Desultory of an Architect - Christian Thilmany's Blog

Want to meet some of the top local Venture Capitalists face to face? What about some of the top Angels in Texas? Need information on how to market yourself both traditionally, virally, or through SEO? Want access to free software for 3 years?

Then join us for SparkStart on June 12th at the Dallas Microsoft Technology Center – www.twitter.com/sparkstart

We will have 6 tracks (3 business, 2 technology, and one demo) on key business topics such as “Funding”, “Marketing”, and “Production”.  Each business track will feature a panel of business experts.  Here is your chance to personally meet panel members from the business community and moderators who are experts in their field, both from the Dallas/Fort Worth area and from all over Texas that include bootstrappers, venture capitalists, angels, incubators, and consulting. 

We will feature technology topics such as “RIA Development”, “Cloud Development”, and provide an opportunity to visit our “Envisioning Center” where we will be demonstrating our web technologies and the Microsoft Surface (http://www.microsoft.com/surface/) throughout the day.  Attendees will literally get to see what our large customer executives see at the Microsoft Technology Center in Dallas in our envisioning room in order to inspire, ideate, and get answers to vital questions. 

We will also have a “sign-up” station for startups who want to sign up for BizSpark and begin immediately receiving the benefits e.g. software, support, and visibility.  (http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark)

Here are some of the folks you will get to meet at the event.

The nexus of Giovanni's online universe can be found at http://gallucci.net. Giovanni is a keynote speaker who presents at national events like ad:tech, FlashForward, Macworld, and Search Engine Watch Live! and has been covered in a variety of media outlets including AdAge, AdWeek, The Dallas Morning News, Fox Business News, The Houston Chronicle, Inc. Magazine, InfoWorld, NBC, The New York Times, The London Telegraph, USA Today, and Wired Magazine among others.

Giovanni provides social media marketing services through Simply Interactive (http://simplyinteractive.net) and other top-tier interactive agencies and public relations firms.

Jeff Brown is Gulf Coast Regional Director for the of Corum Group, a specialist mergers and acquisitions firm for software companies worldwide. He has over 25 years of entrepreneurial and consulting experience building software and services companies. He specializes in strategy, vertical market entrepreneurship and the energy industry.  Jeff is a veteran of three software startups and one turnaround.  He last served as CEO of Severn Trent Worksuite, a FTSE 100 subsidiary, and a leading provider of enterprise workflow management software.  Jeff began his career as a research Geologist at Columbia University and is a published author.  Jeff is also on the advisory boards of several Houston start-up companies. His related volunteer activities include serving as Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum’s New Venture Clinic, an Energy Advisor for the Houston Technology Center and volunteer executive in the Prison Entrepreneurship Program.

Chuck McCoy is Executive Director of the North Texas Angel Network.  Chuck has always been a part of the entrepreneurial community.  His first year of graduate school was financed partly by payments from a retail pottery store he co-founded with a friend and partly by profits from buying classic Ford Mustangs in the Oklahoma countryside and selling them in the city.  Chuck began 25 years in the software business in Arthur Andersen’s Tulsa office.  Eventually, Texas oilman offered Chuck the opportunity to “have your own deal if you will come handle a systems problem for my company”.  During the next seven years Chuck developed and rolled-out 3 software products as an entrepreneur.  The lessons learned about growing a business without a financing or capital appreciation plan serve well to this day. Since 1992 Chuck has worked as an independent product developer, mostly for large companies such as AT&T, E-Systems, MCI, and others.  In time his accounting background, combined with years of face-to-face selling, resulted in being engaged to help grow businesses by M&A transactions or rolling-out new products.  The end of his technical career marked the beginning of his focus on new venture development. Chuck spent a year as Director, Commercialization Programs, at the North Texas RCIC.  This work was at the right time – the Texas Emerging Technology Fund had gotten its legs under it and was funding technology start-ups.  During that year broad conversations decrying the poor state of organized angel investing groups in the North Texas area repeatedly occurred.  He founded the North Texas Angel Network (NTAN) at the beginning of 2008.  NTAN focuses on fast, well coached companies for the benefit of investors, entrepreneurs, and the community.

