At Google I/O 2013 on Wednesday, RetailMeNot was a featured partner for the new Google Wallet.
The Google Wallet will be available to consumers later this year.
“This is RetailMeNot’s first digital wallet integration, with more to come,” said Brian Hoyt, spokesman for RetailMeNot. “Once the new Google Wallet is publicly available, consumers will have the ability to easily save in-store offers directly from RetailMeNot to their Google Wallet, and apply discounts to purchases at their convenience.”
RetailMeNot has been beta testing the Google Wallet service with
The Sports Authority, Forever 21, Advance Auto Parts, and Last Call by Neiman Marcus.
Google’s developer conference, Google I/0 in San Francisco runs through Friday. The conference features special sessions on Google’s products ranging from mobile phones to social networks and Google glasses.
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Geraldine Smythe, Co-Founder of Culturebooster.com wins the Royitos Award at RISE Photo by ©2013, Scott Van Osdol, www.vanosdol.com
At the RISE Austin opening night ceremonies, Culturebooster.com won the Royitos “Don’t Do Mild” award.
Roy Spence, co-founder of GSD&M and creator of Royito’s Hot Sauce, awarded Culturebooster the top prize and a $5,000 check. Culturebooster is a free curriculum and crowdfunding platform for middle and high school students and their teachers to raise money for self-directed projects benefitting their school and community. Students design and lead a 30 or 45-day crowdfunding campaign, while learning business fundamentals such as marketing, design, customer service, budgeting, team-building, and much more.
Geraldine Smythe, Co-Founder of Culturebooster, said it was an “honor to have such a great business person really “get” our concept and mission and is a real validation of what we’re trying to accomplish for students, their teachers, and schools around the US.”
Spence told the crowd, “Don’t waste time being average at what you’re bad at, be great at what you’re good at.”
The Culturebooster team will also compete as one of 10 finalists on Thursday evening in the RISE Social Good Fast Pitch Business Competition, to be held at GSD&M.
The University of Texas at Austin announced that it has partnered with video game executives to create the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy.
Warren Spector, a game designer with 30 years in the industry, and Paul Sams, chief operating officer with Blizzard Entertainment, will serve as instructors for the video game program.
The academy kicks off in the fall of 2014 with 20 students. All of the students will receive a tuition waiver and a $10,000 stipend to assist with fees and housing expenses.
The academy focuses on supporting Texas and the nation’s gaming industry. Texas has 155 gaming companies with 4,000 employees and has the second largest concentration of game companies in the U.S., according to the Texas Film Commission in the Office of the Governor.
“What differentiates the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy is that it will focus explicitly on the bigger creative leadership aspects of game development – on the management and production side and on the creative leadership side,” Spector, who will also serve as co-chair of the academy’s advisory board, said in a news release. “This is a space that’s not being filled by the other programs and it will make the academy unique.”
Wofford Denius is director of the Cain Foundation and co-founder of the academy.
The next episode of Capital of Innovation shines the spotlight on “Austin’s Top Female Entrepreneurs.”
The episode premiers on Thursday at 8 p.m. on KLRU-TV and it will be shown again on May 30th at 8 p.m.
The episode introduces viewers to some of Austin’s most intriguing female entrepreneurs. Their accomplishments include a medical device that could have a global impact on health care, a unique car designed for wheelchair-bound drivers, stylish bags spun from recycled bottles, and the transformation of a languishing neighborhood into an entertainment destination.
Laura Kilcrease, founder and managing director of Triton Ventures, and Suzi Sosa, founder of Austin Women Entrepreneurs, provide introductory comments.
Dell travelled the country and met with small business owners to find out what they need to succeed.
The result, a report released this week by Dell and Intel, found that startups and small businesses plan to grow and plan to use technology to help them do it.
But they need access to networks, talent and expertise, access to money to fuel their expansions and access to technology.
Dell met with business owners in nine cities, including Austin, during the last year. The other cities were Atlanta, Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, the Los Angeles and Orange County Area, Philadelphia, Seattle and Boston.
