Capital Factory’s Saturday Startup Spotlight series features intimate chats with some of the latest founders taking hold of the startup ecosystem today. We’re returning this week with the CEO from eCarra: Rock Robinson. eCarra is an upscale electric car service that provides in-car experiences, emissions-free.
Learn more about how they’re creating exciting, customizable rides for customers while also working on cleaning up the environment.
eCarra is a passenger car service built on a multi-tenant architecture. We deliver clean and luxurious experiences in Tesla vehicles. While other car services offer last-minute, impersonal solutions, the eCarra app allows clients to fully customize every aspect of their ride, down to the desired mood, music, and stops along the way. You can also track your individual emissions savings in our app, and we’ll even plant a tree for every ride you complete.
What is the current goal you’re aiming to achieve?
We’re creating a machine. 2019 was all about the MVP, traction, software development, and infrastructure— we grossed $100,000. 2020 is about growth: increasing brand awareness, reservation count, and Tesla partners.
As startup founders, what challenges are you facing as you navigate the entrepreneurial world?
We have some massive challenges, from finding the right people to building the right systems and processes. When it comes to capital, we want to make sure we generate as much as we can while we raise. Of course, it’s a real challenge getting people to realize that we have to do something about the negative effects of tailpipe gasses.
What connections are you looking for at Capital Factory? Who would you like to meet?
We’re looking to connect with people that could help us in the corporate space. We’re the new standard in ridesharing— most companies have some go green initiative, and we want to assist. We’re also looking for green leaders; people and groups that advocate for sustainable solutions.
What do you want our community to know about eCarra?
We no longer have the luxury of not caring about the environment. But that doesn’t mean we can’t create great experiences in the process of cleaning it up. What makes us different is we plan to license our platform to future electric micro fleets all over the world as we set the example of consistent, emissions-free mobility.
Thank you for sharing your story with us, Rock!
Do you have a sustainable idea that you’d like to explore in the startup scene? Are you interested in disrupting the transportation industry?
Learn more about our VIP Accelerator program and how to apply.
Capital Factory’s VIP Accelerator accepts new tech startups from across industries every month. Once accepted, we help these startups meet their next investor, employee, and customer with the support of our Investor Relations and VIP teams as well as our exclusive Mentor network of the top entrepreneurs and investors in Texas.
TrustFund’s digital banking solution combines digital banking with emerging fintech on a single platform to help people both save and borrow money. Their platform can customize automated savings plans, budgeting, and smart money tips.
Fetii is a universal ride-sharing app that provides on-demand group rides from 5 to 30+ people. Book a Fetii and travel to and from any destination in a single-vehicle.
Tuuk is an embedded financial services company that enables proactive online customer experiences. They understand what your customers do online, determine what they want to do, and then start scaling partnerships.
MeBeBot’s AI Assistant creates efficiencies, improves productivity, and saves your company time. Employees will get the information they need while allowing you to focus on providing impactful value to your organization.
STEMBoT’s mission is to provide innovative robotics solutions and accessories to educators, hobbyists, and professionals. STEMBoTs are engaging for students and easy for teachers to use as well.
De Kabeza offers engagement and data through gamification. They are a trivia platform that helps your brand connect with users through relevant, interesting content for your audience.
CBio combines novel separation science, portable microscopy, machine learning, and IoT cloud connectivity to bring unparalleled analytics to groups studying cell and microbial behavior for decision making.
The team at FabuLingua teaches spanish to kids through fun, interactive stories. With FabuLingua, kids can dive into tales full of dynamic characters while being exposed to the Magical Translation method— which subconsciously wires their brain to the second language.
NangioTXprovides safe and effective ways to regenerate blood vessels using V-10, a unique injectable drug that creates a scaffold in the muscle. Their team is now working towards ways to translate V-10 into a therapeutic product.
HTXLabs is a commercial software company that adapts virtual reality to address the needs of corporate and government organizations. They offer technology and simulations that provide hands-on learning opportunities that are often difficult to obtain in real life.
