At Tech Wildcatters we are always looking for exciting opportunities to help out our startup community.  We’d like to spotlight Startup America as a valuable resource for your growing company.

The Startup America Partnership is based on a simple premise: young companies that grow and create jobs. As a core American value, entrepreneurship is critical to the country’s long term success and it’s time to step up our game. Check out more info here.

Startup America Goals:

• Provide valuable resources and connections to help young companies grow
• Support regional startup ecosystems throughout the country
• Recognize startups as the drivers of our economy and their founders as American heroes

How Startup American Can Help:

Tools: We have tools to help your company scale successfully. Your membership includes access to over forty Startup America Only Offers from partners like Microsoft, American Express, Dell and Intuit with more being added weekly.

Community: We are creating a community of potential high growth startups in America – get connected with other entrepreneurs just like you.

Free Marketing: Get your name out there. We will celebrate your startup, list you on our web site, let you guest blog and give you a Startup America seal for your website and social media.

Interested in applying for membership to Startup America? Click here

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Filed under: Community

Come join us Jan. 27 at the Tech Church for Friday Jelly co-working day and our first Community Pitch Practice Day!

Companies will be presenting in this informal setting to give their pitch a live practice run. We’ll have Tech Wildcatter mentors there to provide brief feedback for each team. We are expecting 5 team pitches for 5 minutes each, with a 5 minute Q&A after each pitch.

Pitches begin at 12pm on Friday, Jan. 27.

RSVP on our Facebook event page.

If your team would like to pitch email stewart@techwildcatters.com but hurry, there are only a few spots left!

**photo of Brad Felds pitching at the Tech Church

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Filed under: Uncategorized

Forbes has published an article highlighting the 10 Hottest Startup Incubators in the U.S. Along with TechStars, Y Combinator and Austin’s Capital Factory, Tech Wildcatters has been included on the list of the 10 incubators who are changing the game for startups.

Excerpt from Forbes:

“Now a new breed of incubator, catering mainly to technology types, is springing up all over the country. These startup hubs offer expert mentorship, resources like office space and legal counsel, and even seed money—typically in exchange for a small amount of equity in tiny (or theoretical) companies.  More importantly, early-stage investors are paying close attention.”

Read the full article here

Tech Wildcatters is now accepting applications for our Spring ’12 class. If you haven’t submitted your application, what more are you waiting for?!

Apply here and don’t miss our January 15 early application deadline!

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Filed under: Applications, Community, Marketing, Milestones, PR

There is plenty of coffee shop talk lately about tech being in a new bubble. Specifically web and mobile ventures. Do the numbers tell the same story though? Based on data released by Dow Jones, National Venture Capital Association, and Thomson Reuters, the answer is a resounding no.

While 52 VC-backed companies raised a total of $9.9B in IPO’s last year, there was a 31% decrease in volume and 41% increase in offering price, according to NVCA and Thomson Reuters. The same holds true for acquisitions. 429 VC-backed companies were acquired for a “self-reported” total of $23B (you decide if you want to believe the number). Volume was down 2% from 2010, with a 23% increase in dollars. So prices are going up, while the number of deals is going down.

What does this mean for 2012? The activity that had people speculating were the big news IPO’s of companies like LinkedIn, Pandora, Yandex, Tudou, Renren, and of course the big boys, Groupon and Zynga. Groupon was the largest web IPO since Google and is still surrounded by a lot of controversy on the sustainability of its business model. Does this imply a big bubble though? Maybe a circa 1995 bubble, but not the “get large or go home” mentality of the dotcom’s. These days it’s exit early or go home. In fact, companies are taking on average only 5.3 years to exit, based on Dow Jones research. Or the better mantra, find a business model or go home. Building a user base is important, but equally important is figuring it out how to monetize it early.

As mobile heats up, we will see if current trends continue. If we’re stuck with Sarbanes-Oxley, hopefully it will at least do its job and keep CEO’s from making the mistake of pumping numbers to make Wall Street happy. Money does strange things to people though…

What do you think?  Is a new bubble on the horizon?

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Filed under: IPO, Venture Capital, venture returns

We are announcing today that if you submit your application for our Spring 2012 class before our Early Application Deadline, January 15th, then you will be eligible for one of two guaranteed invitations to our Quick Pitch Day (which is how we decide who enters the program).

This is a significant competitive advantage, as you will be competing with a smaller group of people initially for a spot. Not to worry if you aren’t immediately chosen as one of the two “First Movers”, as you will still have a chance at the large pool of spots that everyone who submits an application is competing for.

So what are you waiting for? Submit your application before the 15th and seize this great opportunity!

http://www.techwildcatters.com/apply

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Filed under: Uncategorized

TEDxSMU was last weekend and this year’s theme was Disruption.  None was more so than Peter Thum’s talk on radical solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems.  I wanted to borrow some of his material for Pitch Day last Tuesday and he was nice enough to give me his notes.  Check out his radical new company that is changing the face of war in Africa: Fonderie 47.  You might also know him as the founder of Ethos Water.  He’s a true visionary and social entrepreneur.  Thanks Peter!

