Texas-Squared Startup Newsletter #101
Texas Startup News, Opinions & Events in the Lone Star State SUBSCRIBE View this email in your browser





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Texas-Based Orgs Aim To Tackle Tech’s Lacking Diversity — Link
- Crunchbase’s Mary Ann Azevedo

“Entrepreneurs and investors often lament the lack of diversity in tech in Texas. But a few organizations, and people, are going beyond just talk and are actively working to better even the playing field for underrepresented entrepreneurs.” — Link
There have been a few comments on this article from my facebook post that informed this story, namely that Veteran-focused Bunker Labs should get its due for the diversity of its class, and a couple of comments about we collectively are still not doing enough to promote diversity and equality in the workplace.Two top national coding schools close within days of each other — Link
- The American Genius’ Ashe Segovia

“Luke Filipos, Founder and CEO of Austin Coding Academy expressed his take on the recent closures to AG:
“The whole coding bootcamp movement started, I think, because people were unsatisfied with the current college model — pay a bunch of money to go to a full time school and maybe get a job that can pay off the school debt.”
Here’s another perspective on the news: Why Dev Bootcamp and Iron Yard Shutting Down is a Good Thing — Link


Expedition Hacks Hackathon
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is hosting a hackathon for developers with mapping and predictive AI skills for in Austin.
“We want you to create the next generation of immersive experiences. We want to see your vision of what the future of conflict prevention will be like.”
Saturday July 29th, 2017 9:00am thru Sunday July 30th, 2017 5:00pm
GRAND PRIZE $5,000
Gather Lamar
5540 N. Lamar Rd. Austin, TX 78756
REGISTER

Open Coffee Northside (Tech)
Hosted by Open Coffee Austin
Wednesday, July 26 at 8:30 AM — 10:30 AM
Whole Foods Domain Community Room
11920 Domain Dr. Austin, Texas 78758
Facebook RSVP

Startup Weekend: Fitness
Friday, July 28–30, 2017
Event starts at 6:30 pm
NoD Coworking
17290 Preston #300
Dallas, TX 75252
REGISTER

Bayou Startup Showcase
See the newest Rice and UH Startups!!
Tuesday, August 1, 2017, 4 PM
Texas Medical Center Accelerator
2450 Holcombe Blvd, Houston