Medzino is an online doctor and pharmacy. Their mission is to provide a regulated, convenient and confidential service, with the patient at the core of everything they do.
Renzoe Box is a unique makeup pod system in which users can mix-n-match pods to create their own palette of brands and products. Renzoe can hold brushes and mascara as well, all in one compact box.
Solstar is a commercial satellite communications company that is using innovative technology to create a ‘Space Wide Web’. Their Space Communicator provides a WiFi hotspot service inside or outside a spacecraft that can be used by payloads and passengers.
. . .
Tune in next month for another round of awesome startups. If you’re interested in applying to join Capital Factory’s VIP Accelerator, attend our next Accelerator Info Session to learn more about the program. If you’re ready to apply, complete an application!
Out of an abundance of caution for our team, our members, our partners, our guests, and the City of Austin, Capital Factory House at SXSW is canceled due to circumstances outside our control surrounding Coronavirus.
Safety is our top priority. There is no hesitation about this decision after reviewing all of the available information and speaking at length with all of our team, our members, our partners, and our advisors.
Our team, the SXSW team, and our partners have spent countless hours over the past 6 months preparing for an incredible SXSW 2020. They have literally poured sweat and tears into it, working late nights and weekends, bringing their very best selves to work, and leveraging all of their connections and resources to contribute to the best SXSW experience possible for our community. We are so thankful for their efforts and their acumen. Thank you.
Capital Factory remains open for normal business now, and during SXSW, including coworking, meetups and events. Large events or those with international attendees will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Defense related programming planned for Capital Factory House will be moved to Defense Week, June 22–26. The Startup Crawl is moved to June 22nd.
Please also note that we are moving forward as planned with the Hack Coronavirus Town Hall on Friday March 6th to discuss how we can best prepare our community for the Coronavirus. Please join us in helping our community and others learn from this global challenge and better prepare for the future.
We will continue to implement enhanced sanitary measures such as the use of hand-sanitizing stations, increased cleaning frequency with antiviral cleaning products and educational signs until the threat has passed.
Stay tuned for more information over the next few weeks. This is obviously an evolving situation. Thank you for your patience, and your grace.
To close, and most importantly, thank you to SXSW for creating this incredible opportunity for Austin, Capital Factory, and the tech and creative communities that call this wonderful city home.
SXSW continues to have an enormous positive economic and cultural impact, and it will continue to do so long into the future. We are already looking forward to the best SXSW ever in 2021. Let’s all plan on a huge show of support next March for an organization in SXSW to whom we all certainly owe a great debt.
The safety of our staff, members and community is our first priority at Capital Factory. While the overall risk of COVID-19 to the Austin community remains low, it is increasing. SXSW will require us to take strong precautions because of the exposure to more people from different parts of the world.
Capital Factory is following the guidance of the national Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the City of Austin Public Health Department with support from SXSW. We are also looking at other similar organizations and conferences to identify best practices we can learn from.
On Friday, March 6, we are helping to convene the Austin Tech community for HackCoronavirus to help prepare for SXSW.
SXSW and Capital Factory House are proceeding on schedule. We have implemented the following changes at our facilities:
Provided our staff with additional cleaning products known to kill viruses (60% alcohol)
Added alcohol-based hand sanitizer at all entrances, bathrooms, and food distribution areas for all members and guests
Increased the frequency of cleanings of door handles bathroom fixtures, elevator buttons, and kitchen fixtures from once per day to three times per day
Added tissues in common areas
Discouraging shaking hands
This is a work-in-progress and additional measures may be taken.
Capital Factory’s Saturday Startup Spotlight series features intimate chats with some of the latest founders taking hold of the startup ecosystem today. We’re returning this week with the co-founder and COO from Juuk: Stephen Dodds and Vanessa Wu. Juuk creates robots that play with you— utilizing AR, multiplayer real-life games, smart robot games, and computer vision.
Learn more about how they create fun and interactive games to get people moving around, all while implementing the newest tech in augmented reality.
