Tech Wildcatters Presents Second Biannual “Pitch Day”

10:33 AM CDT on Monday, May 23, 2011
Reuters

SEVEN TECHNOLOGY STARTUPS GRADUATING, KEYNOTE BY HASHABLE FOUNDER

Tech Wildcatters, a Dallas-based seed stage technology accelerator, announces the conclusion of its Spring 2011 class of seven startups and its “Pitch Day,” which takes place Thursday, May 26 at The Magnolia in West Village. Pitch Day is an event to introduce Tech Wildcatters’ portfolio of companies to investors and the entrepreneurial community at the conclusion of its 12-week ‘boot camp’.  Last year’s event attracted 300 investors, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders to meet the companies and support their progress.

Tech Wildcatters’ start-up boot camp program connects Dallas-area startups to global entrepreneurial network

10:53 PM CDT on Saturday, February 26, 2011

By SHERYL JEAN / The Dallas Morning News

sjean@dallasnews.com

 

For a start-up company like Fig Tree Media, a little bit of money and a lot of support can go a long way.

Chris Abrams and Tony Tomlinson, co-founders of the 2-month-old company that’s developing a cloud-based Web content manager, are among nine entrepreneur groups chosen for Tech Wildcatters’ start-up boot camp that begins Monday. The Dallas program gets a small equity stake for providing each with up to $25,000 in cash, office space, mentors and a chance to pitch their idea to investors.

“I have a strong tech background,” Abrams said. “As far as running a business, I don’t have any background in doing that. My partner does, but even so, we’re both in our 20s. We thought our best bet for success was to find an incubator like Tech Wildcatters that would guide us along the way.”

This year, 1-year-old Tech Wildcatters is part of a new global network of similar groups that will share resources, standardize the entrepreneurial application process and try to improve the success rate.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to build the early-stage tech community in Dallas,” said Tech Wildcatters co-founder Gabriella Draney.

It reflects the grass-roots, entrepreneurial spirit spreading across North Texas and the country. Dozens of start-up programs such as Tech Wildcatters have popped up in the past few years.

Last month, the Obama administration launched the Startup America Partnership to promote innovation, including the new TechStars Network to help foster entrepreneurship. Led by the TechStars accelerator based in Boulder, Colo., the network’s goal is to help 6,000 entrepreneurs and create 25,000 jobs by 2015.

TechStars and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation recently teamed up to simplify access to seed accelerators. Kauffman also provided $200,000 in funding to TechStars Network for building software to standardize the entrepreneurial application and reporting process by the end of the year, said Jenny Boyd, director of the network.

“We really feel that it will help start-up programs get up and running fast,” she said. “For operating programs, it will expand the level of connections and resources from mostly regional to global.”

Network Aid

So far, the network consists of about 20 global accelerators, including Tech Wildcatters.

Draney expects the network to help with strategy, best practices and sponsorships. But a single application process means Tech Wildcatters will have to cull candidates from business-to-business technology companies, and much will depend on whether entrepreneurs will agree to move to Dallas, she said.

The network’s goal is to increase members’ success rate tenfold by sharing best practices and building bridges between programs, Boyd said.

“Many of the accelerators are very new and haven’t been tracking or generating data, so we want to have a unified reporting system,” she said.

As part of that goal, Boyd’s team is trying to define “success,” whether it is the number of jobs created or the funding secured by its entrepreneurs.

Defining Success

Kauffman Fellow Aziz Gilani, a venture capitalist at Houston-based DFJ Mercury, is studying the success rates of for-profit, start-up incubators nationwide.

“We’re taking a look at how many companies they’ve taken in, how many are still in business and how many have raised a venture round of $1 million or more,” Gilani said. “If you have an operating business model, that’s a success, too.”

Exits — the sale or initial public offering of a company that serves as a standard measurement of success — are excluded because most of the incubators are too young. For example, only four of the first 30 incubators analyzed so far have had exits, Gilani said.

Tech Wildcatters’ first five companies have created about 20 total jobs since graduating last summer. Two graduates attracted venture capital, one landed a small angel investment, one is self-funded and one is in talks with angel investors.

This year, Tech Wildcatters chose nine companies from more than 100 inquiries for its second boot camp, compared with five of 80 applications last year. Overall, it has provided about $350,000 in seed funding to the 14 companies, Draney said.

Five start-ups graduate from Tech Wildcatters’ first boot camp

08:19 AM CDT on Friday, July 30, 2010
By SHERYL JEAN / The Dallas Morning News

 

sjean@dallasnews.com

When Vickie Morris and Jeff Borden enrolled in Tech Wildcatters’ 12-week boot camp for entrepreneurs in May, they had one product and two customers.

Since then, their Brand Protection Agency launched two more Web-based products to monitor and enforce branding, pricing and intellectual property. It also increased revenue with four more customers, including Black & Decker.

