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A Partnership Between

Applications are now closed for the 2022 Pitch Competitions

The Austin Fast Start is a partnership between the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department and the Austin Young Chamber. Austin Fast Start is a reoccurring pitch competition supporting early stage startups in various economic development priorities. Each cycle we will hear from a new industry and award an unrestricted cash prize and other opportunities to identify and support local entrepreneurs as the future business leaders in our community.

 

This year’s topics include CPG (consumer packaged goods), Creatives, and Cleantech.
Join us for the last pitch event:

Austin Fast Start: Cleantech

Monday, September 12 • 4:30-6:30pm • Capital Factory

Free and Open to All



Why Apply? Benefits for Finalists include:

  • Getting your business pitch ready

  • Receive marketing opportunities that promote your business

  • Gain valuable connections & support

  • Hear feedback on your idea

  • Chance to win the Prize Package to launch/grow your business!


Prize Package Snapshot

  • $2,500 Cash Prize

    plus in-kind prizes

  • Three months free rent at Capital Factory

  • Financial and HR Consultation from vcfo

  • One Year Corporate Membership to the Austin Young Chamber

Total package valued at $4,625





The Austin Fast Start is a partnership between the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department and the Austin Young Chamber. Austin Fast Start is a reoccurring pitch competition supporting early stage startups in various economic development priorities. 2022 topics include CPG (May), Creatives (July), and CleanTech (September).

QUALIFICATIONS
Applications for all three categories are currently open. Austin Fast Start applicants must be a for-profit business: (1) headquartered within Austin city limits, (2) in the pre-seed/early revenue stage, and (3) less than two years old.

ABOUT THE CATEGORIES

CPG
Consumer packaged goods (CPG) are items used daily by consumers that require routine replacement or replenishment. Products may be food, beverage, apparel, jewelry, toys, tools, or anything you could imagine being sold at your favorite brick-and-mortar or online retailer.
Creatives
Arts, culture, and creativity are essential elements to Austin’s unique and distinctive identity. Creative businesses include those that are turning their creative talents into successful and sustainable business ventures. This topic encompasses a broad range of creatives in the Austin ecosystem, such as musicians, artists, photographers, and artisans.
Cleantech
Cleantech refers to various companies and technologies that aim to improve environmental sustainability. Clean technology businesses include a broad range of technology related to recycling, renewable energy, information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, grey water, and more.

DEADLINE

    • Applications for CPG closed on Monday, March 28, 2022.
    • Applications for Creatives closed on Monday, June 13, 2022.
    • Applications for Cleantech will close at 11:59pm on Monday, August 15, 2022.

At the close of each cycle, completed applications for that topic will be scored by judges.

SCORING

All applications will be scored by judges from across the community with diverse backgrounds and skills related to startups, business, investments, and each industry.

FINALIST NOTIFICATION

The top scored applications will be selected as Finalists and invited to participate on pitch day.

  • Finalists for CPG will be notified no later than April 11, 2022.
  • Finalists for Creatives will be notified no later than June 27, 2022.
  • Finalists for Cleantech will be notified no later than September 7, 2022.

PITCH DAY

The Finalists will pitch their business* to judges and audience.

  • Finalists for CPG will pitch on May 9, 2022.
  • Finalists for Creatives will pitch on July 18, 2022.
  • Finalists for Cleantech will pitch on September 12, 2022.

PRESENTATION

Each Finalist will have five minutes to pitch the audience on the value of their product or service by either presenting a slide show presentation or giving a live demonstration of the product. Five to eight minutes of questions and answers from the judges and audience will follow.

WINNER

The winner of each Austin Fast Start will be chosen by a combination of judges scores and audience vote.

* Pitch events are currently planned for in-person. Subject to change to virtual based on health and safety guidelines. Pitch dates are subject to change.

Meet the Cleantech Finalists

Barronsol is a solution to help fight against tire waste by creating a biodegradable bicycle tire.

Perivallon Inc. is combining and utilizing new green technologies to accelerate net-negative construction. They are turning trash into sustainable homes and are the manufacturer of these new age homes.

Tubular Network is a robotics automation company aiming to decarbonize the transportation of goods. It will address the logistics inefficiencies and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in industrial domains (e.g. distribution, manufacturing, and warehousing).


Cleantech Judges

Corey Dolina
Vice President, SBA Banker
Regions Bank

Corey Dolina Joined Regions Bank in September of 2021 as the new SBA Banker for the Central Texas division. Corey has worked in banking for 16 years in multiple roles including the last 9 years working in SBA Lending. Corey’s focus and passion is to help small business owners with growing their companies. He specializes in Commercial Real Estate Purchases, Business Acquisitions, Business Expansions, Working Capital, and Franchise Lending.

Erika Haskins
Chief Executive Officer
3DS

Erika Haskins is an educator, community builder, and entrepreneurship enthusiast. She brings 15 years experience coaching entrepreneurs and startup teams, running accelerator programs, and overseeing the successful launch of 65+ education ventures nationally. She currently mentors for Techstars Tulsa, Techstars Atlanta, and volunteers locally with American Youth Works.

Chris Peddie
Partner
4D Capital

Having spent the majority of his professional career in finance & commercial real estate, Chris brings a fresh perspective into the world of venture capital. Chris has a far-reaching experience working with C-Suite and Board Level professionals throughout various enterprises which has helped position their portfolio companies with key introductions and advisory services.

As a founding partner at Fourth Dimension Capital, Chris leverages his years of sales expertise to build and implement sales strategy, processes and teams for early stage companies.

Ezinne Udezue
Chief Product Officer
WP Engine

A multi-disciplined business leader and general manager with a unique balance of creative, technical and management experience. Extensive, hands-on experience in new product development for consumer and platform products. She has created and supported some amazing entrepreneurial / intrapraneurial ventures and built/mentored great teams along the way.

Industries she’s built for /created value in: e-commerce, media, advertising, telecom, messaging. With B2B, B2C and B2B2C solutions.


A Partnership Between


With Support From


The Austin Fast Start Prize Package has been carefully curated to help early stage entrepreneurs launch and grow their business.

Austin Fast Start Winners will receive:
  • The Golden Ticket from Capital Factory
    • 3 months of Capital Factory community membership
    • Access to the Capital Factory Slack with thousands of other entrepreneurs
    • Access to the Capital Factory coworking space and partners across the country
    • Access to book office hours with our mentor network
    • Exclusive invitations to members-only events
  • Financial Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with a highly experienced F&A Consultant who has worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s CFOs often focus on scaling up your business for growth and can answer your questions related to support through periods of growth or restructuring, strategic financial guidance appropriate for your business’ stage and growth plans, creating an optimal capital structure, reorganization or crisis stabilization.
  • HR Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with a highly experienced HR Consultant who has worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s HR team can answer questions regarding all functions of your human resources needs, from employee training and development, policies and procedures, compliance with federal regulations, benefits and compensation and on how to adapt to this new reality of COVID and Post COVID employee relations.
  • Annual Corporate Membership from Austin Young Chamber
    • Access to business and leadership development programs and perks for your team
    • Company logo and link on AYC website
    • Event Sponsorship Credit
    • Job Posting on AYC Website
    • Event Listing on AYC Website
    • New Member Social Spotlight
    • Member-Only Perks

General Info

The Austin Fast Start is a partnership between the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department and the Austin Young Chamber. Austin Fast Start is a reoccurring pitch competition supporting early stage startups in various economic development priorities. 2022 topics include CPG (May), Creatives (July), and CleanTech (September).

QUALIFICATIONS
Applications for all three categories are currently open. Austin Fast Start applicants must be a for-profit business: (1) headquartered within Austin city limits, (2) in the pre-seed/early revenue stage, and (3) less than two years old.

ABOUT THE CATEGORIES

CPG
Consumer packaged goods (CPG) are items used daily by consumers that require routine replacement or replenishment. Products may be food, beverage, apparel, jewelry, toys, tools, or anything you could imagine being sold at your favorite brick-and-mortar or online retailer.
Creatives
Arts, culture, and creativity are essential elements to Austin’s unique and distinctive identity. Creative businesses include those that are turning their creative talents into successful and sustainable business ventures. This topic encompasses a broad range of creatives in the Austin ecosystem, such as musicians, artists, photographers, and artisans.
Cleantech
Cleantech refers to various companies and technologies that aim to improve environmental sustainability. Clean technology businesses include a broad range of technology related to recycling, renewable energy, information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, grey water, and more.

DEADLINE

    • Applications for CPG closed on Monday, March 28, 2022.
    • Applications for Creatives closed on Monday, June 13, 2022.
    • Applications for Cleantech will close at 11:59pm on Monday, August 15, 2022.

At the close of each cycle, completed applications for that topic will be scored by judges.

SCORING

All applications will be scored by judges from across the community with diverse backgrounds and skills related to startups, business, investments, and each industry.

FINALIST NOTIFICATION

The top scored applications will be selected as Finalists and invited to participate on pitch day.

  • Finalists for CPG will be notified no later than April 11, 2022.
  • Finalists for Creatives will be notified no later than June 27, 2022.
  • Finalists for Cleantech will be notified no later than September 7, 2022.

PITCH DAY

The Finalists will pitch their business* to judges and audience.

  • Finalists for CPG will pitch on May 9, 2022.
  • Finalists for Creatives will pitch on July 18, 2022.
  • Finalists for Cleantech will pitch on September 12, 2022.

PRESENTATION

Each Finalist will have five minutes to pitch the audience on the value of their product or service by either presenting a slide show presentation or giving a live demonstration of the product. Five to eight minutes of questions and answers from the judges and audience will follow.

WINNER

The winner of each Austin Fast Start will be chosen by a combination of judges scores and audience vote.

* Pitch events are currently planned for in-person. Subject to change to virtual based on health and safety guidelines. Pitch dates are subject to change.

Cleantech Finalists

Meet the Cleantech Finalists

Barronsol is a solution to help fight against tire waste by creating a biodegradable bicycle tire.

Perivallon Inc. is combining and utilizing new green technologies to accelerate net-negative construction. They are turning trash into sustainable homes and are the manufacturer of these new age homes.

Tubular Network is a robotics automation company aiming to decarbonize the transportation of goods. It will address the logistics inefficiencies and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in industrial domains (e.g. distribution, manufacturing, and warehousing).

Cleantech Judges

Cleantech Judges

Corey Dolina
Vice President, SBA Banker
Regions Bank

Corey Dolina Joined Regions Bank in September of 2021 as the new SBA Banker for the Central Texas division. Corey has worked in banking for 16 years in multiple roles including the last 9 years working in SBA Lending. Corey’s focus and passion is to help small business owners with growing their companies. He specializes in Commercial Real Estate Purchases, Business Acquisitions, Business Expansions, Working Capital, and Franchise Lending.

