Molly Fletcher at Chase for Business Event in Austin
When it comes to work, purpose matters, said Molly
Fletcher.
“When we are clear on our purpose it helps us suffocate the fear that bubbles up in our life,” said Fletcher, one of the first female sports agents and now a motivational speaker and entrepreneur.
Fletcher gave a talk last week at the Chase for Business event, in partnership with Women on the Move – “Unleash Your Business Potential!” at The Line in downtown Austin. She conducted a workshop on negotiating with about 200 female entrepreneurs and businesswomen.
To illustrate the importance of stories in our lives, Fletcher recounted the story of Olympic speed-skater Dan Jansen. He failed to win a medal at two Olympics, and he was stuck.
Jansen wanted to win a gold in the 1,000-meter race and break the 36-second world record in the 500-meter event, Fletcher said. So, he went to James E. Loehr, a sports psychologist. Jansen told Loehr he hated the 1,000-meter race and no one had ever broken the 36-second barrier in the 500-meter race.
“That’s the story you’re telling yourself,” Loehr
said. “What if we change your story.”
Loehr told Jansen to stick post-it notes with 35.99 written on them everywhere – on his bathroom mirror, locker, car, door, everywhere he looked. And to write 35.99 in his training log every day. He also told Jansen to say, “I love the 1000 meter every day after practice.”
“That’s the story we’re going to change your mindset to,” Loehr said. “We’re going to change the story.”
As a result, Jansen changed his story and he won a gold medal in the 1,000-meter race at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics. And he broke the 36-second record in the 500-meter race four times before the Olympics.
“We tell ourselves all these stories and we begin to
believe them and sometimes they don’t serve us,” Fletcher said.
“When we change our stories, it changes our results,” she said. “What is the story that is keeping you in a place that isn’t taking you where you need to go?”
When starting out in her career, Fletcher could have told herself there are no female sports agents, and she could have accepted it but instead, she became a trailblazer in the industry. She previously worked as president of client representation for sports and entertainment agency CSE and spent two decades as one of the world’s only female sports agents. CNN called her the “female Jerry Maguire” and she successfully negotiated more than $500 million in contracts. Her clients included Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, PGA Tour golfer Matt Kuchar, broadcaster Erin Andrews, and basketball championship coaches Tom Izzo and Doc Rivers.
During her Game Changer Negotiation Training workshop for Chase, Fletcher provided tips and tools on how to close deals faster and build lasting relationships with customers. She also told a lot of stories about lessons she learned from her own life.
Fletcher recounted the story of how she launched her career after graduating from Michigan State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications while competing in tennis. She saved $2,000 during the summer and decided to drive to Atlanta to find a job even though she had never lived outside Michigan. It was before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and she thought there might be opportunities for her to get a sports-related job.
In Atlanta, she slept on a friend’s couch for a few weeks until she landed a job as a tennis pro at a local apartment complex. She got the job by networking with other tennis professionals and found out a guy who taught a weekly class at an apartment building was about to leave to get married. She went there and gave the apartment manager her homemade business card. The apartment manager didn’t know the guy was leaving yet. But a week later, Fletcher got the position. She taught a weekly class in exchange for free rent for nine years.
Fletcher ended up working for the Atlanta Super Bowl XXVIII Host Committee and then landed a job as at CSE, a sports agency in Atlanta.
Since 2011, Fletcher has written four books: Fearless at Work, A Winner’s Guide to Negotiating: How Conversations Get Deals Done, The 5 Best Tools to Find Your Dream Career, and The Business of Being the Best: Inside the World of Go-Getters and Game Changers. She also hosts a popular podcast called Game Changers with Molly Fletcher.
“Business is so anchored in relationships,” Fletcher
said. “We need to get in the head and hearts of those we serve.”
She also learned the difference between champions and those who played professional sports but didn’t make it to the top. The champions had an ability to lean into discomfort and grow from it, Fletcher said.
Champions are also resilient, Fletcher said.
“They recover from adversity faster than anyone else,”
she said.
And when it comes to doing business, it’s not about
the transaction, it’s about building great relationships, Fletcher said.
She also had to drop a client who was sucking away her energy and taking too much of her time.
“It was like a bad breakup,” Fletcher said. “This
relationship was draining more than I even knew.”
Once she cut that client, she was better able to
service her other clients.
“We need to protect our energy,” she said. “Protect
the things that bring us joy.”
10 Best Practices to Close the Deal by Molly Fletcher
Austin Texas Abstract Skyline Cityscape as the sunrise hits the riverside pedestrian bridge
Santé Ventures, a healthcare and life sciences investment firm specializing in early-stage companies, announced Wednesday it has closed a $250 million fund.
This is Santé Venture’s third fund, since its founding in 2006. The firm is based in Austin and has an office in Houston.
Fund III has “secured capital commitments from over 30 limited partners, including the previously announced new investor, Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (“PSERS”). Investors in previous funds accounted for approximately one-half of the total capital,” according to a news release.
Sante’s founding partners previously ran “Ascension Health, one of the largest healthcare systems in the country with $22 billion in revenue; created Ascension Health Ventures I, a $125 million corporate healthcare venture fund; and helped establish a healthcare practice at Austin Ventures, a top-tier venture firm with $3.9 billion in capital under management,” according to its website.
“We are grateful for the trust and confidence investors have placed in us with their capital. We are also pleased to have broadened our base of institutional limited partners with the addition of sovereign wealth funds, investors from Europe and Asia, and several new preeminent healthcare delivery systems,” Kevin Lalande, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Santé Ventures, said in a news release. “Over the last decade, we have proven and continued to refine our unique portfolio strategy, which is designed to engineer the luck out of fund-level venture capital returns. Our multi-disciplinary investment team partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build innovative companies with the potential to deliver better health outcomes at lower total cost, without relying on exits at unicorn valuations to generate attractive returns for our investors.”
With the latest fund, Santé Ventures plans to invest in 20 to 25 companies. It has already invested in Cryosa for the treatment of sleep apnea, DyaMC for the treatment of Type II Diabetes and Geneos Therapeutics, a neoantigen-based personalized cancer therapy.