Alex Muse is The Texas Startup Blog has been published by Alexander Muse since 2005. With more than 2000 articles on startups, entrepreneurship and venture capital; the blog has garnered international attention with more than 70,000 monthly readers around the globe. The Texas Startup Blog is part of the SpringStage Startup Community.   Alexander is a serial entrepreneur with more than a decade of startup experience.  Alexander’s day job is with Big in Japan, where his team builds cool applications for mobile devices, including ShopSavvy built for Google’s open source Android platform. In 2007 he sold Fancast to Comcast Interactive and is an active investor and contributor in several companies including SpringStage, Architel, ServiceGuy and WhiteBox. Previously, he was founder and CEO of LayerOne, a venture capital-backed telecommunications infrastructure company he started in the late 1990’s. Alexander has been involved in several organizations including the Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas (EFNT), the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO), the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), IEEE, The Open Management Consortium, DFW Entrepreneur Network, OnStartups, Start-Up Phase Forum and Startup Ventures Links.

Blake Burris is an entrepreneur and is the founder of Corazón Labs, a social applications company which builds social applications for self-improvement, competition and fun. Their first product, Challenge, was profiled at Facebook f8 08 in San Francisco.  He is also the founder of CoHabitat, the Dallas coworking community for developers, creatives and entrepreneurs.  Their collaborative office space is a 100-year old house located in the State-Thomas neighborhood. 

Sean Jackson is the CEO of Lead Maverick - developers of content optimization tools for search marketing. Often referred to as the "Geek that Speaks," Sean has a true passion for technology and how it is applied to the needs of marketing. Starting in the early days of the web, Sean has built more than 50 eBusiness applications for Fortune 1000 companies, founded and sold two technology companies, and is an active member of the Dallas business community, which includes leadership positions with DFW Search Engine Marketing, Dallas Round Table, the Dallas Ad League, and member of Colonial Country Club. Lead Maverick is also a member of SEMPO and the Better Business Bureau.

Bridgette Penel is co-founder and investor, is currently Managing Director and President of the new venture capital firm, Zikyn, Inc., with the head-quartered office located in Houston, Texas.  In addition, she has worked with executives in PMO strategies and development and has championed business analysis and technology projects with major corporations, such as Memorial Hermann, Starbucks, Blue Bell, HP, and Shell.  While consulting leadership for innovative solutions to improve business objectives and operations, her primary experience includes development of business strategies based on technology utilizations, information technology management, business development, and operations management.  Ms. Penel currently sits on the board of all Zikyn, Inc. portfolio companies and frequently participates in various venture review panels, as well as extends membership involvement in various business strategy groups.  In addition, she works with forming technology companies in business plan development and strategies.

Kat Rice graduated from the University of North Texas after studying Creative Writing and BioChemistry. She has owned internet-based companies since she was 18 and has 6 years of online marketing experience. She currently owns Veribatim, a web design and consulting company. She is an internet consultant, helping businesses market their companies online through web presence, Search Engine Optimization and other more creative avenues such as Social Media. She has a particular passion for bridging the generation gap between Gen Y and the Baby Boomers and has begun speaking and writing about this subject. Kat and her team have recently begun developing a social media website for nonprofits called GiveCheerfully which she hopes will help charities spread their message online. She also serves on the board of multiple non-profits as a consultant to assist in their online presence including her local political party and CITY House. She is also a member of Nancy Barry’s Gen Y Board. Kat has recently been recognized as a viral marketing specialist after multiple successful grassroots campaigns in 2009.

Caleb Jenkins is a Principal Consultant with Improving Enterprises, National Speaker for INETA, Microsoft MVP, featured presenter for xTrain.com and Adobe.TV, technical editor for Wrox Publishing and certified Scrum Master. Improving Enterprises, Inc (http://ImprovingEnterprises.com) specializes in delivering enterprise solutions, agile methodologies and mentoring on the Microsoft and Java platforms.

Other bios to coming including Maria Smith (North Central Angel Network), Andrew Clark (Houston Angel Network), Marc Nathan (HTC), Yasser Shohoud, David Browne and more …