Erika Haskins
Chief Executive Officer
3DS

Erika Haskins is an educator, community builder, and entrepreneurship enthusiast. She brings 15 years experience coaching entrepreneurs and startup teams, running accelerator programs, and overseeing the successful launch of 65+ education ventures nationally. She currently mentors for Techstars Tulsa, Techstars Atlanta, and volunteers locally with American Youth Works.

Chris Peddie
Partner
4D Capital

Having spent the majority of his professional career in finance & commercial real estate, Chris brings a fresh perspective into the world of venture capital. Chris has a far-reaching experience working with C-Suite and Board Level professionals throughout various enterprises which has helped position their portfolio companies with key introductions and advisory services.

As a founding partner at Fourth Dimension Capital, Chris leverages his years of sales expertise to build and implement sales strategy, processes and teams for early stage companies.

Ezinne Udezue
Chief Product Officer
WP Engine

A multi-disciplined business leader and general manager with a unique balance of creative, technical and management experience. Extensive, hands-on experience in new product development for consumer and platform products. She has created and supported some amazing entrepreneurial / intrapraneurial ventures and built/mentored great teams along the way.

Industries she’s built for /created value in: e-commerce, media, advertising, telecom, messaging. With B2B, B2C and B2B2C solutions.

Partners

A Partnership Between


With Support From

Prize Details

The Austin Fast Start Prize Package has been carefully curated to help early stage entrepreneurs launch and grow their business.

Austin Fast Start Winners will receive:
  • The Golden Ticket from Capital Factory
    • 3 months of Capital Factory community membership
    • Access to the Capital Factory Slack with thousands of other entrepreneurs
    • Access to the Capital Factory coworking space and partners across the country
    • Access to book office hours with our mentor network
    • Exclusive invitations to members-only events
  • Financial Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with a highly experienced F&A Consultant who has worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s CFOs often focus on scaling up your business for growth and can answer your questions related to support through periods of growth or restructuring, strategic financial guidance appropriate for your business’ stage and growth plans, creating an optimal capital structure, reorganization or crisis stabilization.
  • HR Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with a highly experienced HR Consultant who has worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s HR team can answer questions regarding all functions of your human resources needs, from employee training and development, policies and procedures, compliance with federal regulations, benefits and compensation and on how to adapt to this new reality of COVID and Post COVID employee relations.
  • Annual Corporate Membership from Austin Young Chamber
    • Access to business and leadership development programs and perks for your team
    • Company logo and link on AYC website
    • Event Sponsorship Credit
    • Job Posting on AYC Website
    • Event Listing on AYC Website
    • New Member Social Spotlight
    • Member-Only Perks


Previous Fast Start Events



Congratulations the 2022 Austin Fast Start:
Creatives Pitch Winner

G180, LLC

G180, LLC is a swimwear brand built around their core product which is a reinvented personal flotation device. Their goal is to make PFD’s apart of everyday swimwear attire and one day eliminate drowning deaths as a statistic.


How did we define Creatives and Creative businesses?

Arts, culture, and creativity are essential elements to Austin’s unique and distinctive identity. Creative businesses include those that are turning their creative talents into successful and sustainable business ventures. This topic encompasses a broad range of creatives in the Austin ecosystem, such as musicians, artists, photographers, and artisans.

Creatives Finalists

  • G180 LLC


    G180, LLC is a swimwear brand built around their core product which is a reinvented personal flotation device. Their goal is to make PFD’s apart of everyday swimwear attire and one day eliminate drowning deaths as a statistic.

  • LOKA HAUS LLC

    LOKA HAUS LLC designs and produces high-quality, sustainable products with a small-batch, luxury feel. Their mission is to end “fast fashion”, provide luxury goods at an accessible level, and address (and educate consumers on) economic gender inequities, specifically in retail and business.

  • PietschHouse

    PietschHouse produces artist-led showcases promoting local talent in Austin, while building local, eclectic lineups focused on benefitting artists.

  • tourless

    tourless is revolutionizing the way music is shared and discovered by creating a market place where musical artists can purchase “radio” airtime from local businesses (coffee shops, restaurants, etc.).

Creatives Emcee

Summer McAfee
Lead Program Manager
USAA Austin Design Studio

Summer currently is as a lead program manager at the USAA Austin Design Studio with 22 years on the USAA team to include 15 years in various leadership roles. She has been part of the military community her entire life as her Dad served 24 years in the Air Force which sparked her advocacy for military families. She has an MBA in Business Administration/Marketing from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). In 2020 she completed the Nonprofit Leadership certificate from the University of Texas and the certification for the National Diversity Council Certified Diversity Professional (NDCCDP).

Outside of work Summer is passionate about volunteering and community outreach with emphasis on military kids, STEM initiatives and minority youth empowerment programs. Her favorite annual event is the Tragedy Assistance Program For Survivors (TAPS) national good grief camp which provides a safe space for military children to explore grief and embrace healing. She serves on the Community Advisory Council for I Live Here I Give Here and on the Advisory Panel of the Customer Experience Program for the University of Houston. She was awarded the 2020 volunteer of the year by Dress For Success Austin and serves as a mentor for the Path 2 Employment program.

She was a 2021 fellow for the inaugural cohort of the African American Leadership Institute (AALI) and now serves as the co-chair of the AALI Alumni Network. She is a bridge builder of people which she credits to being instrumental to connecting across the Austin community over the past 5 years. She also enjoys earning medals from virtual races, live music, exploring museums and trying new local restaurants/food trucks.

Creatives Judges

Greg Carter
Director of Technology Practice, Slalom Consulting
Member, Black Fret
Startup Advisor

Greg Carter is the Director of the Technology Practice for Slalom Consulting in Austin, TX. He has built a team of talented, enthusiastic consultants who help local businesses and organizations to digitally transform to address the challenges and opportunities presented by Austin’s rapid growth.

Before joining Slalom, Greg was the SVP/GM of Acuity Brands’ Connected Building Software Business. He managed a portfolio of software as a service (SaaS) products focused on using the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve both Building and Business performance.
Prior to Acuity Brands, Greg led a variety of businesses for Cisco, culminating in the IoT Services Group, a global team that developed and delivered IoT solutions for verticals like Utilities, Smart Cities, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Transportation and Healthcare. Greg has twenty years of experience in the technology industry leading software and services teams and was the founding partner in a consulting firm specializing in technology strategy and application development.

Greg started his career and gained his initial experiences in leadership as a United States Naval Officer. He holds a BA from Duke University, as well as BS and MS engineering degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

When he is not leading technology businesses, Greg is actively involved in the community. He advises a number of start-ups, leads the virtual jobs program for Black Fret and plays in a bluegrass band called Grounded and Skirted.

Corey Dolina
Vice President, SBA Banker
Regions Bank

Corey Dolina Joined Regions Bank in September of 2021 as the new SBA Banker for the Central Texas division. Corey has worked in banking for 16 years in multiple roles including the last 9 years working in SBA Lending. Corey’s focus and passion is to help small business owners with growing their companies. He specializes in Commercial Real Estate Purchases, Business Acquisitions, Business Expansions, Working Capital, and Franchise Lending.

Sophia Javaheri
Director of Program Operations
3DS

Sophia Javaheri serves as Director of Program Operations at 3 Day Startup, a local nonprofit in Austin, TX that builds entrepreneurial mindset and skills through experiential learning. Our mission is to create opportunity and build community through entrepreneurship education that is dynamic and inclusive. Prior to 3DS, Sophia received a Masters in Speech-Language Pathology but decided to switch paths and joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas in 2019. Since then, Sophia has become immersed in the world of entrepreneurship as well as the Austin community at large. Sophia is excited to work with community partners here in Austin and around the world to bring top quality programming for young entrepreneurs. In her free time, Sophia enjoys traveling and experimenting with culinary dishes from around the world.

Oji Udezue
Head of Product for Creation & Conversation
Twitter

Oji Udezue is an experienced product leader with stints in marketing, sales, as well as Eng and Design leadership. He has a track record for building customer-centric products and bringing them to market, while managing and mentoring high performance teams.

He is known for bringing product-led growth (PLG) mindset to the companies he joins. He currently leads the Content, Creation and Conversation team @ Twitter – Tweets, DMs, Spaces, the Creators Initiative and more. He was formerly Chief Product Officer at Calendly where he helped 5x the company. Also Head of Product for Atlassian’s Communication division where he led product strategy & execution for Atlassian Stride, launching Atlassian’s first product post-IPO. He has also held product leadership positions at Spiceworks and also at Bridgewater Associates, which he joined after over a decade in product at Microsoft.

In his free time, he mentors startups with a focus on companies with diverse and women founders as well as B2B SaaS. He’s the Managing Partner of the Kernel Fund which invests in startups in Africa and a member of the Board of Directors at Quitch.

The Austin Fast Start Prize Package has been carefully curated to help early stage entrepreneurs launch and grow their business.

Austin Fast Start Winners will receive:
  • The Golden Ticket from Capital Factory
    • 3 months of Capital Factory community membership
    • Access to the Capital Factory Slack with thousands of other entrepreneurs
    • Access to the Capital Factory coworking space and partners across the country
    • Access to book office hours with our mentor network
    • Exclusive invitations to members-only events
  • Financial and HR Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with an HR Consultant and 1 hour consultation with an F&A Consultant, both highly experienced and have worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s HR team can answer questions regarding all functions of your human resources needs, from employee training and development, policies and procedures, compliance with federal regulations, benefits and compensation and on how to adapt to this new reality of COVID and post-COVID employee relations.
      • vcfo’s CFOs often focus on scaling up your business for growth and can answer your questions related to support through periods of growth or restructuring, strategic financial guidance appropriate for your business’ stage and growth plans, creating an optimal capital structure, reorganization or crisis stabilization
  • Annual Corporate Membership from Austin Young Chamber
    • Access to business and leadership development programs and perks for your team
    • Company logo and link on AYC website
    • Event Sponsorship Credit
    • Job Posting on AYC Website
    • Event Listing on AYC Website
    • New Member Social Spotlight
    • Member-Only Perks


Congratulations the 2022 Austin Fast Start:
Consumer Packaged Goods Pitch Winner

Basic B Chai

Basic B Chai is an Austin-based, women-owned beverage company that produces and sells high-quality, small-batch beverages to coffee shops, groceries, and direct to consumers.


Watch the Consumer Packaged Goods Event Recording Here

How did we define Consumer Packaged Goods businesses?

