Craig Berlin of Texas Motion Picture Alliance Talks about the Austin Film Industry
I understand Texas is falling behind in the film industry. What’s your view?
Yes, other states started offering incentives for people to shoot there. As a result of that, Louisiana went from $20 million a year from 2002 to $640 million in 2006 and that’s just features and episodic TV. They are literally lined up to make movies there and they have no infrastructure but now they are building it. They have lured enough business there to do it. Same story with New Mexico. Michigan is now offering 42% rebate on in- state spending which is insane. 3 years ago Bob Hudgins, Texas Film Commissioner kind of pushed the panic button and helped put together a nonprofit trade association which we named the Texas Motion Picture Alliance and whose purpose was to establish a board, raise money and help pass incentives.
What is your background?
I was an actor in high school and college, became a producer in college and worked as one for several years but now I basically sell the stuff that other people use to make films. Apple has the majority in market share in video editing and audio editing so we sell Apple as well as professional video and sound recording equipment and supplies.
So you said Michigan had a 42% rebate. What are other states doing?
Louisiana is at about 25%. Now their system is very convoluted with an income tax rebate. Since most people coming in don’t pay Louisiana income tax, they have brokers so you end up at about 20% after the brokers get their cut. New Mexico is up there in the 20-25% range. The additional thing that Michigan has is some Canadian- like features such as credits for on the job training and some other peripheral benefits that are very attractive. Now this is not sustainable but the flood gates are open with Drew Barrymore and even Robert Rodriguez headed there for starters.
What does Texas offer?
Other than our 5% incentive, dead last on the list of states with an incentive program, we have a sales tax exemption on production supplies, which has been around for a while. There is a hotel sales tax exemption after a 30-day stay and free use of state facilities in some cases.
How does that add up?
If I am producing something then I buy tape or supplies directly related to running the camera then its sales tax exempt, as would be a rental and certain equipment purchases. So you can say 6% of that amounts to about 3% of your net spend on average. Unfortunately, most people tend to look at the front number and everything else is sort of ancillary.
What is the Texas MPA doing?
Our first year of the TxMPA’s existence we were successful in hiring one of the best known lobbyists in the state. We all have the bad taste for lobbyists but the reality is in Texas, the Legislature meets every two years, they literally get 5000 bills put in front of them, and very few of them get past. You want your legislation passed so you hire lobbyists. We are coming up on Round II this session and there will be more opposition and we’ll have to have a strong grass-roots effort along with our paid lobbying efforts to make something happen.
Why did you join?
I got involved because it’s about the whole state economy, particularly at Austin and to a great degree in Dallas and Houston. By the time you look at the amount of money that we have lost it’s into the billions. We were successful in passing a very underachieving 5% incentive which puts us on the incentive list but at the very bottom of all the states. It’s basically maintenance and ineffective.
What are you shooting for?
I want to get at least 15% incentive with a $40 million allocation. Consider the 15% with our sales tax incentive and the other things that we have to offer, the amount accrued and talent that we have. That puts us kind of in the 20% range so people will be able to consider coming here. So it will make us an viable choice again, because now if you are a money guy in Hollywood, Texas is not even on your list of options. Robert Rodriguez lives here, is a major TxMPA sponsor and yet is producing his next project in Michigan. Getting a higher incentive will be tougher because at that level, we cannot rely on a “revenue neutral” fund from the Comptroller; rather we have to be partially on the budget as well.
So what is the name of the group that you are with?
It’s called the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, which is a 501(c)(6). They are technically considered a trade association as we do lobby. It is my belief that all we are trying to do is bring more business to our state and that then benefits everyone in our state. It grows the tax base and brings jobs here. When these guys are in town they rent apartments, they rent cars, they eat at restaurants, and they buy clothing. They live here while they are here and they spend money. Good for the economy.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Don Williams of Common Credential Systems talks about allowing Building Access for First Responders During Emergencies
Don Williams of Common Credential Systems talks about allowing building access for First Responders during emergencies.
What is your background?
We’re IT professionals. I was one of the initial founders of Lares Security Systems (now NovusEdge) about 12 years ago. Lares was one of the first companies to converge security systems with IT networking. Before Lares, access control systems were program logic controllers or PCs connected via direct building wiring. Lares was the first to build network-capable door appliances for access control security. Over the last three years, we’ve been working on our new company, Common Credential Systems.
What problem does Common Credential Systems solve?
