Funding of the Venture Labs Investment Competition offers a variety of benefits and opportunities. Join us in launching the world’s next generation of entrepreneurs. See Become a VLIC Sponsor for more information.
Partners
The Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship supports academic research, teaching and programs related to new venture development. It brings together financial resources, leading entrepreneurs, students and faculty from multiple disciplines and multiple colleges and universities to develop and communicate new knowledge about entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial processes. As new technologies are created, the center seeks to support research and teaching that concentrates on commercialization of new products. Visit us at www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Centers/Kelleher-Center.aspx.
The IC² Institute is an international, transdisciplinary “Think and Do” tank devoted to solving unstructured problems to accelerate wealth and job creation and shared prosperity at home and abroad. As a research unit at The University of Texas at Austin, IC² is focused on knowledge exploration, dissemination, and application, across a broad range of academic and applied areas. IC²’s vision is a quest for constructive forms of capitalism that allow communities to prosper. Visit www.ic2.utexas.edu.
The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is the world’s largest exchange company. It delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services across six continents, with approximately 3,600 listed companies. NASDAQ OMX offers multiple capital raising solutions to companies around the globe, including its U.S. listings market, NASDAQ OMX Nordic, NASDAQ OMX Baltic, NASDAQ OMX First North and the U.S. 144A sector. The company offers trading across multiple asset classes including equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange-traded funds. NASDAQ OMX technology supports the operations of over 70 exchanges, clearing organizations and central securities depositories in more than 50 countries. NASDAQ OMX Nordic and NASDAQ OMX Baltic are not legal entities but describe the common offering from NASDAQ OMX exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Iceland, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. For more information, visit www.nasdaqomx.com. Please follow NASDAQ OMX on Facebook and Twitter.
Sponsors
The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) is a nonprofit technology business accelerator that harnesses local business, government and academic resources to provide strategic counsel, operational guidance and infrastructure support to early stage ventures in order to accelerate their transition into successful technology based businesses. ATI companies have raised more than $700 million in capital, generated more than $1.5 billion in revenue and created more than 10,000 jobs. ATI is a key program of the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. Visit www.ati.utexas.edu.
Austin Ventures (AV) has worked with talented entrepreneurs to build valuable companies for over 25 years. With $3.9 billion under management, AV is the most active venture capital and growth equity firm in Texas and one of the most established in the nation. With an investment focus on business services and supply chain, financial services, new media, Internet and information services, software and Texas special situations, AV invests at all stages of company development from $100,000 in “planned experiments” in early stage ideas to $100+ million investments in expansion rounds, minority recapitalizations and buyouts of lower middle market growth companies. AV’s strategy is to partner with talented executives and entrepreneurs through its CEO-in-Residence and Entrepreneur-in-Residence programs. Visit www.austinventures.com for more information.
Through three major business units – Corporate Banking, Retail Banking and Wealth Management – BBVA Compass offers innovative and industry-leading products and services with a focus on providing customers with financial solutions to fit their lives. As the 15th largest U.S. commercial bank based on deposit market share, BBVA Compass is Sunbelt-based and operates 724 branches in seven states including 387 branches in Texas. For more information, visit www.bbvacompass.com.
G-51 is a premier, seed-stage Entrepreneurs’ venture capital firm that specializes in creating high value for our portfolio companies and delivering top returns to our investors. Geographically centered in Texas, G-51 invests nationally in the software, hardware, internet and cleantech sectors. For more information, go to www.g51.com.
Inc.’s mission is to help people who are on the entrepreneurial journey by providing inspiring stories; benchmarking data; peer-to-peer advice; and educational resources on essential topics for today’s business owners. The magazine prides itself on bringing sophistication and a depth of experience to the subject matter, and enjoys celebrating the men and women who have the drive, intelligence, and creativity to take an idea and turn it into a new business. Visit www.inc.com.
International Bank of Commerce (IBC Bank) is a member of International Bancshares Corporation (NASDAQ:IBOC), an $11.9 billion multi-bank financial holding company headquartered in Laredo, Texas. IBC’s “We Do More” philosophy guides the bank’s commitment to doing more for its customers and the communities where it operates locations. IBC has more than 280 facilities and 440 ATMs in more than 107 communities throughout Texas and Oklahoma. See www.ibc.com.