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) are items used daily by consumers that require routine replacement or replenishment. Products may be food, beverage, apparel, jewelry, toys, tools, or anything you could imagine being sold at your favorite brick-and-mortar or online retailer.

Consumer Packaged Goods Finalists

  • Basic B Chai


    Basic B Chai is an Austin-based, women-owned beverage company that produces and sells high-quality, small-batch beverages to coffee shops, groceries, and direct to consumers.

  • Bold Move Beverages

    Bold Move Beverages is an early-stage alcohol brand that combines two of the world’s most beloved drinks, coffee & whiskey, into a ready-to-drink (‘RTD’) cocktail called Cold Brooze®.

  • Fresh Halo

    Fresh Halo provides natural, simple, innovative hat care products. Our first product helps hat owners keep their favorite headwear smelling fresh while controlling moisture and pests. It is the first of many innovative ideas we are working on.

  • Funky Mello

    Funky Mello makes the world’s first and only plant based refrigerated marshmallow cremes in fun flavors. Everything they make is also gluten free, soy & corn free.

CPG Emcee

Katrina Tolentino
Executive Director
Naturally Austin

Facilitating connections and building community is in my DNA. I am an expert at creating opportunities and experiences that foster connective tissue between diverse groups to build stronger ecosystems. Currently, I do that through my work as Executive Director at Naturally Austin, the industry hub for the Central Texas consumer goods community. We are a membership nonprofit organization bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, brands, retailers, and industry experts to make Austin the best place to launch and scale a consumer goods company.

Prior to Naturally Austin, I was the CEO of Catalyst Games, a nonprofit that activated startup communities across the country through gamified philanthropic experiences to unlock resources for nonprofits, as well as operating initiatives like Philanthropitch and building impact real estate at Notley.

CPG Judges

Corey Dolina
Vice President, SBA Banker
Regions Bank

Corey Dolina Joined Regions Bank in September of 2021 as the new SBA Banker for the Central Texas division. Corey has worked in banking for 16 years in multiple roles including the last 9 years working in SBA Lending. Corey’s focus and passion is to help small business owners with growing their companies. He specializes in Commercial Real Estate Purchases, Business Acquisitions, Business Expansions, Working Capital, and Franchise Lending.

Sophia Javaheri
Director of Program Operations
3DS

Sophia Javaheri serves as Director of Program Operations at 3 Day Startup, a local nonprofit in Austin, TX that builds entrepreneurial mindset and skills through experiential learning. Our mission is to create opportunity and build community through entrepreneurship education that is dynamic and inclusive. Prior to 3DS, Sophia received a Masters in Speech-Language Pathology but decided to switch paths and joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas in 2019. Since then, Sophia has become immersed in the world of entrepreneurship as well as the Austin community at large. Sophia is excited to work with community partners here in Austin and around the world to bring top quality programming for young entrepreneurs. In her free time, Sophia enjoys traveling and experimenting with culinary dishes from around the world.

Crystal Royal
Supplier Diversity Manager
H-E-B

Crystal Royal has had a heart for Small Business and Community her entire professional career. Beginning her career in a male dominated industry, construction, she continues to use her talent for process improvement and organizational development to change the narrative regarding Supplier Diversity and Small, Local, Minority Owned Businesses.

As the owner of a small consulting firm, Royal Entertainment and Royal Consulting Firm, she continues to utilize her expertise from working with small business owners to fuel her passion in her current role as Supplier Diversity Manager for H-E-B. Understanding that Small, Local Minority Owned Businesses are the foundation for a strong economy, she continues to seek innovative avenues to increase visibility for these companies, while also educating Small, Local, Minority Business Owners on how to be successful in doing business with large corporations. She is truly a Champion for Small Business.

Ezinne Udezue
Vice President, Product Management
Procore Technologies

A multi-disciplined business leader and general manager with a unique balance of creative, technical and management experience. Extensive, hands-on experience in new product development for consumer and platform products. She has created and supported some amazing entrepreneurial /intrapraneurial ventures and built/mentored great teams along the way.

Industries she’s built for /created value in: e-commerce, media, advertising, telecom, messaging. With B2B, B2C and B2B2C solutions.

The Austin Fast Start Prize Package has been carefully curated to help early stage entrepreneurs launch and grow their business.

Austin Fast Start Winners will receive:
  • The Golden Ticket from Capital Factory
    • 3 months of Capital Factory community membership
    • Access to the Capital Factory Slack with thousands of other entrepreneurs
    • Access to the Capital Factory coworking space and partners across the country
    • Access to book office hours with our mentor network
    • Exclusive invitations to members-only events
  • Financial and HR Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with an HR Consultant and 1 hour consultation with an F&A Consultant, both highly experienced and have worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s HR team can answer questions regarding all functions of your human resources needs, from employee training and development, policies and procedures, compliance with federal regulations, benefits and compensation and on how to adapt to this new reality of COVID and post-COVID employee relations.
      • vcfo’s CFOs often focus on scaling up your business for growth and can answer your questions related to support through periods of growth or restructuring, strategic financial guidance appropriate for your business’ stage and growth plans, creating an optimal capital structure, reorganization or crisis stabilization
  • Annual Corporate Membership from Austin Young Chamber
    • Access to business and leadership development programs and perks for your team
    • Company logo and link on AYC website
    • Event Sponsorship Credit
    • Job Posting on AYC Website
    • Event Listing on AYC Website
    • New Member Social Spotlight
    • Member-Only Perks


Congratulations the 2021 Austin Fast Start:
Creatives Pitch Winner

Unravl Hair

Unravl Hair saves individuals time and money by automating the braid takedown process – a safer, cheaper, and more convenient option.


Watch the Creatives Event Recording Here

How did we define Creative businesses?

Arts, culture, and creativity are essential elements to Austin’s unique and distinctive identity. Creative businesses include those that are turning their creative talents into successful and sustainable business ventures. This topic encompasses a broad range of creatives in the Austin ecosystem, such as musicians, artists, photographers, and artisans.

Creatives Finalists

  • Rough Cut Comedy


    Rough Cut Comedy is the premiere production company for events all over Austin, comedy and non-comedy alike. Rough Cut puts on high quality shows and works with venues all across Austin supporting the local arts scene.

  • Uni Streaming

    Uni Streaming is a streaming platform that showcases only local independent musicians in every region. They will create community & engagement that will build careers around our independent musicians.

  • Unravl Hair

    Unravl Hair saves individuals time and money by automating the braid takedown process – a safer, cheaper, and more convenient option.

  • WorkWear WorkShop

    WorkWear WorkShop repairs, upcycles, and sells clothing that would otherwise go to waste. Their product line focuses on high quality, durable and fashionable items: denim, workwear, and outerwear

Creatives Judges

Greg Carter
Director of Technology Practice, Slalom Consulting
Member, Black Fret
Startup Advisor

Greg Carter is the Director of the Technology Practice for Slalom Consulting in Austin, TX. He has built a team of talented, enthusiastic consultants who help local businesses and organizations to digitally transform to address the challenges and opportunities presented by Austin’s rapid growth.

Before joining Slalom, Greg was the SVP/GM of Acuity Brands’ Connected Building Software Business. He managed a portfolio of software as a service (SaaS) products focused on using the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve both Building and Business performance.
Prior to Acuity Brands, Greg led a variety of businesses for Cisco, culminating in the IoT Services Group, a global team that developed and delivered IoT solutions for verticals like Utilities, Smart Cities, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Transportation and Healthcare. Greg has twenty years of experience in the technology industry leading software and services teams and was the founding partner in a consulting firm specializing in technology strategy and application development.

Greg started his career and gained his initial experiences in leadership as a United States Naval Officer. He holds a BA from Duke University, as well as BS and MS engineering degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

When he is not leading technology businesses, Greg is actively involved in the community. He advises a number of start-ups, leads the virtual jobs program for Black Fret and plays in a bluegrass band called Grounded and Skirted.

Sophia Javaheri
Programs & Volunteer Manager
3DS

Sophia Javaheri serves as Programs and Volunteer Manager at 3 Day Startup, a local nonprofit in Austin, TX that builds entrepreneurial mindset and skills through experiential learning. Our mission is to create opportunity and build community through entrepreneurship education that is dynamic and inclusive. Prior to 3DS, Sophia received a Masters in Speech-Language Pathology but decided to switch paths and joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas in 2019. Since then, Sophia has become immersed in the world of entrepreneurship as well as the Austin community at large. Sophia is excited to work with community partners here in Austin and around the world to bring top quality programming for young entrepreneurs. In her free time, Sophia enjoys traveling and experimenting with culinary dishes from around the world.

Fabi Hubschmid
Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder
Markaaz

Fabi Hubschmid is Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Markaaz, the world’s first global platform to verify and connect every small business on the planet and the network of partners that support them. Hubschmid is an entrepreneur with global experience in the platform, construction, and smart cities industry with a track record of leading global and complex transformations across private and public sectors.

Prior to co-founding Markaaz, Hubschmid was Strategic Development Officer for AXA Global Enterprise & Partnerships, Founder & CEO of the Enix Advisory, Tutor for the ‘Beyond Smart City’ course of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a member of PwC’s Global Smart Cities Team. Under the leadership of Hubschmid, the Markaaz team is developing the next generation of tools and resources for small businesses. Hubschmid is focused on creating positive and sustainable impact for small business owners. Fabi is a member of the WEF Global Innovator and Global Shapers and the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC).

Adi Pavlović
Entrepreneur in Residence
Moderne Ventures

Adi Pavlović is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Moderne Ventures, an early stage venture firm focused on proptech, fintech, and insuretech companies. He provides strategy and advisory services to the technology companies in Moderne’s portfolio as well as companies enrolled in the Moderne Passport accelerator program. Prior to joining Moderne, Adi served as the Director of Innovation at Keller Williams, the largest residential brokerage brand in the real estate industry. At KW his primary focus was pivoting the organization into a technology company and developing it’s proprietary Keller Cloud solution. Adi is a University of Texas alumni and has lived in Austin, TX for over 15 years.

Creatives Emcee

Ashland Viscosi
Founder
Creatives Meet Business (CMB)

Ashland is the founder of Creatives Meet Business (CMB), an event and podcast series based in Austin, Texas that helps creatives, and anyone wanting to make a living as a maker, learn how to become sustainable in their artistic craft. To further support the creative community, Ashland produced CMBXP, an annual three-day conference featuring over 50 hands-on workshops in business, skills development, marketing, storytelling, and mentorship.
Before founding both CMB and CMBXP and dedicating her time to community building and transformative educational events, Ashland worked in film and production. At the same time, she honed her fundraising, marketing, and event production skills during her years at an arts-based non-profit. She also LOVES helping out with events around town, most notably she’s been the Sponsor Relations Coordinator with the ATX Television Festival for eight years (and counting) and moderates at the Austin Film Festival. She also really loves cheese plates.