We created the company to solve the Homeland Security emergency response problem. Consider one of our current projects, Duval County Florida, there are more than 100,000 first responders county-wide. That’s a big number. Most access control systems can’t handle that many IDs. And even if they could, the community’s diverse access control systems don’t know the responders. How do you prepare the County’s critical infrastructure doors to accept these responders when an emergency occurs – and only when an emergency occurs?
How do they do it today?
If the door is locked, they wait. They must have someone meet them at the facility. That not only heightens the danger - it’s also costly.
How do you propose solving it?
We’ve developed a common internet database so the whole community can prepare for emergencies beforehand. That database is then stored in our network appliance at any door in the community – even doors connected to diverse existing access control systems. When an emergency occurs, rules in our appliance allow responder access.
That was our first problem solved. Once we began to sign up integrator partners, though, we found corporations and military bases have the same problem - different access control systems from different vendors scattered across the corporation or across the military base. Our solution (CommonPass™) establishes a common set of rules and people across these diverse systems. The existing systems can still operate autonomously, but when an event occurs, CommonPass™ allows corporate personnel to access their branch locations or military safety and security officers to access their contractor operated facilities – utilizing their existing badge.
What’s the status of your system?
It’s ready to go. We completed our beta sides in 2007. We’re now conducting three high profile market trials – Duval County Florida and Palm Beach County Florida for Homeland Security responder access and the Federal Reserve System for corporation-wide business access.
How do you charge for this?
We charge by the door. We charge for the network access appliance and for the software system - by the door. We have 170,000 doors in our current forecast pipeline.
Have you sold any systems yet?
Yes we have. Our beta sites have paid for their systems and we are moving our market trial sites toward purchase orders.
In San Antonio?
In San Antonio and in New Braunfels and, as I mentioned earlier, in Duval County, Palm Beach County and Federal Reserve System Banks in Atlanta and Jacksonville.
Best regards,
Hall T.
***
What is your background?
We’re IT professionals. I was one of the initial founders of Lares Security Systems (now NovusEdge) about 12 years ago. Lares was one of the first companies to converge security systems with IT networking. Before Lares, access control systems were program logic controllers or PCs connected via direct building wiring. Lares was the first to build network-capable door appliances for access control security. Over the last three years, we’ve been working on our new company, Common Credential Systems.
What problem does Common Credential Systems solve?
We created the company to solve the Homeland Security emergency response problem. Consider one of our current projects, Duval County Florida, there are more than 100,000 first responders county-wide. That’s a big number. Most access control systems can’t handle that many IDs. And even if they could, the community’s diverse access control systems don’t know the responders. How do you prepare the County’s critical infrastructure doors to accept these responders when an emergency occurs – and only when an emergency occurs?
How do they do it today?
If the door is locked, they wait. They must have someone meet them at the facility. That not only heightens the danger - it’s also costly.
How do you propose solving it?
We’ve developed a common internet database so the whole community can prepare for emergencies beforehand. That database is then stored in our network appliance at any door in the community – even doors connected to diverse existing access control systems. When an emergency occurs, rules in our appliance allow responder access.
That was our first problem solved. Once we began to sign up integrator partners, though, we found corporations and military bases have the same problem - different access control systems from different vendors scattered across the corporation or across the military base. Our solution (CommonPass™) establishes a common set of rules and people across these diverse systems. The existing systems can still operate autonomously, but when an event occurs, CommonPass™ allows corporate personnel to access their branch locations or military safety and security officers to access their contractor operated facilities – utilizing their existing badge.
What’s the status of your system?
It’s ready to go. We completed our beta sides in 2007. We’re now conducting three high profile market trials – Duval County Florida and Palm Beach County Florida for Homeland Security responder access and the Federal Reserve System for corporation-wide business access.
How do you charge for this?
We charge by the door. We charge for the network access appliance and for the software system - by the door. We have 170,000 doors in our current forecast pipeline.
Have you sold any systems yet?
Yes we have. Our beta sites have paid for their systems and we are moving our market trial sites toward purchase orders.
In San Antonio?
In San Antonio and in New Braunfels and, as I mentioned earlier, in Duval County, Palm Beach County and Federal Reserve System Banks in Atlanta and Jacksonville.
Best regards,
Hall T.
***
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Karen Bantuveris of VolunteerSpot.Com Talks about the Need for Volunteer Management through the Web
So how did you decide to develop VolunteerSpot?
