What makes a great Mentor?

They are founders of one or more successful technology startups and have been through the same thing you’re going through.  They enjoy spending time with other entrepreneurs and thinking about different businesses.

They have a huge network of customers, vendors and employees they can introduce you to. They’re really busy, but make time to meet with you every week and are responsive to your emails and calls.

Chris Gillan | @chrisgillan

Chris Gillan has studied the advancement of human potential and entrepreneurship for over 25 years. His expertise lies in the earliest stages of the start-up process: Taking a company from the idea stage, confirming a market, building the early team which successfully creates and takes the product to market and navigating the different possibilities for funding the project.

He is the Founder and Managing Partner of Kent Street Partners, LLC, a boutique consulting firm serving the software industry. Prior to founding Kent Street Partners, Chris co-founded Gazzang, Inc., a security software company focused on securing cloud and big data computing infrastructures. As the Founding CEO, Chris led early product formulation, built development teams, secured early angel funding and took the company to a successful Series-A investment round led by Austin Ventures. He then recruited a team of veteran start-up executives that continue to grow the company, even in today’s challenging economy.

Prior to Gazzang, he was on the start-up teams of two other software companies including Houston-based Idera, Inc. currently employing over 400 people. Prior to this, he held positions in sales, sales management and business development for a variety of Houston-based software companies including BMC Software, Bindview Development and Business Forge.

When not engaged in business, Chris is an avid hiker, sailor and Boy Scout Leader.

Follow Chris on Twitter!

(Contributed by Gordon Daugherty, Capital Factory President)

Compensating a sales team is a tricky and sensitive endeavor that requires a lot of advanced planning.  I previously wrote about my 5 Golden Rules of Sales Compensation.  But even if you follow those rules you’ll need to decide about the underlying structure of the sales commission plan.  And while there are almost infinite number of ways to compensate a sales team, most of them fall into two categories: absolute or relative.  This blog post explains the fundamental differences between these two methods to help you decide which is best to use for your sales team.

Read the full blog post here.

Last week, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell announced that Capital Factory and Austin have been selected as the next Google Tech Hub in North America. Other cities include Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Durham, Minneapolis, London, Nashville, Tel Aviv and Waterloo.

Google for Entrepreneurs is an umbrella organization within Google that manages all of the ways they interact with startups and entrepreneurs. It’s rare to see this kind of coordination at such a big company. This gives Google for Entrepreneurs the reach and resources to have a big impact on a global scale. As a Google Tech Hub, we receive the support of Google’s talent and relationships. We’ll continue to host Google related meetups and events, use Google products like Google Apps and Hangouts, and share on Google+. Google engineers and executives will be at Capital Factory for Office Hours, and Google Ventures too. This is bigger than just Austin – connecting our members to the 9 other Google Tech Hubs around the world.

This is significant for Capital Factory and for Austin for three reasons:

1. This is another major investment in Austin by Google. Google already has a strong presence in Austin – they have an office here, we’re the second city to get Google Fiber, and just last week Google acquired Austin-based Adometry. Establishing a Google Tech Hub in Austin is one more sign that Google believes in Austin and is here to stay.
2. The Google Tech Hub Network connects Austin to other startup communities around the world. When our members travels to another Tech Hub city, they will have a place to work and connect with the local startup community. Next week I’m flying out to Chicago to meet with the leaders of other Google Tech Hubs at 1871. We’re all on an email list where we post questions and compare notes.
3. This announcement formalizes an already great informal relationship between Google and Capital Factory. In the past year, we worked together to host a Google Fiber party with the Austin Startup Community, a welcome reception for Austin’s Chief Innovation Officer Kerry O’Connor, and the Longhorn Startup Demo Day. Google also purchased Google Glass and Android phones for our Device Lab. Any time I have some crazy idea designed to bring people together and foster innovation in our community, Google (and especially Gerardo Interiano) is the first one to step up and offer their support. This formal announcement ensures that we will do more and more together in the years to come.

The other Tech Hubs got together with Google and put together this fantastic video welcome. It put a smile on everyone’s face. Take a look!

What makes a great Mentor?

They are founders of one or more successful technology startups and have been through the same thing you’re going through.  They enjoy spending time with other entrepreneurs and thinking about different businesses.

They have a huge network of customers, vendors and employees they can introduce you to. They’re really busy, but make time to meet with you every week and are responsive to your emails and calls.

Capital Factor prides itself in providing the highest quality mentors in the business to help scale your startup. 

Rich Warwick | @Rich_Warwick

Rich is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Plum Inc., a Home Automation startup in Austin. He is a driven serial entrepreneur, 2-time Founder, and veteran executive of 7 past startups, where his roles varied from VP of Engineering & Operations to CEO. Rich has created products ranging across software (enterprise, mobile desktop and embedded), hardware (silicon, board, module, and box), and complete systems. His core strength is in aggressive and predictable product, financial and company execution.

