Tonight I attended a Texas Ventures panel discussion talking about the future of the Texas entrepreneurial economy. It was well attended with more than 100 students and many other members of the entrepreneurial community.
As usual, Austin Ventures was a headline sponsor. As the 800 lb gorilla in town, sometimes they get a bad rap. After all - it would make sense to assume that they have said "No" to a lot more people than they have said "Yes" to. But if you are trying to do something to support entrepreneurs, Austin, or world catastrophes like Haiti, Austin Ventures is the first one to step up and write a check to help out. They have supported projects I care about personally such as Ignite Austin, Capital Factory, and Austin City Limits.
Texas Ventures has gotten more juice in the past few months, bringing on a full time executive director Scott Kammerman. I'm not quite sure what to expect over the next year but I think its got to be a good thing that there is more focus and experience on their team. The University of Texas undergrads and computer science department seems strangely disconnected from the rest of the booming entrepreneurial scene in Austin. I hope Scott and Texas Ventures can help to bridge that gap.
Tom Serres from Piryx talked to the group about the value of mentorship. The panel focused on the future of the entrepreneurial economy in Texas. The panel was not surprisingly bullish. Here are some of my tweets during the panel:
- John Henry McDonald: risk will migrate to the areas with the least government regulation
- Colin Pope: Austin strengths - entrepreneurial spirit, high quality of life, great labor pool, networking & support systems
- Mike Dodd from Austin Ventures: it's a hard time to raise money, but good time to hire employees, get office space, use cloud
You can see pictures from the event here.
Overall I was impressed with the event and hope this is just the start of much more to come from Texas Ventures in 2010. I hope we can find ways for Capital Factory to work more closely with Texas Ventures to bring in speakers, provide mentoring, and connect with student entrepreneurs who might apply for the Capital Factory summer program.
As one of the student start-ups, we were extremely pleased with the overall experience. I read your comment on Wesley's blog and agree that while the panel itself may have been redundant, the opportunity for collaboration and discussion before and after, was wonderful.
Posted by: Ashley Brown | January 22, 2010 at 05:53 PM