- Virtual reality lab offers Austinites a chance to try out new tech — Link
KXAN’s Chris Davis - Capital Factory: Austin’s Center of Gravity for Startups — Link
1776 Challenge Cup News - Doctor Evan Melrose Selected Aspen Institute Leadership Fellow — Link
- What Customers Mean to our Startup — Link
- A suggested list of questions for Ashton Kutcher’s session on gender and technology — Link
- The Austin Ride-Hail Chronicles: A RideAustin Followup (and 7/17 Update!) — Link
- Austin Startups - Vast’s John Price Talks About the Evolution of Austin’s Technology Industry on Ideas to Invoices — Link
- Silicon Hills News & Ideas to Invoices Podcast with Laura Lorek - Tech roundup: ATA makes voice heard against bathroom bills [433 people from Austin tech sign letter opposing bathroom bills], Self Lender’s funding and more — Link
- Self Lender is in hiring mode following fresh $5M Series A — Link
- Tacos for talent: How recruiters attract out-of-town talent through Austin’s food and music scene — Link
- Talking tech: This 20-year dev vet weighs in on working at AlienVault — Link
- Why this trans founder ‘hopes to God’ you’ll never have to use her app — Link
- How Digital Pharmacist is bringing mobile to mom & pop pharma shops — Link
- Memory Lane: Meet a few of the companies that paved the way for Austin’s tech scene — Link
- Merck announces tech innovation center in Austin, creating over 600 jobs — Link
- BuiltinAustin’s Kelly Jackson - Another Wine, Beer and Booze Delivery App Launched in Austin — Let’s Take a Sip — Link
- Another Coding School in Austin is Closing Down — Link
- Activist Investor that Pressured Whole Foods Makes About $300M From Shares — Link
- Finding Bigfoot: 7 Seriously Strange Datasets on data.world — Link
- Dog DNA Startup Embark Moved from Austin to Boston — and Raised $4.5M — Link
- A Silicon Valley-Born Startup Incubator is Setting Up in Austin — Link
- Introduction to American Inno — Link
- Suburban Boom: Favor Doubles Down on Austin Area On-Demand Delivery — Link
- Ride-Hailing Showdown: How Startups Compete with Uber in Austin — Link
- Dev Bootcamp Shuts Down in Austin and Nationwide Amid Financial Problems — Link
- Austin’s Upland Software Acquires San Francisco Mobile Messaging Company — Link
- These Austin Innovators Want to Connect Displaced LGBTQ Youth with Emergency Housing — Link
- Austin Communications App Company Secures $4.7M Round with Local VCs — Link
- Announcing 50 on Fire 2017 — Link
- Suburban Boom: Favor Doubles Down on Austin Area On-Demand Delivery — Link
- AustinInno’s Brett Wistrom - An expert peeks into the future of Austin’s tech scene: Chelsea Collier’s crystal ball reveals anxious moments ahead — Link
- Austin biotech company loses CEO as disease treatments work through regulatory process — Link
- Austin’s labor market remains tight, latest job numbers show — Link
- Dell is no longer Austin’s largest employer — Link
- Austin data management company banks on new CEO to return to growth — Link
- Electric vehicles being built in Austin with eye on unserved market — Link
- Another coding school falters: The Iron Yard to shut down — Link
- CEO departures tick up nationwide in June; In Austin, nonprofit leaders move on — Link
- A free, valuable tool for businesses to identify customers updated by the Census — Link
- Austin music industry veteran switches gears, serves up award-winning Hill Country distillery — Link
- Austin’s Sizmek buys competitor for $125M — a steep discount for a one-time unicorn — Link
- Organic baby food company lands Walmart deal — Link
- Texas successor for Jesús Garza named at Seton Healthcare Family — Link
- Austin software company begins search for new CFO — Link
- Corporate America is sitting on trillions in cash — and these 10 Austin companies have the most tucked away — Link
- 85 women to know: ABJ unveils 2017 Profiles in Power award nominees — Link
- Austin picks up new international direct flights for SXSW — Link
- How Austin’s mayor wants to fix the ‘downtown puzzle’ — Link
- Pharma giant gets millions in state incentives to build IT hub in Austin — Link
- Legal, regulatory challenges mount to Amazon’s takeover of Whole Foods — Link
- Delivery startup Favor doubles down on hometown; CEO says profitability within reach — Link
- The Austin Business Journal - With $6 million grant from state, Merck announces tech hub in Austin — Link
- Austin VC funding bounces back, jumps 182 percent in 2nd quarter — Link
- Austin losing coding school, as Iron Yard says it’s closing its doors — Link
- Whole Foods executives set to make millions after deal with Amazon closes — Link
- Austin equity firm launches $408 million fund to pursue ‘alternative’ real estate deals — Link
- Kahoot, edutainment company with Austin ties, gets $10 million in new funding and a Disney Accelerator FastPass — Link
- IBM: We will reconsider our commitment to Texas if a bathroom bill passes — Link
- Austin-based Sizmek to acquire ad tech firm Rocket Fuel for $125.5 million — Link
- Austin-based Favor says it’s doubling its Central Texas delivery area — Link
- Austin-American Statesman’s 512 Tech
- Ask 3 mentors’ opinions. Get 5 different answers. — Link
- How to Do Great Billboards — Link
- Geekdom Funds’ Michael Gridley - Texas Power Brokers: Prytime Medical CEO David Spencer — Link
- San Antonio Express News’ Jesse Pound - Self Lender Raises More Cash to Help Consumers Build Credit — Link
- BioAffinity Raises $4M to Continue Tests on Lung Cancer Diagnostic — Link
- Laing Tapped to Lead New Capital City Innovation District in Austin — Link
- Tech Leaders Decry “Bathroom Bills” Aimed at Transgender People — Link
- Startup WiseWear Connects With Ingenu on Wearable Security Device — Link
- Xconomy’s Angela Shah & David Holley - Coming Soon to Downtown: Interactive Wayfinding & Wi-Fi Kiosks — Link
- Graham Weston Takes on New Message: Get Healthy — Link
- Tech Bloc Hiring Chief Talent Officer for SA’s Tech Industry — Link
- DoSeum Focuses on Accessibility to Empower Generation of Techie Trailblazers — Link
- Blues and Barbecue to Take Center Stage at TEDxSA Salon — Link
- The Rivard Report - SABJ announces winners of 2017 Women’s Leadership Awards — Link
- Former Marine general to give keynote address at SABJ’s 2017 Women’s Leadership Awards — Link
- Nirenberg and Wolff seeking meeting soon with MLS officials on expansion — Link
- Weston-backed tech startup raises another $2M — Link
- San Antonio investment advisor suspended by state regulators — Link
- Presenting San Antonio’s Best Places to Work winners — Link
- San Antonio biotech surpasses funding goal, raising millions for cancer efforts — Link
- Lockheed Martin aerospace operation leaving SA in 2018; cybersecurity group hiring — Link
- Switching to solar a profitable move for SA convenience store chain (slideshow) — Link
- This is where the most affluent people live in Texas — Link
- Google Fiber loses yet another CEO — Link
- SA startup developing new wearable device for the masses — Link
- Former USAA exec seeks to build patent portfolios for regional banks — Link
- UTSA’s new $95M building expected to boost city’s bioscience sector — Link
- Tech Bloc to hire chief talent officer as San Antonio’s tech matchmaker — Link
- Exclusive: Growing San Antonio tech business moving its HQ — Link
- San Antonio Business Journal’s Kristen Mosbrucker

