Reporting on San Antonio’s Startups

Cannabis Accelerator Launches In San Antonio

1Aug

By Iris Gonzalez1 Comment

Cannabis Accelerator Launches In San Antonio

Entrepreneurs traveled from across the U.S to attend a small, but sold-out startup summit at San Antonio’s Cellars at the Pearl Saturday. What was different about this startup program was its objective—helping founders accelerate their cannabis startups.Rick Martinez, founder and CEO of the Wellness Project Rx, a cannabis business coaching company, launched a San Antonio-based cannabis entrepreneur accelerator program Wednesday. The Green Seed Cannabis Accelerator does not require a share in equity from founders. Instead, it will operate on a fee structure over the course of its 12-month program. Cannabis entrepreneurs who already have a business selling cannabis-related products, those supporting the cannabis industry with services such as marketing, or doctors who are proponents of u...

Reckon Point’s Indoor Airport Wayfinding App Places Startup on the Map

31Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Reckon Point’s Indoor Airport Wayfinding App Places Startup on the Map

For one local startup, participation in San Antonio’s pilot civic engagement residency program spurred the development of an innovative indoor airport wayfinding application.Reckon Point is one of the startups participating in CivTechSA, a joint program between the Geekdom co-working community and the City of San Antonio. The program matches startups with city departments to develop solutions requested by municipal leaders. The startup developed the wayfinding app for the San Antonio International Airport over the course of the program’s first four-month cohort, which ended in late July.The public may register to attend the demonstration day to see the work done by CivTechSA participants Reckon Point and Kinetech. RSVP for the Aug. 29 Demo Day here.The Geekdom-based startup spe...

Portland-Based Time Tracking Startup Tali Joins RealCo Accelerator

27Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Portland-Based Time Tracking Startup Tali Joins RealCo Accelerator

Kara Killinger is a student journalist at Trinity University where she reports for the weekly student-run newspaper, the Trinitonian. She is working this summer as a Students+Startups marketing intern at RealCo long-term accelerator. Killinger wrote this profile on Tali, RealCo’s newest portfolio company.Tali, a Portland-based time tracking startup with revenue-generating customers, became RealCo long-term accelerator’s eighth portfolio company in June.Matt Volm, Matt Anthes-Washburn, and Matt Hoiland were co-workers at a large healthcare company in Portland, Oregon when Volm came to them with a problem. His wife Kimberlee is a lawyer who has to track every billable six-minute increment of her work day. She tracked her time on Post-It notes and would spend up to two hours nightly...

Texas BioMed Discovers Class of Antibodies That Block HIV Transmission

24Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

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Texas BioMed Discovers Class of Antibodies That Block HIV Transmission

Researchers from the San Antonio-based Texas Biomedical Research Institute have discovered a new defense against HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS. The group of Texas BioMed scientists led by Ruth Ruprecht, M.D., Ph.D., used an animal model to show for the first time that an antibody called Immunoglobulin M (IgM) was effective in preventing infection after mucosal AIDS virus exposure.Only certain body fluids from a person infected with HIV can transmit the virus. Infection occurs after fluids such as blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, or breast milk come in contact with a person's mucous membrane or damaged tissue or is directly injected into the bloodstream using a needle or syringe. Worldwide, an estimated 90% of new cases of HIV-1 are caused by exposure ...

The Founder Institute Comes To San Antonio as part of Texas Launch

19Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

The Founder Institute Comes To San Antonio as part of Texas Launch

Can you become a technology entrepreneur in four months? One global startup incubator program strives to teach people to do just that. The Founder Institute (FI) is launching in Texas, setting up entrepreneurial training teams in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.Programs in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are slated to begin in late 2018 to early 2019. The inaugural Texas FI cohort started in late 2017 in Austin and graduated founders of eight companies. The second Austin cohort graduated seven participants Wednesday evening.Recruitment for the next cohort in Austin and San Antonio’s first cohort is ongoing. Those interested can apply here and indicate San Antonio as their desired program location once it launches in late 2018.Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan establish...