Key findings for Austin:
- More, or 55 percent, of small businesses expect to expand in Austin than the rest of the country, which averaged 48 percent.
- More small businesses in Austin, or 67 percent, handle their technology needs themselves, compared to a national average of 57 percent. Compared to the national average of 15 percent, only 6 percent of local businesses in Austin have a full-time dedicated IT staff.
- Most, or 58 percent, of Austin business owners use personal savings as their top source of funds with only seven percent tapping loans at banks and credit unions.
“While possessing a bright outlook overall, entrepreneurs and small business owners remain uncertain about the future ahead. To compete in today’s global landscape, they need technology to innovate, but it’s not the only thing they need,” Ingrid Vanderveldt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Dell, said in a statement. “Turning a great idea into a successful business also requires access to financing, networking and knowledge.”
By SUSAN LAHEY
Reporter with Silicon Hills News
Shital Somani riveted the audience instantly, beginning her 90-second pitch at the Dell Social Innovation Challenge awards by announcing that 25 percent of farmers in India commit suicide. Because of lack of refrigeration, 20-to-30 percent of their harvest is spoiled, leaving them in perpetual poverty. Solar Conduction Dryer, Somani’s team’s entry in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, would allow farmers to dry that produce, saving it for up to a year, without relying on India’s unreliable power grid.
That was the entry that won not only Dell’s Grand Prize of $60,000 but also an additional $1,000 from the audience choice prize.
More than 25,000 students from 100 countries submitted 2,600 projects in the Dell Challenge in 2013, an increase of 60 percent over last year.
Other winning entries included Foot Soldiers, a company that provides inexpensive sandals for people in Bangladesh made from recycled tires. There are nearly 50 million impoverished people in Bangladesh who can’t afford shoes. Walking barefoot subjects them to numerous diseases. Foot Soldiers can produce durable rubber sandals for these people for only $1 a pair. That entry won $40,000 in seed money.
Third place winner was Good Benefits, an American company that creates easily-administered benefits packages for businesses to allow employees to funnel money into causes they believe in. That company earned $20,000.
The other two finalists were Semka, from Mexico which uses blood tests as a non-invasive alternative to biopsies for cancer patients and Sunride, a German team which creates community crowdsourcing for solar power. Each of those teams received $10,000. The company also offered ten outstanding innovation awards worth $5,000 and 25 matching grants for the Start Something That Matters fund.
In total Dell gave $350,000 in seed money to entrepreneurs tackling everything from medical problems to energy consumption and pollution—sometimes all at once. In addition, the company provided hours of mentoring to 250 semi-finalists.
Suzi Sosa, director of the challenge, emceed the event which had a tremendous cast of speakers.
Blake Mycoskie, founder and Chief Shoe Giver of Tom’s Shoes, told his story of learning that children in Argentina couldn’t go to school without shoes, but many couldn’t afford shoes. Already a serial entrepreneur, he decided to start a for-profit business wherein one pair of shoes was given away for each pair that was purchased. The ratio, he explained, was decided on because “I’m not very good at math.” He told a story about asking a woman in an airport about her shoes—Tom’s Shoes—and having her nearly accost him with his own company’s story. His main message to the entrepreneurs: Don’t worry about marketing. If you’re doing something good, your customers will spread the word for you.
Roy Spence, fresh off a plane, quoted Aristotle, Lao-tzu and George Bernard Shaw, who he described as a “weird ass” : This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
Spence’s Texas accent may have given a different flavor to the quote than it had coming from the Irish Shaw. Spence told the entrepreneurs to follow his mother’s advice not to waste time being average at what they weren’t good at but to excel at what they were great at.
Peter Frumkin, formerly of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas spoke on having dreamed up the Dell Challenge with Tom Meredith, over lunch at the Roaring Fork in 2007.
“We were just going to have a little University of Texas challenge,” he said. “But Tom wanted to go bigger. By the time lunch was over it had gone all over the U.S. I was afraid to order coffee. And sure enough by the time the coffee came, it was a global competition. I’m so delighted you have taken it to such an incredible height.”