- NBC casting ‘Shark Tank’-style show in Lubbock — Link
- Laredo Morning Times - Uber’s going big into trucking business, and nowhere bigger than Texas — Link
- IBM says it’ll reconsider growth in Texas if ‘bathroom bill’ passes, Austin paper reports — Link
- Former Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks’ family invests in body camera company — Link
- Dallas Morning News’ Melissa Repko - After revenue nearly doubled, drone repair next for Plano company where ‘every day is Christmas morning’ — Link
- Denton-based Peterbilt partners with self-driving truck company — Link
- Exclusive: Japan-based, $105B-revenue NTT Group is taking over North Texas — Link
- How AT&T is helping Red Bull track its coolers — Link
- How an aerospace giant’s use of this disruptive technology affects DFW — Link
- Tinkering now means growth later: Inside the AT&T Foundry — Link
- How DFW markets itself on the global stage — Link
- Honoring rapid growth: Tech Titans selects 2017 Fast Tech companies — Link
- How Lockheed Martin and Bell help Pratt & Whitney attract talent in DFW — Link
- This Fort Worth startup is trying to capture a niche market — ear wax — Link
- This is where the most affluent people live in Texas — Link
- Women entrepreneurs from Afghanistan and Rwanda thrive at mentorship-focused boot camp in Dallas — Link
- Behind the Caroline Hunt estate’s potential $100 million private equity bet on nutrition — Link
- Dallas Business Journal - STARTUP LIFE: CruiseBe — Link
- SMU & LIFT Team Named One of Eight SemiFinalists For $7M Mobile App Competition — Link
- The City of Allen Selects Scientel Solutions to Deploy Smart City Network Platform — Link
- TI introduces single-chip buck-boost battery charge controllers enabling USB Type-C™ and USB Power Delivery support — Link
- BodyWorn™ Police Body Cameras Backed by Investment from Hicks Holdings — Link
- LaunchDFW - CBRE Report: DFW One of Best for Tech Talent — Link
- UNT Prof’s Laser Tech Licensed by Australian Research Group — Link
- AT&T Innovation Center Creates Data Tech for Red Bull Coolers — Link
- Ask a VC: Event Gives Entrepreneurs Insight into Getting Noticed by Funders — Link
- Blockchain & IoT: Oaken Innovations Carves Niche in Cryptocurrency — Link
- Allen Taps Scientel Solutions for Smart City Network — Link
- Target, KaBOOM! Challenge Offers $720K for City Redevelopment Designs — Link
- Dallas Team 1 of 8 Moving on in Literacy XPRIZE Contest — Link
- Texas A&M Law School Introduces Incubator Program — Link
- New Plano Company Will Focus on Drone Repair — Link
- Meet the Dallas Mobile Studio Behind Your Favorite Apps — Link
- AmplifAI Focuses AI Tech on Improved Performance, Morale — Link
- Deep Space Ventures Closes Two $500K Investments — Link
- With Telemed Law in Effect, Plano Firm Launches 3-D Telepresence Doctor Visits — Link
- Airport of the Future: Dallas Design Firm Envisions Airports as ‘Microcosms of Cities’ — Link
- DeSoto Woman Wins 7-Eleven Store in Franchise Contest — Link
- Is Lack of Access to Capital a Myth? — Link
- Dallas Innovates