To date, Santé Ventures has made investments into 33 companies including Claret Medical (Boston Scientific), TVA Medical (Becton Dickinson), Millipede Medical (Boston Scientific), Molecular Templates (MTEM), AbVitro (Celgene) and Explorys (IBM Corp).
Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet, holds up a T-Shirt from the Computer History Museum imprinted with his original sketch for Ethernet from a May 22, 1973 memo he wrote
Ethernet’s 46th anniversary is Wednesday, May 22nd
and on this occasion, Silicon Hills News has done a special edition Ideas to
Invoices podcast with Bob Metcalfe, founder of Ethernet.
Metcalfe is also professor of Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin. On Tuesday morning, he spoke to Silicon Hills News on the outdoor deck of Mozart’s Coffee Roasters. An occasional bird can be heard in the background as we chatted under the giant oak trees overlooking Lake Austin.
Metcalfe, who came to Austin in 2010, is also taking a 15-month leave from his position at the University of Texas at Austin starting this summer. During his time off, he plans to work with two Austin startups, which he declined to name.
Metcalfe sketched out the diagram for how Ethernet would work and included it in a memo he typed up on an IBM Selectric Typewriter. (which he thinks might have been made in Austin) He was working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, known as PARC.
Metcalfe
also formulated Metcalfe’s Law, “which states that the value of a
telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of
connected users of the system.” And that’s been one of the greatest
achievements of the Internet and Ethernet is the ability to connect so many worldwide.
This year, Ethernet celebrates its 46th anniversary, the
Internet celebrates its 50th anniversary, 3Com, the company Metcalfe
went on to found, which is now part of HP, celebrates its 40th
anniversary and the World Wide Web turns 30 years old.
It seemed like the perfect time to chat about Metcalfe’s accomplishments of the past, the killer app of the Internet and some of the ill effects of the Internet and social networks.
For example, Metcalfe quit Twitter in January of this year because the social network continually put him in a bad mood from reading various tweets. It also ate up a lot of his time. He now has reclaimed three and a half hours a day that he used to spend on Twitter, he said. He still does post information to Facebook, and he’s careful not to spend too much time on that platform.
Metcalfe also thinks the current problems the Internet faces will be solved. And there’s so much more he talks about so tune in and listen to the whole podcasat below or on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
Austin had one of the highest commercial
vacancy rates in the country. Its economy struggled to recover after the
Savings and Loan Crisis.
The technology industry was in its
infancy.
Thanks to ATI, the longest running
incubator in the country, Austin diversified its economy and became a technology
boom town, said Mitch Jacobson, ATI director and director of UT Blackstone
LaunchPad.
On Monday evening, about 400 invited guests celebrated ATI’s 30th anniversary at an event held at the AT&T Conference and Education Center. ATI is part of the University of Texas at Austin.
To date, ATI has helped more than 300 companies, which have graduated from its incubator. They have gone on to produce 10 public companies, 50 mergers, and acquisitions, and raised $1.7 billion in funds, according to ATI. It estimates the companies have had a $3 billion economic impact.
Throughout the evening, everyone kept recognizing one
man who made it all happen: George Kozmetsky, former Dean of the University of
Texas School of Business and founder of the IC2 Institute and ATI. He had a long-term
vision of Austin developing as a major Technopolis.
Laura Kilcrease, the founding executive director of ATI,
who Kozmetsky recruited to run the incubator as an unpaid employee, headed up
the ATI’s founder panel at the event.
ATI ran on $125,000 for each of the first two years and
by the end of the third year ATI had become self-supporting because of the
county, chamber and the business community, Kilcrease said.
Kozmetsky, who had previously co-founded and run
Teledyne in Silicon Valley, started calling on companies in California and
recruiting them to relocate to Austin.
In 1992, 92 companies visited Austin to talk about
relocating, said Carol Thompson, tech entrepreneur and former board chair,
Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and ATI board. Out of that, 25 companies expanded
to Austin, she said.
“We didn’t have a lot of jobs in Austin early on so
university graduates had to go elsewhere always yearning to come back to
Austin,” Thompson said.
MCC was one of Austin’s early technology companies. A
spinoff from that, ETI, Evolutionary Technologies Inc, owned by two females
including Kay Hammer went into ATI had a robust life, Thompson said.
“Today the emphasis is on entrepreneurs in Austin and the
emphasis is on minorities and female entrepreneurs in Austin,” Thompson said. “We’ve
had some success; you’ve heard about the steppingstones so far, but we still
have a long way to go I think for us to be a total expanding global city. We
still have to make a concerted effort with women and minorities in the city of
Austin.”
Former Austin Mayor Lee Cooke recalled meeting in a
parking lot with Kozmetsky for a 75 second conversation that was the beginning
of the money and the gas in the gas tank to put ATI together.
ATI was key for Austin to diversify its economy, Cooke
said.
In 1992, Cooke founded Medical Polymers Technologies
which spent three years at ATI. Today, the class one medical device maker is
still in business, he said.
ATI is still needed today, and the city also needs a
medical incubator to take the city forward with UT Dell Medical school, he
said.
ATI exceeded all expectations when it launched,
Kilcrease said. It was supposed to create 200 jobs and fill one million square
feet of office space within 10 years, she said. ATI created 350 jobs in three
years and within seven years, it had filled more than one million square feet
of office space. In the first two years, ATI raised more than $70 million for
its startups, Kilcrease said.
ATI started an angel network, the Austin Software
Council, which is now the Austin Technology Council and many other
infrastructure organizations, Kilcrease said.
“That was the beginning then. What we have today is a
new beginning,” Kilcrease said. “Because ATI has never stayed the same from any
one period. It has evolved, improved, grown. And today is a new beginning under
Mitch Jacobson’s leadership for the next phase of ATI and the next phase of
what we’re going to do in the greater Central Texas community.”
