VentureSpur, a Dallas & OKC based startup accelerator, brought their 2013 program to a close with a sold-out Pitch Day event at the Inwood Theatre in Dallas. The event was an exciting success with 175 guests in attendance including investors from notable firms like Mercury Fund, Trailblazer Capital, Silver Creek Ventures, Austin Ventures and other venture capital partners with more than $2Bn in collective investable capital.
The blog at VentureSpur.com describes the event as “[offering] the venture capital, angel investor and startup community an opportunity to hear from these highly competitive start-ups, to recognize the effort of these founders, and to celebrate entrepreneurship.” (Source 2013 VentureSpur.com)
Pitching this year were seven unique startups, LittleFish, SIVI, SPARKlife, Haul, Zalongo, OrderMyGear and TogaBox. Each company went through 12 weeks of intensive mentoring and business model development; leading up to their Pitch Day presentations on October 30th.
The DEC’s own Trey Bowles was in attendance and shared his perspective on the event in an article for Xconomy.com.
“While those of us in Dallas’ startup ecosystem are well aware of the entrepreneurial activity taking place in this region, this was the first chance for the general community to be exposed to the great work that has been going on since August when Venture Spur launched its first Dallas class.
..In the last year, we’ve seen an explosion of startup activity in North Texas, including new incubators, co-working spaces, startup programming, and accelerators. The VentureSpur pitch day is just one example of a growing—and thriving—entrepreneurial scene in Dallas.” (Source 2013 Xconomy.com)
Each startup gave a 10 minute presentation focused on product demonstrations, future strategy and a review of their progress during the accelerator program. Remarkably, all seven of this year’s startups used their seed funding and time with the VentureSpur mentors to launch either a beta or public version of their product. In addition to all the exposure to venture capital that the accelerator provided; the startups emerged from the program with tangible products to bring to market.
In addition to the pitches (and musical entertainment), the event featured a panel discussion on the future of technology and which will be more important, the device or the network. Joel Fontenot, managing partner at Trailblazer Capital, led a panel discussion joined by guest executives from Microsoft, SoftLayer, Alcatel-Lucent, and Cisco.
According to Trey, there was universal agreement among the panelists,
“The answer was overwhelmingly, your network. In the future, it will matter much less whether you have an iPad or a Kindle, a Nokia phone or one from Samsung. The power will be in the network you use with them and the connection to your content. Bells and whistles on the latest devices are great but the most important thing is how the network is able to connect you to your content—and to the relationships behind that content.”
It’s an exciting time we live in, with new technologies emerging every day, often resulting in new startups with new products; much like the participants in this year’s VentureSpur accelerator program.
With the growth we’re witnessing in the entrepreneurial community in Dallas, there’s little doubt that our city will be host to some amazing new technologies and brands in the coming years. With that in mind, we should all look forward to 2014 VentureSpur fund as well as keeping an eye on the seven rising stars that were introduced at this year’s Pitch Day.
Read Trey Bowles’ full article on Xconomy.com.
Read comments on Pitch Day from a post by Kraettli L. Epperson, Managing Director of VentureSpur.
Nathan Binford, the author of this post, has spent the last 16 years working closely with startups and small businesses; as a writer, developer and marketer. Nathan contributes to a variety of blogs, including this one. His views are his own, but resources for this post were provided by The DEC and Speakeasy (a partner of the Dallas Morning News).
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