I’m a business process expert and working entrepreneur and when my daughter entered kindergarten -- I wanted to find a way to be involved in her school. I quickly learned that the way volunteers are coordinated is an antiquated mess. The level of inbox clutter with reply-all emails and bad klunky signup tools just to staff classroom helpers -- I got overwhelmed. I thought this has got to stop!
So I got on the PTO board, and took over the volunteer coordination role as a way to get more working parents involved. I thought for sure I could fix the system -- but I found a lot of moms couldn’t use Excel, and were frustrated with Yahoo!Groups and other tools like Evite. They could RSVP to Evite, but setting one up for volunteering didn’t work.
Talking to friends that work in tech in CA, I said “you know, I think I stumbled across a need” and they said, “surely someone’s doing this.” – but after looking for a long time to find someone making volunteer coordination, signups and reminders a snap – I discovered no one was – so I decided to build the tool myself.
Cool. So you are using it now for volunteer coordination at Eanes Elementary?
We’re using it now with some pre-screened beta groups from Eanes and some other community groups. We’ve already posted a public demo of the system that uses the real tool and then we’ll be opening the doors to all in our public beta launch in October.
Where do you get the development done?
We’re using a diverse team of local and Seattle programmers. This was my big learning curve – pick the right developers! I had a false start in 2006 with the wrong vendor.
What did they get wrong?
I’ve never developed software before so I thought they could build it because they said they could -- the guys that I hired were more web designers than web developers and they subcontracted out the backend to somebody who was a programmer but not an architect. Whew – that was a learning curve. But now we’ve got a fantastic dev team – the back end is architected here and our UI team is in Seattle. All our developers are invested in the product and are getting equity.
So how do you plan to make money out of volunteer work?
We have a beautiful story -- most volunteers are women from 35 to 49 and they’re involved in their kids’ activities and advertisers can’t find us on line because we’re not sitting in Facebook and we’re not sitting online chatting and blogging all day because we’ve got other stuff to do. We give volunteers simple tools that they use in their real lives, we give nonprofits and community groups higher volunteer retention rates, and we give advertisers access to power purchasers and a forum to demonstrate their social responsibility. Win – win – win in a great demographic.
So, is it an advertising model?
Yes, it’s an advertising model initially and the companies we’ve spoken to are super excited about getting their message out to this demographic – all the while supporting volunteering. Downstream we’ll also be offering premium subscription services, private branding and other services. We’re also pursuing some really high level advertisers and partners who want a white label.
And you’ve approached them already?
We’ve had meetings with Florida Orange Juice, Salvation Army, HEB and Michael Angelo’s.
How many users do you need for those groups to get interested?
We don’t need a lot, actually, we only need 10,000 – 20,000 highly-targeted users.
What nonprofits are you targeting?
Groups with volunteer-intensive missions like Habitat, United Way, Red Cross, PTA and Scouts. These groups have their own proprietary software for their employees – but committee members and community volunteer captains are left on their own to organize ground-level activities. We plan to create custom widgets for these groups to push out to their membership.
So how did you get this in front of those organizations?
My board is highly networked, Dr. Sarah Jane Rhenborg is a national expert in volunteering from the LBJ school. She’s one phone call away from many of these groups including the PTA. We’re mentioned in an article coming out in PTA magazine this Fall. Our board is also networked in faith-based volunteering and other nonprofit membership organizations.
But the other thing is that volunteers and volunteer leaders are highly networked. So if you’re involved at school, or if you’re involved with your kid’s soccer team, or church, you would likely be involved in four or five other group activities.
So you target schools and churches?
Schools, churches and non profits. We’re pursuing nonprofits to build our channel because we’ll be able to push our service quickly - such as creating a widget for a blood bank that they can push out to get people to sign up with a local drive at work or school. Our users are highly networked and if you get invited as a volunteer, you taste the tool. If you like the tool you find other places to use it.
Do you have events now or anything this fall?
We’re using the tool at Eanes Elementary school for cafeteria and recess volunteers. We’re seeking demonstration sites with nonprofits and events where we can prove our product (and cross-promote it with the cause).
Eventually we have plans to provide volunteer hours tracking because that’s important to be able to log hours for United Way and other recognition. But right now it’s a feature for the future. We don’t have a lot of money and need to refine development on our core feature set. Eventually we’ll do text message reminders and mobile signup as well.
Best regards,
Hall T.