Stephen: We make augmented reality games that are physically engaging — like our current first-person shooter augmented reality mobile game, Zedblast. With our games, people are encouraged to get up and be the hero.
What is the current goal you’re aiming to achieve?
Stephen: We’re currently beta testing our latest game, Zedblast. We’re specifically focused on achieving a level of fun/stickiness with our early users that will be required for mass adoption.
As startup founders, what challenges are you facing as you navigate the entrepreneurial world?
Stephen: Finding investors who are experienced and have had previous success in our industry is challenging. Validating our product assumptions and value propositions with real customers is difficult as well. Knowing how to interpret customer feedback and release MVPs quickly takes a lot of discipline. It’s scary to release something to people when it’s not the full product you had in mind— but it’s necessary if you want to build the right product.
Vanessa: You have so many voices, from mentors, for example, who are experts in their respective fields. They all seem right, so which is better than the other? Sometimes you may question yourself, but it’s important to keep saying “be strong” and “try again.”
What connections are you looking for at Capital Factory? Who would you like to meet?
Stephen: We would love more connections to angels and VCs with experience and success in the gaming and/or entertainment markets.
We would also love to meet more entrepreneurs who are further along than we are in this market, and who have been able to build a customer base, product, and investment connections from the ground up.
What do you want our community to know about Juuk?
Stephen: We’re early explorers in a very new field. I can guarantee you’ve never experienced anything like our latest game. Come visit us on the 16th floor Accelerator bullpen at Capital Factory in Austin if you want to give it a try.
Thank you for spending some time talking to us, Stephen and Vanessa!
Ever felt like you were stuck in a crisis of opportunity? Are you interested in creating products in the consumer and toy industry?
Learn more about our VIP Accelerator program and how to apply.
Capital Factory’s VIP Accelerator accepts new tech startups from across industries every month. Once accepted, we help these startups meet their next investor, employee, and customer with the support of our Investor Relations and VIP teams as well as our exclusive Mentor network of the top entrepreneurs and investors in Texas.
Take a look at the most recent group of companies to join our VIP Accelerator below. Visit their sites for further information, and keep an eye out for their next big round of funding.
. . .
Skylark Wireless
Skylark Wireless is a wireless networking hardware startup. They design and manufacture custom Massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) radio solutions addressing the needs of the rural broadband market.
Listing Village
The team at Listing Village provides realtors with their own marketing website platform. They can help you build your own custom website, mobile map, and personal branding on your terms.
GoDemics
GoDemics is a full-cycle production house that provides services for enterprise solutions and game development. They develop games, apps, and experiences that utilize Google Daydream, Oculus Rift, Gear VR, and much more.
Phylomics
Phylomics is democratizing access to the next-generation of life-saving cancer screening based on their innovative metabolomics platform. They provide early detection of multiple cancers in asymptomatic patients, when treatment is most effective.
CareSnap
CareSnap connects patients and caregivers for on-demand home care services with their dual-app software. They alleviate home care agency pain points by providing simplicity and accessibility right from your phone.
Salesboost
Salesboost is a new training program for the hospitality industry. Their performance-based, robust training solution provides a comprehensive curriculum designed to boost sales for hotel sales professionals.
. . .
Tune in next month for another round of awesome startups. If you’re interested in applying to join Capital Factory’s VIP Accelerator, attend our next Accelerator Info Session to learn more about the program. If you’re ready to apply, complete an application!
Capital Factory, in partnership with DivInc, is excited to announce the next $100,000 Investment Challenge at our 2nd Annual Black in Tech Summit. DivInc is a pre-accelerator based in Austin that bridges the gap between underrepresented entrepreneurs and the resources they need to build profitable, high-growth companies. We’ve had the pleasure of working with DivInc in the past on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Challenges in Austin, Houston, and Dallas.
We’re dedicated to increasing diversity in the tech community and making our coworking space an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and identities. Year-round Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summits are just one example of how we’re making Capital Factory more accessible.