Next, ATI gave the 2019 Laura Kilcrease Civic Entrepreneurship
Award to Capital Factory. Previous winners included Michael Dell, Pike Powers,
Gary Farmer, Lee Walker
Capital Factory, founded in 2009, went through Texas
Ventures Lab, said Joshua Baer, its co-founder and director.
“We all work together in Austin,” Baer said. “It takes
a whole bunch of people to make this all work.” Capital Factory has 80 people
on its team, he said.
“We would not be here if it weren’t for ATI,” Baer
said.
The event also included remarks from Dan Jaffe, vice
president for research, the University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas
at Austin President Greg Fenves, and Austin Mayor Steve Adler. It also included
panels from former students and entrepreneurs who graduated from the ATI
incubator. And KLRU created a special video focused on ATI’s founding and
contributions to the city’s technology industry.
And John S. Butler, director UT Texas Venture Labs,
former director of IC2 Institute, gave the John S. Butler Distinguished Student
Award to Katherine Allen, Plan II honors and mechanical engineering senior. As
a sophomore, she co-founded Genesis, a venture capital fund, to provide capital
to student-run startups. Genesis raised $1.2 million and has funded more than
20 student led startups. Those startups have raised $7 million in follow on
funding. Allen also founded Flo Recruit.
ATI also awarded graduation certificates to the 2019 ATI
graduating companies include AdBm, Aiqueous, Apptronik, Enervalis,
LungTherapeautics, Seachange Technologies, SimplifySolar, Smarter Sorting and
Water lens.
Admiral Bobby Inman and Pike Powers both received the George
Kozmetsky Lifetime Achievement Award for their ecosystem contributions to the
Austin tech economy. Greg Kozmetsky, CEO
and president of KMS ventures, chairman and president of RGK Foundation,
presented the award.
At Hypergiant’s Austin headquarters, Ben Lamm, CEO, and Co-founder takes to the conference room’s whiteboard to explain its structure and expansion plans.
Hypergiant launched out of stealth mode in February of 2018 and has been growing steadily with 140 employees in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Seattle. Its Austin office is on the fourth floor of the iconic 110-year-old Scarbrough building, Austin’s original office tower at Congress and Sixth Street in the heart of downtown.
Lamm, a native of Austin, splits his time between homes
in Austin and Dallas and often rides the Vonlane luxury bus between the two
cities. He’s already built and sold Chaotic Moon to Accenture and Conversable,
which sold to New York-based LivePerson. Hypergiant is his third tech startup
in less than a decade. But Hypergiant is his most ambitious undertaking to
date.
“It’s been a good first year,” Lamm said.
Hypergiant’s Austin office is space-age cool with murals
of “Tomorrowing Today: the space where impossibility intersects reality.” It’s like
something out of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland theme park – a poster of which hangs
in its conference room. The office features exposed brick, original doors and
fixtures, hardwood floors, high ceilings and an open floor plan. Hypergiant’s vibe
is a Venn diagram of “high fashion, meets government lab, meets retro futurism,”
Lamm explained.
And Hypergiant is serious about conquering the next
great frontier, which is outer space. Its swag is even Hypergiant branded freeze-dried
astronaut ice cream, the kind they have at the International Space Station and
in the gift shop at the Kennedy Space Center. It harkens back to the nostalgia around
the great space race.
This summer, July 20, marks the 50th
anniversary of the first humans landing on the moon as part of NASA’s Apollo 11
lunar mission, and it seems like the right time for Hypergiant to be focused on
outer space.
Lamm explains the somewhat complex structure of Hypergiant on the company’s whiteboard. He draws an org chart showing Hypergiant Industries as the overall parent company. It is the “AI Industrial complex” for Fortune 500 companies and government agencies and federal contractors, Lamm said. It builds and buys companies focused on AI and machine learning to work on problems for customers.
Since Hypergiant emerged from stealth mode last year,
it has launched Hypergiant Space Age Solutions, Hypergiant Galactic Systems and
Hypergiant Sensory Sciences. Its investment division, Hypergiant Ventures, has
also acquired two companies, Black Pixel in Seattle and S.E.O.Ps in Houston.
“We are building the brand for artificial intelligence
and changing the world in a lot of different industries. I don’t think all the
best ideas will be invented here by me or the founders” Lamm said. “I think the
right scenario is let’s go find great girls and guys to build full product
companies around areas of expertise that they are passionate about that we can
then take to market and wrap additional services around.”
Each one of these companies is individually
capitalized, and partially capitalized by our parent Hypergiant, Lamm said. Hypergiant
has not disclosed how much in venture capital it has raised to date, but it’s a
significant sum, he said.
Hypergiant Space Age Solutions is the service company
focused on system integration, custom software development and strategy
services for the Fortune 500 on the commercial side and then also working with
some great folks on the federal side as well, Lamm said.
“You can go
build the greatest enterprise artificial intelligence system to solve XYZ
problem, but you still need humans to go train it and integrate it with back
end systems,” Lamm said.
Hypergiant builds or buys custom AI software companies
that it takes to market through Hypergiant Space Age Solutions, Lamm said.
Last November, Hypergiant Sensory Sciences launched
and is focused on spatial intelligence or creating a
software platform that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and
neural networks to harvest information from data streams collected by companies
through cameras and sensors. It will turn that information into actionable
insights a company can use to operate better and more efficiently.
Hypergiant Sensory Science’s initial
focus will be on the oil and gas industry, the Department of Defense and
healthcare.
“A lot of
Fortune 500 companies are excited about AI, but they really don’t understand AI,”
Lamm said. “They are more excited about the hope of AI more so than anything.”
Background of galaxy and stars
This leads into Hypergiant’s Space division, Lamm
said.
The latest division to launch is Hypergiant Galactic
Systems, which focuses on AI-driven
software and hardware products for the space industry. As part of that
strategy, Hypergiant acquired Satellite & Extraterrestrial Operations &
Procedures, also known as S.E.O.P.s, a Houston-based satellite deployment and
services provider for the CubeSat and MicroSat markets. It plans to
launch a series of miniature satellites next year.
