San Antonio - You Can Participate in Applying for Funding & Resources from Austin’s Capital Factory
March 1, 2010
Capital Factory, an Austin-based early stage accelerator for tech startups, is opening up its second annual call for startup applications and can include San Antonio-based companies.
Founded in 2009 by local entrepreneurs Joshua Baer, Sam Decker and Bryan Menell, the program’s goal is to get a startup pointed in the right direction with a clear path to profitability and growth through an intensive 10-week mentoring program where finalists will receive benefits including up to $20,000 in cash, business and operational support and weekly mentoring sessions with proven, successful entrepreneurs.
The deadline for startups interested in applying to be part of the 2010 Capital Factory program is April 2, 2010. The application is available online at http://www.capitalfactory.com/apply.html. While the focus is primarily on early stage technology companies, there is no official limitation on the type of company that can apply for consideration. Capital Factory will announce the five selected companies by early April, and then will kick off its 10-week summer program following Memorial Day on June 1st.
During the program, Capital Factory and select partners will provide the 2010 class of companies the following resources and benefits:
- Up to $20,000 in cash
- Weekly mentoring sessions
- Investor introductions
- Basic IT infrastructure for email, website, version control
- Office space
- Company formation and legal documents
- A logo and corporate identity if needed
- Service provider introductions
- Recruiting support
- Press support
Capital Factory’s 2010 season and program will culminate on September 9th when they host the second annual “Demo Day” for the selected companies. Angel investors, early stage venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, media and more will be invited to come out and see the portfolio companies’ demos as well as help them identify next steps and suggestions for achieving optimal success. In return for entrance into the Capital Factory program and a successful launch of their company, Capital Factory receives a five percent equity stake in the portfolio companies under founder-friendly terms.
MENTOR CLASS OF 2010
Mentorship was a key focus and invaluable resource for the portfolio class of 2009 and will remain a large focus of this year’s Capital Factory season. Capital Factory is pleased to announce three new mentors coming on board to participate this year, including:
- Kenny Van Zant – Senior Vice President and Chief Product Strategist, SolarWinds
- Rony Kahan – CTO and Co-Founder, Indeed
- Samy Aboel-Nil – Co-Founder, Sane Ventures
Additionally, returning mentors from the 2009 season, who make up an impressive “who’s who” of local experienced technology entrepreneurs, include:
- Joshua Baer – Founder and CEO, OtherInbox
- Sam Decker – Chief Marketing Officer, Bazaarvoice
- Bryan Menell – Director, Dachis Group
- Brian Beard – Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
- Jeremy Benken – Chairman, BuzzStream, and General Manager, ApartmentRatings.com
- Andrew Busey – Founder and CEO, Challenge Games
- Ian Clarke – Founder and Coordinator, Freenet Project
- Jason Cohen – Founder, Smart Bear
- Russell Hinds – Managing Director, RSH Ventures
- Ryan Koonce – Founder and CEO, Westlake Products, Inc., Owner and Operator, SuperPoints Network
- Kip McClanahan – CEO, Socialware
- Adam Moore – Co-Founder and Co-President, Springbox
- Marc Nathan – Director of Development, Houston Technology Center and Marketing Chairman, Houston Angel Network
- John Price – CEO, Vast.com
- Mellie Price – Founder and CEO, Front Gate Tickets and Front Gate Solutions
- Yvonne Tocquigny – CEO, Tocquigny
- Michael Trafton – Founder and CEO, Blue Fish Development Group
- Marc Yagjian – Managing Director, Origin Partners
For more information on Capital Factory, or to find out other ways to get involved, visit www.capitalfactory.com. The application for interested startups can be found at http://www.capitalfactory.com/apply.html.
CleanTX Forum Other People’s Money: The New Funding Landscape
February 21, 2010
New San Antonio Venture Fund - Targeted Technology Fund I, LP Announces Its First Investment
July 15, 2009
One of the greatest challenges in building a sustainable technology sector in San Antonio has been the lack of having a local venture capital fund that was actually based here in town. That’s starting to change, even amidst the economic downturn, let alone the decline in VC funding in traditional regions like Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and Israel.