On April 14th, during Capital Factory’s Black in Tech Summit, five technology startup finalists will pitch to prestigious judges made up of successful entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and DivInc leadership. One founder/startup will walk away with a $100,000 investment that day!
Up to $250,000 in potential total hosting credits from AWS, and other major hosting providers (each individual offer is different and subject to change)
A podcast recording for an episode on Capital Factory’s Austinpreneur
6 months of unlimited co-working at Capital Factory for your whole team
Take your shot at $100,000! Apply now to be one of five teams selected to pitch. You could walk away with $100,000 and a new home at the Center of Gravity for Entrepreneurs in Texas! Application deadline is March 20.
We know that there is a systemic discrimination problem in the tech industry caused by hundreds of years of institutional discrimination based on race, gender and sexual orientation. We know the facts show that businesses perform better with diverse teams. We know things won’t get better without intentional effort. We know we have a lot of room to improve at Capital Factory and we need to start with our own team. We know we can do better and we will keep trying.
In 2018 we published our first Accelerator Diversity report with a similar opening statement and our feelings haven’t changed. The last 2 years have seen exciting developments within our community, but we humbly admit that we’ve also learned some hard lessons. We’ve seen results from our hard work, and every challenge we’ve faced has only strengthened our resolve to continue this critically important work.
What is Diversity?
We track a lot of data internally around our events, members, mentors, investments and other activities and we are still learning the best ways to collect and interpret the data. Diversity often starts with gender and ethnicity but there are many ways to look at it such as sexual orientation, disabilities, and veterans. We’ve learned that the way you ask the question can affect the answers you get. Everyone doesn’t answer every question. Everyone doesn’t define diversity the same way.
For context, when we use the term “diverse,” it means everyone that is a non-white male and eliminates double counting. This is a very broad sense of the word so we also try to break it down into more detail when we can.
2019 Accelerator Statistics
We recruited 28 startups with female founders, which is a 3x increase from 2017. This represented 26% of all of the startups in the Accelerator, which is up from 13% in 2017.
We recruited 15 startups with Black founders, which is nearly a 2x increase from 2017. This represented 14% of all of the startups in the Accelerator, which is up from 8% in 2017.
We recruited 15 startups with Latinx founders, which is two more than what we had in 2017. However, this represented 14% of all of the startups in the Accelerator which is down from 21% in 2017. We need to understand this better.
We recruited 24 startups with Asian founders, which is over a 2x increase from 2017. This represented 23% of all of the startups in the Accelerator which is up from 16% in 2017.
We recruited 17 startups with veteran founders (we didn’t measure this in 2017). This represented 16% of all of the startups in the Accelerator.
We invested in 3 startups with Black founders. This represented 5% of all of the startups we invested in.
We invested in 3 startups with Latinx founders. This represented 5% of all of the startups we invested in.
We invested in 8 startups with Asian founders. This represented 13% of all of the startups we invested in.
We invested in 3 startups with veteran founders. This represented 5% of all of the startups we invested in.
What is Working?
Investing in Diverse People
Not much happens without great people. Capital Factory has been fortunate to have some incredible leaders step up to help make our community more welcoming and more diverse. It’s no coincidence that these people are representative of many different diverse communities themselves.
Mellie Price is a Capital Factory co-founder and started our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.
Eugene Sepulveda is on our board of directors and has also demonstrated incredible leadership in this area.
Jan Ryan started Women@Austin and brought many new women into our community as mentors and we’re excited to continue working with her at UT Austin’s Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute.
Preston James, Dana Calendar, and Ashley Jennings started DivInc and brought many new women and people of color into our community as founders.
Sabrina and Jonathan Wojtewicz and the rest of the team from Bunker Labs has been introducing us to incredible veteran entrepreneurs for years.
In 2018 we hired Savannah Barker as our first DEI Coordinator and she turned our diversity summits into a scalable and effective tool.
In 2019 Minh Vu expanded the strategy to collaborate with more partners and to add programming in the Dallas and Houston markets.