Gust provides the global platform for the sourcing and management of early-stage investments. Gust enables skilled entrepreneurs to collaborate with the smartest investors by virtually supporting all aspects of the investment relationship, from initial pitch to successful exit. Gust is endorsed by the world's leading business angel and venture capital associations, and powers over 750 investment organizations in 65 countries. More than 125,000 start-ups have already used the platform to connect and collaborate with over 35,000 individual accredited investors. The company was founded in 2004 under the name Angelsoft and is privately held. Gust is based in New York, New York, with a development center in Vancouver, British Columbia, and European office in Paris, France. Visit www.gust.com.
Left Hand Design (LHD) is a design and branding agency located in Austin, Texas. Since 2004, LHD has helped shape the image to some of Austin’s largest and most profitable companies through logo identity, advertising, web and multimedia outlets. New business ventures aren’t a stranger to LHD either, helping well over 40 companies big and small find their legs through graphic design challenges and marketing strategies. For more information on LHD or project inquiries, visit www.lefthd.com.
E. Craig Nemec Achievement Challenges
In memory of E. Craig Nemec (1965-2007)
A graduate of Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas, Craig Nemec began his entrepreneurial pursuits in earnest while completing his business degree at UT. What began with the purchase of small rental properties near the UT campus grew over the next 25 years into the commercial real estate firm, Pearson Group Capital Management, Inc., owners and operators of both office and industrial properties. His love of business and real estate was boundless. Craig shared his enthusiasm by coaching, mentoring and encouraging others to achieve their dreams. The family of Craig Nemec created the E. Craig Nemec Achievement Challenge awards in memory of Craig to help future entrepreneurs carry on Craig’s legacy of hard work and success.
Founded in Austin, TX, OnRamp Access has been providing all of the services necessary to build, deploy and manage Internet Operations since its inception in 1994. Today, OnRamp is still the only Data Center in Austin and Central Texas to provide a single source for all of the services and complementary resources necessary to fully integrate your Internet Operations. Because OnRamp’s enterprise team is experienced at application development, software/hardware configuration and system management, customers depend upon OnRamp’s broad set of services and 24/7/365 hands-on support to supplement their abilities in order to reliably deploy every layer of their Internet Operations. See www.onr.com for more information.
Palo Alto Software, Inc. develops and markets tools, products and content for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Flagship product Business Plan Pro is the best-selling business-planning software in the U.S. retail market, according to NPD Intelect. Sales and Marketing Pro joins the Palo Alto Software catalog as its newest software offering. Their combined product line along with Bplans.com, the highest trafficked business planning web site, offers know-how solutions that have made Palo Alto Software the market leader in its category. Palo Alto Software was founded in 1983 and is a privately-owned corporation based in Eugene, Oregon. For more information, including the full catalog of Palo Alto Software products, visit www.paloalto.com .
Prime IX Investments
Prime IX Investments has a broad portfolio of investments. One area of focus is education and specifically education that furthers teaching entrepreneurship. Prime IX Investments has an interest in Grand Canyon University (www.gcu.edu) now publicly traded under LOPE which has the School of Entrepreneurship, LA College International (www.lac.edu) that has an emphasis on Entrepreneurship and Chancellor University (www.chancelloru.com), a 160 year old business College, along with investments in Collegedegrees.com and MyEdu.com.
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. As an information partner, ProQuest’s entrepreneurship solutions connect people and information. ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment. To discover more, start here: www.proquest.com/go/yourpath.
Ron Kessler founded the RonKesslerGroup (RKG) to address executive leadership opportunities and threatening enterprise needs while constructing long-term solutions that create and enhance the sustainable value of people, teams and organizations. RKG offers high impact executive and leadership coaching, entrepreneurial mentoring, alliance building and strategic partnering. RKG offers consulting in the areas of regional economic development collaborations and university-centered economic development. RKG has a coaching alliance with WorldClassCoaches whose President is Johnnie Johnson, former UT All American. See www.ronkesslergroup.com.
For more than 120 years, Thompson & Knight LLP has consistently made a positive impact on its clients’ successes. The Firm offers extensive resources to companies, government entities, and individuals in connection with corporate and securities, litigation, employment, tax and insolvency issues, both domestically and internationally. The Firm’s Austin office is staffed to handle a large range of corporate and securities, litigation, employment, and administrative projects. The Firm has approximately 420 attorneys, with offices and alliances in North America (including two offices in Mexico), South America, Europe and Africa. For more information, please visit www.tklaw.com.
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com and wachovia.com), and other distribution channels across North America and internationally. With approximately 275,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in America. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 23 on Fortune’s 2011 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.
Team Hosts
Austin Technology Council
DLA Piper
Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce
Origin Partners
Silicon Valley Bank
TeXchange