San Antonio-based Targeted Technology Fund I, LP has just announced that it has closed its first round of funding and has made its first investment in Vidacare. This is a really big deal because Targeted Technology Fund is from here, is investing here, and has its eyes and ears and key team members in Texas, Alabama, Colorado and Georgia.
The investment in Vidacare is compelling. I met founder, Dr. Larry Miller, back in 2001, just when he was getting the company going. Since then, the company has won numerous awards for a simple and ingenious patented power-driver and needle technology to provide a safe and effective method to access the intraosseous space (inside the bone).
Yesterday, Vidacare announced that it had closed a $7.6 million private equity Series D1 financing. The financing will provide capital to launch Vidacare’s hematology/oncology product, the OnControl™ Bone Marrow System, and its OnControl Bone Access System for spinal surgical procedures as well as provide support for ongoing global expansion efforts for its EZ-IO® Vascular Access System. The financing was led by Piper Jaffray, along with Tullis Health Investors, Targeted Technology Fund I which this story is about, and from the existing investor base.
The fund has also managed to attract some great institutions and local leaders who bring a great deal of credibility.
One of the significant investors in the new Fund is the Texas Research & Technology Foundation, which is comprised of multiple organizations whose work involves various stages of the very complicated drug development process. Graham Weston, Chairman of the Board of Rackspace; Bruce Barshop, a founder of Barshop Ventures LLC; and David Spencer, who is president of Texas Intrepid Ventures, a San Antonio-based investment firm, are also included in the pool of individual investors who share the Fund’s vision.
BioMed SA Chair and former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros also openly encourages the Fund’s creation, citing the industry’s strong growth potential. “San Antonio has a track record of developing lifesaving medical devices, such as the Palmaz® Stent, Titanium Rib, and Vidacare’s EZ-I0®,” said Cisneros. “The city’s four pillars of biomedical excellence – clinical care, medical education, biomedical research, and bioscience firms – provide the foundation for continued growth in this sector.”
The fund itself has an impressive management team, comprising of:
- Managing Director Alan Dean - who brings more than 25 years experience in the technology development industry with experience in venture capital and technology transfer, both in the private and non-profit sectors. Dean is the former director of the University of Texas Health Science Center’s Office of Technology Ventures, so he gets how to take IP and turn it into real businesses that create intellectual and capital wealth.
- Managing Director, Dr. Paul Castella, is a real live doc and a business person with an MBA who’s been involved in experienced in the evaluation, financing, licensing, formation and operation of biotechnology and medical technology companies, including CardioSpectra, BiO2 Medical and Aeon Bioscience. Castella is the co-founder and CEO of ViroXis which is developing an anti-viral treatment that recently completed an FDA IND phase IIb study.
- Managing Director Christopher E. Banas is a medical device industry veteran with over thirty years of extensive leadership experience in cardiovascular company start-up, financing and management. Banas has held various engineering and executive management positions at medical device companies such as W.L. Gore, Guidant/ACS and IMPRA/C.R. Bard. Banas holds 33 U.S. patents in the fields of cardiovascular medicine and nanotechnology. Intellectual property portfolios developed by Banas have, in part, resulted in deals valued in excess of $250 million, not including the value of future royalty income. Along with Dr. Julio Palmaz, the inventor of the balloon expandable stent, Banas co-founded and held the position of CEO and President in ABPS, a San Antonio based medical device company which has subsequently licensed all its technology to Cordis, a Johnson and Johnson Company (NYSE: JNJ). Banas, along with Castella, then co-founded CardioSpectra where Banas held the position of Chairman and CEO and Castella held the position of CFO and President. CardioSpectra was awarded funds from Governor Perry’s Emerging Technology
- I’ve personally known Fund Partner, Lukin T. Gilliland, Jr, for almost 20 years. He’s smart, gets business and politics and has vast experience in real estate, health care, ranching and restaurant businesses including 29 Black Eyed Pea restaurants in four states, the landmark Broadway 50-50 Bar & Grill in San Antonio and two Elway’s restaurants in Denver, CO. He’s a native San Antonian, and serves as chairman of the San Antonio Development Board of the Nature Conservancy, is a member of the Advisory Board of the Cibolo Nature Center, the Former Texas Ranger’s Association, the Board of Visitors of the McDonald Observatory and the Board of Directors of the San Antonio Library Foundation.