In addition to building killer products and mentoring other entrepreneurs, Rich’s other passions include building and driving racecars, and being a high performance driving instructor.

Follow Rich on Twitter!

What makes a great mentor?

They are founders of one or more successful technology startups and have been through the same thing you’re going through.  They enjoy spending time with other entrepreneurs and thinking about different businesses.

They have a huge network of customers, vendors and employees they can introduce you to. They’re really busy, but make time to meet with you every week and are responsive to your emails and calls.

Capital Factor prides itself in providing the highest quality mentors in the business to help scale your startup. 

Jeff Dachis | @jeffdachis

Considered one of the early pioneers in the development of the World Wide Web, Jeff is adept at identifying strategic growth opportunities that drive the creation of new industries. Jeff is currently serving as Chief Evangelist at Sprinklr, the leading social experience management platform, which recently completed its purchase of Dachis Group. As the Founder, CEO and Chairman of Dachis Group, he helped coin the term ‘Social Business’, set the vision and strategy for its Social Business consulting practice and the development of its big data social analytics platform, and led the company’s growth at its peak to over 240 employees and $ 42MM in revenue, integrated 7 acquisitions, and drove the eventual strategic exit to Sprinklr. He is also the Co-Founder, former CEO and Chairman of Razorfish (acquired by Publicis PSE:PUB.PA), the world’s largest digital marketing solutions firm, where he bootstrapped the company and led it through its successful $55MM IPO (NASDAQ:RAZF), eventually grew it to over $280MM in annual revenue, integrated over 20 acquisitions, and managed over 2,200 employees in 15 cities in 9 countries. With a passion for the intersection of big data, mobile computing, the quantified self movement and digital innovation, Jeff had early involvement in the creation of the first banner ad, the creation of the first web animation, and has digital work exhibited as part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art‘s permanent collection. Jeff is a Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year winner (NYC 2001) and finalist (Austin 2012).

Jeff produces the premier Social Business Summit thought leadership series, hosting over 25 events around the world in Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States.  He is an active mentor and investor with TechStars and Founder’s Institute, and serves or has served on advisory boards for companies including Sprinklr, Bazaarvoice(NASDAQ:BV), OfferPop, Ferris, and SocialWare. Jeff is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin and New York University; he has a MA from NYU, and a double Liberal Arts degree from SUNY Purchase.

Follow Jeff on Twitter!

What makes a great mentor?

They are founders of one or more successful technology startups and have been through the same thing you’re going through.  They enjoy spending time with other entrepreneurs and thinking about different businesses.

They have a huge network of customers, vendors and employees they can introduce you to. They’re really busy, but make time to meet with you every week and are responsive to your emails and calls.

Capital Factor prides itself in providing the highest quality mentors in the business to help scale your startup. 

Mike Dodd

Mr. Michael J. Dodd, Jr., ‘Mike’, is a Partner at Austin Ventures! Mr. Dodd joined the firm in September 2008 and focuses on investments in early and expansion stage software and web-enabled business and consumer services. Prior to Austin Ventures, Mr. Dodd served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Omniture Inc., since June 2006. During his tenure, which began prior to Omniture’s IPO, he led the identification, acquisition, and integration efforts around Omniture’s acquisition of two domestic and two international companies that totaled approximately $500 million in consideration. He then served as a Senior Partner at Europ@web (Europatweb), from March 1999 to December 2001, and served as a Partner, and where he worked with companies such as Liquidity Services Inc and Ancestry.com. Mr. Dodd served as a Senior Internet Banker at Robertson Stephens in San Francisco, from July 1997 to March 1999, where he specialized in Internet company financing, and worked in business development at Idealabs and at Peoplelink.com. He also served as a Technology Investment Banker at FleetBoston Robertson Stephens, Inc. From February 2002 to June 2006, he held various positions with Ancestry.com Inc. (MyFamily.com, Inc.), including Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Commerce Business Unit and Vice President of New Channel Marketing, International Marketing, and Business Development.

He has been Director of RunTitle, Inc, since September 2013.Currently Mike serves as a Director of Spredfast, Inc., Graduation Alliance Inc., Public Engines, Inc., MapMyFITNESS, Inc., MojoPages.com, Inc., CrimeReports.com and Limos.com, LLC. He serves as a Member of the Board of Advisors of Bazaarvoice, Inc. and has served as a Director of Liquidity Services, Inc. & Ancestry.com Inc. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Finance from Syracuse University.

Follow Mike on Twitter!

