Austinpreneur

Will Edwards leads a hybrid rocket engine design and manufacturing company called Firehawk Aerospace. Firehawk is improving the way we develop engines for rocket propelled systems. As a Forbes 30 Under 30, Will collaborates daily with entrepreneurs, investors, and engineers, who are passionate about making space safer, affordable, and more accessible. In this episode we discuss motivating employees, working with the department of defense and building a rocket company across Texas.About Firehawk:Designs and manufactures safe, reliable, and cost effective high performance rocket engines.$21M+ raised in venture capital with investors including Raytheon, Draper Associates, Stellar Ventures, Victorum Capital and Capital Factory.Funded directly by U.S. Congress via Presidential Budget

Chuck Gordon, CEO of Storable, shares his story moving to Austin for Capital Factory, raising ~$50M in venture capital before selling his company in private equity buyout deals twice. Chuck, and his co-founder Mario Feghali, have remained the top executives at Storable through the entire journey. As one of the first five startups to join Capital Factory, Storable (fmr SpareFoot) is at the tip of the spear of the latest generation of Austin tech startups. This episode was hosted by Nick Spiller and edited by Aaron Handwerker.

Our guest for this episode is Yousef Kassim, CEO & Founder of Easy Expunctions, who an attorney creating justice through technology. By organizing and normalizing thousands of criminal history databases, Easy Expunctions is building a platform to help individuals pursue expunctions on their record without an attorney. Tune in as we cover the following topics:Yousef's inspiration for Easy Expunctions that came from doing his own expunctionDisrupting the Legal Industry with TechnologyTapping into Austin as a startup in San AntonioAbout Easy ExpunctionsMakes clearing your arrest record easy and for a fraction of the cost of hiring a lawyer.Processing more expunctions than anyone else in Texas.~$8M in venture funding raisedWinner of Capital Factory's $100,000 San Antonio Investment Challenge in 2018About Capital FactoryPartner to 25+ F500 enterprises on their innovation efforts.Most active seed fund in Texas investing in 1 startup per week.Center of Gravity for Entrepreneurs in Texas with locations across the state.This podcast is produced Capital Factory, hosted by Nick Spiller and edited by Aaron Handwerker.

Gain insights to the entrepreneurial mind of Uri Levine who is Co-Founder of Waze, Moovit and Author of Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution. Uri shares ideas from his new book during our interview at Capital Factory House during SXSW 2023. The conversation ranges from conducting customer discovery to finding product-market-fit and concludes with Uri's fundraising tips. About Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the SolutionA handbook for entrepreneurs written by Uri Levine who is co-founder of two unicorns, Waze and Moovit.Inside look at the creation and sale of Waze and his second unicorn, Moovit, revealing the formula that drove those companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike.Topics include deciding when to sell, going global, making scale-up decisions, reaching product market fit, understanding your user, raising funding, disrupting “broken” markets, firing and hiringAbout Capital FactoryProducer of the Austinpreneur podcast.Partner to 25+ F500 enterprises on their innovation efforts.Most active seed fund in Texas investing in 1 startup per week.Center of Gravity for Entrepreneurs in Texas with locations across the state.This podcast is produced Capital Factory, hosted by Nick Spiller and edited by Aaron Handwerker.

Katherine Allen, CEO & Founder of Flo Recruit, is our guest for this episode of Austinpreneur. We trace Katherine'e startup journey from her first week on campus at The University of Texas. After starting Flo during college at UT Austin, Katherine and her co-founder Atreya went all in on in-person recruiting. COVID struck a couple months later. Listen now to hear how Katherine led Flo through the pandemic to emerge an industry leader in legal recruiting. Austinpreneur is hosted by Nick Spiller and edited by Aaron Handwerker. Sign up for email updates on new shows here.About Flo Recruit:Maker of recruiting management software for law firms.$3.3M raised in venture capital from investors including LiveOak VP, Teamworthy Ventures and Capital Factory. Started while founders were undergraduates at The University of Texas at Austin.About Capital Factory: Center of Gravity for Entrepreneurs in Texas with locations across the state.Most active seed fund in Texas investing in 1 startup per week.Partner to 25+ F500 enterprises on their innovation efforts.Producer of the Austinpreneur podcast.