Brand Protection Agency was one of five Dallas business-to-business technology companies to graduate Thursday from Tech Wildcatters’ debut program. The entrepreneurs had 10 minutes to pitch their company to about 250 people, including dozens of potential investors.

“When you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t have everything – you’re usually tech-wise or market-wise – and these kinds of programs are great to help match up people to build great companies,” Morris said.

She and Borden were seeking $300,000 to hire more people to boost revenue from $135,000 today to $11 million in three years.

Tech Wildcatters, based in Uptown, is one of a new breed of seed fund, incubator and mentoring programs that have popped up across the country since 2005 to help fill a void in financing and support for start-ups.

Seed funding for start-ups has suffered the most as investors pulled back during the recession.

In the Dallas area, venture capital investments fell 47 percent to $68.1 million in the first half of this year from the same period last year, according to data from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In Tech Wildcatters’ program, each company received $20,000 to $25,000 in cash, office space and mentoring. In return, Tech Wildcatters took a 2 percent to 10 percent equity stake in each company.

The companies fine-tuned products, attracted customers or focused on marketing and sales.

Here’s the progress made by the other four companies:

•Concepta Systems Inc., which develops business forms that can be filled out online, tweaked its product and worked on its marketing program. It seeks $500,000 for sales and marketing.

•CollegeJobConnect launched a job search site for college students. It seeks $250,000 for business development, sales and marketing.

•Image Vision Labs, developer of an online filter for pornographic images and videos, added several test customers, including Photobucket. It seeks $500,000 for customer, patent and software development.

•Mobestream Media, which developed a mobile loyalty card program, landed La Madeleine and Mooyah Burgers & Fries as its first test clients. It seeks $500,000 to hire employees and support a customer roll-out in the next 18 months.

Tech Wildcatters’ staff and mentors introduced the entrepreneurs to customers, helped them devise sales, marketing and financial strategies and coached their investor pitches.

Investors on Thursday said they were impressed with the presentations.

Venture capitalist Alan Ying of Chrysalis Ventures in Houston said he was interested in all five companies.

Dallas angel investor John Rodakis, who also was a Tech Wildcatters mentor, said he already is talking with a couple of the companies regarding potential investment.

Next year, Tech Wildcatters wants to expand to two boot camps with up to 10 companies each, said Tech Wildcatters co-founder Gabriella Draney.

“I had a vision of what I wanted to see, and we’ve surpassed that,” she said. “I’m on cloud nine.”

A new Dallas incubator, Tech Wildcatters, begins program with five start-ups

07:33 AM CDT on Thursday, May 6, 2010
By SHERYL JEAN / The Dallas Morning News
sjean@dallasnews.com

Five Dallas start-up companies this week embarked on a 12-week boot camp designed to help entrepreneurs nurture their ideas.

The companies and the 11 entrepreneurs behind them make up the inaugural class of Tech Wildcatters, a new Dallas business incubator.

Each company gets $20,000 to $25,000 in seed funding; business support; mentoring from 23 entrepreneurs, techies and venture capitalists; and a chance to pitch their company for more funding. In return, Tech Wildcatters takes up to 10 percent equity in each company.

“It’s kind of every entrepreneur’s dream to be accepted to an accelerator group and find people who’ve been there and done that and want to make that time investment in you,” said Jeff Iacono, co-founder of CollegeJobConnect, one of the five start-ups.

“We looked at a few other programs, including TechStars Boston and Y Combinator in San Francisco. The thing that really attracted us to Tech Wildcatters was the emphasis on mentorship.”

Iacono, 27, and business partner Paul Rosania, 26, started the job search website for college students last summer in Dallas. Iacono moved here from New York a year ago. Rosania just flew in from Boston last weekend.

The other four start-ups:

Image Vision Labs has developed a software engine for interactive websites, such as Facebook and Flickr, and multimedia messaging service providers to detect pornographic content in images and videos.

Mobestream Media lets consumers manage loyalty accounts via cellphones.

Brand Protection Agency provides online tools to enforce branding, minimum advertised pricing and intellectual property.

Concepta Systems Inc. develops data management software and mobile applications.

“Certainly, our choice came down to the entrepreneurs themselves,” said Tech Wildcatters co-founder Gabriella Draney. “They’re just all people you’d want to work with.”

The five companies will be based at Tech Wildcatter’s Uptown Dallas office for the next 12 weeks, working on their first customer trials and developing their sales and marketing teams, Draney said. Nineteen companies applied for the program, she said.

Draney and Jon Feld launched Tech Wildcatters to provide a more grassroots approach to help young business-to-business technology companies and fill a void in early-stage funding.

Last year, venture capital investments fell 36 percent to $350 million in the Dallas area, the lowest level since 1996, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Start-ups were among the hardest hit.