Recruiting, supporting, empowering, investing in, and hiring great people who are diverse themselves and care about DEI was our first step to improving DEI. These people had the passion and commitment to bring change. We still have more work to do here and we are focused on it.
Investing in Diverse Startups
We know that access to early-stage capital is one of the most critical barriers keeping diverse founders from succeeding. For that reason, Capital Factory invested nearly $1 million in diverse founders in 2018 and 2019. Our $100,000 pitch competitions specifically focused on women and people of color attracted new startups that we hadn’t met before, diversifying our overall ecosystem while also putting our money where our mouth is.
Investing in Diverse Partnerships
We’ve chosen to work with great partners who prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion. No one has been a better partner to us in that regard than Google for Startups. They provide funding, they teach us best practices from Google, and they connect us to our peers all over the world. We also have local partners such as Accenture, Bunker Labs, DivInc, EqualityTexas, Hispanic Hackers, The Riveter, TexasCompetes, Women@Austin, and Women Who Code, and many others.
Investing Across Texas
Three years ago we announced the Texas Startup Manifesto — encouraging startups and investors to treat the entire state of Texas as a single startup megatropolis. Texas has some of the most diverse cities in the U.S, and our startup ecosystem should reflect that. The diversity in Texas’ population brings a wide array of valuable perspectives that we hope to uplift and showcase as we continue to expand.
We acknowledge that the tech industry is systemically tailored for a particular demographic, so it isn’t always accessible to underrepresented groups. We aim to motivate founders, rising entrepreneurs, and innovators from all backgrounds in tech entrepreneurship by providing them with resources they need to succeed in this community.
Not all Texas cities have the same demographics. Houston is one of the most international and diverse cities in the country. Expanding to Dallas and Houston was definitely a contributing factor in the improvements that we’ve seen over the past two years.
Diversity Drives More Diversity
In addition to providing financial capital to founders, our $100,000 investment challenges have also been instrumental in diversifying our ecosystem. We are able to bring people into our community who we might not normally meet. Once they are here, they introduce us to other diverse founders, mentors and investors and, combined with other efforts, make Capital Factory a more welcoming and inclusive community overall.
People feel more comfortable when they see peers, mentors, and success stories who look like themselves.
Courageous Conversations
Mayor Adler challenged all of Austin to take the Beyond Diversity — Courageous Conversations Workshop with Leadership Austin and I’m signed up to take the next workshop in April. I’ve already sent three members of my leadership team and I plan on continuing to send different members of my team so that everyone is exposed — specifically I hope that it will help us improve our hiring practices and increase the diversity of our team at all levels.
The Diversity Pledge
Capital Factory Mentor Stephen Straus collaborated with many others in Austin to launch The Diversity Pledge and Capital Factory was one of the first companies to sign it. Making a public pledge helps raise awareness and can also attract more diverse candidates to your pipeline.
If you haven’t yet, I’d encourage you to read it over and consider making the pledge for your company.
What Do We Need to Work On?
We’ve made some significant progress over the past two years but that also highlights some of the glaring holes that remain. Here are some of the places where we know we have the most room for improvement:
We need to recruit more people of color as Mentors, especially Black Mentors. Right now we have 22% (43 out of 192 who do office hours in-person). Many of them have joined the network in the past year or two from Dallas and Houston.
We need to recruit more women as Mentors. Right now we have 16% (30 out of 192 who do office hours in-person).
We need to recruit more women and people of color on our leadership team, specifically Black leaders. Right now we have two women, two people of color, and two open members of the LGBTQ+ community (18% each). The Capital Factory Dreamteam (our entire staff) is 55% women and most declined to report their race at hiring but a rough estimate is that 25% are people of color.
We need to recruit more women and people of color to our investment committee. Right now we have no women or people of color.
We need to think more about people with disabilities and different abilities. This is a different lens for diversity that hasn’t received as much attention.
We recognize that in order to attract more diverse leaders and mentors, we need to make our recruiting more inclusive.