Jeff Cardenas, CEO of Apptronik, is our guest for this episode about creating the ultimate tool for humans - humanoid robots. We discuss how robots can help humans free their time to do things we'd rather spend our time on. Before discussing Apptronik, we dive into Jeff's entrepreneurial journey. Jeff led an entrepreneurial life up to Apptronik including a previous venture in political technology that went through Capital Factory. Take a listen and get a glimpse into the future where humans and robots work side by side.Austinpreneur is hosted by Nick Spiller and edited by Aaron Handwerker.About Apptronik:Maker of world leading humanoid robot, ApolloPartnered with NASA, U.S. Army, SOCCOM and other DOD agencies fueling development.$25M+ raised in venture capital from Grit Ventures, Capital Factory and recently Terex. Spun out of Human Centered Robotics Lab at The University of Texas. About Capital Factory: Center of Gravity for Entrepreneurs in Texas with locations across the state.Most active seed fund in Texas investing in 1 startup per week. Partner to 25+ F500 enterprises on their innovation efforts.Producer of the Austinpreneur podcast.

Trying to predict the future for any business can be a challenge. Accurate and reliable data is a highly prioritized need for any business in any market. Complete Intelligence was built to provide business with data that is highly accurate and will allow you to build and grow with a glimpse into what the future could be. Tony Nash has built Complete Intelligence to enable revenue teams to better manage their risk.

With multiple days of programming planned at Capital Factory during SXSW, you can imagine the impact on the AFWERX team when the city of Austin understandably canceled large gatherings due to concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19. Despite the sudden setback, the team quickly adapted and got to work on re-imagining Spark Collider into an 8-hour live-streamed event. With the event to begin in 48 hours, the AFWERX team with support from Capital Factory staff were able to create an event that attracted 5,000 virtual viewers- which was 4x the number of people expected to attend the actual in-person event. Learn how the event all came together from Capital Factory's Senior Programs Manager, Maryann Alspaugh, and AFWERX members Adam Welch and Tony Perez.

From a school project to a full-fledged business, Pandata Tech is making sure that the data you capture is processed and validated in mere minutes. Co-founder Jessica Reitmeieter has built a business that improves your companies data capture in real-time and reduces the overall false positives or negatives that other management systems struggle with. Jessica walked us through her entrepreneurial journey from Canada, her college co-op, to the creation of Pandata Tech.

Sebastian Long has heard so many horror stories from friends over the years when using Airbnb, VRBO, and other vacation rental apps. Born and bred into the hospitality business, Sebastian has had years of training and experience to build Lodgeur into the ultimate vacation rental for frequent travelers. Lodgeur offers stylish and comfortable rentals for travelers that feel like home. If it's for a long or short stay, Lodgeur is introducing a new type of experience.

Founded on the vision of shaping the future of computing, David Zakariaie and his team at Senseye are building the way humans and computers interact with each other. Founded in 2015, Senseye provides products that connect the user to the tech and future-proofs your business in order to keep your assets safe and secure. David sat down with Gordon Daugherty, President of Capital Factory, to chat about the cutting-edge tech Senseye is working on and they're unique sensory interface technology that is directly linked to the brain from a computer via the eye.

Bad things happen every day. A lot of the times you hear different things in the news but they don't really capture the full effect of everything going on. In the first few months of 2020, there has been increased violent behavior on college campuses. Pocket punch is looking to make a change with a four-in-one self-defense device. Founded by five female college students at the University of Texas at Austin, Sydney Marvin and Ashley Raymond chatted with Nick Spiller about the story behind Pocket Punch and how they are empowering individuals to be in charge of their own safety.

Going to the gym can be intimidating and stressful. What if you could get the same workout at home or at your office that fits right into your schedule? Kanthaka is a marketplace for personal trainers where you can schedule highly vetted personal trainers for whenever you want to sneak in that daily workout. Sylvia Kampshoff started Kanthaka 2 years ago in Houston and is now nationwide with over 15 cities and more to come! Sylvia sees the future of Kanthaka to be the go-to, accessible app for anyone wanting to live a healthy and fit life.