- Mistbox Kickstarter Campaign Exceeds Goal By Nearly 200k — Link
- StationHouston’s Meghan Zarate - NASA Looking to Kickstarter to Restore the JSC’s Historic Mission Control — Link
- Houston Press’ Dianna Wray - A look at the state of Houston hospitals — Link
- KPRC’s Haley Hernandez - Iron Yard, Coding School With Three Texas Campuses, Shuts Down — Link
- New Frontier: Space Center Crowdfunds for Mission Control Facelift — Link
- Xconomy’s Angela Shah - Black Walnut Café Redesign Study by Principle — Link
- Cord cutters get another option as YouTube TV expands to Houston — Link
- Culture Map’s Clifford Pugh - Baker Institute expert: Growing interest among states to tax remote online sales — Link
- Rice University News’ Jeff Falk - Stephen King — GrowthForce.com — Link — Link
- HighDrive.tv - The $10K Quadruple Impact Challenge — Link
- The balancing act of being both a clinician and entrepreneur — Link
- TMC Blog - See Houston’s top SBA lenders and recipients so far this year — Link
- Corporate America is sitting on trillions in cash. Here are the public companies with the most liquidity in Houston, nationwide — Link
- Deal of the Week: Crown Castle’s latest multibillion-dollar acquisition will double its fiber footprint — Link
- Academy lays off 100 people from Katy corporate office — Link
- Memorial Hermann exec leaving to lead health care organization in Austin — Link
- Fortune 500 co. sells Houston health tech co. following revenue slide — Link
- Houston’s second-largest public company names new CEO — Link
- Les Alexander to sell Houston Rockets — Link
- Houston Business Journal - Making room for makers — Link
- Angel investing isn’t for the faint of heart — Link
- Texas job growth picks up the pace — Link
- Three ways of looking at gender inequality at work — Link
- The podcast learning curve — Link
- Webster company’s air lock passes training exercise at Johnson Space Center — Link
- App will help Houstonians maintain their lawns — Link
- Spike TV’s ‘Bar Rescue’ hosting workshop in Houston — Link
- The Houston Chronicle’s Andrea Rumbaugh and Lydia DePillis