For many years, Ashland’s philosophy has been “stay here, make here;” creating programming and community-oriented activities to support the creative community. The pandemic wasn’t kind to live events and Ashland did some soul searching to see how to continue with her mission. Leaving CMB and CMBXP in hibernation, Ashland decided to focus on the “stay here” aspect of her mission and join Axia Home Loans as the Business Growth and Strategic Planning Project Manager. She is deeply passionate about creating generational wealth and continuing to aid the community she cares so deeply about.

The Austin Fast Start Prize Package has been carefully curated to help early stage entrepreneurs launch and grow their business.

Austin Fast Start Winners will receive:
  • The Golden Ticket from Capital Factory
    • 3 months of Capital Factory community membership
    • Access to the Capital Factory Slack with thousands of other entrepreneurs
    • Access to the Capital Factory coworking space and partners across the country
    • Access to book office hours with our mentor network
    • Exclusive invitations to members-only events
  • Three Month Cohort Experience with The Un.Inc
    • Free 3-month Un.Inc Cohort Program
    • Access to 3 months of live and on-demand mentor-driven sessions on Un.Inc Campus
    • 3 day passes to Createscape coworking
    • An Un.Inc journal with curriculum and prompts
    • Redeemable for 2021 cohorts with completed application and acceptance into a quarterly cohort
  • Financial or HR Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with your choice of an HR or F&A Consultant, both highly experienced and have worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s HR team can answer questions regarding all functions of your human resources needs, from employee training and development, policies and procedures, compliance with federal regulations, benefits and compensation and on how to adapt to this new reality of COVID and post-COVID employee relations.
      • vcfo’s CFOs often focus on scaling up your business for growth and can answer your questions related to support through periods of growth or restructuring, strategic financial guidance appropriate for your business’ stage and growth plans, creating an optimal capital structure, reorganization or crisis stabilization
  • Global Roundup Ticket from 3 Day Startup
    • Connect with 3 Day Startup’s powerful global network – meet powerful entrepreneurs
    • Launch your startup – ideal for pre-investment startup founders
    • Define your skills as you enter the workforce
    • Details: July 9-11, 2021, Virtual + In-Person, Networking, Keynotes, Fireside chats, Sessions and more.
  • Startup Marketing Package from Honeycomb
    • Brand audit
    • 1 hour consultation
    • Personalized recommendations
  • Annual Corporate Membership from Austin Young Chamber
    • Access to business and leadership development programs and perks for your team
    • Company logo and link on AYC website
    • Event Sponsorship Credit
    • Job Posting on AYC Website
    • Event Listing on AYC Website
    • New Member Social Spotlight
    • Member-Only Perks


Congratulations the Austin Fast Start:
Social Impact Pitch Winner

Clusiv

Clusiv is the world’s first and only e-learning platform made for and by the blind and visually impaired. Clusiv is also the first user experience ever designed for screen reader users and the full spectrum of visual impairments.


Watch the Social Impact Event Recording Here

How did we define Social Impact businesses?

Many businesses are taking on society’s most challenging problems as an integral part of why and how they do business. This cycle’s priority of Social Impact businesses included those that are harnessing the power of business by using profits and growth as a means to a greater end – positive impact for their employees, our communities, and the environment.

Social Impact Finalists

  • Common Cents for Kids


    Common Cents For Kids offers the first kid’s subscription service designed to make learning about personal finance fun and interactive! Each month, subscribers receive access to online, interactive games hosted by CC the Coin and his Finance Farm Friends.

  • Highnote

    Built by and for healthcare providers, the Highnote platform enables providers to find answers, share knowledge and gain social support in a diverse community to inform better care and enable real-time public health surveillance from the front lines.

  • Clusiv

    Clusiv is the world’s first and only e-learning platform made for and by the blind and visually impaired. Clusiv is also the first user experience ever designed for screen reader users and the full spectrum of visual impairments.

  • Throw-A-Weigh

    Throw-A-Weigh is founded by women passionate about bridging sustainability and science to help grocery stores reduce their food waste. As measurement is the key to management and improvement, Throw-A-Weigh empowers grocers with capable technology and actionable insights to meet their information needs and reduce food waste.

Social Impact Judges

Sophia Javaheri
Programs & Volunteer Manager
3DS

Sophia Javaheri serves as Programs and Volunteer Manager at 3 Day Startup, a local nonprofit in Austin, TX that builds entrepreneurial mindset and skills through experiential learning. Our mission is to create opportunity and build community through entrepreneurship education that is dynamic and inclusive. Prior to 3DS, Sophia received a Masters in Speech-Language Pathology but decided to switch paths and joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas in 2019. Since then, Sophia has become immersed in the world of entrepreneurship as well as the Austin community at large. Sophia is excited to work with community partners here in Austin and around the world to bring top quality programming for young entrepreneurs. In her free time, Sophia enjoys traveling and experimenting with culinary dishes from around the world.

SJ Kelly
Senior Product Manager
Aunt Bertha

Product Leader with experience both launching products from 0 to 1 as well as significantly growing core revenue offerings. I enjoy mentoring and training up folks to successfully move fast and have impact through quantitate analysis to understand how to have the greatest impact.

Ezinne Udezue
Vice President, Product Management
Procore Technologies

A multi-disciplined business leader and general manager with a unique balance of creative, technical and management experience. Extensive, hands-on experience in new product development for consumer and platform products. She has created and supported some amazing entrepreneurial /intrapraneurial ventures and built/mentored great teams along the way.

Industries she’s built for /created value in: e-commerce, media, advertising, telecom, messaging. With B2B, B2C and B2B2C solutions.

Anthony Walker
Principal
NextCoast Ventures

Anthony Walker is currently a Principal at Next Coast Ventures, an Austin based Venture Capital firm. Prior to joining Next Coast, Anthony was Vice President, Global Investment Research at Goldman Sach. In 2019, he co-founded Ellisen Inc., a startup focused on helping institutions of higher education better recruit and retain diverse talent. Before joining Goldman, Anthony spent approximately 5 years managing long-short equity portfolios at Millennium Management and Citadel LLC, two of the largest asset management funds in the United States. He has also worked in long-only asset management and from 2012 to 2015 was a Vice President and member of the Investment Committee at Chicago based Ariel Investments, where he was responsible for covering the energy and industrial services sectors. Anthony began his career in sell-side equity research and spent five years at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers covering the Oil Service and Drilling space. Anthony earned his BA from Columbia University (NY) where he double concentrated in economics and political science and received his MBA from the University of Chicago.

Social Impact Emcee

Leigh Edwards
Senior Vice President of Business Development
Embark

Leigh is a CPA and UT Austin Accounting grad. She began her career in the Austin office of Deloitte. After her time in audit, she spent 5 years leading accounting teams at various Austin companies. Those combined experiences brought her to Embark, a financial advisory firm where she leads Business Development for the Austin office. Turns out she likes talking about accounting more than doing it! So much so that in the Spring of 2020, she took on a second job teaching Intro Accounting at McCombs. Hook ‘Em!

The Austin Fast Start Prize Package has been carefully curated to help early stage entrepreneurs launch and grow their business.

Austin Fast Start Winners will receive:
  • The Golden Ticket from Capital Factory
    • 3 months of Capital Factory community membership
    • Access to the Capital Factory Slack with thousands of other entrepreneurs
    • Access to the Capital Factory coworking space and partners across the country
    • Access to book office hours with our mentor network
    • Exclusive invitations to members-only events
  • Three Month Cohort Experience with The Un.Inc
    • Free 3-month Un.Inc Cohort Program
    • Access to 3 months of live and on-demand mentor-driven sessions on Un.Inc Campus
    • 3 day passes to Createscape coworking
    • An Un.Inc journal with curriculum and prompts
    • Redeemable for 2021 cohorts with completed application and acceptance into a quarterly cohort
  • Financial or HR Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with your choice of an HR or F&A Consultant, both highly experienced and have worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s HR team can answer questions regarding all functions of your human resources needs, from employee training and development, policies and procedures, compliance with federal regulations, benefits and compensation and on how to adapt to this new reality of COVID and post-COVID employee relations.
      • vcfo’s CFOs often focus on scaling up your business for growth and can answer your questions related to support through periods of growth or restructuring, strategic financial guidance appropriate for your business’ stage and growth plans, creating an optimal capital structure, reorganization or crisis stabilization
  • Global Roundup Ticket from 3 Day Startup
    • Connect with 3 Day Startup’s powerful global network – meet powerful entrepreneurs
    • Launch your startup – ideal for pre-investment startup founders
    • Define your skills as you enter the workforce
    • Details: July 9-11, 2021, Virtual + In-Person, Networking, Keynotes, Fireside chats, Sessions and more.
  • Startup Marketing Package from Honeycomb
    • Brand audit
    • 1 hour consultation
    • Personalized recommendations
  • Annual Corporate Membership from Austin Young Chamber
    • Access to business and leadership development programs and perks for your team
    • Company logo and link on AYC website
    • Event Sponsorship Credit
    • Job Posting on AYC Website
    • Event Listing on AYC Website
    • New Member Social Spotlight
    • Member-Only Perks


Congratulations the Austin Fast Start:
Health & Wellness Pitch Winner

Gardenio

Gardenio is on a mission to empower a generation of lifelong food growers with a new kind of garden club membership. They send you everything you need to grow your own organic food at home – including live plants – with an app and community to help you as you grow. They’re reconnecting people to their food, their neighbors, and themselves.


Watch the Health & Wellness Event Recording Here

How did we define Health & Wellness businesses?

Proactively creating solutions that result in optimal physical, mental, and behavioral health are vital to creating healthy individuals, families, and communities. And in the wake of the pandemic, we have learned just how important it is to take care of ourselves and each other. Health & Wellness businesses include those that are addressing key health challenges with innovative approaches to help people live healthy lives, physically and mentally.

Health & Wellness Finalists

  • Gardenio


    Gardenio is on a mission to empower a generation of lifelong food growers with a new kind of garden club membership. They send you everything you need to grow your own organic food at home – including live plants – with an app and community to help you as you grow. They’re reconnecting people to their food, their neighbors, and themselves.

  • Primal

    Primal seeks to provide solutions for the modern world that are compatible with natural human physiology. Their first product, the Primal Hadza, is a chair that allows users to sit comfortably in the most natural human resting positions – squatting and kneeling – based on insights from the recent USC “Inactivity Mismatch Hypothesis” study by Dr. Raichlen.