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. On January 29th, Capital Factory official announced that it has merged with Station Houston and will be the first member of The Ion with Rice University and Houston Exponential! Gordon Daugherty traveled to Houston to chat with Gabi Rowe, Executive Director and CEO of The Ion to talk about what the merger means for the Houston Startup Ecosystem and a preview of what's to come with the Ion's new building.

Whether you're starting a business or looking for your next project, having a mentor is extremely important. Having a person that can tell you the hard truths and tell you when you're wrong about something can help you grow both professionally and personally. Maia Donohue, author of The Startup Mentor, sat down with Gordon Daugherty to talk about her new book, the relationship between a mentor and mentee, and personal experiences with mentorship.

In the early 2000s, Justin Siegel and his best friend didn't want to work for other people anymore and saw an opportunity for making mobile games. Fast-forward 20 years, Justin is now the co-owner of NRG Esports— a massive global esports organization with teams in Call of Duty and Overwatch that include investors such as Jennifer Lopez, Shaquille O'Neal, and Michael Strahan. Find out how Justin went from creating mobile games to earn some extra cash to helping run one of the most popular esports organizations in the world.

Finding a good mentor can be difficult and it's easy to fall into the trap of only talking about fundraising. Flip Kromer is a seasoned entrepreneur and mentor that has been in the Austin startup ecosystem for a long time. Flip built InfoChimp, a pioneer in the Big Data startup space that was later sold to CSC. Flip stopped by for a quick chat and broke down the common mistakes that he sees as a mentor, repeatable teachings that can elevate your next mentoring session, and his new startup Tooksome.

Learning a new skill to start a new career path can seem terrifying, especially when its to get into coding. Finding a class that fits your busy schedule can also seem impossible. Austin Coding Academy combines flexibility and affordability for anyone looking to change their life with coding. CEO of Austin Coding Academy Chris Lofton told us that "ACA is really about hope. It's about the hope that you're not stuck in the situation you're in that if you work hard, you can change your life and we're looking for people who have this desire and drive and can hold themselves accountable to the homework schedule and do all the work we ask them to do." Chris sat down with us and talked about how coding talent in Austin is some of the best in the world and why big businesses want to come here.

In 2012, there was a huge momentum of fitness wearables overtaking the market. The gamification of fitness became a popular new craze and competition between people. Today, 82% of U.S. adults own a wearable or health app, but less than .01% of brands or organizations have connected to these devices. This is where Patrick Hitchins and his team at FitRankings come in— they have created a universal fitness platform for wearables and apps, with enterprise software tools, support, and security built-in. FitRankings mission is to allow any organization to quickly and effectively connect to wearables/apps, and allow individuals to do more with their fitness data. Tune into this episode with Pat and learn all about how you can get your event connected with FitRankings!

Founded over 20 years ago by a student in Russia uploading guitar chords and tabs for his favorite band, Ultimate Guitar has now grown to become the largest collection of more than 2 million musical sheets that have been contributed by the musicians all around the world. Michael Trutnev broke down how the guitarist community is alive and rocking, and how a simple morning meeting routine built a strong company culture.

With 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, Bjorn Billhardt has learned that leadership means something completely different from one industry to another. Bjorn is the CEO and Founder of Abilitie, a Leadership Development Simulation program trains professionals and university students into the next corporate leaders. Bjorn and his team are working to teach situational leadership and helping people learn to adapt to problems in a way that may not fit their industry.

To a major corporate company, a few thousand dollars from tax savings doesn't seem like much. To a startup, however, it's substantial. Taxes can seem like a grueling amount of work when you're trying to run a company, but don't let it weigh you down. Ari Palmer has developed TaxTaker, a full-service specialty tax credit platform for accounting professionals and startup companies!

On May 9th of 2012, President Barack Obama visited Capital Factory. Go behind-the-scenes with Bill Boebel, Alex Smith, Sarah Cox, Jessica Stewart, and Joshua Baer as they think back to the iconic moment that President Obama stopped by the office, the time and preparation that went into securing the building, and the moment when they got to meet the 44th President of the United States.

