Best city in Kentucky for Startups
March 31, 2009
According to Businessweek and using zoomprospector data, Bowling Green, home to WKU, is the best small city for Startups in Kentucky
Population: 54,461
Labor force: 28,909
Startups per 1,000 people: 2.40
Small business per 1,000 people: 45
What to know about starting up in Bowling Green:
“It’s a very friendly business climate, very pro-active chamber of commerce, a very good labor pool, both skilled and unskilled. It’s a great a place to raise a family, a university town. It’s growing by leaps and bounds. They’re very pro-active about creating jobs–the Chamber and the state government, and the city. There’s plenty of programs for training employees.”
-David Bradford, president of aluminum recycling firm Owl’s Head Alloys
The criteria for this pick excluded cities over 200K so Lexington & Louisville were excluded.
This is the nationwide heatmap for startups:
PackStream takes top prize at Idea State U
March 29, 2009
This weekend the Idea State U business plan and business concept competition took place. The contest is for graduate and undergraduates of Kentucky’s state universities. Prize money totaled more than 100K. I served as a judge for the undergraduate plan track. Below are the results:
Overall winner, Graduate business plan Competition, taking home greater than 43K: Packstream from the University of Louisville (profiled here) a technology company that enables a unique form of consumer engagement by transforming home delivered packages into a new medium for marketing and advertising. Combining machine and software technology with a proprietary soft packaging material.
2nd Place, Graduate Business Plan, winning 21K,: Mantra Indian Grill, from the University of Kentucky, a new fast casual restaurant concept
First Place Graduate Concept: Fenix Group from the University of Louisville, developing software,the nodule detection system, that will allow for the detection of lung cancer 3-6 months earlier.
First Place, Underdraduate Busines Plan: Renewable Horizons from Northern Kentucky University, developing a patented design for low profile thermal collectors.
First Place, Unergraduate concept: 2nd Generation from the University of Kentucky, developing high-altitude wind energy systems.
Finally, Winning the Governors Innovation award for the most technologically significant entry: AudioEyez from Western Kentucky University, audio navigation assistant for the visually impaired usinf RFID & GPS technology.
Recap of Venture Club
March 26, 2009
The Keynote was Benson Miller with Lock Net. This is is third startup. The other two were the Surefire Propane Torch company and Millex, makers of patented hideaway ironing boards.
The Millex story is pretty interesting. They had 3 patents covering a device that hung on a closet door and allowed you to fold your iron up and out of the way. He set a selling price 0f$39.95 and made his first sales by agreeing to run 10K in ads in Evansville, IN promoting the device and the local Kmart if they would take the product on consignment and give him shelf space. It was a success and he went on to sell 214,000 units over the next year. He ended up in a patent fight with another company, not because they held a patent on the device but because their may have been prior art invalidating one of the patents. This ultimately cost 500K to defend and almost scuttled a buyout of his firm. He managed to go on sale the company for $7 million. His message, document and date everything and have a witness d the same if you think yo have a patentable device.
The presenters were:
Dowell Enterprises: They make Lens cradles, straps and a laser point of viewfinder for professional photographers. He said that all of the innovation has taken place in the camera while accessories have remained the same for years. Seeking funds to expand manufacturing.
CrossGig: Serves as a “virtual agent” for independent faith-based bands. Says the faith based market for music is $1.6 billion and their are 40-50K venues for this music in the US. His site serves as a gateway for musicians ad venue promoters to meet and book gigs. ALso a networking component for bands to connect with fans. Seeking funds for site redesign and marketing
Profile: Uvestor.com
March 23, 2009
The following is an interview with John Williamson, co-founder of Uvestor, a startup based in Louisville.
What’s Uvestor.com’s 30 second elevator pitch?
Uvestor.com is a national directory website for bank-owned, foreclosure, short sale, wholesale and damaged properties. Uvestor provides exactly the right type of information that investors need to make an informed purchasing decision without having to physically visit every property.
This project got started at Startup Weekend, tell us how it evolved from that early idea?