Image Vision Labs chose the Tech Wildcatters route over a corporate strategic investment, said Chad Harbour, who co-founded the 18-month-old company with Steven White and Mitch Butler.

“They were providing some funding, and they have amazing resources from human and intellectual capital,” Harbour said. “That was more important than going with someone else who offered more money. We wanted that expertise.”

Also this week, the Capital Factory, a business incubator in Austin, named five start-ups for its second 10-week summer program. One of the start-ups, Smackages, is from Dallas.

Rosilyn Rayborn, a social media specialist, wants Smackages to be an online version of Sephora, where consumers can buy cosmetics after ordering free samples to try at home. The business is still in the “idea phase,” she said.

“This summer, I want to build the website and then pitch it to the [cosmetic] brands,” Rayborn said. Toward that goal, Capital Factory will give her office space, $20,000 in cash, $20,000 in services and access to 20 mentors.

Dallas incubator helps tech startups to start up

12:00 AM CST on Thursday, February 25, 2010

By SHERYL JEAN / The Dallas Morning News

Two young Dallas entrepreneurs are starting a boot camp to offer seed money and support to help others turn a cool idea into a business.

Gabriella Draney and Jon Feld recently started Tech Wildcatters, a new breed of venture capital-like business incubators focused on helping out amid a tough environment. The for-profit business will provide traditional venture capital investment – albeit small amounts – for a stake in start-ups in return for office space, mentoring and networking.

It’s modeled after similar programs – Capital Factory in Austin, DreamIt Ventures in Philadelphia, TechStars in Boulder, Colo., and Y Combinator in Mountain View, Calif. – that have helped stimulate entrepreneurial communities in those areas. The first program appeared in 2005, but growth has taken off in the last year as entrepreneurs face increasing difficulties in starting a business.

Draney and Feld are searching for seven to 10 Dallas-area start-ups to participate in an inaugural 12-week program starting in April. Next month, Draney will trek to the South by Southwest Conference to promote Tech Wildcatters and scout for participants.

The application deadline is March 19.

“New start-ups today need only a little funding, but they need more help and support than ever before,” said Feld, who co-founded Navigator Systems Inc. in 1991 and sold the 100-employee company to Hitachi Consulting in 2006.

How it works

The seed-stage incubator will offer up to $25,000 in cash, office space, mentors and a chance to pitch an idea to investors. In return, Tech Wildcatters takes up to 10 percent equity in each company.

The only criteria are that the start-ups must be in business-to-business technology and have more than one founder. Entrepreneurs must be local or move to Dallas for the program.

Last year, SpareFoot.com, a Los Angeles company that joined a similar program in Austin run by Capital Factory, ended up staying in Texas’ capital, said co-founder Joshua Baer.

One-year-old Capital Factory accepts five companies a year into a 10-week program that provides up to $20,000, free office space and professional services, and 20 mentors in exchange for 5 percent equity. All of last year’s five companies are still around, Baer said.

“It’s a feeling like parents toward kids – you have high expectations for the companies;” Baer said. “Even if just one does well, that’s great, based on the industry average.”

Others in Dallas see a need for Tech Wildcatters.

“That model has worked in other places,” said John Adler, general partner of Dallas venture capital firm Silver Creek Ventures. “Anything that helps entrepreneurs put their plans together better and create better ideas is a good thing.”

The returns

In Dallas, Draney and Feld saw a need for a more grass-roots approach to help young companies.

“I’ve grown up in the tech community in Dallas, and there’s not a lot of collaboration,” said Draney, 31, who started two companies, worked in venture capital and has an MBA in entrepreneurship. “We have a lot of Lone Rangers here. There are successful companies like Texas Instruments, but new companies don’t have ready support.”

Draney and Feld also pointed to the void in early-stage funding as another factor.

Venture capital investments plunged during the recession. Last year, venture investments fell 36 percent to $350 million in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the lowest level since 1996, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Companies seeking their first venture dollars were among the hardest hit.

Tech Wildcatters is temporarily virtual, with Draney renting a desk at CoHabitat, an Uptown Dallas business incubator. She and Feld hope to lease an office soon for the mentoring program and to host entrepreneurial events.

Tech Wildcatters plans to sponsor “Find a Founder,” a March 5 matchmaking event for entrepreneurs who need a partner, and to co-sponsor “Startup Weekend,” an April 16-18 workshop to help launch a bunch of companies. Neither program has a venue yet.

Last summer, Draney and Feld visited Boulder and Austin to see how those programs worked. The most helpful aspect was feedback from entrepreneurs about the value of mentoring, Feld said.

Tech Wildcatters’ mentors are entrepreneurs, techies and venture capitalists such as Todd Viegut, Jeff Williams and Brad Taylor. The mentors are also its investors.

Draney wouldn’t disclose the investments but said total funding tops $250,000. Investors expect venturelike returns, which typically are three times the initial investment.