January 27, 2010

Dallas – Get Ready – AVEH on Feb. 24

Posted by ddoman under Dallas Events, General Announcements
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We are excited to announce our first trip to Dallas for AV Entrepreneur Hours.  Our plan is to get started Wednesday morning bright and early, ready to meet Dallas’ finest early stage entrepreneurs/companies.  Depending on the response (and our travel plans), we will have 10-12 slots on February 24th.  For those of you that don’t know about the format, feel free to scroll down for the details and/or check out our Houston and Austin “conversation” pages.  The premise is simple:  we will have quick 20-30 minute chats, preferably with internet and software entrepreneurs.  The goal is to offer early stage entrepreneurs the opportunity to dictate the conversation with VCs in a casual setting (think coffee shop, not boardroom/bright lights).  Ask us about your marketing strategy, business plan, hiring needs, fundraising advice, etc.  The one thing that we guarantee is honest feedback.  If you are heading in the wrong direction (in our opinion of course!) expect us to tell you.  You guys get access and we get to meet the next generation. 

To sign up, please send us a sentence or two about your company and what you would like to discuss.  The email address is entrepreneurhours@austinventures.com.  Please start sending requests in as soon as possible.  We will announce the lineup about a week before the event date.

Also, I am offering a prize of public admiration to the person that suggests the best venue to host our event.  We have had great luck at coffee shops that have semi-private conference rooms or nooks, so we don’t bother the other customers and we keep your conversations somewhat private.  It also has to be a place that can stomach us for 7 or 8 consecutive hours.  We are good for the bill though.  Any suggestions? 

Looking forward to Dallas, see you then.

 

January 21, 2010

Austin Keeps On Impressing…

Posted by ddoman under Austin Events, General Announcements
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Tuesday’s Entrepreneur Hours in Austin reminded our venture team why this town is a great place to start a business.  We met with 12 early stage companies driven by creative local entrepreneurs.  Some of these entrepreneurs have peeled off from other ventures, recently quit a more stable job, or are still “moonlighting” while collecting a consistent paycheck.  Regardless of the situation, all the folks we met with were determined to get to the next level and were looking for some practical advice.  The fun part for us was that each group had their own unique questions and challenges, which kept the daylong event fresh and exciting.  Here is a snapshot of a few of our conversations:

  • Talked with an expert in the web analytics space about measuring social media ROI
  • Discussed go-to-market approach for a digital media distribution platform
  • Offered fund raising advice for a consumer web play that recently went live
  • Relayed the challenges that we are witnessing in the complicated Healthcare IT space
  • Debated the sales distribution options for a fledgling SaaS B2B software application

The one thing that AVEH wasn’t short on was candid feedback.  We definitely are not experts in every space, but if there was an opportunity to relay an experience or message from what we are seeing in the start-up world, we made sure we passed on to the entrepreneur.  If we thought someone was headed down a difficult path we didn’t try to sugar coat it.  Our goal is to reach out to the local entrepreneurial community, offer applicable advice and identify companies to keep on our long-term radar screen.  Tuesday accomplished all of those and more.  We can’t wait for the next event and we look forward to hearing updates from all the past participants.

As you may have noticed, we have started “conversation” tabs for each of our AVEH cities.  All participants (and any entrepreneurs for that matter) are encouraged to join the discussion.  We would love for these conversations to serve as a forum for participants to offer feedback on AVEH and for the general entrepreneurial community to ask questions/give comments.  Go ahead, take advantage of it.  Click here for the Austin Conversation.

Thank you Austin

 

January 14, 2010

AVEH Austin Lineup

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Thanks to our friends re-tweeting and blogging about AVEH, we have fielded a flood of requests for time slots at next Tuesday’s event.  Judging by the number of responses, AVEH is picking up steam in Austin!   We couldn’t be more impressed with the Austin entrepreneurial community.  Obviously we wish we could accomodate more folks, but keep in mind we are doing this quarterly in Austin, so there are more opportunities on the horizon.