The first satellite will use Hypergiant’s new Smart Satellite Platform,
which is an AI-driven satellite operating system. It will contain special
sensors and cameras that allow it to scan the space environment and make sense
of the data it collects.
“We can launch our own satellite imaging systems,”
Lamm said. “We can sell data from our
satellites and leverage our deep learning platform on that data.”
Each one of these divisions have a lot of different
market sectors but the goal is to add up all these divisions and leverage them
to create something even larger, Lamm said.
Hypergiant has two more companies to announce later
this summer, Lamm said. And it will continue to look for new opportunities, he
said.
“It’s a big vision, it’s an exciting vision” Lamm
said. “This is not a $100 million venture; this is a $100 billion venture. “
And he plans on building a 1,000-year-old company, he
said.
artificial intelligence
Hypergiant has projects that are further out there and
other ideas that have shorter return event horizons, said John McKinley, a
strategic adviser and investor in Hypergiant.
“It’s trying to get people to stretch their own
collective visions of what’s possible,” McKinley said.
“I think there is an incredible demand for people who
can deliver innovation in the AI sector reliably. That’s why you’ve seen them
grow so quickly over their first year,” McKinley said. “Clients appreciate the
fact they are able to deliver on their innovation commitments.”
“Hypergiant is already doing a great job in helping
clients reinvent their customer-facing experiences dramatically change their
cost structures and deliver a next generation set of products and services to
their customers,” McKinley said.
For example, Hypergiant created an AI-powered bartender
for TGIF restaurants.
“The AI powered bartender has the ability to
understand a specific guest’s likes, dislikes, mood and create a one of a kind
drink for that guest for just that meal and just that night,” said Sherif
Mityas, Chief Experience Officer of TGIF.
TGIF is piloting the
technology in several restaurant and it is starting to roll it out across the
chain, Mityas said.
The interactive
experience involves a person answering questions on an iPad at the bar around
their preferences and whether they like pomegranate, cinnamon and what kind of
allergies they have and what they want to eat that night. The AI then creates a
recipe for a one of a kind drink.
“Our bartenders love it,”
Mityas said. “They get to make cool new drinks.”
TGIF is looking at other
AI tools to help it create that one to one connection with guests, he said.
“AI will never replace
our people at Fridays, but it is making them much better and enhancing the
experience they provide to our guests,” Mityas said. “We’re working with a number of
things with Hypergiant. They think differently and help our teams focus on
what’s next.”
A packed house at the SKU graduation listen to Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest, co-founders of EPIC Provisions talk about the success of their startup which sold to General Mills.
Startup activity for the consumer package goods industry in Austin is booming.
That was evident as the seventh cohort of the SKU Accelerator did their pitches for Demo Day at Native Hostel Tuesday night.
It was a standing-room-only crowd as Bhoomi Cane Water, Grocery Pup, LAMIK, Pure Active CBD, MODEQ, PickleSmash and YVY presented their ventures to investors and the community.
The evening kicked off with remarks from Kirstin Ross, SKU’s managing director, followed by the husband and wife team of Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest, co-founders of EPIC Provisions. EPIC is a SKU alumni company that makes high protein meat snacks such as EPIC Bars in flavors including Bison Bacon Cranberry, Beef Habanero Cherry, Chicken Sesame BBQ, and Pulled Pork Pineapple.
Taylor and Katie, both former vegans and competitive athletes, founded the company in 2013 after their plant-based diet started to cause health problems for them. Their solution was to add the meat back to their diets. They created meat bars using regenerative agriculture and sustainable ranching techniques. In 2016, they sold EPIC Provisions to General Mills for $100 million, according to Inc Magazine.
Two years ago, they bought a ranch where they raise Bison
and chickens and focus on best practices for ranching and agriculture. They are
conscious carnivores who
believe in eating better meat. Taylor Collin’s
advice to the SKU startups comes from a story from his ranch. He noticed the
Bison run into approaching storms to get through them. He advised the startups
to “run into the fucking storm.”
The SKU
Accelerator, founded by Austin Attorney and Entrepreneur Sheri Wynne Ressler in
2011, has earned a reputation as being one of the city’s best accelerators. The
12-week program is highly selective. That’s because the startups get mentoring
by some of Austin’s most successful entrepreneurs including Clayton
Christopher, founder of Sweet Leaf Tea and Deep Eddy Vodka, Doreen Lorenzo,
former president of frog and Quirky, Michelle Breyer, founder of Naturally
Curly, and Scott Jensen, founder of Stubbs BBQ Sauce and co-founder of Rhythm Superfoods,
among many others.
Austin’s connections to Whole Foods, which is based here, and H-E-B, based in San Antonio, also make it a hotbed for consumer product innovation and an ideal place to launch new drinks, snacks, and other consumer goods.
Here are the
companies in the latest cohort with a brief description of their operations
from their pitch.
Elora Turner with Bhoomi Cane Water
Bhoomi Cane Water – Bhoomi means “Mother Earth” in Sanskrit. The New Orleans-based startup makes cane water beverages infused with Turmeric, Moringa, Ashwagandha, Ginger and other botanicals. Its mission is to change the way people think about sugar cane, said Elora Turner, its director of communications. Cane juice is cold press juice with no chemical solvents and lots of vitamins and minerals that creates sustained energy, she said. The company launched in the Louisiana market in 2017 and later entered the Texas market. It has raised $880,000 in funding to date. It’s sold through Amazon and select retailers.
A Pup Above – The wife and husband team of Ruth Stedman and Javier Marriott founded the company to create healthier, non-processed dog food in 2016 when they got their own pup, Lola, a Pomeranian Husky. They make dog food, which is prepared sous vide style with fresh ingredients, in a 200,000-square-foot plant in Round Rock. They are going after the $12.6 billion market for homecooked and wet dog food. Grocery Pup is sold through subscription online and through select retailers like Tomlinson’s and Whole Foods. The founders have bootstrapped the company and they already have $22,000 in reoccurring monthly revenue.
