By HOJUN CHOI
Special Contributor to Silicon Hills News

Anish Aggarwal, 18, answers judges’ questions at the pitch competition at Recess’ Music and Ideas Festival, held Friday, Oct. 23, hosted by The University of Texas at Austin. Photo by Hojun Choi.

Now he gets to travel to Los Angeles in January to represent UT in a national startup competition.

Recess, a company that seeks to promote entrepreneurship among college students, organized the competition. Recess hosts interactive social events and networking opportunities that have helped college startups raise more than $150 million for their ventures.

Five student-led startups at UT took the stage Friday night to pitch their ideas to a panel of five judges from Austin’s entrepreneur community. Each company gave a five-minute pitch, followed by a five-minute Q&A session with the judges.

Judges ranked the competitors and their proposals on five main criteria: overall pitch, business plan, ability to capture market share, novelty and purpose of product or service.

Deuce Thevenow, co-founder of Recess, told Silicon Hills News that they selected the judges for their reputations as movers and shakers in Texas’ startup and entrepreneur scene.

“Austin is a thriving hotbed for startups right now, it seems that all the big tech companies are looking to move into Austin,” Thevenow said. “It has really ignited a flame for attracting talent, and the levels of ideas keep on getting better and better.”

Aggarwal, who co-founded his tutoring company with a friend as a sophomore at Neuqua Valley High School in Illinois, said he began his company after performing poorly in school and found that tutoring services were not as affordable as they should be.

“There is a growing problem in America; academic resource centers all across America are simply charging too much,” Aggarwal told the judges. “What this means is that many students in high school, middle school and elementary school are not getting the attention and help they need.”

To reduce the financial burden on parents looking for tutoring services for their children, Aggarwal said the company decided to contract high school students with high achievement levels that could teach just as well as tutors employed at more established services such as Kumon.

Already operating in three different states, Aggarwal told judges he is currently looking for funding to hire more tutors and branch operators for further expansion, along with a website overhaul to complement that growth.

“I showed them that it was a proven concept with a good reputation and a working business model, the only thing that lacked was money for exponential success,” Aggarwal said.

For winning the competition, Aggarwal received a package of resources for various services for early-stage companies, such as Customer Relationship Management software and credit card processing. He was also granted admission into SoftLayer’s Catalyst program, the incubator for the Dallas-based cloud services company that IBM acquired for $2 billion in 2013.

The University of Texas was the tenth college campus destination for the company’s Music and Ideas tour with guest speaker panels as well as a music concert along with the pitch competition.

The winners of each of these college tour destinations, including Aggarwal, receive a three-day all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to compete against each other at the national level as a part of Recess’ Field Trip, a networking and training convention.

“For the first time, investors will have the opportunity to work with us so it unlocks a lot of potential,” Aggarwal said.

More than 150 people attended the event, which took place at the Student Activity Center auditorium on the university’s campus.

“I saw a great entrepreneurial spirit down here from the Longhorns, and we were stoked to be a part of it,” Thevenow said.

Preston James, who was selected as one of the five judges, serves as one of the two resident entrepreneurs at the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin. He said universities play a critical part in the startup ecosystem.

“The University of Texas is a major player in the Austin startup ecosystem, and it’s fantastic that the university is opening up its doors and encouraging students to consider the entrepreneurial in addition to more traditional corporate paths,” James said.

Below is list of the four remaining student-led startups that participated in the competition in Austin along with a short description of their company.

DeliverU – A delivery service startup offering a platform allowing college students to have their groceries delivered to them.

Lady Epicure – Food startup that lets customers build their own all-natural ice cream popsicles to the shape and flavor of their liking.

Plot Guru – A mobile application offering a marketing platform for businesses through the gamification of online streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix.

SockDocks – A startup selling an apparatus that allows its users to wash and dry their socks without having them mismatched.

By LAURA LOREK
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

Microsoft and Dell have been partners every step of the way since Dell’s founding, said Michael Dell.

And Wednesday, the two companies announced another partnership.

At DellWorld 2015, Dell and Microsoft announced new hybrid cloud solutions. It’s a Microsoft Azure-based hybrid cloud called the Cloud Platform System Standard, the newest addition to the Microsoft’s Cloud platform. It’s built on Dell’s hardware and runs Microsoft’s software.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, joined Dell on stage at the Austin Convention Center for the announcement.