The SXSW Startup Crawl is just around the corner! Before that happens, learn about how it all got started with Allyson Weber and John Rodriguez as they explain all the craziness that took place to make one of the best kick-off events to the biggest tech startup event in Austin. Don't forget to sign up for this year's SXSW Startup Crawl on Friday, March 13th! Grab a group of friends and tour the latest and greatest of Austin's startup community.

Teaching your kids a second language can at times seem impossible. You lose your child’s attention fairly quickly when they don’t understand the words you’re saying. Leslie and Mark Begert have seemingly cracked the code on teaching a language and weaving in a compelling story to keep kids hooked. Leslie and Mark are the Co-Founders of FabuLingua, a language learning platform for kids ages 2 - 10 that utilizes a unique method designed to subconsciously develop a child’s comprehension and reading skills.

Owning a dog that has never been trained before can be stressful. Figuring out which trainer is better can be even harder! OneMind Dogs is an online subscription-based training platform created from the dogs' point of view. Simple, quick, and effective, CEO Noora Keskievari wants to help owners help their dogs! OneMind Dogs doesn't just want to sell you a product, they want you to help change the world, one dog at a time.

He was a Research Astrophysicist for NASA, Nuclear Physicist for the Department of Energy, and Director of Data Science for Rosetta Stone. Now, Charlie Burgoyne is the Founder and CEO of Valkyrie, a company dedicated to using their cutting-edge technology to help clients overcome challenges, invest in startups, develop products, and even create a Formula 4 racing team. Sean Duffy sat down with Charlie to chat about the company's philosophy and why a data-science company got involved in racing.

Using a combination of Artificial Intelligence and object and behavior detection, Athena Security is on a mission to stop crime. Lisa Falzone, CEO and Founder of Athena Security, has developed a system that detects over 900 types of weapons. Within 3 seconds, it notifies the user and allows them to contact law enforcement quicker and more efficiently. Lisa mentioned that "the way to think about [Athena Security] is if you look at fire alarms... people really don't die from fires anymore... so the way to think about us is like a gun alarm... and our goal is to be the gun alarm and really stop all this gun violence that has been happening."

When you think of audio-content, you probably think of a few companies: Apple Podcasts, Audible, and Spotify. You’ve probably never heard of Beek.io but they are creating the largest audio site for the Spanish speaking market. Producing over 50 original audio content pieces per month and 2M monthly visits, Beek is building what Pamela Valdes likes to call “the Netflix for Audio.” Beek’s co-founder and CEO, Pamela Valdes chatted with Joshua Baer about her success, Y Combinator, and her journey from book reviews to creating compelling content.

Protecting sensitive user data seems to be a recurring issue in the 21st century. With the rise of the digital age, it can be hard for businesses to build and maintain trust with clients and partners. Karyl Fowler, Founder and CEO of Transmute, is building a scalable decentralized identity tool that allows businesses to manage millions of people’s identities, all while minimizing the risk of processing sensitive data. Transmute is helping businesses protect their data and create "Collaboration without Compromise."

Two of the hardest things to teach anyone is how to lead and how to be a leader. One of the main points is that leaders act, and they know what to do, but most of all they track their data and they measure it against their goals the whole way. That’s why brothers, Daniel and David Morgan wrote the book Chasing the White Rabbit: Discovering Leadership in the 21st Century. Daniel stated that “no matter where you’re learning your lessons, you have to go from a vision and a mission and very key points of what you would call intent… and then you give that to your organization to be able to execute… But you have to figure out how to pull them all within that vision.”

When people think of gaming, they think of sitting on a couch or in a chair, in front of a screen and not being very active. With the rise of virtual and augmented reality, the future of gaming is no longer stationary— it's interactive and physically challenging. The team at Juuk are making robots that interact with you and augmented reality that plays with you so you never have to play alone. Stephen Dodds, CEO of Juuk, stopped by the podcast and talked about how “Juuk’s entire mission is for you to get off the couch and be the hero in the game.”

