Austinpreneur

How do we flip the script and help women and people of color visualize themselves as entrepreneurs? This is one of the challenges that Elisa Sepulveda is working on at the Riveter. During Austin Startup Week 2019, we met with Elisa to chat about her experience with the Riveter, Mentorship, and the passion that drives her to team up with startups. She shared that, "Getting the opportunity to represent a brand that showcases what I believe in was an incredible opportunity that I couldn't pass up."

Human movement is very complex. From hand gestures to the subtle twitch of an eye, movement can say a lot. That's why Mohamed Elwazer, CEO and Founder of linedanceAI, is building a platform for AI to interpret all of the complicated movements of American Sign Language. For AI, Interpreting ASL is one of the most challenging applications to map because of the subtle gestures and positioning of one's body are very important."We're not talking about simple gestures such as: hey, left, right, forward, backward. We're talking about complicated movements that could form a real sentence in American Sign Language."

Tune in to hear from Brance Hudzietz as when he stopped by the Capital Factory Dallas office to learn how Mohamed and linedanceAI are pushing the boundaries of AI recognition and what we can look forward to in the future. 

Ever wonder what the true customer value is for big companies like Amazon? Listening to customer feedback. Jeff Bezos once said that “[Amazon] spends so much time up front, that by the time we get to the backend, we really know what the customer wants.” Sandy Carter, Vice President of Amazon Web Services, stopped by the podcast to chat about innovation, supporting startups, and why working backward from the customer is so effective. The way innovation works at Amazon is not your average process:

1. Amazon starts by writing a press release that is driven by research.
2. Next, they create an FAQ that answers a few questions including what the design is and how it will be disruptive.
3. And then you finally design the UX.

And the very last thing is to be bold and ask for help.

Just like entrepreneurs creating a startup, Peter Newell is addicted to solving problems. “When I got into a room with a bunch of startup folks and I had a problem it was like throwing fresh meat to a piranha.” A retired Army Colonel and former director of the Army's Rapid Equipping Force (REF), Pete is an accomplished entrepreneur and CEO of BMNT who is using the problem-curation skills developed from his time as with the REF to help government agencies and other large organizations adapt and evolve at startup speed. “The impetus was to create a company that would be the connective tissue that would translate things between the government, startup world, investors and others so that we can create these opportunities to actually help men and women at the edge of the battlefield.”

    So you want to run for office and have no idea where to start? Much like hundreds of fellow Americans, you’re not alone. For people considering public office, it’s extremely hard to figure out where to start, what forms to fill out, and all the other steps that follow. According to Jeremy Smith, it doesn’t need to be that way.

    Civitech is building a platform that connects marketing and communication tools to perform strategic functions of a campaign all on one platform. Not only does it allow you to run a successful and well-organized campaign, but it also allows you to effectively communicate with the people you are trying to serve.

    Listen to this latest episode of Austinpreneur to figure out how you can use Civitech.io for your next political campaign

    Is there a more confusing pair of words than Blockchain and Cryptocurrency? Most likely, but when it comes to this pair of words, it’s easy to get lost and confused in the ever-complex world of token economics. For some, investing in Crypto just comes naturally, and that's exactly the case for Tushar Jain. Originally the co-founder of a Health Tech company, Tushar found his true calling by becoming the Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital, a cryptofund that leverages venture capital economics in the public market.

    Founded in 2017, Multicoin Capital quickly earned a reputation for being the pioneers in crypto and token economics. Tushar joined us on the podcast to talk about how to convey information and to get the right people to notice you.

    So you have an idea to build something but no idea where to start. In come’s Patchr to help you take your idea into design concept all the way to manufacturing with a simple and intuitive platform that CEO & Founder Eric Schneider says “it just works.” PCBs software hasn’t been updated or innovated upon since its initial release in the 80s. Eric is a passionate creative that has spent years designing and developing hardware for various companies with only a week's notice.

    Eric stopped by the podcast and talked to us about building a company that puts its community first and how having a hacker ethos will drive change and tech growth in the future. “If you’re not building a community, you’re not going to succeed.”

Finding a great startup can be tricky. A lot of times, it’s like Neo finding the Matrix — you know it when you see it.
Sure, every investor or mentor has questions they want to see great answers for.
But a lot of times, it's about the X-Factor. It’s about finding that one startup with that something special you can't really put your finger on.
Since they’ve been evaluating companies for over ten years now, I wanted to sit down with Sam Decker and Bryan Menell, Co-Founders of Capital Factory, to try to identify what exactly is that special something.
So, in this episode of the Austinpreneur podcast, they shared what they’ve learned over the past ten years about what makes a startup truly great.

Entrepreneurs are often curious as to how investors evaluate deals. If that’s you, you’re in luck because on this episode of the Austinpreneur podcast, we’re giving you an inside look at that process.

On this show, Josh interviewed Roger Chen, Principal at Silverton Partners. Roger discussed how he evaluates deals and even walked us through a specific example of a deal they recently decided to fund.

2 things that make Austin a great city for entrepreneurs:
Talent from UT and that it’s not Silicon Valley.
By its nature, Austin is both full of talent because of UT and other regional institutions and a place where tech is not the only economic engine.

The entrepreneurs have firsthand experience with the industries they’re trying to disrupt.
On this episode of Austinpreneur, I spoke with Kathryn Weinmann an investor at Norwest Venture Partners.
Her company is a multi-stage investment firm that for more than 50 years has funded over 550 companies, managing about $6B in capital.

With their many years of experience, Kathryn broke down the 4 qualities they look for in a pitch, and the first one is huge.