San Antonio's relatively anemic venture capital pipeline is expected to get a boost soon. Two dozen technology industry mentors and investors are expected to roll into downtown on a chartered bus early next week to mingle with startups seeking capital.
Austin-based Capital Factory, through its investment fund called Capital Factory Partners, carved out a $100,000 convertible note that will go to the South Texas technology startup that wins a pitch competition on April 10. Similarly, Capital Factory set aside $100,000 each for Dallas and Houston earlier this year.
Joshua Baer — founder and executive director of Capital Factory, a co-working space and accelerator in Austin — said the funding is meant to be enough for a team to work full time on building a minimum viable product for about a year.
Meanwhile, the event next week is a less formal networking opportunity and introduction to fundraising. Several events geared toward technology startup entrepreneurs and scheduled on Dec. 12 are in collaboration with Geekdom LC, a co-working space downtown along Houston Street.
The winning startup of the spring competition will get free office space at Geekdom and Capital Factory. The goal is for that startup to raise a bridge round of $500,000 before moving on to venture capital firms. Other perks include access to a mentorship circle of Texas entrepreneurs, legal help from law firm Kastner & Gravelle and free web application hosting.
Baer has previously called for more collaboration among Texas entrepreneurs in general since most companies have offices in multiple cities.
“We need to help talent, startups, mentors, investors and opportunities flow freely between all of the major cities,” Baer wrote in an Aug. 7 blog post.
Here are some executives expected to attend next week:
- Krishna Srinivasan, general partner at LiveOak Venture Partners, an Austin-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on Texas startups. LiveOak invested in San Antonio-based cybersecurity startup Infocyte.
- Craig Cummings, general partner at Moonshots Capital, an Austin-based early-stage technology investment firm. Cummings is a serial entrepreneur and former U.S. Army intelligence officer who served as deputy chief for expeditionary cryptology for the National Security Agency in the late 2000s. Moonshots Capital has invested in Washington, D.C.-based ID.me, a military veteran verification startup that was also invested in by USAA Ventures.
- Michael Girdley, managing partner at Geekdom Fund, a San Antonio-based early-stage venture capital firm.
- Christopher Calicott, managing director at Trammell Venture Partners, a seed-stage venture capital technology startup firm focused on machine intelligence, blockchain and cybersecurity. Trammel Venture Partners has invested in San Francisco-based bitcoin exchange startup Kraken.
- Jason Story, partner at Interlock Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm with co-headquarters in Dallas and New York. Story is also co-founder of Mutual Mobile, a software development agency that builds tools for other businesses. Interlock Partners recently invested in VidMob, a New York-based video production software startup that leverages a crowd of freelancers for mobile video ads on demand.
- Matt McDonnell, managing partner at Austin-based Notely Ventures, a venture capital and private equity firm that invests in socially conscious businesses.