  • WeStrive

    WeStrive is building the operating system for all health & wellness professionals. They currently work with personal trainers and allow them to build custom fitness programs, handle billing, manage client progress, and much more.

  • Wholistic Village Market

    Wholistic Village Market will be a mobile app, providing an online marketplace for local grocery distribution direct to consumers, by delivering to areas of mass gathering. Even though they will be outsourcing the delivery portion to start, it will still be one delivery to many, instead of one to one. Targeted areas will be where individuals work, live & gym.

Health & Wellness Judges

Matt Carroll
Vice President of Marketing
Everlywell

Matt has been working in direct-to-consumer marketing for over a decade, and quite likes it. He loves helping innovative companies that add value to the world grow really quickly and intelligently.

NickChaginNick Chagin
Director of International Partnerships
3DS

Nick has developed hundreds of entrepreneurs through his work as a Program Manager and Facilitator with 3 Day Startup, an Austin-based nonprofit that runs immersive entrepreneurship programs for students and community members at 150 institutions in 35 countries. His founder experience spans from HydroDontist–a medtech venture that graduated from the nationally-ranked The Brandery accelerator–to music video production and digital strategy companies. He holds a BA from Miami University of Ohio.

Tina Dai
Principal
Silverton Partners

Tina is a Principal at Silverton Partners, the longest running and most active early-stage VC in Texas. In her role, she collaborates with founders to help shrink the distance between the drawing board and realizing their vision. Prior to Silverton, Tina worked in venture at First Round Capital, product at Intuit, and strategy at McKinsey & Company. Tina also cares deeply about elevating female investors and founders – she is the National Co-Lead for AllRaise’s Principal Cohort program to accelerate women’s careers in venture capital, is a founding member of the Beam Angel Network, and helps make angel investing more accessible with The Council. She also serve on the board of Jusoor, a nonprofit investing in educational programs for Syrian youth.

Anthony Walker
Principal
NextCoast Ventures

Anthony Walker is currently a Principal at Next Coast Ventures, an Austin based Venture Capital firm. Prior to joining Next Coast, Anthony was Vice President, Global Investment Research at Goldman Sach. In 2019, he co-founded Ellisen Inc., a startup focused on helping institutions of higher education better recruit and retain diverse talent. Before joining Goldman, Anthony spent approximately 5 years managing long-short equity portfolios at Millennium Management and Citadel LLC, two of the largest asset management funds in the United States. He has also worked in long-only asset management and from 2012 to 2015 was a Vice President and member of the Investment Committee at Chicago based Ariel Investments, where he was responsible for covering the energy and industrial services sectors. Anthony began his career in sell-side equity research and spent five years at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers covering the Oil Service and Drilling space. Anthony earned his BA from Columbia University (NY) where he double concentrated in economics and political science and received his MBA from the University of Chicago.

The Austin Fast Start Prize Package has been carefully curated to help early stage entrepreneurs launch and grow their business.

Austin Fast Start Winners will receive:
  • The Golden Ticket from Capital Factory
    • 3 months of Capital Factory community membership
    • Access to the Capital Factory Slack with thousands of other entrepreneurs
    • Access to the Capital Factory coworking space and partners across the country
    • Access to book office hours with our mentor network
    • Exclusive invitations to members-only events
  • Three Month Cohort Experience with The Un.Inc
    • Free 3-month Un.Inc Cohort Program
    • Access to 3 months of live and on-demand mentor-driven sessions on Un.Inc Campus
    • 3 day passes to Createscape coworking
    • An Un.Inc journal with curriculum and prompts
    • Redeemable for 2021 cohorts with completed application and acceptance into a quarterly cohort
  • Financial or HR Consultation from vcfo
    • 1 hour consultation with your choice of an HR or F&A Consultant, both highly experienced and have worked with companies of all sizes and stages
      • vcfo’s HR team can answer questions regarding all functions of your human resources needs, from employee training and development, policies and procedures, compliance with federal regulations, benefits and compensation and on how to adapt to this new reality of COVID and post-COVID employee relations.
      • vcfo’s CFOs often focus on scaling up your business for growth and can answer your questions related to support through periods of growth or restructuring, strategic financial guidance appropriate for your business’ stage and growth plans, creating an optimal capital structure, reorganization or crisis stabilization
  • Global Roundup Ticket from 3 Day Startup
    • Connect with 3 Day Startup’s powerful global network – meet powerful entrepreneurs
    • Launch your startup – ideal for pre-investment startup founders
    • Define your skills as you enter the workforce
    • Details: July 9-11, 2021, Virtual + In-Person, Networking, Keynotes, Fireside chats, Sessions and more.
  • Startup Marketing Package from Honeycomb
    • Brand audit
    • 1 hour consultation
    • Personalized recommendations
  • Annual Corporate Membership from Austin Young Chamber
    • Access to business and leadership development programs and perks for your team
    • Company logo and link on AYC website
    • Event Sponsorship Credit
    • Job Posting on AYC Website
    • Event Listing on AYC Website
    • New Member Social Spotlight
    • Member-Only Perks


Congratulations to the Austin Fast Start:
STEM Pitch Winner

Clocr

Clocr provides an all-in-one legacy planning platform with three product lines: self-service will tool for digital assets, digital vault to store and share information, and a time-vault feature.


Watch the STEM Event Recording Here

How did we define STEM businesses?

STEM is often recognized as the key to innovation and job creation in the United States. The acronym STEM refers to the academic and professional disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM businesses are those that are leading innovation using one or more of these disciplines, and changing the landscape of how we solve problems and stay competitive in the global economy.

STEM Finalists

  • Clocr Inc.


    Clocr provides an all-in-one legacy planning platform with three product lines: self-service will tool for digital assets, digital vault to store and share information, and a time-vault feature.

  • Codubee

    Codubee creates remote mock internships for CS undergrads by mentoring them in creating a web based project.

  • FlexDesk

    FlexDesk is a marketplace platform to list and rent short-term workspace. You can think of it as Airbnb for workspace.

  • Koncept Garage

    Koncept Garage translates your ideas into achievable koncepts that connect you to your passions, hobbies and pursuits. Leveraging interior design principles and industrial engineering methods, your Koncept Garage is designed to function.

STEM Judges

STEM Judges

Barbra Boeta
Executive Director
Economic Growth Business Incubator (EGBI)

Barbra Boeta has delighted in working with entrepreneurs to start or grow their business for over 13 years, and since 2011 at EGBI. Prior to being named the executive director of EGBI in 2017, Barbra spear-headed EGBI’s small business one-on-one consulting services, entrepreneur training programs, and programs to connect industry experts to our clients.

She has helped nearly 1,000 entrepreneurs throughout Central Texas realize their dream of opening a business in a variety of industries such as beauty shops, lawn care services, food production, restaurants, and many other areas. She is a master of QuickBooks, Salesforce, and Excel.

Barbra sits on several area boards and committees, including the FDIC’s Alliance for Economic Inclusion (AEI), the City of Austin’s Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE) and Small Business Advisory Committee. Barbra chaired AEI’s inaugural Small Business Forum. She is an active member of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Hispanic Austin Leadership (HAL) Alumni. In 2016, in recognition of her community involvement, Barbra received the Hispanic Austin Leadership – Distinguished Alumni Award.

Prior to joining EGBI, Barbra worked for PeopleFund as a small business lender to entrepreneurs. Barbra graduated with honors from St. Edward’s University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

 

Dr. Jana Roberta Minifie
Professor, Management
Texas State University

Throughout her career, Jana has continued her passion for entrepreneurship by: owning several businesses, mentoring individuals as they prepare their 90-second and longer pitches, assisting with business plan development, reviewing of financial cash flow, balance sheet, and income statements (She is a Profit Master certified instructor), and is an angel investor. She, along with Dr. Jennifer Irvin, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) grant in October 2018. Under this grant, Jana takes teams of researchers and graduate students through a market validation / customer development I-Corps program to increase the success of university developed IP.

She is also a business consultant for businesses that are in the startup to growth stage. She has worked with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) clients to assist in various aspects of their businesses. Her passion is working with entrepreneurial-minded individuals.

 

Paul O’Brien
Chief Executive Officer
MediaTech Ventures

Long time Silicon Valley technology and startup veteran, Paul O’Brien is known as SEO’Brien for his extensive past in the search industry. Now Texan, O’Brien works in Venture Capital Economic Development, serving the investment and venture capital economies directly, through thought leadership, consulting, and startup development. He’s the founder of MediaTech Ventures, a founder and managing director of Funded House, and Director in Founder Institute.

Notably, O’Brien is a seasoned marketer with an early career at Yahoo! and HP. From there he led the early growth of startups such as Outright.com (Acquired by GoDaddy), Zvents (Acquired by eBay’s Stubhub), and MicroVentures (Venture Capital). With technical expertise, O’Brien has consulted with various web properties, designed and developed sites, online communities, e-commerce stores, and web services. Paul was featured in the book, Online Marketing Heroes, and continues to blog at seobrien.com.

 

Ezinne Udezue
Vice President, Product Management
Procore Technologies

Ezinne is a multi-disciplined business leader and general manager with a unique balance of creative, technical and management experience. She also has extensive, hands-on experience in new product development for consumer and platform products.

She’s created and supported amazing entrepreneurial/intrapraneurial ventures and built/mentored great teams along the way. Industries she’s built for/created value in: e-commerce, media, advertising, telecom, and messaging – including B2B, B2C and B2B2C solutions.

Prizes

Winners will receive an on the spot cash prize of $2,500 plus $7,000+ in additional in-kind prizes including:
– Automatic entry to the NSF I-Corp 3-Week Program from Texas State University
– Opportunity for $3,000 NSF I-Corp Business Grant from Texas State University*
– One Year Corporate Membership to the Austin Young Chamber
– Three months free rent at Capital Factory
– One ticket to the 2020 Global RoundUp Conference by 3 Day Startup
– Marketing Startup Package from Honeycomb ( includes Brand audit, 1 hr consultation, personalized recommendations)

* To be eligible, business must be a STEM Startup, have at least two members of the team go through the I-Corp 3-Week Program and complete 25+ interviews, and opt in to receive an I-Corp Mentor that is a member (faculty, staff, or student) of Texas State.

With Support From



Congratulations the Austin Fast Start:
Internet of Things Pitch Winner

Parasanti

Parasanti is a veteran and farmer led AI/ML company based out of Austin dedicated to placing advanced analytical tools into the hands of those who traditionally have not had access to them. Their flagship product pulls data from any targeted location on the farm and processes it at the edge without the need for a cloud or even bandwidth availability. Insights are then delivered to a user friendly interface that can be accessed on any type of device and provides alerts and notifications as well.