They’ve been working on this for a few years, Dell said.

Customers want cost savings and agility and that’s why many of them turn to a hybrid cloud environment, Dell said. A hybrid cloud is the combination of a private cloud environment with a public one.

The goal is to make the cloud more accessible to organizations of all sizes, Nadella said.

“Dell shares a vision with Microsoft that open architectures and simplified cloud management will benefit customers of all sizes, freeing them to focus on their businesses and not their technology,” Dell said in a statement.

Bloomberg TV Business and Technology Anchor Emily Chang joined Dell and Nadella on stage to quiz the business leaders about their collaboration.

Dell is buying EMC and Microsoft is making PCs, Chang said. She asked Dell and Nadella if they are friends or frenemies.

“We’re absolutely friends,” Dell said. Customers don’t just want one thing, he said. Dell has worked for years with Microsoft on Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 into new space with its surface touch technology, Dell said. Microsoft’s prices on its computers are pretty high, and that is where Dell can meet its customers need at a lower price, Dell said.

“At the core we are friends,” Nadella said. “Our friendship is about serving our customers.”

That’s what guides us, he said.

Both companies are stimulating demand for PCs, Nadella said.

Editor’s note: Dell has been a sponsor of Silicon Hills News

By LAURA LOREK
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

The merger of Dell and EMC is good for everyone, said Michael Dell, during his keynote address at DellWorld 2015.

The $67 billion merger would create one of the world’s largest IT companies under a private company structure.

“Investing for the long term – no 90 day shot clock,” Dell said.

“Complete alignment from our customer focused innovation and investments in R&D to our leadership and our ownership 100 percent focused on you,” Dell told his customers attending the fifth annual conference held at the Austin Convention Center.

Most CEOs say it’s easier to manage a private company, Dell said. The price tag to merge with EMC is $67 billion, Dell said.

“The master of your own destiny? Priceless,” Dell said.

In 2013, Dell took the company he founded 32 years ago in a dorm room at the University of Texas, private in a deal valued at $25 billion.

“When we took Dell private two years ago we called it the world’s largest startup,” Dell said. “When we take EMC private, wow, who had any idea how big a startup could be?”

“The last two years have been fantastic for me,” Dell said. “We’ve been able to do so much that makes me so proud like accelerating innovation.”

Last year, Dell increased the number of patents it has filed up 27 percent from the previous year. That brings the total number of patents filed for Dell to 8,000, he said.

“This is the result of focused investments in R&D, innovation and acquisitions totaling some $18 billion over the last eight years,” Dell said. “Our position in the market has never been stronger or more differentiated.”

Dell is no longer just a PC company. It is an end-to-end solutions provider with hardware, software, security services, cloud computing and more, Dell said. It has gained market share across its four business sectors, its financially strong and hiring thousands of salespeople around the world, Dell said. And it’s Net Promoter Score, which is how customers rate Dell, has never been higher, he said.

“I’m even more convinced that going private was the right decision for you and our company,” Dell said. “There are more opportunities ahead of us than I have ever seen.”

Startups like Uber and AirBnB are disrupting traditional industries, Dell said. Companies in all industries need to prepare for that digital reinvention and transformation, Dell said.

“Each day technology is driven deeper and further into our lives,” Dell said. “Technology doesn’t support the business model, it is the business model.”

Product companies are being digitally transformed. The car industry is going through a digital revolution with smart cars. Dell said his Tesla got a software upgrade over the weekend and now it can drive itself. He said he’s looking forward to trying that out.

The Internet of Things is also bringing an explosion of devices, applications, sensors and data, Dell said. That’s resulting in 44 Zettabytes of information in total by 2020, a Zettabyte is a one with 21 zeros after it, Dell said.

The next big innovations will come from machine to machine communications, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, drones, enormous numbers of sensors and data analysis.

“It’s a digital universe and it’s the next trillion dollar opportunity for growth and productivity,” Dell said.

The key to realizing this opportunity is to process and analyze all of the new data being generated, Dell said.

Dell on Tuesday launched the new Dell Edge Gateway 5000 series, a purpose built Internet of Things gateway to manage data being generated from Internet of Things applications for companies. It can connect any sensor, any device to any other endpoint and to the Internet, Dell said.