Why We Do This
Our hope is not only that Capital Factory will become a more diverse workplace, but that our work will inspire other companies to prioritize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as well. It is one of the few efforts worth fighting for, where — truly — everybody wins.
Have you ever felt uncomfortable or unwelcome at Capital Factory? Do you have ideas about how we can make our community more diverse and inclusive? We are listening and welcome all feedback.
Methodology: This information was pulled from 2019 surveys of Capital Factory employees, accelerator companies, and community members in addition to internal analysis.
There’s a new generation of startup companies that have been transforming Austin’s market, and it’s exciting to witness founders who are developing amazing startups every day. The article mentions local favorite consumer product companies, which Capital Factory has had the chance to collaborate with, such as Yeti Coolers and Kendra Scott. They’ve been making a huge impression on the city, along with the rising Siete Family Foods startup which recently raised $90 million and tripled its nationwide distribution. We haven’t had the pleasure to work with Siete Family Foods yet, but we’d love to collaborate!
“Austin is one of the few markets that is able to support a full range of startups— like Silicon Valley or New York,” says Joshua Baer, the founder of Capital Factory, the city’s dominant startup incubator. –Tom Foster for Inc.’s The 50 Best U.S. Cities for Starting a Business in 2020
Inc. refers to Capital Factory as “the city’s dominant startup incubator,” a title we’re more than happy to accept. However, there are many incubators, accelerators, and VC’s around town that we have been proud to work alongside— Techstars, Austin Technology Incubator, Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN), Silverton Partners, and LiveOak Venture Partners to name a few. Getting Austin to the top of Inc.’s list has been thanks to everyone’s amazing efforts in the startup ecosystem.
Texas is a Powerhouse
The list doesn’t just stop at Austin. Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston were ranked №29 and №45 respectively, which is incredibly telling of the impact Texas has on the nation’s economy. Each city has its strengths: Dallas/Fort Worth has an abundance of large companies with the funds and capital to assist startups, while Houston excels in energy, space, and the medical technology field.
Capital Factory’s Texas Startup Manifesto is an effort to turbocharge collaborations across the state in order to help connect the critical components of the startup ecosystem and create real change in the world. Simply put: we’re stronger together. Since announcing our commitment to the Texas Manifesto in 2017, we’ve been leading collaboration efforts between Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio through numerous summits, roadshows, mentorship, hackathons, pitch competitions, “Ask Me Anything” sessions, and much more. You can check out our upcoming events here!
The results from Inc.’s 2020 Surge Cities index prove that there’s massive value in working together— as a Texas Startup Megatropolis we can unlock billions of dollars in capital and unleash thousands of diverse entrepreneurs, changing the world for the better.
We feel privileged to be part of Austin’s rise as a hub for a diverse range of startups, and we can’t wait to see what we can help accomplish all across Texas moving forward. If you’re interested in plugging into the Texas startup ecosystem, stay connected with us through our Austin Tech Live or Dallas Tech Live mailing lists and @CapitalFactory for updates.
Capital Factory is merging with Station Houston and is the first member of The Ion with Rice University and Houston Exponential!
Our Manifesto
In 2017, we released the Texas Startup Manifesto, outlining a vision of a united Texas startup ecosystem where startup entrepreneurs treat the four major metropolitan areas as one big city when they are recruiting talent, fundraising, and acquiring customers. Startups in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio shouldn’t need to move to Austin to scale. Texas is already the 10th largest economy in the world by GDP and one of the most friendly states for business and startups. Texas entrepreneurs shouldn’t need to fly to the coasts to raise funding or meet customers.
In 2018 and 2019, we connected together all four cities with staff, programming, and a Texas-wide mentor network. We made significant strides and achieved solid results in bringing this vision to reality.
How We’re Putting in the Work
We have been busy turning the Texas Startup Manifesto into reality, already engaged with hundreds of startups across the state. In 2018, we launched in Dallas with the help of The DEC, the Dallas Regional Chamber, UT Dallas, Accenture, Deloitte, Varidesk and many other partners. Our word of the year was “Dallas”. EVERY MONTH we filled up buses full of entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors and physically smashed them together in different cities. One time we invaded Fort Worth with more than 100 entrepreneurs on THREE buses — one from Austin, one from Houston, and one from Dallas. Fort Worth entrepreneurs and investors showed up too, showing that there are real synergies when we work together.