Watch the IoT Event Recording Here

How did we define Internet of Things?

Internet of Things offers solutions that transform the way we live and work by leveraging the interconnection between everyday objects and internet connectivity. Internet of Things businesses use increased connectivity, data, algorithms, and/or automation to improve services and enable things like smart cities, smart homes, and more. These ground-breaking businesses work to solve real problems that impact people.

Internet of Things Finalists

  • Anka Labs


    Anka Labs’ mission is to develop and bring to market a new software stack destined to operate in EAC class devices, to provide the functions of the old DDC, combined with an unparalleled analytics capability onboard and in the cloud, and a mechanism for extensibility through the creation of an App Store. We call this software stack AnkaDOS (Anka Device Operating System).

  • JOYKEEPER


    JOYKEEPER is an anti-theft device specifically designed for musical instruments. It can be quickly and easily installed into most musical instruments, without damaging the instrument. Leveraging a cutting-edge network called Helium, JOYKEEPER is more reliable and efficient than traditional GPS or cellular-based asset tracking solutions and requires little maintenance and no monthly fees.

  • Parasanti


    Parasanti is a veteran and farmer led AI/ML company based out of Austin dedicated to placing advanced analytical tools into the hands of those who traditionally have not had access to them. Their flagship product pulls data from any targeted location on the farm and processes it at the edge without the need for a cloud or even bandwidth availability. Insights are then delivered to a user friendly interface that can be accessed on any type of device and provides alerts and notifications as well.

  • Winter Haven Capital


    Winter Haven Capital is an innovative, dynamic startup. Forged out of the University of Texas by David Love, QuanTiles Analytics combines machine learning automation, with trading & analytics algorithms to walk the retail investor through quantitative trading. This a the first automated tool managing rail risk for the retail investor.

Internet of Things Judges

 

NickChaginNick Chagin
Program Manager
3DS

Nick has developed hundreds of entrepreneurs through his work as a Program Manager and Facilitator with 3 Day Startup, an Austin-based nonprofit that runs immersive entrepreneurship programs for students and community members at 150 institutions in 35 countries. His founder experience spans from HydroDontist–a medtech venture that graduated from the nationally-ranked The Brandery accelerator–to music video production and digital strategy companies. He holds a BA from Miami University of Ohio.

Chelsea Collier
Founder
Digi.City

As the Founder of Digi.City, Chelsea Collier is focused on the development of smarter, more equitable, more connected communities. She is a University of Manchester (UK) Simon Industrial & Professional Fellow (2019), a Marshall Memorial Fellow (2018) and an Eisenhower Fellow (2016). She serves as the Editor-At-Large for Smart Cities Connect. Her work has also been featured in Inc.com, Venture Beat, Governing Magazine, the Chicago Tribune and dozens of other publications. Her previous experience – state government (economic development), social enterprise, tech startup, small business – informs her cross sector approach. She lives in Austin, Texas and is active in the local tech and social impact communities. Her masters and bachelor degrees are from the University of Texas at Austin.

Will Griffin
Chief Ethics Officer
Hypergiant

Will is Chief Ethics Officer at Hypergiant Industries – the industry leading AI company. At Hypergiant, he developed and evangelizes the companies Ethics in AI Framework and Use Case vetting model.

Will is an entrepreneur and proven thought leader with a track record of bringing culture-shifting content and technology solutions to new platforms. His ventures include launching the first original content slate on the Sony PlayStation Network with Endemol North America. He launched the first original VOD channel, Hip Hop OnDemand, on Comcast Cable systems nationwide and extended the venerable Forbes publishing-brand to television.

His work has earned the coveted IAB/Brandweek Silver Medal for Innovation, and the culturally significant, NAACP Image Award. Will is a long-time board member of the Uniworld/WPP Ad agency and was an in-house strategist at News Corporation/ Fox Entertainment Group.

He was an Associate at McKinsey & Co. in the Entertainment and Media practice (Los Angeles) where we worked on operations and post-merger integration for the world’s largest media companies including Time Warner and Disney. He began his professional career in the Asset-Backed Securities Group at Goldman Sachs in New York.

Will is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Dartmouth College and he completed the Entrepreneurship Curriculum at Harvard Business School.

 

Paul O’Brien
Chief Executive Officer
MediaTech Ventures

Long time Silicon Valley technology and startup veteran, Paul O’Brien is known as SEO’Brien for his extensive past in the search industry. Now Texan, O’Brien works in Venture Capital Economic Development, serving the investment and venture capital economies directly, through thought leadership, consulting, and startup development. He’s the founder of MediaTech Ventures, a founder and managing director of Funded House, and Director in Founder Institute.

Notably, O’Brien is a seasoned marketer with an early career at Yahoo! and HP. From there he led the early growth of startups such as Outright.com (Acquired by GoDaddy), Zvents (Acquired by eBay’s Stubhub), and MicroVentures (Venture Capital). With technical expertise, O’Brien has consulted with various web properties, designed and developed sites, online communities, e-commerce stores, and web services. Paul was featured in the book, Online Marketing Heroes, and continues to blog at seobrien.com.

Internet of Things Emcee

Sylvia Butanda
Deputy Executive Director
Latinitas

Sylvia Butanda is the deputy executive director for Latinitas where she manages year round digital media and technology enrichment programs for girls, development and operations. She takes strong pride in her culture and storytelling roots that led her to Latinitas and, since then, has enjoyed the opportunities to positively impact her community.

She started as a program assistant in 2014 where she was introduced to nonprofit management and worked simultaneously with students as a program leader before becoming Latinitas’ program coordinator. She was promoted to program director in 2016 and during that time, expanded Latinitas programs and partnerships to reach the Rio Grande Valley and San Francisco, CA.

She is originally from Brownsville, TX and graduated from the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Since her UT Journalism days, she has written for publications in the Austin area and holds experience in communications, sales, marketing and digital media production.

She was awarded the 2018 Out of School Time Champion Award from Learn all the Time Network (LATT) for her work in empowering girls and young women in Central Texas with media and technology training.

She is a Class of 2019 graduate of the Greater Hispanic Chamber of Austin’s Hispanic Austin Leadership program and will serve as a board member for the Austin Young Chamber of Commerce and the Young Hispanic Professional Association of Austin in 2020.

Prizes

Winners will receive an on the spot cash prize of $2,500 plus $4,000+ in additional in-kind prizes including:
– One Year Corporate Membership to the Austin Young Chamber
– Three months free rent at Capital Factory
– One ticket to the 2020 Global RoundUp Conference by 3 Day Startup
– Marketing Startup Package from Honeycomb Creative Co. ( includes Brand audit, 1 hr consultation, personalized recommendations)
– Three-series business classes from the City of Austin Small Business Program
– Admission to Camp Entrepreneur (Oct. 2020 in Spicewood, TX)
– 1 hr consultation & 50% off web related services from Magic Mirror Developers

With Support From



Congratulations the Austin Fast Start:
Consumer Packaged Goods Pitch Winner

Steamm Espresso

Steamm Espresso is the world’s first ready to drink bottled espresso. Steeped in cacao for a smooth chocolate finish and loaded with antioxidants, Steamm Espresso is crafted to provide energy and focus while honoring your coffee ritual.


Watch ATXN’s City View with the Pitch Event Recap

How did we define Consumer Packaged Goods?

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) are items used daily by consumers that require routine replacement or replenishment. Products may be food, beverage, apparel, jewelry, toys, tools, or anything you could imagine being sold at your favorite brick-and-mortar or online retailer.

Consumer Packaged Goods Finalists

  • Manna Muffins by Enliven Foods


    Manna Muffins by Enliven Foods
    The mission of Enliven Foods is to make the transition to healthier eating more pleasurable by providing indulgent yet guilt-free products and education content. Their vision is to help people eat more whole plant foods. Manna Muffins can be used as a complete meal or snack, and are made from ancient grains or almond flower (gluten free version), beans, seeds, dates, spices, fruits, and vegetables.

  • Remane


    Remane
    Remane is a company helping naturals reframe the conversations that they are having around their hair by providing naturals with the essential tools needed for washing, styling, or maintaining their hair. Users are provided with “toolkits” as well as the knowledge needed to properly care for their hair.

  • Steamm Espresso


    Steamm Espresso
    Steamm Espresso is the world’s first ready to drink bottled espresso. Steeped in cacao for a smooth chocolate finish and loaded with antioxidants, Steamm Espresso is crafted to provide energy and focus while honoring your coffee ritual.

  • Tynie Nail Polish


    Tynie Nail Polish
    Tynie Polish is a maker of small-batch designer nail polish offering unique colors and finishes that are non-toxic, vegan and cruelty-free. Tynie create luxurious, environmentally-friendly nail polish in trend-making shades while taking as much waste out of the nail polish manufacturing process as possible.

Consumer Packaged Goods Judges

Rakhi Agrawal
Rakhi has lived past lives in many worlds, including but not limited to edtech, public health (including sexual assault awareness and mental health services), and perhaps most notably, in education, as a secondary math teacher here in Austin. In all of her roles and experiences, her passion for equity, justice, and service have informed her work. Since leaving the classroom, Rakhi has built a career in nonprofit fundraising, with over five years of experience in the sector. She currently is the Partnership Manager at 3 Day Startup, a nonprofit whose mission is to make entrepreneurship education accessible to all.

Rakhi is an experienced social justice advocate who is passionate about working with youth, adults, and families to address community issues in an anti-racist way, centering the voices and experiences of marginalized folks.

Rakhi received her bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and philosophy from Barnard College of Columbia University, where she also served as the president and/or leader of over ten campus organizations centered around issues related to health and wellness, activism, the environment, and community support.

In Austin, Rakhi is a member of the Leadership Austin Emerge Class of 2020, serves on the board of local nonprofit Truth Be Told, and is involved with The New Philanthropists, Measure Austin, and The Junior League. To unwind, Rakhi leads and coaches with New Horizons Lacrosse, a local organization dedicated to growing the sport of lacrosse among underserved communities. She is most filled by developing and deepening friendships with new people she meets in Austin. Please don’t be a stranger–say hi and allow her to befriend you!

