Texas-Squared Startup Newsletter #077

9 min readFeb 5, 2017

Texas Startup & Tech News, Opinions & Events in the Lone Star State SUBSCRIBE View in Browser

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Texas-Squared Startup Resources Download the PDF

San Antonio’s Geekdom hosted the Techstars-run Patriot Boot Camp this weekend

Rich Winley who leads Gnomad Networks is launching a
Super Bowl activation with Uber in Houston by Joe Martin of the Houston Business Journal

2 Austin startups make cut for NFL pitch competition in Houston — Link

Building Healthier Athletes: NFL’s 1st and Future Contest in Houston — Link

Elevety — Toronto, Ontario, Canada
GoRout* — Rochester, Minnesota
Linkpro — Jersey City, Channel Island, United Kingdom
The Iron Neck — Austin, Texas
LVL — Austin, Texas
Mobile Virtual Player *— Lebanon, New Hampshire
2ND Skull — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Prevent Biometrics — Minneapolis, Minnesota
Windpact* — Leesburg, Virginia
$50,000 Category Winners

Austin Area

Do female-led businesses have more challenges in raising capital? — Link
- Crain’s Austin Mary Ann Azevedo
After Bai’s Big Exit, CAVU Raises New $209M Fund To Back More Beverage Winners — Link
- Forbes
Austin’s CodeNEXT — Link
Disability: An Upside for Everyone in Unifying Smart City Design — Link
Smart Cities Built for Everyone — Link
Help me help you with recruiting — Link
- Austin Startups
Five Questions For … Manoj Saxena, AI Investor & Ex-IBM Watson Chief — Link
- Xconomy’s Angela Shah
19 Austin startups that graduated from local accelerator — Link
25+ apps Austin tech leaders can’t live without — Link
Jumpstart your job search: 6 Austin tech companies hiring right now — Link
Tech Roundup: Best Workplaces in Austin, RxWiki’s rebrand and more — Link
Why this startup wants to take its campus safety app to schools across the country — Link
- BuiltinAustin’s Kelly Jackson
Capital Factory gobbles up more space in downtown Austin — Link
Cost of living index: Austin is getting more expensive every day but it’s still cheap by some measures — Link
Austin’s Yeti Coolers to serve up cold drinks at first retail store with ‘Barrrr’ — Link
Keep weird and carry on: Good economic times expected to roll through 2018 — Link
Global payments company boosts space for North American HQ in Austin — Link
Frozen meal maker with $100M in revenue has new private equity owner — Link
Former tech CEO named president of Austin nonprofit saving orphans — Link
Austin’s food revolution: How an urban farmer turns office waste into fresh veggies — Link
Austin Healthcare Council brings together big names in city’s medical, biotech fields — Link
Austin firm developing tech for pharmacists grows, rebrands through acquisition — Link
Car2go goes upscale with luxury vehicle rentals; plans to replace majority of fleet — Link
In the Office: Austin ad agency lures recruits with HQ inside old movie theater (Video) — Link
HR rewards software maker raises $6.5 million to bring more Nerf gun battles to offices — Link
Car magnate and wife pledge up to $3 million to create mental health unit at Dell Children’s — Link
Software company Abila has a new CEO — Link
- Austin Business Journal
RxWiki Merges with TeleManager Technologies and Launches Digital Pharmacist — Link
UT at Austin Professors Present Early-Stage Pharmaceutical Startups — Link
Austin-based BuildGroup Invests $30 Million in CSDC Systems in Toronto — Link
ATX Seed Ventures Invests in GoCo’s $2.5 Million Round — Link
- Silicon Hills News’ Laura Lorek
Texas opens the floodgates for testing autonomous cars — Link
Amy’s Ice Cream founder on Austin’s business risks and rewards #WhyAustin — Link
The most comprehensive guide to Austin coding programs and schools ever crafted — Link
- The American Genius
Why Sweden’s Snow Software Put Its U.S. Outpost in Austin — Link
Austin Inno Announces the 150 Tech Madness Finalists — Link
- Austin Inno’s Brent Wistrom & Billy Utt
Here’s what Austin tech companies had to say about the Donald Trump temporary travel ban — Link
What is 5G, and when will it be tested in Austin? — Link
Tech Crawl: Tech giants unite with a letter opposing Trump travel ban. Plus, could Facebook’s “Discover People” be the new Tinder? — Link
Austin losing tech leader Laura Kilcrease to Canada — Link
Austin’s Embark bites into an adorable marketing opportunity: this year’s Puppy Bowl — Link
Austin’s YouEarnedIt earns its own reward: millions in new funding — Link
Culturati Summit brings together CEOs and company leaders to tackle company culture. Here’s why organizer Eugene Sepulveda says it matters — Link
Austin’s South by Southwest festival organizers ‘alarmed’ by Trump immigration policy — Link
- Austin American-Statesman