It’s working — 40 of the 120 startups that joined the Capital Factory Accelerator in 2019 came from Dallas — that’s a full third of our deal flow in our first full year of operation. The money is flowing in Dallas too — our startups are getting funded by angel investors and we’ve attracted many new Dallas investors in our fund.
— Bryan Chambers, General Partner and VP of Accelerator
Last year we hired our first full-time employees in Houston and launched a partnership with The Cannon. In the last quarter of 2019 alone, we recruited 14 new Houston startups thanks to our Houston Venture Associate Brittany Barreto! We have invested in Goodfair, GroupRaise, Evolve Energy, Hypergiant, Spruce, Syzygy Plazmonics and Zenus Biometrics and have strong deals in the pipeline.
Not many other investors can claim a half dozen Houston investments — and we expect that number to grow significantly in 2020. — Joshua Baer, Founder, General Partner & CEO
In partnership with JP Morgan, we invited dozens of investors from around the world on a three day Texas Startups Roadshow highlighting the best of Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
The Word of the Year is Houston
In 2020 our word of the year is “Houston” and our goal is to achieve the same scale and synergies we have in Dallas with a unique Houston angle to it. As our friends at IBM taught me, “Unity not Uniformity.” Houston brings unique and powerful talents to the table that tend to focus on the dirty, dull, and dangerous — two of their biggest industries are Energy and Space. The other is, of course, Health, with the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world. We want to leverage those strengths to attract talent and capital to Houston and all of Texas.
Another important value that Houston brings to the Texas startup ecosystem is diversity. Houston is not just one of the biggest cities in the US, it’s one of the most diverse with 25% of the residents born in another country. Since launching in Dallas we’ve seen more women and people of color in our Accelerator and Mentor Network and we are excited to have Houston compliment that even further. Most importantly, we want to learn more about what makes Houston such a welcoming city and how all of Texas can emulate it.
Capital Factory is one of the top startup development organizations in the country, and it’s awesome to see them expanding their footprint in Houston. It’s a win for Houston’s startups and for our booming ecosystem. Increasing bridges between Texas’ major tech ecosystems in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio has enormous synergistic value. We have a bright future. — Harvin Moore, President, Houston Exponential
CF will be powering Station Houston and connecting it’s mentor network to the Texas-wide network in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio. This includes the Houston mentor network that we have been developing with The Cannon.
As They Say in Improv Theatre, “Yes, and…”
Our goal is that Station Houston members retain everything they love about Station Houston and get the added benefits of Capital Factory. Our general philosophy is to listen first and if changes are needed, do it slowly. Station Houston members should expect the cost to stay the same and the benefits to only get better over the next year.
Starting immediately, all Station Houston members gain access to:
World-class programming and education
Capital Factory Texas mentor network
Union.vc global mentor network
Free coworking in Austin and Dallas
We’ve learned over the years that Metcalfe’s Law — The Network Effect — applies to our startup portfolio. The more high quality startups we have across a diverse range of industries, the more investors, big companies, and big government want to get involved. Uniting with Station Houston will see benefits run both ways.
— Gordon Daugherty, Co-founder and President
Entrepreneurs in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio will have access to Houston’s mentor network and corporate partners from leading industries like healthcare, energy, and aeronautics. Entrepreneurs in Houston will get access to the financial, retail and travel markets in Dallas and the tech talent and venture capital and booming defense industry in Austin. There are many more examples like this.
Station Houston has a strong history of being a catalyst for the Houston startup ecosystem and earned the spot as the first stop on our first Texas Startups Roadshow to Houston. We are grateful to the founders of Station Houston and everyone on the team who has helped to make it what it is today and excited about the possibilities we will create as we grow together.