The concept for Uvestor evolved out of a consulting opportunity in the summer of 2008. The need to be able to list properties online with detailed condition and repair data and extra-large photos of all aspects of the property became abundantly clear. Most investors are using spreadsheets and flyers to market their investment-grade properties. Realtors post these properties on the MLS where they attract the wrong type of buyers.
Startup Weekend provided a venue to develop a mobile interface to the Uvestor platform. This focused work environment allowed us to experiment with an application that we wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to pursue.
What are your plans for the next year?
Uvestor.com launches in Fort Myers, Florida in April of 2009. We will be working with all types of individuals to refine the offerings on the website and incorporate as many features as we can to facilitate better flow of information in the real estate investing industry.
What have been the advantages/disadvantages of launching this business in Kentucky?
Kentucky is a great place to start a business because the overhead is so low. I have employed a global development, marketing and operations strategy for Uvestor.com, utilizing a variety of web-based management tools and outsourcing resources. I have recently secured a dedicated office space for Uvestor.com and have found a number of great locations where other technology companies are co-locating and sharing ideas. I think that this will be a long-term driver of success for every company that is taking advantage of these types of work environments.
Does Lexington (or Louisville or other cities like it) need a Techstars program
March 20, 2009
Two years ago, a partner and I investigated the idea of starting a Techstars style program to Kentucky. For anyone who does not know, The “Techstars style model” is a mentor-ship-driven venture model for seed stage tech startups. The companies (really just teams of good people with a good idea) receive a small amount of cash, a high level mentor-ship experience and a dynamic collegial environment. This is a really novel way to help develop seed stage companies as it focused less on cash and more on mentorship and guidance. At the end of the program most of these startups have gone on to raise follow on funding and many have already been successfully acquired. At the time only two such operations had a national profile, the aforementioned Techstars in Boulder and yCombinator located in Boston at the time. The reason we thought it made sense was the model focused on what new entrepreneurs need most, guidance from those who have been there before and with only two “competitors” the possibility of attracting some of the brightest talent in the country to such a program seemed promising. While we made significant progress towards such a program, a single important issue developed. In both of the existing programs the founders of the program are the sole capital providers and by themselves are significant mentors for these seed stage startups. In addition they had the connections necessary to develop an impressive group of mentors and potential follow on investors to work with these companies. While we had capital and connections and some mentors it became obvious that without the nationally recognized founder as part of the group it was going to be hard to get that critical mass of each component. Simply, Kentucky does not yet have that critical mass and many places that could benefit from this innovation do not possess these critical components yet either.
Fast Forward to today and many people believe that if you build it, this type of “incubator” for lack of a better word, then they will come. However, the landscape had changed dramatically in these two years. Techstars is in Boston as well as Boulder now funding up to 20 ideas. yCombinator has relocated to Silicon Valley and raised some additional capital to allow them to fund around 40 ideas. In Washington D.C. there is Launch Box Digital, In Philadelphia, DreamIt Ventures, BootUp Labs in Vancouver, B.C., Capital Factory in Austin, Summer@highlands in Boston & Silicon Valley and soon to start is The Funded Founder Institute to be based in Silicon Valley as well and a group looking at starting one in RTP North Carolina. Also, Facebook offers its’ Developers Fund which applies the same model for those building on Facebooks’ platform and Google held the Android challenge for those developing mobile apps on that platform. What this means is that entrepreneurs no longer are forced to travel and probably relocate to Boulder or Boston to get this type of assistance. In addition, the pool of available talent with an idea worthy of receiving this help has been diluted. Originally, the best case scenario was that that the top 20 or so would have been funded meaning a group using this model to recruit nationwide would have had a shot at maybe 21-30 best teams & Ideas. With the proliferation of these models, at best you are competing for the 110th best team and idea. This is obviously an oversimplification but highlights the challenge for any group believing the power of the model will overcome a lack of track record and national connections.
The conclusion I come to is this model will only work in new locations where the founders have a natonal reputation and the money to underwrite the program themselves. Essentially, if the person’s reputation is significantly high profile and that will attract people in and of itself. The ability of the novelty of the program to be a draw is diluted when multiple options for this type of assistance exist. Those located in second tier cities would be well advised to look for a new model that is innovative and sets them apart.