The evening concluded with a concert by social activist, Somalian musician K’Naan.
TechStars, a Boulder, Co.-based technology accelerator, is expanding to Austin with a new program that will start in August.
“Forbes and Bloomberg have been calling Austin the No. 1 Boomtown and the best place for your startup for years now, and Google recently chose it as the second city to receive the fastest Internet on the planet,” David Cohen, founder of TechStars, wrote in this blog post. “TechStars exists to put the best mentors and the best entrepreneurs together in the best startup communities so Austin is a natural next stop for us.”
Applications open today and Jason Seats, who has served as managing director of the TechStars Cloud program for the past two years, is moving from San Antonio to Austin to run the new program. Seats co-founded Slicehost, a cloud computing business which Rackspace acquired in 2008. He is also an active angel investor. He has run two TechStars Cloud programs, graduating a total of 24 companies in San Antonio.
“I’ll be heavily involved in the future cloud programs but we are in the process of selecting someone else to manage the day to day operations,” Seats said. “This is great for TechStars because with a program running in Austin in the fall and the cloud program continuing to run in San Antonio in the spring, we’ll have basically year round activity for TechStars.”
Seats hopes and expects that the two programs will continue to strength the relationship and opportunities for collaboration in the technology industry between Austin and San Antonio.
The TechStars program will be housed at Capital Factory, a technology accelerator and incubator in downtown Austin. The TechStars Cloud program takes place every January at Geekdom, a technology accelerator and coworking site in downtown San Antonio.
“As I mentioned at the RISE panel, we think it’s a pretty natural progression when it’s not uncommon to hear the word “Geekdom” at Capital Factory in downtown Austin,” Seats said.
TechStars offers programs in Boston, Boulder, Chicago, New York City, Seattle, London and a specialized “Cloud TechStars” in San Antonio.
The TechStars program invests $118,000 in each company accepted into its program through $18,000 in seed funding and an optional $100,000 convertible debt note. More than 75 venture capital firms and angel investors back the program. The program last three months and provides mentorship and other perks and the chance to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end. Its companies average $1.6 million in additional financing upon leaving the program.
The deadline to apply for the TechStars Austin program is June 30th.
The TechStars Austin program kicks off August 5th and runs through November 1st.
“We have received enthusiastic support from the local tech groups in Austin and there are already many fantastic mentors and investors involved including Brett Hurt (Bazaarvoice), Tom Ball and Mike Dodd (Austin Ventures), Sam Decker (Mass Relevance), Jeff Dachis (Dachis Group), Kip McClanahan and Morgan Flager (Silverton), Josh Baer and Bill Boebel (Capital Factory), Ned Hill and Aziz Gilani (Mercury Fund), Rony Kahan (Indeed), Rob Taylor (Black Locus) Lori Knowlton (HomeAway), and many more,” according to Cohen.
Laura Kilcrease, Brett Hurt, Michele Skelding and Rick Timmins Photo by ©2013, Scott Van Osdol, www.vanosdol.com
By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News
Austin has one of the nation’s most active angel networks through the Central Texas Angel Network, known as CTAN.
Last year, CTAN, with 100 members, invested about $8 million in 28 companies, including 13 new companies and 15 portfolio companies.
Every angel investor is doing it because they are passionate, said Michele Skelding, a CTAN member and angel investor.
She spoke at the RISE Lunch & Learn panel Tuesday on Angel & VC Funding at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin.
Michele Skelding photo by ©2013, Scott Van Osdol, www.vanosdol.com
Throughout an hour long discussion, the panelists talked about a wide range of topics including what they look for when deciding to make an investment to tips on how to talk to a potential investor.
A startup must have five critical ingredients to build a successful company, said Hurt. He details them on his blog Lucky7.io. They are a solid business plan, a good team, the proper mindset, funding and culture.
