Capital Factory Showcases 12 Startups at SXSW

By LAURA LOREK
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

This year, Capital Factory didn’t host a move your startup to Austin competition at South By Southwest Interactive.

Instead, the downtown technology accelerator and co-working site showed off 12 of its startups during two separate pitch events Friday afternoon. Capital Factory is home to more than 400 startup companies.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler kicked off the event by welcoming everyone to Austin. Then each startup gave a three-minute pitch.

“Experts agree that one of the best ways to improve our healthcare system is to allow for easy and open sharing of medical records,” said Bryan “Buzz” White, co-founder with BlueHub Health.

BlueHub Health allows consumers to collect, manage and share their health records and information. The company has four employees and is completely bootstrapped but plans to raise funding soon, White said.

“What wakes us up everyday is driving the consumer focused industry,” White said. “Not enough people serve the patients. We’re here to serve the patients.”

Curb has created a device that fundamentally changes the way consumers use energy by monitoring every electric device in a house. It lets consumers save energy and money.

“Curb can give you specific and unique recommendations for your house,” said Erik Norwood, founder of Curb.

The Curb device hooks into a house’s circuit breaker box. The Curb sensor can then tell how much every device in the house is using is electricity. It can also send alerts via a smart phone to homeowners if they leave on the stove or iron. The company has 150 customers. It has five employees.

Feathr is a marketing platform for event managers to monetize their audiences online for live events. It allows event managers to sell more sponsorships. The company started in Gainesville, Florida and last year it won Capital Factory’s SXSW Move Your Company to Austin competition. The company has two employees and has raised $400,000.

PenPal Schools connects students and teachers worldwide to learn from each other. The startup has connected 60,000 students in 63 countries. The startup lets teachers pay whatever they want to join their platform. It has also partnered with Dell. The company has four employees and is going to raise a seed stage round of funding between $500,000 and $750,000 to expand operations even further and hire three more employees, said Joe Troyen, Founder and CEO.

SocialMatterz turns tweets into leads. The startup has created a social media marketing campaign that engages consumers on twitter to find “nurtured and qualified leads” for companies. The software can help a brand grow its social media audience online.

Student Loan Benefits has created a program that allows companies to help their employees pay off their student loans faster through a company matching program, said Tony Aguilar, its founder. The benefit gives companies an extra perk to lure top talent in a tight job market.

Tastebud is a marketplace that matches consumers with restaurants that are looking to fill seats during off-peak hours through special deals offered through its smart phone app. The app launched at UT in the fall of 2014. The company, which has raised about $600,000, is on track to do more than 3,000 transactions in March, said Marcelo Vieira, founder & CEO. It has four full time employees and five part time employees.

Togga is a fantasy sports network for soccer.

Earlier in the day, Capital Factory showcased its A-List Pitch companies, which are looking for Series A venture capital investment. Those startups included: Aceable, Chiron Health, Goodybag, Loop & Tie and ManagerComplete.