Also, we are going to experiment with a new location this time.  Trianon coffee shop in Westlake has an ideal setup with a glassed in conference room.  It’s perfect for our laid back setting, with just enough privacy.  The address is 3201 Bee Cave (Bee Cave & Walsh Tarlton), just across the lot from the Post Office, next door to Thundercloud.

Finally, here is the lineup:

11:00 Roland D. XYZMP3
11:30 Michael G. Vert. lead gen
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch Break  
1:00 Mark F. Flocasts
1:30 Kyle D. LifeTeam
2:00 Louis M. LugIron
2:30 Jagath N. Ordoro
3:00 Harper G. Moblup
3:30 Michael A. Gendai Games
4:00 Don J. Prista Corporation
4:30 Jake C. Warning Inc
5:00 Becky Focal Pop
5:30 Ryan C. Loanables
 

January 11, 2010

January 19th in Austin Update

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A couple quick notes on our event in Austin next Tuesday, January 19th.  We will be sending out the lineup later this week – probably Thursday or early Friday.  My goal is to make sure everyone has about 4-5 days notice.  I have been hesitant to start responding to all of the requests because more keep pouring in.  We will probably stop taking requests late Tuesday or early Wednesday.  Lastly, we will announce the location when we release the lineup.  Because of the success in Houston at a local coffee shop, we are looking at similar potential locations in downtown Austin.

Looking forward to the 19th!

 

December 21, 2009

AVEH Back in Austin – Jan 19

Posted by ddoman under Austin Events, General Announcements
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As we ring in the new year, we are also ringing the bell on our second AV Entrepreneur Hours in Austin.  The date is Tuesday January 19th.  We are still determining the exact location and schedule, but mark your calendars nonetheless.

Again, we are looking to have conversations with software and internet entrepreneurs.  If you are new to the game, scroll down and learn more about the exact format.  Start sending in slot requests to entrepreneurhours@austinventures.com and we will do our best to accommodate as many folks as possible.  Make sure to provide your name and a short description about your company or the idea you want to discuss.

Thanks – we are looking forward to it.

 

December 21, 2009

AVEH in Houston = Success

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Austin Ventures’ Entrepreneur Hours is picking up steam!  We hosted our first event in Houston and it was a tremendous success.  13 companies joined us for a full day of discussion and brainstorming.  We had companies anywhere from pre-product to a couple million dollars in revenue.  I think Mike and I were both pleasantly surprised with the start-up community in Houston.  Don’t look now, but it’s our prediction that there will be a few interesting consumer web companies coming out of H-town in 2010.

We talked with several early stage consumer web companies about the value of really understanding customer acquisition costs.  This is a crucial hurdle when considering scaling a web-based business.  As cost efficient as it is to start and operate a consumer web play, entrepreneurs have to remember that a huge cost component is often driving folks to your site and actually converting them to paid users/subscribers/rabid readers in order to monetize the operation.  More to come on topics like this.  Our goal is to be more active on our blog in 2010, both relaying the trends we are seeing at AVEH events and sharing general pointers/tips. 

Also new to the AVEH site are separate pages (see tabs above) for local entrepreneurial discussions.  The Houston Conversation tab, for example, is seeded with feedback/comments from AVEH participants.  Here, we can interact with anyone that wants to talk start-ups and everyone can share their opinion.  The Austin and Dallas Conversation pages are open for business starting today as well.

Finally, thanks to Coffee Groundz for hosting our Houston event.  The location was perfect for our informal discussions and the staff did a great job accommodating us.  See you guys again soon.

 

December 11, 2009

Houston Lineup Announcement

Posted by ddoman under General Announcements, Houston Events
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We originally wanted to post the lineup earlier in the week, but the Rice Alliance event yesterday provided a few more leads to fit in.  Thanks for your patience with this.  Below are the time slots for our first event in Houston, which we are eagerly looking forward to.  The event again is at Coffee Groundz  (2503 Bagby Houston, Texas 77006).