Never in a million years did Zach Walker think he would be sitting on a podcast talking about the intersection of commercial tech and national security. Zach is a decorated Veteran with years of experience working for the National Security Agency, U.S. Air Force, and is now the Texas Lead for the Defense Innovation Unit.

Emerging from stealth less than a month ago, long-time entrepreneurs Abe Usher and Al Di Leonardo are already making waves in the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning space. Black Cape is working to use powerful bleeding-edge tech to help the U.S. Government both harness and make sense of their data. Listen in to learn how Abe and Al met, what it was like working on their first few companies, and how they got the idea to start Black Cape

Innovating in a large company can be overwhelming and sometimes move at a slow pace. In order to be at the cutting edge of tech and innovate on a global scale, Booz Allen Hamilton is using Innovation centers (or iHubs) throughout the country that are “centers of innovation where [Booz Allen Hamilton] looks at leading-edge technologies, what's going on in that ecosystem… and how we develop partnerships.” Dee Dee Helfenstein is the Executive Vice President in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Strategic Innovation Group, and she sat down with us to talk about fast-paced innovation and how to work with startups.

When it comes to retirement, most people don’t have nearly enough money saved. On top of that, the majority don’t have any money saved for the long term. Rocket Dollar is giving you back control of your finance to allow you to plan for the future. We sat down with co-founder and VP of Marketing Thomas Young to learn how and why he started Rocket Dollar, and how people can build their perfect portfolio.

Cannabis might not be legal in all 50 states, but that doesn’t stop young and determined entrepreneurs like Farhaj Mayan from creating a successful business. As Co-founder and CEO of Kanna, Farhaj is creating a marketplace for legal cannabis businesses for hiring, while at the same time making sure the workers have a safe working environment. Listen in as Farhaj talks about his journey from starting a haircutting company to how he got involved in the growing industry of CannaBusiness

Simply put, buying a home that is exactly what you want is stressful and tough, but what if it didn't have to be so hard? MyHouseby is redesigning the way home buyers can design and personalize their dream home by creating the process modern and simple. Gregg Alvarez, Co-founder and CEO of MyHouseby, sat down with us to chat about how his team is using emerging technologies tools to enhance the home-buying process.

Podcasting is not new but it has exploded in popularity over the past few years. With hundreds of shows being published every day, the data behind podcasting is becoming a void that is difficult to navigate. Backtracks CEO Jonathan Gill is making it easier for podcasts to be discoverable, measurable, and monetizable, all by giving podcasters insightful data and allowing them to make informed decisions. Listen in as Jonathan talks about how he turned a music-focused company to podcasting and how to be a successful podcaster.

When you ask people what superpower they would want, many will answer with: the ability to fly. We’re far from developing superpowers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a personal flying experience. Matt Chasen believes in a future where everyone has the ability to fly, and he's building that future today with LIFT Aircraft. He shared, “I think flying is one of humanity's most enduring aspirations. I truly believe that everyone, at some point, wishes they could fly, and not on a commercial airliner. I mean hop in a single-seat aircraft and take off vertically, hover, and fly around.”

Austin is becoming a hotbed for innovative technologies, which includes the emerging utilization of drones. From recreational usage to package delivery, drones are becoming increasingly involved in our daily lives. We sat down with industry expert Colin Guinn from Guinn Partners to talk about why Austin is becoming a hot spot for drone technology. Before starting his own consulting firm for technology products, Colin was the CEO and driving force behind DJI Innovations headquarters in Austin.

When asked what his business’ headline was, Co-founder and Managing Director of Moonshots Capital, Kelly Perdew had the perfect answer, “investing in extraordinary leadership.” No stranger to hard work and what extraordinary leadership looks like, Kelly Perdew is a military Veteran, successful entrepreneur, author, and winner of season 2 of NBC’s The Apprentice. Kelly sat down with us during Capital Factory’s annual Veterans in Tech Summit to talk about his career, what he sees as good leadership, and how he is helping other military veteran entrepreneurs.