Kim Roxie, founder of LAMIK
LAMIK – Kim Roxie created LAMIK, a vegan, non-toxic cosmetic line for women of color. She previously ran a cosmetics store in Houston. The market for cosmetics for women of color is a $12 billion market, Roxie said. LAMIK has already launched its celebrity brow kit and vegan brushes and plans to launch more products like foundation in the coming months. Its manufacturing facility is in Houston.
Liz and Brian White, founder of PickleSmash
PickleSmash – The wife and husband team of Liz and Brian White created White’s Pickle Salsa and have recently rebranded to Picklesmash. For 2019, they project total sales of $120,000 from 60 retail stores and online sales. The Waco-based startup makes salsa from pickles without tomatoes. It is sold through Ace Hardware stores regionally and it is sold directly to consumers online.
YVY – Rodrigo Tostes and Marcelo Ebert created YVY, pronounced Evee, a green cleaning system that uses subscription cleaning pods, water and reusable cleaning spray bottles. The pods come in three varieties – an all-purpose cleaner, kitchen, and bathroom pods. It’s good for the environment and it’s good for individuals and their homes, Tostes said. The U.S. cleaning market is worth $41 billion annually and the green cleaning market is worth $8.5 billion.
Boots Kelley and Jon Kelley, father and son farmers. Jon Kelley founded Pure Active CBD and transformed his family farm in Bartlesville, Oklahoma from soybeans and wheat to hemp.
Pure Active CBD – Jonathan Kelley, a third-generation farmer from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is part of the seed to shelf movement in the hemp industry. He converted his family farm from soybeans and wheat to hemp. One acre of hemp is equal to 183 acres of soybeans and 272 acres of wheat, Kelley said. “I’m not a wheat or soybean farmer anymore,” he said. Currently, 22 million people in the U.S. take CBD oil for insomnia, joint and pain relief. CBD oil sales were $600 million in 2018 and it’s on track to be $23 billion in 2025, Kelley said. Pure Active CBD is creating sparkling citrus-flavored beverages infused with CBD oil. It’s going to be rolled out to retail and convenience stores and direct to consumers soon.
MODEQ – This startup, formerly known as stackables, has created modular outdoor equipment like portable grills and coolers that can connect. Its gear is perfect for tailgating or camping, said Megan Grigsby, marketing director. “With modularity, we’re allowing you to customize your outdoor experience,” she said.
Aerial photo taken over the bridges Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas during sunset.
MassChallenge Texas announced it has accepted 74 startups into its latest program in Austin which kicks off in June.
The startups hail from five countries, 14 states and
five industries, said Mike Millard, managing director of MassChallenge Texas.
The largest industry represented is high tech which
comprises 42 percent of the startups, followed by general at 26 percent,
healthcare and life sciences at 19 percent, social impact at 8 percent and
clean energy at 5 percent.
And 56 percent of the compares are led by female founders, up from 32 percent last year, Millard said.
The startups come from U.S., Israel, Chile, Mexico and
the Netherlands.
And 22 of the startups are from Austin and another one each from Round Rock and Georgetown. There is also one startup from San Antonio and Houston.
This year, MassChallenge received 689 applications, about
a 31 percent increase from 527 last year.
The startups will compete for $500,000 in equity-free prize money at the end of the 16 week accelerator.
As part of the program, the startups receive $250,000 worth of deals and discounts, free coworking and at attend events, and classes at WeWork at Barton Springs.
Also, new this year, MassChallenge Texas kicked off in Houston recently and expects to have about 25 startups in its program in the first year, Millard said. Eventually, MassChallenge Texas would like to run programs in Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio too, he said.
The following is a complete list of the
chosen companies with descriptions supplied by Mass Challenge:
17TeraWatts (Texas, USA): 17TeraWatts’ digital personal
assistant helps solar companies engage their homeowners and generate more
referrals and follow-on sales.
AdaptaFit (Texas,
USA): Adaptafit magnets, into the clothing of people with
diseases/disabilities, in order to help them get dressed independently.
Aliro
Immigration (California, USA): Aliro Immigration is like
TurboTax for immigration applications.
Alpaca
Market (Texas, USA): Alpaca Market makes eating healthy easy by
serving farm fresh food daily through a network of innovative vending kiosks
and smart fridges.
Arva Intelligence (Utah, USA): Arva Intelligence
provides technology to farmers and agriculture service partners to lead
economic and environmental stewardship in managed ecosystems.
AVIRTEK,
Inc. (Arizona, USA): Avirtek is developing Autonomic
Cybersecurity that is analogous to human nervous system that can self-protect
cyber systems and applications.
Axion Technologies LLC (Florida, USA):
Axion Technologies produces High Speed, Truly-Random Number Generators for use
in High Performance Computers (HPC) and Encryption devices.
Beatbox Instruments, LLC (Texas, USA):
Beatbox Instruments provides a cheap, effective, fun and educational solution
for teenagers to start music production.
Beltech, LLC
(Illinois, USA)
Blipic (Texas,
USA): Blipic is correcting the path of the employee health and engagement
industry through community and outdoor recreation.
BuyChain (Texas,
USA): BuyChain is an online construction marketplace focused on revolutionizing
the $750B annual wholesale construction supply chain.
Catalyst
Education (Texas, USA): Catalyst Education is founded by
experienced and proven STEM EdTech entrepreneurs targeting the $1.3B Higher Ed.
lab course learning market.
Civdrone (Tel Aviv,
Israel)
ClassNotes (Texas,
USA): ClassNotes helps students ace their academic examinations and
standardized tests with guaranteed results.
ClearFlame Engines
(Illinois, USA)
Coco
College (California, USA): Coco College is an app that
exclusively connects students within their own university, where they can buy
and sell books, TV’s, couches and more.
Collective Liberty (Washington, DC, USA):
Collective liberty facilitates anti-trafficking collaboration across industries
and stakeholders to create ground-breaking, data-driven approaches that work.
Crewcollar (Texas,
USA): Crewcollar’s mission is to transform hiring for the desk-less workforce,
using imaging technology to better match and provide steady opportunities.