Dell continues to innovate in its server business and data center business and it has a great storage business, Dell said. And the EMC acquisition gives it the industry’s biggest and best and most innovative storage business, he said.

Dell is also focused on the cloud and cloud services as one of its fastest growing businesses, in particular the hybrid cloud, which is a combination of public and private cloud environments, Dell said.

And it’s still committed to its PC business, Dell said. It’s working with Microsoft on the integration of Windows 10 into its machines. A few weeks ago, Dell was in New York City for the launch of its XPS line of computers.

“Our new machines are beautiful, they are sleek, powerful, fast, big beautiful displays with the smallest form factor in the market,’ Dell said. “Our XPS 15 with Windows 10 may be the best PC ever made.”

And Dell was the fastest growing major PC vendor last year, he said. Dell has had 11 consecutive quarters of PC growth, he said.

Throughout the keynote presentation, Dell also presented various customers and showed how they partnered with Dell to solve challenges in their businesses. Customers included DocuSign, Coca-Cola, New Belgium Brewing Company, InMobi in India and Microsoft.

Editor’s note: Dell has provided sponsorship of Silicon Hills News

By EVA RUTH MORAVEC
Special Contributor to Silicon Hills News

Photo licensed from iStockphoto

Now under the management of the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, there are about 100 active companies still in the fund, 60 percent of which focus on life sciences, said portfolio manager Jyoti Gupta at an Austin Technology Council seminar Wednesday.

This year, the Texas Legislature appropriated $12 million to help manage the fund, but also voted to abolish it and transfer it out of the governor’s office. Gupta said the fund was moved to her department Sept. 1 and added that the $12 million will be used to “add into the investments that we have made into these companies, as we see appropriate, as it makes sense for us.”

And, if any of the investments – in total, $400 million in Texas tax dollars were granted to companies and universities by the Texas Emerging Technology Fund – see profits, those dollars will also be “recycled back into the fund,” Gupta said. She estimates the remaining investments are worth about $145 million, but her office is currently undertaking a thorough inventory of the investments that will likely take months.
Starting in 2005, Perry began to offer grants for start up companies seeking seed stage money.

Last year, 19 Central Texas companies received $111.17 million in ETF funding, according to a report provided to the legislature, and promised to produce more than 15,000 new jobs.

In total, the fund has given 145 companies a financial boost, particularly important during the economic downturn, but faced criticism for its lack of transparency and investments in high-risk companies. Several grant recipients went bankrupt, and not all kept their promises to create jobs for Texans.

But there were also numerous success stories, which didn’t go unnoticed by Perry, who touted job creation and the “Texas Miracle” in failed presidential campaigns in 2012 and this year.

The turmoil was put to rest early this year, when Republican Gov. Greg Abbott abolished the fund – meaning it’s no longer accepting investment applications – less than two weeks after taking office. Since there were already companies in the fund, though, it had to be managed, and was reassigned to the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, which manages state assets.

Meanwhile, Abbott also established the Governor’s University Research Initiative with $40 million and a mission to attract Nobel laureates and other major researchers to Texas universities.

“It is unfortunate that money doesn’t really exist anymore in its original form,” said Yash Sabharwal, COO of Xeris Pharmaceuticals Inc., which received $1.9 million in ETF money in 2012. “Those funds did have an impact.”

Xeris, which makes injectable treatments for diabetes, received ETF cash after promising to bring 12 jobs to the area. Sabharwal said the company now employs 13 Austinites and two people out of town. In January, Xeris announced it completed a $17.9 million capital raise to advance its diabetes treatment products.

“The money did help us bridge the gap,” during the economic downturn, Sabharwal said. But these days, the Central Texas life sciences tech market is hot. While it’s still “challenging to get money,” Sabharwal said, there are more options.

According to the council, the 206 life sciences companies in the greater Austin area comprise about 6,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in economic value. Austin’s life sciences community has grown organically, said Julie Huls, president and CEO of the Austin Technology Council, adding that the sector leans more towards technology because of Austin’s established tech ecosystem.

“Life science is the future of Central Texas technology,” Huls said to about 125 people at the opening of the council’s seminar.