Dallas / Ft. Worth Area

14 Entrepreneurs on What It’s Like to Be a Startup in Dallas — Link — Tech.co’s Adam Rowe
The future of self-driving cars may get tested in Arlington — Link
Dallas CEO taps into health trends, liquid assets with juice company Vim Vitae — Link
Facebook slapped with $500M judgment in trial over Richardson company’s technology — Link
- Dallas Morning News
Arlington self-driving car demo ‘underwhelming’ in a good way — Link
Dallas VC investment totaled $131M in 2016: Here’s how it stacks up — Link
Data center giant CyrusOne to relocate its headquarters to Uptown Dallas — Link
Dr Pepper Snapple completes $2B buy of health drink brand — Link
- Dallas Business Journal
Reel FX Steps into Action With ‘LEGO Batman’ Commercial — Link
Chevrolet Vehicle Owners Upping Data Usage, Carmaker Says — Link
Autonomous Transit: Arlington Glimpses the Future, Like ‘Uber with Robots’ — Link
Q+A: Cynthia Nevels Offers Tips to Settle Entrepreneurs’ Crowdfunding Qualms — Link
Co-op Brings Fresh Food, Business Incubator to Oak Cliff — Link
Help Wanted: Project-Ready Software Devs & Project Managers for DFW — Link
Starbucks Delving into AI with Voice Ordering Feature — Link
Gozova Revs Up DFW’s On-Demand Truck Market — Link
TreeHouse Store in Dallas Moving Toward Completion — Link
Legal Interoperability; Here’s What You Need to Know — Link
Tesla to Seek Change in Texas Franchise Law, Again — Link
Capital One Report: What Trends will Shape DFW’s Future? — Link
Tostito’s Aims to Take 25,000 Cars Off the Road on Super Bowl Sunday — Link
Abodo Study Ranks DFW’s Place Among Tech Cities — Link
Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Goes High Tech — Link
- Dallas Innovates
Dallas Based CalcuQuote Launches BidCQ — Link
Gables Residential and Modern Message partner to create CAPTIVATE! — Link
- LaunchDFW

Houston / South Texas Area

FlightAware screen capture of the private flights coming to Houston for the Super Bowl via @michaelsklar

BeeHex Aims to Bring 3D Printing to Food, One Pizza at a Time — Link
- Xconomy’s Angela Shah
How Circular Board Helps Female Entrepreneurs Rev Up Funding — Link
Op-ed: Volunteers are the real winners of Houston’s Super Bowl legacy — Link
Yeti and local cooler competitor Rtic settle lawsuit — Link
Fake merchandise operation grabs millions of dollars worth of counterfeit goods — Link
Vice President Mike Pence to visit Houston for Super Bowl — Link
What the military taught UT Chancellor William McRaven about business leadership — Link
Houston Super Bowl Host Committee, NFL raise millions for local charities — Link
Leveraging Super Bowl 51 can lead to a big win in the workplace — Link
Houston Business Journal’s 2017 Super Bowl coverage — Link
Super Bowl vendors prepared to set records in Houston — Link
Here’s the most expensive hotel in Houston for the Super Bowl — Link
Check out Houston’s most expensive Airbnb rentals left for Super Bowl 51 — Link
Super Bowl’s return to Houston shows how media coverage has changed in 13 years — Link
NASA visit, billionaire meeting on NFL players’ tour of Houston — Link
ATM giant enters Africa with acquisition — Link
Major company cancels contracts with Mattress Firm — Link
Average Super Bowl LI ticket prices drop — Link
Houston pharmaceutical company hires new CEO as it prepares for commercialization — Link
Johnson & Johnson names new head for Texas Medical Center program — Link
Op-Ed: Is Houston’s Super Bowl a good investment? — Link
- Houston Business Journal
Rivals Yeti, Rtic put chilly legal situation behind them — Link
Rice professors: Super Bowl commercials could attract investors — Link
- Houston Chronicle