While Hurt, 41, spent the first half of his life building companies, he plans to spend the second half helping entrepreneurs make an impact on Austin. His focus is on ideas that can become big businesses. Hurt co-founded Bazaarvoice which is now a $540 million company.
Laura Kilcrease and Brett Hurt photo by ©2013, Scott Van Osdol, www.vanosdol.com
“There are some people who are thinking too big,” he said.
He’s only interested in working with companies that have products like Bazaarvoice and HomeAway. The one difference is if he has his Angel hat on he will make an investment in something different like Deep Eddy Vodka. He actually met Clayton Christopher, the founder of Deep Eddy Vodka, through RISE.
“I’m a huge, huge fan of RISE,” Hurt said. “This is one of the best things the city has going.”
If he makes an investment in a company like Deep Eddy and he gets back three times his investment then that’s just fine, he said.
But normally, he wants to see companies that have a clear path to get to $100 million in revenue or $1 billion in revenue.
“Most of the things I see are not close to that,” he said. “Lifestyle businesses are just fine. I’m a think big guy.”
When it comes to writing a check, Timmins looks at four things. The most important thing is the entrepreneur, he said. He looks for leadership qualities, managing skills, the ability to take advice and listening skills.
“It’s about the person or the people running the company,” he said. “Fifty percent of what I look at when I decide to invest is about the entrepreneur…If there are any doubts in my mind, I don’t do it.”
His second criterion for investment is the company’s technology and whether it’s disruptive enough. He’ll often consult experts to help him assess that.
The third thing he looks at is a customer.
“All you need for me to believe this is one paying customer who believes in what you’re doing and what you’re trying to establish,” he said. “The last thing I look at is the business plan.”
The business plan makes up just 10 percent of his decision making process.
“I don’t believe business plans anymore,” he said. “But I want you to go through the exercise…I want you to go through the process of thinking through it.”
As a venture capitalist, Kilcrease looks at two key aspects: the jockey and the team, she said.
“We know the business plan is wrong but it’s giving us an idea of what you’re thinking,” she said. “The next thing I look at is the market.”
The average angel investment is around $275,000 and the average venture capital round is $2 million to $3 million.
“I think the jockey and the market is key,” Kilcrease said. “The very last thing I look at is the technology. An “A team” will be able to rework the technology to the market or pivot as they go along.”
In addition to VCs and Angels, now investors are starting to see a third category called the Super Angel who is funding the gap between seed stage and Series A funding for startups, Kilcrease said. And another funding source is syndication between angel networks across the country, which can provide funding in the $1 million to $3 million range, she said.
“Don’t just think about angels as a $50,000 check,” she said.
Mentorship that a company gets is more important than the amount of money they receive, Hurt said.
“A business needs capital and mentorship,” he said. “It’s like a marriage. You can take money from angels and it can be your worst nightmare. It’s got to be the right fit.”
CTAN has five funding cycles through the year, said Skelding. And CTAN added office hours as a more informal way to get to know the angel investors and for entrepreneurs to discuss their ideas, she said. One big mistake entrepreneurs make is that they are just not prepared to pitch to investors.
“You’ve got to learn how to speak to an investor,” Skelding said. “They’ve seen thousands of deals.”
Entrepreneurs need to serve up their ideas in a way that is quick and interesting, she said.
Angels will invest in any type of businesses, Kilcrease said.
“If you get the right angel there’s almost no area they won’t consider,” she said. Whereas, VCs have specialized areas they invest in, she said.
Since 2009, Timmins has invested in 24 companies and only one has a chance to be public, he said.
In response to a question about the single biggest mistake people make in their pitch, Hurt said that entrepreneurs go into the VC or Angel pitch and they show a hockey stick growth slide that they don’t believe in.
“Set expectations you think you can meet,” he said.
Rick Timmins photo by ©2013, Scott Van Osdol, www.vanosdol.com
“If you don’t want the pressure of being accountable then be like my parents and don’t ever raise money,” Hurt said. His dad created a halogen fishing light but turned down an offer from Wal-Mart because he wanted to keep his business simple.