The basic premise is that Angels fund the birth of radical ideas.  In fact, Peter says angels fund radical ideas 27 times more than venture capitalists.  Wow!  But, the disruptive part about what he proposed is that anyone can be an angel (yes, that means you).  And his model for being an angel?  A little mentoring, a few connections, and a little cash.  Sound familiar?

If you’re thinking this is a crazy idea and that you couldn’t be an angel, think again.  I thought the same thing a few years ago before starting Tech Wildcatters.  Why can’t you?  You have unique skills that can help, you know people, and you have access to capital either personally or through your network.

Peter’s challenge that I would like to spread, is that in the next 6 months you commit to:

1. ½ hour a week mentoring
2. 5 connections
3. $1,000 – 100,000 investment or donation

If you’re wondering what kinds of ideas and people to support, keep in mind a few things.

1. Is this the right problem and solution?
2. Can this person/people pull it off?
3. What’s in it for me and do I have a passion for solving the problem?  (turns out Peter and I see eye to eye on the idea that profitability can be increased by doing good)

So the next time someone brings you a radical solution to an impossible problem…

1. Take the meeting
2. Listen
3. Shape the thinking
4. Make key connections
5. Mentor
6. Invest/Donate

It’s that easy!

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Filed under: Angel Investing, Community

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Filed under: Uncategorized

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Filed under: Community, Marketing, PR

With our Fall ’11 Pitch Day fast approaching, we want to introduce our 4 graduating companies who will be presenting on December 6 at The Magnolia. Check out Pitch Day details, we hope to see you there! Each company will be spotlighted daily, leading up to the big event.

PayTap is a socialized bill payment platform that allows bills to be paid by third parties like parents, adult children, or roommates. It facilitates sending “help me pay this bill” requests, collects funds from the bill payers, and ensures the payment is sent directly to the billing entity. No more worrying about whether rent money went to pay for beer! Check it out at www.mypaytap.com

About PayTap
Everyone has done it or been asked to do it – help family & friends pay their bills. While we all want to help provide financial support for our loved ones it is sometimes messy, difficult and hard to keep track of. PayTap makes it easy to share bill information with family and friends so those who can help can do it quickly and easily.

Families who are supporting their parents in retirement can use PayTap so everyone involved can see the bills, how much is due and how much needs to be paid. PayTap
makes sure nothing falls between the cracks and tracks progress and keeps everyone up to date. Parents can use for PayTap to help support their kids with their bills. And friends can help each other when they need that extra support.

How PayTap Works
People who need assistance or family member or friend can add a bill to PayTap, then choose who they would like assistance from either via email or Facebook. These people receive a request (Facebook or email) and then can choose how much support they can provide. PayTap always shows the total amount of the bill and how much is still left to pay. Once the full amount of the bill is supported the payment is made directly to the billing company and everyone involved is notified.

Creating a PayTap account costs nothing. If you are helping to pay a bill you don’t need to set-up a PayTap account, all money is sent directly to the billing company and records are maintained so PayTap users can see the amount of support they have received or provided or committed to provide and receive. Finally we take privacy and security very seriously – ONLY those you have chosen can see your bills and you decide what bills they see. That’s it. Simple. Safe. Private.

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Filed under: Community, Marketing, PR, Uncategorized

With our Fall ’11 Pitch Day fast approaching, we want to introduce our 4 graduating companies who will be presenting on December 6 at The Magnolia. Check out Pitch Day details, we hope to see you there! Each company will be spotlighted daily, leading up to the big event.

Device Magic allows users to create, distribute, and collect mobile forms. It mobilizes job cards, maintenance reports, sales orders, and surveys for enterprise clients. The data can then be accessed using the clients’ preferred database, with minimal to no integration time or costs. Try it out at www.devicemagic.com

About Device Magic
At Device Magic we build software applications for mobile devices and smartphones that help individuals and businesses solve problems.

Currently we are focused on helping the world reduce its reliance on paper forms for data capture (applications, checklists, to-do lists, surveys, those types of things) by allowing rapid creation and distribution of electronic forms to teams of mobile devices. Not only does this reduce paper waste, it also improves data quality, integrity & security and generally neatens up the messy logistics of processing thousands of pieces of paper.

We also make it simple to collect and submit things that were complicated before – like photographs, audio recordings and bar codes.

Ultimately, we make it possible for individuals and companies to cost effectively capture all the data they ever wanted without killing the planet or drowning their staff in paper work… and that’s the type of thing we like to do!

Design
Use our online designer to create and manage mobile forms for order collection, lead capture, maintenance and job cards, or any process you can think of!

Publish
Assign forms to organizational groups and distribute these to people in the field, all from your web browser.

Capture
Using the Device Magic Mobile Forms application (freely available form leading app stores), people complete the forms on their Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and iPad devices.
Distribute
This data is received by our service and forwarded along to destinations you choose, for example e-mail and Google Documents.

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Filed under: Community, Marketing, PR