Congratulations to Vidacare, the amazing fund’s management team– and kudos to the first round of institutional and individual investors who are making a huge contribution in advancing our great city’s medical technology on to the national and international scene.
2009 Texas Venture Capital and Private Equity Directory Now Available
May 28, 2009
Massinvestor just announced its 2009 Texas Venture Capital and Private Equity Directory, which profiles more than 250 Venture Capital and Private Equity firms with offices in Texas.
This newly revised and updated edition includes more than thirty additional firms not published in the 2008 Directory including Capital Factory, Elm Creek Partners, Gideon Hixon Fund, PlumTree Partners, Treadstone Partners and dozens more.
While many professionals are familiar with some of the more prominent local investment names - Austin Ventures, CenterPoint, Texas Pacific, Lone Star Ventures, Sevin Rosen - it may be surprising to know there are more than 250 Venture Capital and Private Equity firms with offices in Texas.
In addition to covering all Texas Venture Capitalists, the directory includes profiles of local Private Equity firms (Growth, LBO, Mezzanine, etc.), Incubators, prominent Angel investors, Family Investment offices, Merchant Banks, Fund of Funds, and Economic Development offices; more than 250 firms in total.
According to a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree survey, Texas ranks as the number three state in terms of Venture Capital activity. In the first quarter of 2009, Texas saw $156 million in Venture financing invested across 24 deals.
The Directory is sold exclusively through the website: www.massinvestor.com. The Directory includes an eBook (a complete electronic version of the printed Directory in an easy-to-use PDF format), as well as an interactive Excel spreadsheet containing the contact information (including email addresses) of more than five hundred, individual Texas Venture Capital and Private Equity investors.
SATAI New Venture Forum 2009 - Entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators launching new businesses sign up today for the New Venture Forum!
April 30, 2009
ABOUT:
The SATAI New Venture Forum is a unique forum for entrepreneurs seeking to learn about equity investment opportunities and how to “think like an investor” to prepare for equity investment and improve the probability of funding.
The quarterly Forum is presented in 6 core sessions designed for start-up technology companies pursuing Angel equity investment and/or Emerging Technology Fund (ETF) funding. Each session will be approximately three hours in length, one session per week for six consecutive weeks.
Instructors and speakers are selected for their expert knowledge of the planned topic(s). The forum is designed as an interactive workshop with dialogue between experts and entrepreneurs. Participants are encouraged to leverage their company as a case study for group discussion. Class size may be limited.
HOSTS:
The New Venture Forum is hosted by SATAI and is in partnership with the UTSA Institute of Economic Development and SATAI sponsors.
Participants may elect to have their venture apply to the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF) or the South Texas Angel Network (STAN) for funding consideration. To learn more about the ETF and STAN, visit the Investment Services link at www.satai.us.
REGISTER:
RSVP to Veronica Rossano by phone at 210-458-2523
or by email vr@satai.us
COST TO ATTEND:
The first session is free of charge. Participants who elect to continue with the remaining sessions will be charged $250 per person/company. Attendees who complete 5 of 6 sessions will receive a 50% discount on the ETF and/or STAN applications, up to a $250 value.
Welcome to the San Antonio Startup Blog
February 3, 2009
This is Alan Weinkrantz and I am thrilled to get the San Antonio Startup Blog underway.
I need your help.
If you’re a San Antonio-based start-up, reach out to me: alan@weinkrantz.com and let me tell your story.
More to come….