Another audience member asked about when to take additional funding for her business.
“Only take the amount of money that will add value to get you to the next level,” Kilcrease said.
By SUSAN LAHEY
Reporter with Silicon Hills News
Brett Hurt, photo by ©2013, Scott Van Osdol, www.vanosdol.com
First, he sees Austin as a business to business or B2B town. That’s where the majority of startups focus their attention. But that’s not where the money is.
“I’m hoping companies like HomeAway (which was backed by Austin Ventures) will activate the gene that helps us do more in the (business to consumer) B2C space,” Hurt said.
The other change is to get founders to hold on longer. Hurt pointed out to the room of 25 entrepreneurs that he had the opportunity to sell Bazaarvoice for $25 million. But as a native Austinite, he had in mind creating something big, something that would employ a lot of people and create a big ripple in Austin. So he hung on and now the company is valued at $540 million. That’s a step he’d like to see more Austin startups take, rather than selling to a California company for $10 million or so. He wants to see Austin startups display more perseverance and more ambition.
“A lot of the deals we’re backing at Austin Ventures are early stage companies….we’re looking for series A deals where we can put the capital in to accelerate growth. AV has actually seeded from $50,000 to $500,000 to seed companies from inception. Look how much money went into RetailMeNot ($90 million). The company was growing so fast it would have been completely stupid not to raise money for it.”
Austin Ventures is looking, though, for companies looking to make a difference.
“I only want to work with people who are interested in going big. If I measure the second half of my life by impact, how do I now measure impact. I measure it by how I help others and how many jobs they create. I don’t want to waste my time and I certainly don’t want to waste entrepreneurs’ time. If I can see a clear path where I can help them get to $100 million in revenue I have to see a clear possibility that they can then get to $1 billion. There are companies that are thinking that way, about doing something well beyond themselves.”
“What is lacking in the VC industry today is people who want to change the world,” Hurt said. “If you’re just looking to flip a company, if the goal is just to enrich yourself, you’re not going to change the world. Maybe investors will get 3-to-5 X of their money. If the goal is really to build a big company, you’re going to need a lot of capital to do it.”
Entrepreneurs have to start thinking in terms of what investors are looking for, he said. Had he sold Bazaarvoice for $25 million, it wouldn’t have “moved the needle” for a venture capital fund of $900 million.
One of the keys to success he discovered when pitching Austin Ventures in 2005, Hurt said, was to beat expectations. He presented four scenarios to investors. Level one he knew he could accomplish. But he included levels two through four, because he believed he could pull it off and he wanted to show investors he was dreaming big. Had he started with scenario four, he might have failed to meet expectations and lost his credibility.
“What are the encores? How could this get really big? You don’t set expectations for scenario four. You just make sure you’re real about it.”
Entrepreneurs have a tendency sometimes, he said, to think of investors as having pots of money they’re unwilling to share. They don’t think in terms of “If this was my money.” For example, they don’t first educate themselves on various types of liquidation investors might be looking for: participating, non-participating etc.
“I tried to literally put myself in their shoes,” he said. “If I had the kind of money they have and was putting money into a person like me, what would I want to know? How would I want to be treated?”
Damon Clinkscales, organizer of Founder Dating in Austin, is organizing AngelHack in Austin, which takes place on June 1st at Mass Relevance’s headquarters at eighth and Brazos.
Clinkscales provided the post below and even included a discount to the event for Silicon Hills News reader. So don’t wait, act now.
Ready to take your big idea to the next level?
Then join AngelHack in Austin on June 1st for their global hackathon competition, where you can win $100,000’s in prizes, seed capital, acceptance in a Silicon Valley accelerator, and trips out to Silicon Valley where you’ll pitch your startup to reps from Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and the largest investors around.
Come alone or bring a friend. There’ll be hundreds of other developers and designers there for you to work with. Full details about the event are here and there’s even a discount for Silicon Hills News readers. For more information about AngelHack visit its website.