 

Genevieve Gilbreath
Genevieve Gilbreath has been an active entrepreneur in the consumer goods space since 2002. From her experience launching and growing two import/export supplement companies and through her consulting practice she has deep expertise in FDA regulations, co-packing, branding, packaging, import/export, distribution & sales – retail and wholesale. Most recently, from 2016 through 2018, she served as the Managing Director of SKU, the first and leading consumer products accelerator in the U.S. While at SKU, Genevieve evaluated hundreds of early-stage consumer product companies, re-designed and ran an entrepreneurship program designed specifically for CPG and Natural Products Industry start-ups. Genevieve lead the sourcing and deal process for accepted companies. Genevieve was recently recognized in Austin Inno’s 50 on Fire in 2018 for her leadership. She has also developed cross-cultural educational curriculums for Princeton University and served as an adjunct professor at Baylor University. Genevieve earned an undergraduate degree in fine arts from Pacific University (1995), a Master of Science from Baylor University (1998) and certification from the Kaufmann FastTrac Entrepreneurship program (1998).

 

Peg Richmond
Following a career in high-tech business development and marketing, Peg joined the Texas State Small Business Development Center more than eight years ago and now advises innovation start-ups and scaling business owners. She has created and holds regular classes designed to help early-stage food entrepreneurs reach and retain the retail shelf. Peg also mentors and teaches via a number of other curricula focused in technology commercialization, food and consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturing, applied entrepreneurship, and financial management. Peg is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Adult, Professional, and Community Education and holds an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University and both a Master of Arts in Advertising and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas.

 

Elsa Underwood
As a true food professional, Elsa Underwood has been involved in the food industry for over 25 years. You could say that she has touched it all, having worked for food manufacturers, brokers, foodservice marketers and of course, in retail at H-E-B. She has sold food, consulted for small manufacturers, managed brands, purchased food and now spends her time sourcing for new companies. In her current role as Sourcing Manager at H-E-B, she has traveled the backroads of Texas as well as across the globe in search of new culinary delights for consumers to enjoy. While helping businesses grow in sales and profits is critical, mentoring and building relationships across the food world is the most important and enjoyable aspect of her work.

In her spare time, Elsa enjoys traveling with her husband of 29 years (mostly for the food), cooking, hosting large and small parties and since she is a proud graduate of Texas A&M University, she, of course, loves watching college football.

Prizes

Winners will receive an on the spot cash prize of $2,500 plus $4,000+ in additional in-kind prizes including:

– One Year Corporate Membership to the Austin Young Chamber
– Three months free rent at Capital Factory
– Marketing Startup Package from HoneyComb Creative ( includes Brand audit, 1 hr consultation, personalized recommendations)
– Three-series business classes from the City of Austin Small Business Program
– Global Round Up Ticket from 3 Day Startup
– Automatic Inclusion in Naturally Austin Expo Hall – March 26

With Support From



Congratulations the Austin Fast Start:
Mobility Innovation Pitch Winner

ElecTrip

ElecTrip is a no-compromise travel solution that offers door to door transportation between major cities located less than 4 hours apart in private, professionally driven Teslas with Wi-Fi and laptop charging on board. Using EVs allows us to reduce our operational costs to offer a superior service at a highly cost-competitive price. We have a fleet of 2 private Teslas and 17+ Teslas that we can borrow through our network. We currently have 6 drivers that are fully trained and doing consistent rides every week and 100 on our waitlist.


Mobility Innovation Pitch Event Video


Watch ATXN’s City View with the Pitch Event Recap

How did we define Mobility Innovation?

Mobility Innovation includes solutions and products that use data, technology and design to increase efficiency, expand quality, promote safety and improve the traveler experience for the public right of way and transportation networks. Examples of mobility innovation include software that makes it easier to plan trips, services that allow you to rent/hail shared mobility devices, new modes for transportation like autonomous vehicles with connected hardware, and connected infrastructure systems for intelligent right of way management.

Mobility Innovation Finalists

  • Bndl LLC


    Bundle is a peer to peer mobile application that creates storage and space solutions. Our mobile application will leverage people’s houses, garages, closets, guest rooms, sheds, storage facilities, parking space and even vacant lots, converting them into on-demand storage available to users on the mobile app. This will create an ecosystem where users can save money and find storage solutions that are tailored to them, and hosts can create passive income form untouched empty space.

  • ElecTrip


    ElecTrip is a no-compromise travel solution that offers door to door transportation between major cities located less than 4 hours apart in private, professionally driven Teslas with Wi-Fi and laptop charging on board. Using EVs allows us to reduce our operational costs to offer a superior service at a highly cost-competitive price. We have a fleet of 2 private Teslas and 17+ Teslas that we can borrow through our network. We currently have 6 drivers that are fully trained and doing consistent rides every week and 100 on our waitlist.

  • Saddle


    Saddle is a one-stop shop for multimodal Austin transportation, aimed at reducing congestion and keeping transportation spending local by making multimodal trip planning of Austin’s hometown mobility companies as convenient as getting driving directions.

  • THruck


    THruck is a long-distance rideshare solution using the empty seat on commercial trucks. We are starting by connecting students who are seeking to travel out of town with truckers who have an empty seat on their freight vehicle and are going to or through the student’s destination city or town.

Thank you to our Austin Fast Start: Mobility Innovation Judges!

 

Nick Chagin

NickChaginNick has developed hundreds of entrepreneurs through his work as a Program Manager and Facilitator with 3 Day Startup, an Austin-based nonprofit that runs immersive entrepreneurship programs for students and community members at 150 institutions in 35 countries. His founder experience spans from HydroDontist–a medtech venture that graduated from the nationally-ranked The Brandery accelerator–to music video production and digital strategy companies. He holds a BA from Miami University of Ohio.

 

OJ Gilder

OJGilderO.J. Gilder is the Chief Information Officer/Chief Marketing Officer at A+ Federal Credit Union (A+FCU), a $1.6 billion financial institution headquartered in Austin, Texas. In his over 20 years of experience, Gilder has risen from a part-time teller to CIO/CMO. In this role, he oversees the programming, networking, marketing, business development, community education, contact center, member experience, and data analytics for the credit union.

Gilder holds a BBA, Management Information Systems, from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Texas State University in San Marcos. He recently completed the Cardwell 306/2 Symposium leadership program in which he was hand-selected to participate. Additionally, he serves on multiple advisory councils and groups within the credit union and financial services industry.

 

Jason JonMichael

JasonJonMichaelJason JonMichael, a transportation technology expert with specialized experience in connected, automated, and electric vehicle research, deployment and program development, has joined the Austin Transportation Department (ATD) as Assistant Director, Smart Mobility.

Before joining ATD, JonMichael worked as National Technology Leader, ITS & Systems for HNTB Corporation, focused on emerging technology program management and deployment in transportation, a key challenge for transportation agencies to unlock the value of connected and autonomous vehicles. JonMichael leads a cross-functional team of mobility, technology, policy, data, and user experience specialists to deliver outcomes that improve mobility, safety and access to Austin residents. He will also manage public-private-partnerships and the evolution of the Parking Enterprise division in its future role of transportation.

JonMichael’s subject matter expertise includes complex systems (artificial intelligence), transportation technology, systems engineering, communications and systems integration. He has operated in management roles with several federal, state and municipal advanced transportation research projects and programs, including the U.S. DOT Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment in Tampa, Florida.

Over the last 25 years, he has performed and managed systems integration services on projects spanning from traditional advanced traffic management systems to state-of-the-art, emerging smart mobility solutions involving connected, autonomous, shared, and electric technologies. JonMichael regularly provides insights and advice to industry-related non-profit boards, councils, committees and other organizations. For the past 10 years, JonMichael was an executive board member and past Chair of the OmniAir® Consortium, helping guide the creation of OmniAir’s certification services — the connected and automated vehicle equivalent to UL® or WiFi®. JonMichael contributed his expertise, along with numerous city departments and agencies, to Austin’s original U.S. DOT $50 million Smart City grant application, helping Austin become a finalist. He will build upon the City of Austin and Capital Metro’s new Smart Mobility Roadmap, which lays out a proactive and deliberate approach to new mobility capabilities to ensure a future that is equitable, affordable, prosperous and data-driven.

 

Mia Zmud

MiaZmudAs the Mobility Innovation Manager at Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, Mia Zmud provides leadership and strategy focused on leveraging emerging transportation technologies and mobility solutions with research to deliver smarter and more efficient transportation systems. Her expertise in travel behavior research, helps inform mobility management decisions that address urban congestion, optimize operations and improve the customer experience. Mia’s background includes four years in an executive role at Metropia, a Tucson-based startup working to revolutionize commuting behaviors through an incentive-based mobile platform. She also served as a senior advisor to Carma, a mobile application that incentivizes carpooling in urban areas. In 2016, Mia was awarded the Women in Transportation “Innovator of the Year” award for overseeing the deployment of the Metropia platform in Austin, Texas.

Prizes

Winners will receive an on the spot cash prize of $2,500 plus $5,000+ in additional in-kind prizes including:

– One Year Elite Membership to the Austin Young Chamber
– Three months of free rent at Capital Factory
– Global Conference Roundup Ticket from 3 Day Startup
– LLC Formation from The Haney Law Firm
– Business Coaching Session from the Economic Growth Business Incubator
– Three-series business classes from the City of Austin Small Business Program.



Congratulations the Austin Fast Start:
Fashion Pitch Winner

Mary Claret

Mary Claret is a contemporary women’s apparel brand based in Austin, Texas. They design apparel products that flatter a variety of body types through the use of generous silhouettes and flattering fabrics. They design a range of apparel products that fit women’s daily needs from career to casual lifestyles. Their product line includes luxury sleepwear, adjustable wrap skirts, blouses, and small accessory items.


Fashion Pitch Event Video

How did we define Fashion?

Fashion is broadly defined to include apparel, accessories, or a service or store in the fashion industry.

Fashion Finalists

  • Green Hug

    Green Hug is a 100% sustainable e-commerce clothing company that uses 100% recycled and organic materials and we plants 7 trees for each item sold. In their first year, they offered garments made of organic cotton, Tencel®, bamboo, post-consumer recycled polyester, and post-consumer organic cotton.


  • Joey Ro

    Joey Ro is a new line of “instagrammable” mix and match accessories for pets and their people. The Joey Ro collar is the centerpiece of the product line, much like a Pandora bracelet. Its patent-pending design allows accessories including bow ties and bandanas (+ more in the future) to attach directly to the inside of the collar, ensuring they stay in place and do not irritate the pup (like many velcro-style bow ties often will). Each of the pet accessories have matching human counterparts in the same print patterns, including headbands, scarves, human bow ties, keychains, and Apple watch bands – with more to come!


  • Mary Claret

    Mary Claret is a contemporary women’s apparel brand based in Austin, Texas. They design apparel products that flatter a variety of body types through the use of generous silhouettes and flattering fabrics. They design a range of apparel products that fit women’s daily needs from career to casual lifestyles. Their product line includes luxury sleepwear, adjustable wrap skirts, blouses, and small accessory items.