- Finding the right advice — A Smart Bear’s Jason Cohen — Link
- How Gwyneth Paltrow helped this startup founder develop an app with 20,000 downloads in its first week [Austin’s Olivia.ai] — Money-ish’s Katerina Ang — Link
- How to Build an Entrepreneurial Community — Jeff Harbach interviews Brad Feld — Link
- 15+ Ways a Venture Capitalist Says “No” — Robbie Allen — Link
- The company isn’t a family — 37 Signal’s DHH — Link
- Target CEO says Latinos are shopping less, weighs in on Amazon-Whole Foods deal — StarTribune’s Kavita Kumar — Link
- How A Business Improvement District Helps — The Washington Post’s Roger K. Lewis — Link
- Pittsburgh Gets a Tech Makeover — New York Times Steven Kurutz — Link
- Back to the future: The first steps in establishing the Irish biotech cluster — Link [Hat Tip: Dr. Martin Lindenberg]
- The 1776 Travel Experience Incubator Challenge — Link
- Finding (then meeting) Angels for your startup — Daniel Adler-Golden — Link
- The Quickest Way To Estimate How Much Your Startup Needs To Raise — Tomasz Tunguz — Link
- The Decline Of Investment In San Francisco Startups — Tomasz Tunguz — Link
- Silicon Valley tech firms power job growth in the hinterlands — Venture Beat’s Blaise Zerega — Link
- How To Create The Future — TechStars Alex Iskold — Link
- Building Organizational Culture in Your Startup — Techstars Alex Krause — Link
- Geektime reveals: Israeli startups prefer growing to selling — Link [Hat Tip: Chris Valentine]
- Look out, Bay Area: Seattle rises to 2nd best tech city in the U.S., passing Washington D.C. [Austin #8 , Dallas/Ft. Worth #10] — Geekwire’s Nat Levy — Link
- The Pop-Up Employer: Build a Team, Do the Job, Say Goodbye — The New York Times — Link
- What are the 10 key things that make a city smart? — Totem’s Brian Lakamp — Link
- Should You Launch a Startup Right Now? New Study Says Yes — Founder, Entrepreneur’s Handbook Dave Schools — Link
- Abuses Hide in the Silence of Nondisparagement Agreements — New York Times Katie Benner — Link
- What it costs to run an independent video game store — Polygon — Link
- Underrepresented Entrepreneurs Will Succeed Without Silicon Valley Venture Capital — Wayne Sutton — Link
- 99 Problems but a Pitch Ain’t One — Jennifer Ding — Link
- 10 Amazing AI Startups You Won’t Find in Silicon Valley — General partner, Valor Ventures Lisa Calhoun — Link
- Move to California if you can — Blossom Street Capital’s Sammy Abdullah — Link


Tech Events Network Feeds: Austin | Dallas | Houston | San Antonio
Creative Clinic with Grace Rodriguez, CXO of Station Houston
Wed, July 26, 2017
4:00 PM — 5:30 PM CDT
Station Houston
1301 Fannin Street #2440
Houston, TX 77002
REGISTER
Podcasting + Radio
Austin Media Tech
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 5:00 PM
Austin American-Statesman
305 South Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78704
SpringBox & BigCommerce present If You Build It, They Won’t Come.
Our panel of digital leaders will talk through best practices and proven strategies to help your customers find (and buy from) you.
July 25 | 6–9 PM
Capital Factory
701 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701
REGISTER
Bunker Labs Austin | #BunkerBrewsATX
July Happy Hour Meetup
Thursday, July 27, 2017
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (CDT)
Cuveé Coffee
2000 E 6th St
Austin, TX 78702
REGISTER
REVTECH Happy Hour
August 3rd
5:00 PM — 6:00 PM CDT
REVTECH
8144 Walnut Hill Ln Suite 310
Dallas, TX 75231
REGISTER
EdSurge Tech Leaders Circle: Houston, TX
EdSurge, in collaboration with the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, is traveling around the country learn the best practices from school-based education leaders.
Mon, August 7, 2017
6:30 PM — 8:30 PM CDT
Headquarters
3302 Canal Street
Houston, TX 77003
REGISTER
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Special thanks to Keith Dudley of BrandNew Marketing for design support
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