Day
Dreamer (Texas, USA): Day Dreamer is a location based social
app that allows creatives from 9 different mediums to find their ideal
collaborator.
Emergent
Tree Education (Texas, USA): Harnessing technology, Emergent
Tree Educations provides training, consultation and data tools to help teachers
improve behavioral outcomes for students
FADE (Texas,
USA): Fade is a mobile platform connecting local barbers and their clients.
FlapMX (Texas, USA)
Freudensong, LLC
(Texas, USA)
Good Neighbor Rx
(Texas, USA)
GotSpot,
Inc (Texas, USA): GotSpot is short-term space for your
business. This is a marketplace where entrepreneurs borrow Main Street space to
grow their businesses.
Grant
Source (Texas, USA): Grant Source helps organizations find
money for their mission. Our revolutionary platform can find, write and track
grants all from a mobile app.
Guide
Change (Texas, USA): Guide Change helps families and
professionals make better financial decisions to keep their money safe and
maximize government benefits.
Guzo (Texas,
USA): Guzo is the world’s most user friendly and functional group travel
planning platform.
Haima Therapeutics (Ohio, USA): Haima
Therapeutics is a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company focused on
developing bio-inspired therapies for the treatment of bleeding.
Hangio (Texas,
USA): Hangio is a hanger company focused on optimizing the everyday closet
experience through
innovative hanger technology.
HyperLinq (New Jersey,
USA): HyperLinq is a secure real-time trading efficiency tool that aggregates
prices from multiple exchanges and allows order execution.
Intry (Texas,
USA): Intry uses AI to unlock hidden variables in resumes and job applications
to connect employers and candidates, improving visibility by 240%.
JuiceBox
Hero (Texas, USA): JuiceBox Hero is an online platform helping busy
parents find daycare & preschool matches. We gather key social impact & consumer insights.
KJ
Scientific (Texas, USA): Innovative technology for chemical
testing to advance product safety for human and environmental health.
Lazarus
3D (Texas, USA): Lazarus 3D uses 3D printing to build realistic
copies of patient body parts overnight so surgeons can rehearse upcoming
operations.
LGI
Foods Inc (Nuevo León, Mexico): Did you know that 50% of adult
Americans have diabetes or are prediabetic? LGI Foods is here to talk about a
new Superfood that can beat diabetes.
Ludibuk (Región
Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile): Ludibuk is a digital library solution aiming
to improve literacy skills among Spanish speaking K-12 students.
MakersValley
LLC (Texas, USA): MakersValley is the AirBnB of small batch
apparel manufacturing. We aim to democratize the manufacturing industry.
MDM
Wound Ventures LLC (Texas, USA): MDM Wound Ventures LLC,
develops and manufactures innovative and disruptive products, for wound care
providers, to improve patient outcomes.
MensGoldBoxx (Texas,
USA): MensGoldBoxx is a Big & Tall ecomm revolution. Intuitive customer
profiles make finding your fit and style easy. Tech built to be licensed.
MicroRio (Texas,
USA): MicroRio is bringing to market the first affordable plastic that is 100%
biodegradable, renewable, and bioabsorbable.
Modello Learning
(Texas, USA)
Moolah U (Texas,
USA): Moolah U is creating financial intelligence in the next generation
through programs and learning tools for kids and parents.
MµZ
Motion, LLC (Texas, USA): MµZ Motion is driving the future of
robotics with the next generation in high-oerformance motion.
NetObjex,
Inc (California, USA): NetObjex is an Intelligent automation
platform for Smart Cities and Connected Enterprises utilizing IOT, AI and
Blockchain.
NOVAM (Texas,
USA): NOVAM is a patent-pending distributed security company providing IoT
device and data integrity using a blockchain security fabric and cloud
Olifant Medical
(Texas, USA)
OrthoBistro (Louisiana,
USA): The OMSAD (Orthopedic and Musculoskeletal Assessment Device) is a fully
autonomous, non-invasive physical exam station that standardizes the collection
of patient data into the health record.
Pack Elephant (Texas,
USA)
Phylomics Diagnostics
(Texas, USA)
Pilot
Plus (Texas, USA): Pilot Plus has created a logistical relay
based on a scheduling algorithm that will allow truck drivers to be home daily.
Pocket Innovations LLC
(Virginia, USA): Pocket Innovations solves the common complication of pocket
hematoma associated with pacemaker implants with a device that stops them from
ever happening.
Prolitfic (Texas,
USA): Prolitfic is a digital platform crowdsourcing novel evaluations from readers
and editors: SoundCloud for the publishing industry.
Reap (New
Mexico, USA): We help ranchers boost productivity and reduce labor and losses
with a mobile app that talks to cattle-worn health and location trackers.
ROOG, Inc (Texas,
USA): ROOG is a social marketing and e-commerce platform that connects
consumers to small businesses in diverse communities.
Saikou Bioscience
(Texas, USA)
Salt
Athletic (Colorado, USA): We are creating sleek athletic bags
with patent-pending technology in the lining of the bags that eliminate
bacteria and neutralize odors. Previously known as EVO & Co.
Sancura
Biotechnologies (Virginia, USA): Sancura Biotechnologies delivers a
comprehensive solution to smoking cessation by targeting the physical and
mental challenges of quitting.
Single Baked Sweets (Virginia, USA):
Single Baked Sweets provides single-serve, bake-at-home dessert kits.
SipScene (Tel
Aviv, Israel): The social alternative to pubs and bars, SipScene is the AirBnB
of social events – connecting people at popup social events in homes.
Snack
Jack (Texas, USA): Snack Jack’s mission is to heal the planet
one bag of jackfruit jerky at a time, impacting the environment and the
community in major ways.
SolGro (Texas,
USA): SolGro increases greenhouse crop yields by converting photosyntheticly
inactive sunlight (O,Y,G,I,V) into photosynthetic light (R,B).
SurviVR (Texas,
USA): SurviVR is a VR platform for immersive and accessible police training.
Our mission is to improve public safety through improved training.
SwipeMeIn (Texas,
USA): SwipeMeIn is a marketplace that connects on-campus students with extra
meal swipes with off-campus students who want a cheap on-campus meal.