San Antonio / West Texas Area

Rackspace CEO: Fostering Tech Ecosystem Will Keep City on ‘Winning Side’ — Link
Patriot Boot Camp to Help Local Military Members Excel in Tech — Link
San Antonio to Host Global Aviation Industry Conference — Link
Local Startup Adds Sophistication to Wearable Devices — Link
- The Rivard Report
San Antonio solar company sued by Mexican buyer after deal went sour — Link
Local hybrid “venture-equity” firm’s fund hits $60M — Link
Xpel Technologies extends time frame to seek $3M in equity through private placement — Link
Casa San Antonio returning to SXSW — Link
Texas Biomed hires new CEO with ties to Gates Foundation — Link
UT Health San Antonio gets $25 million gift; medical school to get new name — Link
- San Antonio Business Journal’s Kristen Mosbrucker

Not Exactly Texas, But Still Worth a Look

Local v. Out-of-State VCs José Ancer Silicon Hills Lawyer — Link
I Work From Home — Link Colin Nissan
The Startup Idea Matrix — Link Eric Stromberg
Is Your Ecosystem Healthy? — Link Nicolas Colin
Three signs of a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem — Link Paul Singh
Why I’ll Never Buy Designer Jeans Again: The Founder’s Story… — Link Redenim’s Kelly Ernst
Survey Reveals Seattle Startup Gender Gap as Techstars Struggles — Link Benjamin Romano
Kickstarter — Pitch Deck — Link
We need to talk about startup lust — Link Nicole Kersh

Upcoming Events Around Texas

Austin | Dallas | Houston | San Antonio — Powered by Tech Events Network

Pitch-a-Kid: Where entrepreneurs pitch to kids!
Sunday, February 19, 2017, from 1pm to 3pm
Norris Conference Center
2525 W. Anderson Lane, Suite 365
Austin, Texas 78757

2017 Startup Career Fair
Saturday, February 18
11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
TMCx 2450 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77021

Houston American Marketing Association Academy February 2017 Event

Understanding Gen Z Shoppers and Real-world Strategies to Identify the Right Segment for your Product

Friday, February 10, 2017
7:30 AM — 10:30 AM
United Way Community Resource Center
50 Waugh Drive Houston, Texas 77007
Real World Strategies for Segmentation Speakers: Dirk Van Slyke & Michael Griebe Co-founders, Statistical Vision

My Idea(s) Unlocking the Next Greatest Thing
Hosted by Fruition Technology Labs

Perfect for entrepreneurs who are preparing to start a business, enter an accelerator program, or would like to launch a new product.

10 Week course on Saturdays beginning March 18th
Fruition Technology Labs
7505 South Freeway Suite A
Houston, TX 77021
Submit application for the first two sessions due March 8th
Tuition for the entire 10-week program is $1399 — $1699, with flex-pay options available.

TechConnect ’17, Feb 16, 5–7:30 p.m.
Join us for this no-cost opportunity to network, collaborate and connect with Houston’s best startup resources. Whether you’re taking your first baby steps on the entrepreneurial pathway or headed for the finish line, this event is not to be missed! NewSpace or bio tech, clean energy or IoT, the 10th Annual Tech Connect is the collaborative event that will bring it all together. Reception and networking to follow. More info and RSVP here.

Pitch With Purpose

Pitch With Purpose is a pitch competition for women entrepreneurs leading high-growth, scalable businesses that support the resolution of the world’s most pressing problems, presented in partnership with United Nations Foundation. The final deadline to apply is February 15, 2017. The competition will be held at the Circular Summit, March 30–31, 2017 in Houston.

Galvanize February Marketing Madness Series

Every Wednesday in February from 6:30pm — 8:30pm
Topics: Branding & Engagement, SEO & Analytics, Growth and PR.

This newsletter is about news and opinions about Texas Startups.

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