Trinity University’s Students+Startups to Expand Nationwide in 2019

16Jul

By Iris Gonzalez1 Comment

Articles, Featured

Trinity University’s Students+Startups to Expand Nationwide in 2019

One San Antonio university internship program placing students at local startups is expanding its local reach to college students nationwide. Students+Startups, run collaboratively between Trinity University, the nonprofit 80/20 Foundation, and San Antonio co-working community Geekdom announced the program's expansion Monday.The internship program is funded by a grant from the 80/20 Foundation, established by the co-founder and former Rackspace chairman Graham Weston. The 80/20 Foundation had planned on opening the application process beyond Trinity University to students at all San Antonio colleges starting in 2019, according to Weston. In its first three years, the pilot program was solely offered to Trinity University students and had experienced three years of steady growth. In 201...

Broker Expertise and Rackspace Experience Behind Brokerage Engine Startup

13Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Broker Expertise and Rackspace Experience Behind Brokerage Engine Startup

As real estate sales have become more complex, real estate brokerage firms are wrestling with how to manage the massive flow of information generated from sales and purchases of investment properties. One San Antonio startup has developed a web-based software solution that addresses this widespread pain point for real estate brokerage firms. Brokerage Engine launched its software as a service (SaaS) platform in March and formally formed in April with four co-founders, two from the brokerage world, two from the tech world.Brokerage Engine’s chief financial officer (CFO) Brianne Alston had been working as Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty CFO for over six years (and at the firm for a total of 14 years), working closely with its broker-owner J Kuper. Kuper Sotheby’s has been in busines...

Tech2sDay July Event To Feature Alamo Angels Investor Network

10Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured, Sponsored Post

Tech2sDay July Event To Feature Alamo Angels Investor Network

The July 19 Tech2sDay event will be a special networking opportunity for members of San Antonio's tech ecosystem. Tech Bloc has asked the Alamo Angels to attend, giving many the chance to meet some of San Antonio's most influential, active startup investors and learn more about how local angel investors qualify investment opportunities.RSVP for the event here which takes place July 19 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 5 Points Local. For those who RSVP the first drink is on the house and there will be food and music along with tech ecosystem networking.The Alamo Angels investment syndicate brings members together to pool resources and expertise for investments. In addition to capital investments, Alamo Angels provide access to educational and business development resources and high-value connec...

RealCo(n) Will Connect RealCo Founders with Broader Startup Ecosystem

5Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

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RealCo(n) Will Connect RealCo Founders with Broader Startup Ecosystem

The RealCo Long-Term Accelerator program entered its second year with an ambitious idea. Soon after arriving at RealCo in April managing director Rich Grote began exploring how to create a way for the program’s distributed founders, mentors, and investors to engage deeply with each other in person and connect with the surrounding tech and startup ecosystem.That idea has now become realized with the launch of RealCo(n).The first recurring quarterly RealCo(n) mini-summit will be July 9 through July 11 in San Antonio. RealCo(n) will feature multiple closed events such as hands-on workshops, founder-bonding exercises, and mentor-matching activities organized to help founders, investors, and mentors connect and share ideas about startups.One RealCo(n) event will be open to the publi...

Entrepreneur, Mentor, and Teacher Hitish Nathani Dead at 33

2Jul

By Iris GonzalezNo Comments

Articles, Featured

Entrepreneur, Mentor, and Teacher Hitish Nathani Dead at 33

Hitish Nathani died Friday unexpectedly, as confirmed in a Facebook statement Saturday. Services will be held at the M.E. Rodriguez Funeral Home, 511 Guadalupe Street July 4 at 10 a.m. Nathani’s family have asked attendees to please bring a photo of Hitish to share and help celebrate his life.A GoFundMe account has been set up for Nathani’s family, click on the link if you wish to contribute.The news of Nathani’s death Friday evening at the age of 33 shook the San Antonio community, as the enthusiastic supporter of entrepreneurs across industries had impacted so many lives.In his position as the director of the Learning Company, Nathani worked tirelessly with students at the Alamo Colleges in its startup boot camp training the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. H...