc500conference.com.
AdvaMed 2008
September 21-24, 2008
Washington, DC
This conference is the premier medical technology event for partnering, business development, and collaboration opportunities, with strong education programs on a variety of life science issues. Conference details and registration is at www.advamed2008.com.
9th Annual Early Stage Venture Conference
October 22, 2008
San Francisco, CA
Given current economic times, this conference is important to help early-stage investors identify strategies to support viable companies and getting companies to next funding rounds and exits. A panel on the Growing Importance of Angel Investors is on the agenda. More information is available here.
Best regards,
Hall T.
TIE Austin Funding Event – September 9th which highlights funding for startup companies in the expansion phase.
ATI Wireless Funding Forum -- October 14 which showcases wireless companies seeking funding.
Open4Business Conference – November 11th provides entrepreneur education for those starting up new businesses.
SxSW—“So You Want to be an Angel” session will run at SxSW Interactive in the spring, but please vote for this event here.
There are a number of conferences outside Austin you may want to take note of below.
Inc 5000 Conference
September 18-20, 2008
Washington, DC
Inc Magazine assembles the best of America's business leaders, experts, and entrepreneurs for three days of learning, networking, and celebrating with a community of peers. ACA members and friends may receive a $495 discount off of the non-member price (for a total fee of $1,400). Information and registration is available at www.inc500conference.com.
AdvaMed 2008
September 21-24, 2008
Washington, DC
This conference is the premier medical technology event for partnering, business development, and collaboration opportunities, with strong education programs on a variety of life science issues. Conference details and registration is at www.advamed2008.com.
9th Annual Early Stage Venture Conference
October 22, 2008
San Francisco, CA
Given current economic times, this conference is important to help early-stage investors identify strategies to support viable companies and getting companies to next funding rounds and exits. A panel on the Growing Importance of Angel Investors is on the agenda. More information is available here.
Best regards,
Hall T.
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