CTAN Archives - Tech Ranch Austin

by Riki Markowitz

On Friday, July 25, members of Tech Ranch Austin, along with Tech Ranch Venture Forth™ alumni, are hosting a full-day networking event and speaker series.

Featured Roundup Speakers

Brent Elyea, Executive Director of Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN)

“Don’t Put Your Foot in Your Mouth in Front of CTAN”

Brent Elyea will provide guidance on how entrepreneurs should behave and what they can expect when attempting to attract investors. He will discuss ways to identifying and avoid specific pitfalls you’re likely to encounter in the investor community.

Under Elyea’s leadership, CTAN is reaching out to investor and entrepreneur communities and building a network of mentors to help expand the organization’s outreach programs.

Brent joined CTAN after completing graduate school and a 10-year stint as a U.S. Marine Corps officer.

Brian Massey, Conversion Scientist

“Writing About Your Business: Getting Past the Bouncers in our Brains”

Your tagline. Your value proposition. Your website copy. These are the things that will turn fickle online visitors into qualified prospects…if you get it right. Unfortunately, our brain has two huge bouncers standing guard and blocking the millions the external messages that bombard us each day. The only way to appeal to qualified prospects is by getting past the proverbial “mind bouncers.” Only then will get a chance to make your case. But if you get stuck on the sidewalk, you’ll remain part of the noise.

Brian will introduce you to the “bouncers that stand guard for your brain.” He’ll teach you how to create copy that gets those bouncers to let your message in. His presentation includes authentic market research examples and content strategies that work.

Networking Event

Following the speaker series, Tech Ranch will celebrate the latest Venture Forth™ graduation class — Cohort #24. All Venture Forth™ alumni are encouraged to attend this popular event. You will have a chance to catch up with Tech Ranch program alumni, including graduates from Venture Forth™ Cohorts #1 though #23. We expect no less than 50 Ranch members, friends, and local entrepreneurs to attend the day-long event.

Venture Forth™ Alumni Reunion

Many Venture Forth™ alumni have launched successful businesses – some still early-stage and starting to gain traction in their domain. Some VF grads have already received funding and are well on their way towards success. This quarterly event is a great opportunity for sponsors to meet, provide support, and build long-term relationships with startup businesses – specifically young ventures looking for investors and growth and scalability mentors.

Event Schedule

The Quarterly Alumni Roundup runs from 8:30 am to 6 pm. Here is a breakdown of the day’s schedule and registration details:

8:30 – 9:00: Breakfast and networking*
9:00 – 10:30: Brent Elyea,”Don’t Put Your Foot in Your Mouth in Front of CTAN”
10:30 – 12:00: Session B
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 3:00 Venture Forth™ Cohort #24 pitch-slam and graduation
3:30 – 6:30 Tech Ranch Campfire*

Location

Quarterly Alumni Roundup – Speaker Series, Lunch, Networking, Startup Graduation
Tech Ranch Austin
Friday, July 25, 8:30 am to 3:00 pm (CDT)
Austin, TX

About Tech Ranch Austin

Get more information about Tech Ranch Austin and our programming, including Venture Forth™, Venture Start™, and Venture Builder™.

*No sign-up required
*Separate sign-up required

David Johnston is in the process of securing the $500,000 he needs to take his startup into beta.

Engine is one of four companies selected to pitch before the full membership of the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) this Thursday, November 29th. After presenting as one of the top 20, then again as one of the top 10, this is the ﬁnal step before due diligence and term sheet negotiation.

Overwhelmed by your email? Engine connects your different data sources (email, social media, and documents) to show you contextually relevant information, so you can answer questions faster and with less stress. “Just like Rapportive provides social intelligence inside your gmail box,” said Johnston, “Engine provides data intelligence to help solve the problem of information overload.”

Now officing at Tech Ranch, David Johnston credits much of Engine’s success to the partners he met here. “Venture Forth allowed us to meet and work with a lot of technical partners that made this project possible.” He cites partnerships with Mike McNeil from Balderdash – who is building Engine’s front end extension on Chrome – and Patrick McGuiness from Elastic Knowledge – who has helped with the data science, machine learning, and the natural language processing used to analyze and parse email text content. McGuiness just signed on as Engine’s new CTO.

“Normally, I have to attend lots of different meetings with people all over the place,” said Johnston. “With Venture Forth, every Tuesday I got a dozen points of feedback on our product, presentation, and business plan. That, plus the input from advisors like Kevin, Shlok, and Eric really helped shape the company.”

Johnston has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade. As a seasoned entrepreneur, he is quick to say that it can be a fairly lonely road. “I’ve never felt more at home with a group of similar entrepreneurs,” he said, “to be able to so quickly bounce ideas and get resources. Venture Forth was refreshing. I really enjoyed the accelerated entrepreneurial process.”

The number one benefit Johnson experienced from Venture Forth, was being able to speed up his alpha launch by three months. Just in time for Startup Bazaar, an event hosted by Tech Ranch during Austin Startup Week – which in 2012 featured an opportunity to pitch to CTAN.

Want to become an Engine Alpha Tester, Developer, or Partner?

Website: www.LDEngine.com
Twitter: @LDEngine
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LDEngine
Email: David.Johnston@LDEngine.com
Create an Alpha Account: https://apps.ldengine.com/
Download the Chrome Extension: http://tinyurl.com/b2bnhve