UPDATE:
Two other similar programs just launched Start @ Spark funded by Spark Capital in Boston and Shotput Ventures in Atlanta. As I predicted evry large city will have one of these programs started by a group or group of individuals with the clout to bring in applications. It is likley that most entrepreneurs at that early a stage will just apply to multiple programs in hopes of landing in one.
Who drives Innovation?
March 18, 2009
Brad Feld’s post on the overstated role of VC’s in creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem inspired me to create a couple of simple diagrams outlining who drives innovation and what is the size of the role eaCH playS in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. I am interested in feedback whether you think I have it right, the balance of roles or is their a better diagram out there you can point to.
About Springstage
David Cohen, one of the founders of the Springstage network, has a post up providing an overview of what we are trying to accomlplish through out the network. I would like to hear my readers thoughts.
Startup Weekend-Lex Reunion
March 16, 2009
The Startup Weekend crowd will be getting back together to see where the projects stand and reconnect with those we met. the details are as follows:
Saturday April 4th at 348 East Main Street.
Time: 8am-10pm
RSVP: http://swlexreunion.eventbrite.com
cost: 5$ to cover food & Drink
Update:
This is set-up to be a come and stay as much as you like, no specific agenda.
A couple new events
March 10, 2009
SXSW Roadtrip Tweetup
Come to Corky’s for BBQ and networking
| Host: | |
| Type: | |
| Network: |
Global
|
| Start Time: |
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 7:00pm
6:00pm
|
| End Time: |
Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 12:00am
|
| Location: |
Corky’s BBQ in Hamburg
|
| Street: |
2300 Sir Barton Way
|
| City/Town: |
Lexington, KY
|
| : |
Description
Mari Adkins (@mariadkins) has organized a tweetup for those interested at Corky’s BBQ in Hamburg. Any person of any age can attend. So come out and meet these gentlemen while enjoying some Memphis style BBQ.
Kentucky Ruby Users Group Meeting
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 @ 8PM
Keeneland Room at the UK William T Young Library
(The Keeneland Rooms is located to your immediate LEFT after entering in
from the Hilltop Ave entrance)
Location w/ Directions:
http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/page.php?lweb_id=25
Google maps:
http://is.gd/iFAX
There should be Free Parking in the East Employee Lot behind the library on
Columbia Ave after 7:30. Pay parking is available in front. Park at your own
risk.
Startup Profile: Packstream
March 9, 2009
Packstream is a Louisville base startup founded by Danny Bower.
What is Packstreams 30 second elevator pitch?
PackStream is a technology company that enables a unique form of consumer engagement by transforming home delivered packages into a new medium for marketing and advertising. Combining machine and software technology with a proprietary soft packaging material, PackStream automates order fulfillment and facilitates personalized on-package marketing. With PackStream’s unique solution, packaging and fulfillment processes are no longer afterthought costs, but untapped opportunities.
What stage of development are you? And what is the outlook for the next 12 months?
PackStream is currently raising capital to cover initial startup expenses and continue development. PackStream is currently seeking to raise $500,000 in seed capital. These funds will be used to complete the software development as well as beta test FulFillix, our automated fulfillment and on-package branding machine. Expecting to have a market launch in mid 2010, PackStream will be raising $2.25M in round A equity capital. These funds will allow for the installation of PackStream’s solution on-site at a retailer’s distribution or fulfillment center and will provide the working capital necessary to reach profitability.
How much growth funding have you had? What sources?
In addition to founders capital, PackStream has received $10,000 in awards and grants. Moving forward PackStream founders have committed to a $250,000 contribution which will be realized upon receiving seed level funding.
What have been the advanatages/disadvantages of building a high-tech business in Kentucky?
From a start-up perspective, there are several networking events and channels to go through in order to gain exposure for your business. People in the Louisville business community in particular seem genuinely interested in connecting viable business opportunities with prospective investors and interested parties. In addition, Kentucky has an abundance of potential employees with the skill sets necessary to implement PackStream’s solution