I’m a business process expert and working entrepreneur and when my daughter entered kindergarten -- I wanted to find a way to be involved in her school. I quickly learned that the way volunteers are coordinated is an antiquated mess. The level of inbox clutter with reply-all emails and bad klunky signup tools just to staff classroom helpers -- I got overwhelmed. I thought this has got to stop!
So I got on the PTO board, and took over the volunteer coordination role as a way to get more working parents involved. I thought for sure I could fix the system -- but I found a lot of moms couldn’t use Excel, and were frustrated with Yahoo!Groups and other tools like Evite. They could RSVP to Evite, but setting one up for volunteering didn’t work.
Talking to friends that work in tech in CA, I said “you know, I think I stumbled across a need” and they said, “surely someone’s doing this.” – but after looking for a long time to find someone making volunteer coordination, signups and reminders a snap – I discovered no one was – so I decided to build the tool myself.
Cool. So you are using it now for volunteer coordination at Eanes Elementary?
We’re using it now with some pre-screened beta groups from Eanes and some other community groups. We’ve already posted a public demo of the system that uses the real tool and then we’ll be opening the doors to all in our public beta launch in October.
Where do you get the development done?
We’re using a diverse team of local and Seattle programmers. This was my big learning curve – pick the right developers! I had a false start in 2006 with the wrong vendor.
What did they get wrong?
I’ve never developed software before so I thought they could build it because they said they could -- the guys that I hired were more web designers than web developers and they subcontracted out the backend to somebody who was a programmer but not an architect. Whew – that was a learning curve. But now we’ve got a fantastic dev team – the back end is architected here and our UI team is in Seattle. All our developers are invested in the product and are getting equity.
So how do you plan to make money out of volunteer work?
We have a beautiful story -- most volunteers are women from 35 to 49 and they’re involved in their kids’ activities and advertisers can’t find us on line because we’re not sitting in Facebook and we’re not sitting online chatting and blogging all day because we’ve got other stuff to do. We give volunteers simple tools that they use in their real lives, we give nonprofits and community groups higher volunteer retention rates, and we give advertisers access to power purchasers and a forum to demonstrate their social responsibility. Win – win – win in a great demographic.
So, is it an advertising model?
Yes, it’s an advertising model initially and the companies we’ve spoken to are super excited about getting their message out to this demographic – all the while supporting volunteering. Downstream we’ll also be offering premium subscription services, private branding and other services. We’re also pursuing some really high level advertisers and partners who want a white label.
And you’ve approached them already?
We’ve had meetings with Florida Orange Juice, Salvation Army, HEB and Michael Angelo’s.
How many users do you need for those groups to get interested?
We don’t need a lot, actually, we only need 10,000 – 20,000 highly-targeted users.
What nonprofits are you targeting?
Groups with volunteer-intensive missions like Habitat, United Way, Red Cross, PTA and Scouts. These groups have their own proprietary software for their employees – but committee members and community volunteer captains are left on their own to organize ground-level activities. We plan to create custom widgets for these groups to push out to their membership.
So how did you get this in front of those organizations?
My board is highly networked, Dr. Sarah Jane Rhenborg is a national expert in volunteering from the LBJ school. She’s one phone call away from many of these groups including the PTA. We’re mentioned in an article coming out in PTA magazine this Fall. Our board is also networked in faith-based volunteering and other nonprofit membership organizations.
But the other thing is that volunteers and volunteer leaders are highly networked. So if you’re involved at school, or if you’re involved with your kid’s soccer team, or church, you would likely be involved in four or five other group activities.
So you target schools and churches?
Schools, churches and non profits. We’re pursuing nonprofits to build our channel because we’ll be able to push our service quickly - such as creating a widget for a blood bank that they can push out to get people to sign up with a local drive at work or school. Our users are highly networked and if you get invited as a volunteer, you taste the tool. If you like the tool you find other places to use it.
Do you have events now or anything this fall?
We’re using the tool at Eanes Elementary school for cafeteria and recess volunteers. We’re seeking demonstration sites with nonprofits and events where we can prove our product (and cross-promote it with the cause).
Eventually we have plans to provide volunteer hours tracking because that’s important to be able to log hours for United Way and other recognition. But right now it’s a feature for the future. We don’t have a lot of money and need to refine development on our core feature set. Eventually we’ll do text message reminders and mobile signup as well.
Best regards,
Hall T.
Monday, September 29, 2008
George Giannukos of GameWager Talks about Enabling Gamers to Earn Prizes by Playing PC Games
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.
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.
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.
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