To recap: You, the entrepreneur, control the direction of the conversation.  Meetings last about 20 minutes with a 10 minute break between each.  My only suggestion is to take the first couple of minutes to explain what the company is all about.  It’s a great opportunity to get candid VC feedback and get on our radar screen.  We are really looking forward to spending time with all of you.

If we were unable to fit you in this time, we apologize.  The response was very strong for this event, especially given the exposure at the Rice Alliance IT & Web 2.0 Venture Forum (which was an awesome event by the way).  Needless to say, if we didn’t get you in this time, we will do our best to get you in next time.

Thanks again for all of the interest.  See you in Houston!

11:00 Jim Prather
11:30 Justin Nelson
12:00 Eric Elfman
12:30-1:30 Lunch Break
1:30 Bryan Jowers
2:00 Shawn Shadfar
2:30 Bridgette Penel
3:00 James Pruett
3:30 Bill Bay
4:00 Suzanne Mouton-Odum
4:30 Chad Farrell
5:00 Eric Pulaski
5:30 Nhan Nguyen
 

November 17, 2009

It’s Official…. AVEH in Houston on the 15th!

Posted by ddoman under General Announcements, Houston Events
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We are excited to meet all of the Houston-based early stage entrepreneurs at our event on December 15th.  The event will be hosted by our friends at the Coffee Groundz  (2503 Bagby Houston, Texas 77006) in Mid Town.  For those new to the AVEH program, here is how it works:

AV Entrepreneur Hours is a daylong event held at a local establishment where you the entrepreneur have access to our team in a comfortable, non-board room setting.  You and team will have a 20 minute time slot to discuss topic(s) of your choice with members of our venture team.  Whether you want to have a conversation on a certain market space or your business plan (preferably software or internet oriented), chat about fundraising strategies, or actually pitch your company to us, we’ll offer candid feedback in a causal setting.  The goal of AV Entrepreneur Hours is to create an open forum in which local Texas entrepreneurs can have easy and informal access to AV’s venture team.

To sign up for a time slot send us an email at entrepreneurhours@austinventures.com and give us a short overview of your company/idea, as well as what you are interested in discussing.  Spots fill up quickly, so if we can’t fit you in this time, we will try and get you on the agenda next time.  Remember, this event is focused on software and/or internet companies and isn’t limited to pure start-ups.  If you have market traction and are looking to get over the hump, we are interested in talking with you too.

Also, we encourage blogging and interaction on this site.  Please feel free to participate in the action on our “Houston Events” page.

We look forward to meeting you all in December!

 

November 10, 2009

New “Entrepreneur Hours” Dates Announced

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Calling all Texas entrepreneurs…

We are excited to announce the new dates for the next chapter of Austin Ventures’ Entrepreneur Hours.  In addition to Austin, we are heading to Dallas Fort-Worth and Houston.

We will be providing further details as we get closer, but for now, here are the dates:

  • Houston – Tuesday, December 15th
  • Austin – Tuesday, January 19th
  • Dallas Fort-Worth – Tuesday, February 23rd

Our plan is to do the same format as our first event.  Feel free to send us an email if you are interested in participating:  entrepreneurhours@austinventures.com

 

September 23, 2009

Austin Event Recap

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Well…our inaugural event is behind us.  Yesterday we successfully, I think we can call it that – it was great, held our first AVEH event!  Thanks everyone for coming out and spending time with us.  It was a long day but certainly well worth it.  We had 13 meetings with 13 really interesting Austin based entrepreneurs, all with intriguing ideas – many already have their products launched and in a number of cases some pretty interesting traction.  Markets that were represented included digital stock photography, content/commerce for online pets, online education, hiring, local search and much more.  We had a blast and the event only further confirmed that Austin is one of the best places to find great entrepreneurs and great ideas.  We’ll be announcing out next Austin event shortly so be on the lookout.  And Dallas, get ready we’re coming up in January.  Thanks everyone, and we want to hear from you – give us your feedback!

 

Regards – AV Venture Team

 

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