Tablee (Virginia, USA)
teleCalm,
Inc (Texas, USA): teleCalm’s phone service can be life-changing
for seniors living at home and in senior living. Keeping them connected and
protected.
TitleFlow LLC (Texas,
USA)
Topl (Limburg,
Netherlands)
TRAXyL,
Inc (Virginia, USA): TRAXyL is dramatically reducing the cost
of broadband communications by essentially painting optical fiber onto the road
surface.
VioLume (Texas, USA):
Delivering non-touch room disinfection and energy efficient lighting in a
single platform.
Whiskey Morning Coffee (Texas, USA):
Whiskey + Coffee… Nuff’ said. All our coffee is aged in whiskey barrels.
Winnow
Analytics (Texas, USA): Winnow solves the “last mile” analytics
communication problem by mining dashboards, delivering custom-tailored and
data-triggered prescriptions.
Xelpha
Health (Texas, USA): Xelpha Health increases access to high
quality medical care in resource constrained settings by providing a
mobile-first simplified EMR.
Downtown district reflecting on water with dramatic sky at sunset
May
1-2
FUND Conference
When: May 1st and May 2nd
Where: Fairmount Hotel in Downtown Austin
Why: FUND Conference hosts an event in Austin annually to promote connections among entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, and industry experts. It features panel discussions on a variety of topics, exhibits, and networking. For more info.
May
2nd
Austin Tech Open Coffee Downtown
When: 8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Where: Houndstooth Coffee, 401 Congress Ave, (Frost Bank Tower)
Why: Hosted by Open Austin Coffee, created by Damon Clinkscales and sponsored by Egan Nelson, is an informal gathering of Austin’s tech community to network over coffee. For more info.
UT Austin Longhorn Startup Demo Day
When: Starts at 5 p.m.
Where: Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium, 2313 Red River Street, Austin, TX 78712
Why: This annual event features student-led startups from the Longhorn Entrepreneurship program at UT Austin. It also features a keynote speaker: Nagraj Kashyap, global head of M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund. For more info.
May
4th
Maker Faire Austin 2019
When: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Where; Palmer Events Center 900 Barton Springs Road, Austin, TX
Why: “Maker Faire Austin is a locally grown celebration of innovation, invention, craft, creativity, science, robotics, technology, homesteading, lego, fire, food, music, performers, and MORE!” For more info.
Latinitas Future Chica Conference
When: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Where: Oracle, 2300 Cloud Way, Austin, TX 78741
Why: Latinitas invites all girls between 9-18 years old to attend Future Chica Conference 2019 on Saturday, May 4th, 2019 at Oracle in Austin. For more info.
May
6th – May 10th
Innovation
Week ATX – by PeopleFund
When: Starts May 6th at 9 a.m. and runs daily with featured speakers every hour and concludes May 10th.
Where: PeopleFund 2921 E. 17th Street Building D Suite
Why: This weeklong series of free events are put on by PeopleFund for entrepreneurs – primarily aimed at small businesses but businesses of any size could benefit from some of these talks. For more info.
Why: “Join us for an information session at Impact Hub Austin’s Lamar’s Inspire Room to learn more about our Austin Impact Accelerator and how your business, venture, or idea can participate.” For more info.
May
7th
Female
Founder Roundtable: Smashing Ceilings and Raising the Bar
When: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: The Riveter 1145 W 5th St. Austin
Why: Featuring Austin female entrepreneurs talking about how they are building their companies. For more info.
Philanthropitch
Austin
When: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: LBJ Auditorium, 2313 Red River St., Austin, TX 78712
Why: It’s a social impact fast-pitch competition. The organization provides funding to nonprofits. For more info.
Out in Tech ATX: Meet Flatiron School (Info Session)
When: 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Where: WeWork Westview, 316 W 12th St 5th Floor, 5th Floor, Austin, Texas 78701
Why: “Join Flatiron School to learn more about our programs, meet our staff and alumni, and network with your future classmates and Out in Tech!” For more info.
May
8th
Startup Grind Welcomes Monica Landers of Storyfit!
When: 6 p.m.
Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos, Suite 150
Why: The event features “Monica Landers, Founder and CEO of StoryFit, a rapid-growth technology company which provides AI analytics for the publishing and entertainment industry.” For more info.
May 9th
Austin Technology Council Roundtable: Women in Tech
When: 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Where: Galvanize 119 Nueces St., Austin
Why: “Roundtable: Women in Tech “Intergenerational Conflict & Mentorship” Let’s have an open discussion about engaging with co-workers of all ages in the workplace and multigenerational mentorship trends.” For more info.
Let’s Talk About Diversity in Tech
When: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Where: Rowling Hall at The McCombs School of Business: 300 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Austin, TX 78712
Why: The Texas Tribune is putting on this event, moderated by Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith and featuring Mellie Price, entrepreneur and now executive director of commercialization, health ecosystem for the Dell Medical School, Eugene Sepulveda, CEO of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, and Joah Spearman, founder, and CEO of Localeur. For more info.
May
14th
Austin Technology Council Roundtable: Engineering Leadership
When: 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Where: Galvanize, 119 Nueces Street, Austin, TX
Why: “Monthly breakfasts targeted to specific groups within the Austin technology community to come together in a small group of 25-40. These events include a featured speaker who kicks off open discussion amongst attendees.” For more info.
5G: Ushering in the Fourth Technology Revolution
When: 5:15 p.m. check in
Where: Austin Central Library, 710 W. Cesar Chavez
Why: 5G is the new standard for the communications industry. The event features Fawzi Behmann, TelNet Management, Amber Gunst, Austin Technology Council, and Arun Ghosh, AT&T Labs. For more info.
Don’t mess with Texas! – Fighting insurance fraud using Machine Learning
Why: “In our second Data on Tap event, Matthew Tichenor will be talking about fraud in Texas’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) system” For more info.