Now, the council is pushing for more targeted growth in concert with other major Austin tech moves, including the future Dell Medical Center at The University of Texas at Austin and new wet labs at Austin Community Colleges. Sabharwal hopes the area will also soon attract major pharmaceutical companies to complete the life science tech supply chain.

Ottobock’s Regional President and CFO Andreas Schultz said his nearly-100-year-old prosthetics company, now worth more than $1 billion, relocated from Minnesota to Austin last year.

“We wanted to marry the tech that we bring from the medical device industry to the tech that exists in Austin,” Schultz said.

Ottobock was founded to meet the needs of veterans injured in World War I.

“We help people reclaim their lives after an incident, after an amputation, after coming back from wars, especially in the U.S., and we really help people regain their mobility,” he said.

Schultz joked that the one thing officials could do to help his business succeed was to have a direct flight from Austin to Frankfurt.

“We are working on a flight to Germany that should start in 2016,” said Charisse Bodisch, senior vice president of economic development for the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

By LAURA LOREK
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

Michael Dell at the Dell World press conference

American Authors’ song “Go Big or Go Home” blared over the speakers as a few hundred people waited for Dell to take the stage.

One of the lines is “I’m thinking life’s too short, it’s passing by, so if I’m going to go at all: Go Big or Go Home.”

Dell’s Go Big or Go Home deal is of course its proposed $67 billion merger with Boston-based EMC, the largest tech merger in history, which the company announced last week.

“I’m tremendously excited about this combination,” Dell said.

“It gives us a world leading company in the four significant areas of IT today: in servers, storage, virtualization and PCs” Dell said. “And it gives us an incredible position in the IT of tomorrow: digital transformation, converged infrastructure, the software defined data center, hybrid cloud, security and mobile.”

The combination company also give Dell “an incredibly strong go to market engine with access to the world’s largest companies as well as an incredible reach into small and medium businesses and emerging markets around the world,” Dell said.

The combined company would have more than $80 billion in revenue and be a leader in several IT industries.

In his Dell World keynote on Wednesday morning, Dell said he would spell out the company’s strategy and announce a number of new solutions. He said he was glad they announced the EMC deal last week.

Dell World is the sixth annual conference in which the company meets with several thousand customers, analysts, press and others in downtown Austin at the Austin Convention Center for a few days. It features an Expo with products and services from Dell and its customers as well as meetings and keynote talks.

“This week I get to explain what I call version 1.0 of the unifying theory of the universe,” Dell said.

Michael Dell and his senior management on stage at the Dell World press conference.

One reporter asked how Dell could digest such a big company like EMC when one of its competitors HP is dividing itself in two.

“We’ve got a different viewpoint as to how our company should evolve than HP does,” Dell said. “First off all, we think that scale is important. I think that when you look at this industry companies that have succeeded in the volume data center space have been attached to large PC businesses, client businesses and the volumes really matter.”

At this very moment, there’s an explosion in devices, not just PCs and smartphones but all the devices connected to the Internet of Things, Dell said.

“We also find that customers actually don’t want more suppliers; they want fewer suppliers,” Dell said.

One of the resounding things Dell said he has heard in the executive summit during the last few days at Dell World is Chief Information Officers at companies are telling Dell the merger makes their job a lot easier.

There’s been a lot of speculation, but Dell is fully committed to the hardware space, said Jeff Clarke, Dell’s vice president of operations and president of client solutions.

“We are absolutely committed to the PC space. It’s a scale business and we will participate in every piece of that,” Clarke said.

Phones haven’t replaced PCs, Clarke said. People still depend on PCs to do their jobs, he said.

“The world of a display, a keyboard and a microprocessor to do work is here, it isn’t going to go anywhere, and we’re committed to it,” Clarke said.

One reporter asked about the lack of innovation and creativity in the PC industry today.

Clarke said he didn’t think that was true. There’s been a tremendous amount of innovation in the PC space and it will only continue, he said. The industry has 1.8 billion installed base with 600 million PCs that are five years or older with a desire to upgrade, he said. Dell has the world’s smallest 13 inch and 15 inch notebooks with the highest definition zero infinity display and 18 hours of battery life, Clarke said.

Michael Dell also said China is the company’s second largest market behind North America. Dell has opened 12,000 company-owned stores throughout China, he said. Sales of PCs in China grew 10 percent last quarter, compared to a year ago, he said.