(Contributed by Gordon Daugherty, Capital Factory President)

This post isn’t intended to get into every detail of convertible note mechanics. But I get enough questions about when to use them and what the basic components are that I thought a basic primer was in order.  For those interested in the seed-stage SAFE investment instrument made available by Y Combinator in December 2013, ready my review and comparison to convertible notes here.

When To Use

Convertible notes are a form of financing (fundraising) that are most commonly used in the earliest stages of company formation when the value (valuation) of the company is impossible or undesirable to establish. Setting a valuation for a company in the early stages is already part art and part science but in the earliest stages it is almost all art. Actually, it’s purely the intersection of how much equity (ownership) the founders are willing to give up and how much equity the investor demands for their investment.

Some investors refuse to invest via convertible note because of the future uncertainty of how much equity they will eventually receive (explained in next section) while other investors have no issue with this fundraising instrument. It is somewhat of a religious debate.  Another example of when convertible notes are used is for a “bridge round”, which is a relatively small amount needed to bridge the gap to the next desired equity round (for example, in between a Series A and a Series B).

Read the full blog post here.

Follow @CFStartupNews, @CFStartupJobs, @CFStartupsEvents for up-to-date live Tweets

Events

Co-Founders Meetup | @thetechmap
Monday, April 14, 6:30pm-9pm

Everyone is welcome to our group! Software developers, UX designers, hardware architects, executives, and students looking for a more exciting and challenging opportunity, as well as angel investors and VCs looking for the next BIG thing in Austin. Come on in, join us! Learn more

Austin Clojure Meetup
Monday, April 14, 7pm-9pm

This group is focused on Clojure and related Lisp languages, specifically Common Lisp and Scheme as they strongly influence the approach Clojure takes. Java is a foundational system for Clojure, but the focus is not on the Java language, but the JVM and associated libraries that are the power base for Clojure. Learn more

Capital Factory Tour + Incubator Infosession | @CFStartupEvents 
Tuesday, April 15, 4pm-5:30pm

Every Tuesday we will be hosting a tour + an incubator info session open and free to the public! Come meet Joshua Baer or another Capital Factory Director, learn about the program and have a chance to ask questions in an informal setting. Learn more

Austin Lean Startup Circle 
Tuesday, April 15 6:30pm – 8:30pm

The new entrepreneurship era is all about customers and their problems. Lean startup is a collection of techniques built around maximizing validated customer learning thought fast Build/Measure/Learn iteration loops. This week pizza and drinks will be provided by OtherInbox! Learn more

Music Tech Meetup | @ATXMusicTech
Tuesday, April 15, 7pm – 9pm

The aim of this group is to create a regular meeting for anyone currently working on or interested in music related startups! Austin is one of the best cities on earth for music and for tech startups, so this group will fuse two of the best parts about Austin! Entrepreneurs, developers, investors, service firms, music industry folks and anyone with a passion for tech and music should join! Learn more

News

Boxer Aims to Simplify Email Management http://t.co/M9DfpBMg2R

— SiliconHillsNews (@SiliconHillsNew) April 8, 2014

Google Glass at work. Mentions @pristineio. Very smart guys http://t.co/nBCq5CIN2D

— Adam Turinas (@Turinas) April 8, 2014

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/455422733330173953

.@mattchasen says that @uship's #SumoAdvantage is their new partnership with @ebay – 10 years in the making. Cc @BernieBrenner

— Longhorn Startup (@LonghornStartup) April 11, 2014

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/453877518429589506

@CapitalFactory named one of @Forbes top 10 hottest startup incubators http://t.co/zwB0AKwQ2m #startup #tech

— SocialRest (@SocialRest) April 9, 2014

Jobs

@JoshuaBaer Futon is hiring – http:// http://t.co/lYaATlOQPL

— Remington Robertson (@remyniscent) April 12, 2014

.@Realmassive is looking for a Junior Developer (OOP)! Qualifications? Must be fun to work with 🙂 http://t.co/EjtwnStUns Please RT

— Capital Factory Jobs ⚙️ (@CFJobPostings) April 11, 2014

https://twitter.com/sarahkcox/status/453649832289107968

[Please RT] @RealMassive is looking for an über-talented & energetic "full stack" UX designer/architect & UI artist: http://t.co/6qFXx1D1DG

— Capital Factory Jobs ⚙️ (@CFJobPostings) April 9, 2014

Rise & grind! @AuntBertha is looking for an idealist marketing analyst to join their team! Full posting: http://t.co/xsTgrm7e4C Please RT

— Capital Factory Jobs ⚙️ (@CFJobPostings) April 11, 2014

https://twitter.com/CFStartupJobs/status/452114032389271552

A Comprehensive guide to news, jobs and events at Capital Factory

Subscribe to this newsletter for your comprehensive guide to news, jobs and events happening at Capital Factory. Follow @CFStartupNews, @CFStartupJobs, @CFStartupsEvents for up-to-date live Tweets.