In the new digital age, it seems nearly impossible to successfully bring a product to market. “Back in the day, we’d watch commercials but now we're not a spoon-fed audience. We like to interact with our content.” Amber Allen, the CEO and Founder of Double A Labs, came by the podcast to chat about creating massive, large scale experiences where audiences and fans can create their own content, share and be their own celebrity, and provide a way for the digital audience to participate. She stated, “It’s no longer about the thousands of people [at the arena]... it's about the million that will watch it.”

“I think we're getting to an interesting inflection point, with many different fields of technology, where we’re able to take disparate pieces that are mature enough for us to reasonably combine and make really impactful things.” That’s Abe Carryl, Booz Allen Hamilton’s Product Strategist, who focuses his time on rapid prototyping and product development. Abe stopped by the studio during Austin Startup Week to chat about his endeavors with Booz Allen Hamilton, working with startups, and cutting edge tech that's currently being built.

Yes, she’s a brand new entrepreneur and yes, she's brand new to the tech scene, but that doesn’t stop Abigail Rose from owning it and running a successful business. Abigail is the Co-founder & CEO of Blended Sense, a team of creatives who saw a disconnect between two industries that needed to be in sync. Abigail and her team at Blended Sense are working to enable the local small business owners to create engaging digital content by giving them access to creative freelancers in their local community. Listen in to the latest episode of Austinpreneur to find out how your business can work with an incredible team of creatives!

If companies want to grow and evolve, they need to think about what lies ahead in the future. Ari Popper is taking that one step further with SciFutures by tapping into the insights that Sci-fi authors have to envision what the future of a company looks like. “The problem is, when you're dealing with these nascent emergent technologies, that we don’t even know how to talk about them yet; we don’t have the right language to describe them. So, how can you build a disruptive solution when you can't even agree on what to call it? Science Fiction does that very well from what we’ve seen...sci-fi paved the way.”

It’s no secret that less than 10% of venture capital investing for tech startups are women investors, and only one-fifth of all U.S. VC investments go to startups where at least one founder is female. For Sara Brand, her career has “...been very technical in lots of roles and industries where [she has] often been the only woman.” Receiving both her Master’s and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley, Sara is no stranger to male-dominated fields. From founding (512) brewing company to starting her own VC firm, Sara is working to help other female founders and business leaders to take back control of male-dominated industries.

With the rise of video game streaming platforms like Twitch and Mixer, the way people discover games has changed drastically and is now driven by individual creators and streamers. However, there are 2 major problems that Chrono.GG Co-Founder and CEO Justin Sacks sees: “There’s no attribution for the game publishers... and the actual content creators themselves don’t get any recognition or monetization for making all of that discovery.” Justin has been in the gaming industry for 13 years and is using his experience to both solve the discovery issue in gaming and connect game publishers directly to content creators.

If you haven’t noticed the amount of traffic happening, there are hundreds of people flocking to Austin every day. It’s not just people, big companies are coming here as well to tap into the talented ecosystem that Austin has to offer. “Austin I think is an incredible community. We came here because we saw a lot of innovation happening in Austin, a lot of great companies coming out of Austin, and we said you know let's try to get to know that local community... I think it’s one of the most vibrant communities in the world for entrepreneurs, for innovation, for technology. There’s something of a magic, a secret sauce of Austin.”

His background involves creating video games, space travel, global exploration, and collecting unusual things. Known online as Lord British of the Ultima Series, Richard Garriott has seen and experienced a lot in his extraordinary career. “Gaming over the last few decades has gone from non-existent to larger in the economic and social impact of all movies combined, all tv combined, and all print combined... It really is a dominant big business.” Richard stopped by the podcast and chatted with us about his long and historied gaming career and his love for space with Fred Schmidt, Capital Factory’s Director of International Affairs.

If you missed out on this year's Women in Tech Summit at Austin Startup Week 2019, don’t worry because we have you covered! Vanessa Liu was able to sit down with us after her keynote speech to talk about how to break down borders with innovation and the 5 lessons she learned while being an entrepreneur:1. Know your strengths2. Map your interests to your strengths3. Shape your success4. Ask for help5. CollaborateFun Fact: Vanessa’s mom created Lizzo’s Bedazzled Tequila bottle