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RED Labs
The University of Houston’s startup accelerator and technology entrepreneurship program. Follow us to learn more about startups at the University of Houston.

It’s a good 60/40…

The halfway point of the summer has passed and the RED Labs and OwlSpark teams have completed weeks six and seven.

Our sessions during these weeks have touched on accounting basics, business and pricing models, as well as customer acquisition costs. For those who don’t have a business background, the financial aspect of a business can be often be the most overwhelming part of starting a company.

Danielle Supkis Cheek and Austin Carlson visited our teams to breakdown the basics of business accounting and taxes. Danielle also hit on the importance of knowing the lifetime value of a customer. To follow the pricing theme, Patrick Taylor gave an informative session on pricing strategies and the methodology behind picking your price point.

Danielle Supkis Cheek and Patrick Taylor talk money with our teams.

Rakesh Agrawal, founder and CEO of Snapstream, presented in our Startup Founders Series. He gave us a different perspective from past founders because he still works for his startup over 10 years later. We kept the excitement from Rakesh’s talk going with our “Nacho Average” Happy Hour, where we invited our mentors, speakers, and fellow start up community to come and get to know the RED Labs and OwlSpark teams.

We, of course, celebrated Fourth of July with a hot dog (and watermelon) luncheon and enjoyed the 4th with a long weekend. We hit the ground running as week 7 began our pitch practices. Bayou Startup Showcase is our main pitch event at the end of the summer where all the teams will present their business to the startup community. There is a lot more work that goes into four minutes of speaking than most people realize.

The remainder of the week focused on getting feedback from mentors as well as continuing the branding process. A fun part of the week consisted of the teams collaborating on the final logo design.

RED Labs and OwlSpark finished off the week with a class field trip...to the bowling alley! It was a great time to get to know everyone outside of the work environment. There was certainly a showing of competitive spirit at the pool table.

Bowling at Lucky Strike was a great way to end the week.

Coming up next is the uphill journey to the Bayou Startup Showcase. More updates to come!