May
15th
Austin Technology Council: Leadership Dinner
When: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Where: Z’Tejas, 1110 West 6th Street, Austin, TX 78703
Why: A discussion with tech executives about hiring and promoting veterans into leadership roles. For more info.
May
20th
Speed to Capability: Defense Innovation from Research to Tech Transfer
When: 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street, Austin, TX 78701
Why: “Join TDIF’s growing network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, defense contractors, technology investors, consultants, and science & technology gurus for the next installment in a series of networking and educational events encouraging collaboration among Austin’s Defense Innovation Ecosystem and the broader National Security community.” For more info.
May 21st
Texas Smart Cities Summit
When: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Where: Austin Central Public Library, 710 West Cesar Chavez Street Austin, TX 78701
Why: “The Texas Smart Cities Summit will bring together thought leaders, policy makers, designers and developers to share ideas & experiences, trade lessons learned, and develop plans & priorities for Texas cities. Using urban data, new & emerging technologies, and advanced analytics we aim to accelerate smart city efforts and improve the quality of life in our cities. ” For more info.
Founder Hotseats: The Art of the 60-Second Pitch
When: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Galvanize 119 Nueces St. Austin, TX
Why: “Do you have a startup, or a strong idea for a startup? Could you use blunt, honest feedback on your ideas from experienced entrepreneurs? Then join us for the Founder Hotseat event, from the Founder Institute. During this event, members of the audience will pitch their ideas to a panel of experts, who will then rate each pitch on a score of 1-5 (no 3’s allowed!), and provide helpful feedback.” For more info.
May
22
Construction Technology Forum
When: 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Where: JE Dunn Construction, 2010 South Lamar Boulevard #Suite 201, Austin, TX
Why: “The forum will include discussions over implementation challenges and ongoing research in the field of Visualization, Information Modeling, and Simulation (VIMS), a demonstration of Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), and the ongoing changes in the construction technology field.” For more info.
Entrepreneur’s Game plan: Addressing Fear, Focus and First Steps to Start or Scale
When: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Where: The Riveter 1145 West 5th Street, Austin, TX 78703
Why: “People say the hardest part of entrepreneurship is starting, but we know the challenge doesn’t stop there. Join Prowess Project’s CEO & Founder Ashley Connell and Chief Mom Officer Leah Steinkirch for an interactive lunch-n-learn where together we’ll walk through a holistic view at taking the next step to start or grow your business.” For more info.
May
23
Austin Chamber of Commerce’s A-List Awards
When: 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Where: ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Why: The A-List awards go to Austin’s most innovative companies in various stages of development. It also added some other awards last year to recognize established companies for culture and leadership. For more information.
QuantHub
When: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: MoonShine Grill, 303 Red River, Austin, TX
Why: “Facilitated conversation around what is and what isn’t working in the quest to build exceptional advanced analytics teams.” For more info.
May
29-31
Dig-In:
The Future of Digital Insurance
When: May 29-31
Where: Austin Convention Center, 500 East Cesar Chavez St., Austin, TX 78701
Why: “Dig|In 2019 offers a glimpse of the industry’s future, as well as presents the current state of disruption within the insurance market.” For more info.
Cliently, which moved to San Antonio last July, announced Tuesday that is has received $1 million in venture capital.
Active Capital, a new venture capital firm based in San Antonio and led by Pat Matthews, is the lead investor in the seed stage round of funding. Other investors include Altair.
Spencer Farber, founder and CEO of Cliently, founded the company
a few years ago. He saw the need for companies to engage their customers more
dynamically while working as director of sales for Pandadoc. And that’s where
he got the idea for Cliently, which is an automated sales engagement and lead
generation platform.
Cliently also hired Huey Ly, a former senior engineer at
Rackspace and Mailgun, with the latest funding, Farber said.
Previously, Cliently, which was based in Myrtle Beach, SC, received a $200,000 grant from SC Launch when
it was accepted into its entrepreneurial program in July of 2017. That’s in
addition to a $50,000 grant the company previously received.
Cliently is
based at Active Capital’s office, which is also home to Funnel.AI, another
Active Capital portfolio company.
Cliently’s sales platform uses personalized emails, videos,
and physical mail for sales. It is aimed at small businesses looking to drive
more engagement with customers. Cliently allows small businesses to send
personalized messages to targeted contacts with ease, Farber said.
“Our whole goal is to find unique ways to engage people,” he
said.
At the end of the day, a lot of the small businesses have
great products and services, but it’s hard to get in front of customers, Farber
said. Video is shown to engage people at
a 25 percent higher rate than written email alone, he said.
Video adds credibility to a small business and starts a
relationship with the customer, Farber said.
Cliently also offers postcards, handwritten notes and gift cards
to Starbucks or Home Depot or some other targeted retailer that is tailored to
the industry and pitch, Farber said.
Cliently has also built integrations into its app for customer
relationship management programs like Salesforce, Pipedrive and HubSpot.
Cliently has five full time employees and five contractors.
It is looking to hire a full stack developer in San Antonio and some other key
positions with the new funding, Farber said.
A Cloud Guru, which provides online cloud computing training and talent development, will use the funding to add new employees, expanding its content library with new courses and to build out features in its existing technology.
Brother Sam and Ryan Kroonenburg founded A Cloud Guru in 2015. The company started out by providing one cloud certification course and has expanded to offer courses and labs covering Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure cloud platforms.
Today, the company has helped more than 850,000 users across 186 countries acquire new skills and certifications. The platform is aimed at individuals and businesses.
“We are humbled by this level of support from our investment partners,” Sam Kroonenburg, co-founder and CEO of A Cloud Guru, said in a news release. “We are eager to continue building our engineering, content, and go-to-market teams to support our customers and partners. We are now even better positioned to help more businesses and individuals learn to cloud.”
“Enterprise workloads continue to move to the cloud at an enormous pace, requiring a new set of IT skills to design, manage and secure applications,” Tom Jennings, Managing Director at Summit Partners said in a news release. He also joined the company’s board of directors as part of the deal.
A Cloud Guru’s customers include Dow Jones, Capital One DevExchange, and Qualcomm.