Events

Women Who Code Austin Meetup | @wwcodeatx
Monday, April 7 from 7pm – 9pm

Austin.RB | @austinrb

Monday, April 7 from 7pm – 9pm

Treetop is a language for describing languages. Combining the elegance of Ruby with cutting-edge parsing expression grammars, it helps you analyze syntax with revolutionary ease. This talk will use a real world example to show you how Treetop makes writing parsers fun and easy. Expect to see lots of code in this quick introduction. Learn more

Every Tuesday we will be hosting incubator info sessions open and free to the public! Come meet Joshua Baer or another Capital Factory Director, learn about the program and have a chance to ask questions in an informal setting. No need to RSVP. Just drop by! Learn more

Laravel Austin Meetup | @LaravelAustin

Tuesday, April 8 from 7pm – 9pm

Laravel Austin is a group for people in Austin, TX interested in learning, exploring, and sharing knowledge about the Laravel PHP framework. Learn more

The Austin Python Meetup

Wednesday, April 9 from 7pm – 9pm

Meet other local Python programming language enthusiasts! Ask your questions about any aspect of Python development, including “How do I start learning Python?” Learn more

 

TechBreakfast Meetup | @TechBreakfast

Thursday, April 10 from 8am – 10am

Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share, learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations. And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them 🙂  Learn more

 

OpenHack | @openhackatx

Wednesday,  April 9 from 7pm – 10pm

OpenHack is a great chance to meet other developers and expand your professional network, as well as make some friends. I’d also like to encourage everyone to seek each others’ advice on engineering issues to see if you can find a better way to accomplish your goals. Learn more

Thu, April 10, 7pm – 9pm

Gordon Walton, Austin video game industry executive, will be speaking at our next “Video Game Makers Unite!” on Thursday, April 10 about the history of Austin video game studios, today’s current scene and major Austin video game studio trends, the local major players and where the industry is going in Austin. Learn more

News

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/451347208328458240

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/451374256128262145

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/451703200593502208

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/451789633173856256

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/451826978728210432

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/452427982280597504

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/452790355440979968

@joshbaer @capitalfactory @geekdom @procyrion featured in Lone Star Innovation: @Xconomy Texas Top Stories of Q1 2014 http://t.co/yFlmMEEBKe

— Angela Shah (@angelashah) April 1, 2014

https://twitter.com/BobMetcalfe/status/451011123848810497

https://twitter.com/CFStartupNews/status/451052037292441600

Austin’s first chief innovation officer sets positive tone during her intro to the city’s tech community – http://t.co/UBQsAyZovU

— AustinBizJournal (@MyABJ) April 2, 2014

Jobs

Rise & grind! @no2studentloans needs a marketing intern to join their team. Check the infographic to apply! Please RT pic.twitter.com/IXVRRtWBK0

— Capital Factory Jobs ⚙️ (@CFJobPostings) April 3, 2014

Famigo is hiring a Senior Android Developer http://t.co/CbvBe6tQC8 @CFStartupJobs

— Douglas Ferguson (@douglas_voltage) March 31, 2014

Rise & grind! @ihiji is looking for a Real Life Superhero! (Technical Support Representative)! Apply now: [Please RT] http://t.co/kuPKrGymJD

— Capital Factory Jobs ⚙️ (@CFJobPostings) April 4, 2014

Capital Factory helps people quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs! Learn more at our incubator infosession RSVP: http://t.co/whcI657VG8

— Capital Factory Jobs ⚙️ (@CFJobPostings) April 4, 2014

The @NuveTeam is hiring an Electrical Engineer, Operations Specialist and a Supply Chain Logistics Specialist: http://t.co/6fhamQVTm1

— Capital Factory Jobs ⚙️ (@CFJobPostings) April 4, 2014

. @joshuabaer Aceable is hiring a full-stack developer! Here's a link to the job description and application:http://t.co/KlCoGOhXBY

— Aceable (@aceable) April 6, 2014

Come join the @youearnedit team & build an amazing product (used by thousands of peeps here in #ATX). @CFStartupJobs http://t.co/y0dCeOZlkt

— Autumn Manning (@a_manning) March 30, 2014

Rise & grind! @ihiji is looking for a Jr. Web Dev. – PHP, JQuery, Python to join their team at Capital Factory #jobs http://t.co/GALEFgV2bn

— Capital Factory Jobs ⚙️ (@CFJobPostings) April 1, 2014