  • Swayy

    Swayy is a clothing aggregator that creates curated shopping experiences. It’s never been easier to buy clothes online and have them delivered straight to your doorstep. However, because there are so many options, finding the right thing has never been more overwhelming. Many women shop by occasion – not by garment type – and retailers don’t reflect this. Swayy offers much-needed curation with a website that aggregates clothing from across the web and sorts items by the occasion you’re shopping for. Customers can also save money by renting clothes instead of buying them, allowing women to refresh their wardrobe while decreasing their environmental footprint that is an inherent consequence of fast fashion.

Thank you to our Austin Fast Start: Fashion Judges!

 

Samuel Alexander

SamuelAlexanderSamuel Alexander is the founder and CEO of Concept 2 Consumption (C2C), an Austin, TX-based business providing its clients with access to a revolutionary B2B2C fashion ecosystem. Alexander’s experience spans more than three decades—and brings together expertise in both the fashion and technology industries. Samuel is an expert in product design/development; global sourcing/production; strategic branding/marketing; and technology integration. He was instrumental in promoting the growth and development of numerous major labels including Levi Strauss, Votre Nom Paris, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jones of New York, Shelli Segal, David Dart, Laundry, Icon Aura, Lois, Peter Golding, and Sue Wong—among many others. Alexander specializes in Smart Fashion, including Nano and Bio-Tech integration.

Through his newest venture, C2C, Samuel is revolutionizing the fashion industry by bringing his expertise to bear in the creation of two online platforms: Order Register and C2C Virtual Shop. The Order Register platform (B2B) connects the production and fulfillment processes for the wholesale business into one software program. C2C Virtual Shop (B2C) utilizes virtual and augmented reality to provide customers a personalized avatar life model allowing shoppers to virtually “try on” an article of clothing. The C2C Virtual Shop platform also integrates with other retail and social platforms thus providing new and interactive features.

 

Nick Chagin

NickChaginNick has developed hundreds of entrepreneurs through his work as a Program Manager and Facilitator with 3 Day Startup, an Austin-based nonprofit that runs immersive entrepreneurship programs for students and community members at 150 institutions in 35 countries. His founder experience spans from HydroDontist–a medtech venture that graduated from the nationally-ranked The Brandery accelerator–to music video production and digital strategy companies. He holds a BA from Miami University of Ohio.

 

Rosa Rios Valdez

RosaRiosValdezA graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Rosa is certified in development finance by the National Development Council of New York. She has 30 years experience in business development and commercial real estate lending. She is currently the CEO of Business & Community Lenders of Texas and has been leading the organization since 1997, growing the company’s total assets over 30 fold. Rosa manages a statewide $25,000,000 commercial real estate loan portfolio and is Asset Manager for a $4.5 million real estate portfolio. In 2012, she led the formation of the health-focused social enterprise Salud es Vida Corporation.

Prior to joining BCL of Texas, Rios Valdez served as manager of business finance in the Texas Governor’s Office of Economic Development where she focused on business and manufacturing expansions throughout the state. She also worked regionally in central and southeast Texas as a former Director of Economic Development for the Lower Colorado River Authority.

Rios Valdez serves on the Economic Development Board of the Capital Area Planning Council of Government. She is a past president of the National Association of Economic Developers and former chair of the Travis County Housing Authority, a position she held for 10 years. She also serves on the Board of the NeighborWorks America Community Capital Corporation, and sits on their Loan Committee. She recently completed an Executive Management program at the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government and completed an appointment the Travis County Bond Advisory Board in August of 2013.

 

Vicky Sepulveda

VickySepulvedaVicky Hernandez Sepulveda, CEO at Crossing Bridges Consulting is one of 9 Google Digital Coaches in the United States. As a Google Digital Coach, Vicky facilitates workshops for small businesses. These small businesses receive guidance on how to improve their web presence and learn to reach new customers
and grow online using Google’s online advertising platform, GoogleAds. SMB’s learn how to also use the free Google My Business listing, Google Analytics and an overview of GSuite and Google Supplier Diversity program and Grow with Google.

Prior to joining the Google Digital Coaches Program at Google Vicky was the Sr.Director of Small Business and International Events at the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Vicky was responsible for the development, delivery, and execution of all Small Business and International Initiatives including two of GAHCC Signature Events: Capital of Texas Awards and CELEBRANDO Austin. Vicky was also The GAHCC liaison for The Multi-Ethnic Chamber Alliance working with the GAHCC, Austin Black Chamber of Commerce, The Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, and The Austin LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce. As the liaison for the GAHCC Vicky Collaborated with the other chamber leadership to bring Austin’s diverse business community quality events and educational topics for Small Business Owners.

Thank you to our Austin Fast Start: Fashion Emcee!

Nina Means

NenaMeansNina Means is an alumnus of the International Fashion Design program at FIT and has designed for Rebecca Taylor, American Eagle Outfitters, and H by Halston for QVC. In 2016, Nina started her namesake label sold in specialty stores and online. As Director of the Austin Community College Fashion Incubator, she is developing a real-to-industry experience that provides students and fashion startups with the necessary educational experience and technology exposure to work efficiently in the fashion industry. The program also provides emerging fashion businesses the product development support to go-to-market in a profitable manner. As a fashion design and fashion marketing instructor, Nina has taught product development, production, introduction to manufacturing, technical design and computer illustrative media. She also speaks and serves as moderator for panels on fashion business and technology.

Prizes

Winners received an on the spot cash prize of $2,500 plus $7,400+ in additional in-kind prizes including: One Year Elite Membership to the Austin Young Chamber, Three months Residency at the ACC Fashion Incubator, Three months free rent at Capital Factory for up to three team members, Global Conference Roundup Ticket from 3 Day Startup, LLC Formation from The Haney Law Firm, Business Coaching Session from the Economic Growth Business Incubator, and a Three-Class Package from the City of Austin, Small Business Program


Congratulations the Austin Fast Start:
FinTech Pitch Winner

Jump Credit

Jump Credit is an alternative credit technology that will accurately predict risk on student loans in developing countries by using academic data, psychometrics, and machine learning.

FinTech Pitch Event Video

What is FinTech?

FinTech companies are businesses that leverage new technology to create new and improved financial services for both consumers and businesses. It includes companies of all kinds that may operate in personal financial management, insurance, payment, asset management, etc.

FinTech Finalists
  • Jump Credit

    Jump Credit is an alternative credit technology that will accurately predict risk on student loans in developing countries by using academic data, psychometrics, and machine learning.


  • Rocket Dollar

    Rocket Dollar allows individuals to open and maintain self-directed retirement accounts. We enable account holders to access alternative investments beyond stocks and bonds. Customers can invest in real estate, startups, crowdfunding platforms, or any opportunity allowed by the IRS while keeping the tax benefits of a retirement account.

    Rocket Dollar provides ongoing compliance support for customers to ensure their accounts are always in good standing, as well as giving customers the ability to track their investments, all within the Rocket Dollar platform.


  • Tixpire

    Tixpire is an alternative to high ticket prices for live entertainment events. Our company offers extended layaway options for any ticketed event in the world.

Prizes

Winners received an on the spot cash prize of $2,500 plus $5,000+ in additional in-kind prizes including: One Year Elite Membership to the Austin Young Chamber, Three months free rent at Capital Factory for up to three team members, Global Conference Roundup Ticket from 3 Day Startup, LLC Formation from The Haney Law Firm, Business Coaching Session from the Economic Growth Business Incubator, and a Three-Class Package from the City of Austin, Small Business Program

Congratulations the Austin Fast Start:
Sustainable Business Pitch Winner

Sun Co.

The solar energy industry is growing rapidly, and 90% of that added solar capacity is installed with tracking capabilities. The team at Sun Co. is developing passive solar trackers that drastically reduce cost through the use of shape memory alloys. These alloys work as both sensors and actuators. They contract when heated which allows us to track the sun without any additional electricity or expensive sensor equipment which help homeowners and small businesses find a cheap solution for increasing their energy efficiency.

 

Sustainable Business Pitch Event Video

What is a Sustainable Business?

A sustainable or “green” business is a business that operates in a way that protects the environment, enhances the community, and maintains a healthy workplace.

About the Austin Central Library

The Austin Central Library was recently awarded LEED® Platinum status under the international green building rating system. It is now the second Platinum certified public library in Texas. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED Platinum is the highest level of recognition awarded and indicates a score of 80 or better on the 110 point rating system.

The Central Library is the first City of Austin building to achieve the prestigious designation. Six commercial buildings in Austin have been awarded LEED Platinum. There are about 20 LEED Platinum certified libraries in the U.S.

Sustainable Business Finalists
  • GrubTubs

    At GrubTubs we found a solution that transforms food waste into animal feed. Our process is fast, capital efficient, easy to permit, decentralized and profitable for restaurants and farmers. Our patent pending GrubReactor uses insect larvae to quickly eat food waste. They can be placed on any farm nationwide without a waste permit, saving our farmers up to a $1,000/mo per 1,000 chickens they have to feed.


  • Shower Stream

    At Shower Stream, we understand that water and energy waste is an enormous problem across the globe. It is not only an environmental problem, but also a huge economic and social problem. We are transforming the water, energy and IoT industries by solving unique waste problems that are currently completely unattended.


  • Sun Co.

    The solar energy industry is growing rapidly, and 90% of that added solar capacity is installed with tracking capabilities. The team at Sun Co. is developing passive solar trackers that drastically reduce cost through the use of shape memory alloys. These alloys work as both sensors and actuators. They contract when heated which allows us to track the sun without any additional electricity or expensive sensor equipment which help homeowners and small businesses find a cheap solution for increasing their energy efficiency.


  • Z-Bikez

    Z-Bikez is Austin’s own brand of personal electric vehicles. We make and sell a complete line of electric bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles. In light of our experiences and new market trends, we’re in the process of pivoting to a new model that hits the sweet spot between current docking bicycle programs and dockless scooter share programs. We have full scale manufacturing capacity for our future growth, R&D products, and infrastructure developments.

Prizes

Winners will receive an on the spot cash prize of $2,000 plus $5,000+ in additional in-kind prizes including:

  • One Year Elite Membership to the Austin Young Chamber
  • Three months free rent at Capital Factory
  • Global Conference Roundup Ticket from 3 Day Startup
  • LLC Formation from The Haney Law Firm
  • Business Coaching Session from the Economic Growth Business Incubator
  • One Un.Inc Life journal from Un.Inc