Tag: Iris Gonzalez

Cycling Safety Tech Startup Wins Trinity University’s Stumberg Venture Competition
18Sep By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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Cycling Safety Tech Startup Wins Trinity University’s Stumberg Venture Competition

LuxTurn Technologies, a device motorcyclists use to make their turn and brake signals more visible to motorists, garnered the top prize of $20,000 at Trinity University's Louis H. Stumberg Venture Competition Wednesday. In a departure from past practice, the judges decided to split the $25,000 prize into two checks. Runner up StorySpread, a software that gives give young adults the opportunity to create stories and comics, received a check for $5,000."The judges wanted to recognize two strong startup teams this year and gave them both an amount that would enable them to move forward with their innovative products," said Luis Martinez, director of Trinity's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.Even more evidence of a strong showing in the finalist entrepreneur teams in this ye...
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Jungle Disk Launches Cybersecurity Awareness Training in a SaaS Platform
5Sep By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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Jungle Disk Launches Cybersecurity Awareness Training in a SaaS Platform

A new approach to providing cybersecurity awareness training is launching in San Antonio.Jungle Disk announced Thursday it has added cybersecurity awareness training to its suite of services designed for small businesses.  The employee training and tools will be available to customers as a monthly subscription service, a first in the cybersecurity awareness training industry.Jungle Disk is a cybersecurity company that caters to small and midsize businesses that spun out of Rackspace in 2016 with an $11 million investment. The company has 27 employees and about 25,000 customers.Launching these training tools as a recurring Software as a Service or SaaS service works well for small business owners who usually cannot afford expensive one-time training costs or cannot staff a robus...
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Bexar County Funds TechFuel Pitch Competition Open to Startups Across Texas
22Aug By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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Bexar County Funds TechFuel Pitch Competition Open to Startups Across Texas

Bexar County is teaming up with Tech Bloc, a San Antonio technology industry advocacy nonprofit on TechFuel, a non-dilutive, three-tiered $100,000 cash-prize pitch competition open to early-stage tech startups located across the state of Texas, Tech Bloc announced Thursday.The competition is designed to help emerging tech entrepreneurs launch innovative companies and is funded by Bexar County’s Innovation Fund. To apply, eligible companies must have a product or service that is live and on the market, have received less than $1 million in outside funding, produce less than $1.5 million in revenue, and intend to grow their companies primarily in Bexar County.Early-stage companies with an innovative technology-based business, including biotechnology, finance, and clean energy startup...
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Big Data Analytics Startup Quickpath Scaling as Machine Learning-Powered AI Demand Grows
21Aug By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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Big Data Analytics Startup Quickpath Scaling as Machine Learning-Powered AI Demand Grows

When you use Amazon Alexa, Siri, or Google, you can thank machine learning (ML) powering the artificial intelligence (AI) for the targeted ads, personalized content, song recommendations, and more that you get in personalized services. That exploding demand for big data-driven enterprise applications is what is fueling Quickpath's rapid growth. The San Antonio big data analytics software startup uses its cloud-based software application program interface, or API, to help businesses lacking the specialized AI expertise to connect the different datasets that fuel machine learning AI. The proprietary Quickpath platform debuted in late 2018 for midmarket and enterprise companies implementing ML hardware and software packages. "We wanted to make it 10 times easier for companies to acces...
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Scaleworks Buys E-Commerce Search Company Nextopia, Names Pete Messana as CEO
15Aug By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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Scaleworks Buys E-Commerce Search Company Nextopia, Names Pete Messana as CEO

San Antonio-based venture equity firm Scaleworks has acquired  Nextopia, an e-merchandising software company specializing in search and navigation solutions. The company is the second purchase for the San Antonio private equity firm’s second $80 million fund announced in February. Nextopia is also in the online search and navigation space as is competitor SearchSpring, which Scaleworks acquired in May.Read more: Scaleworks Acquires SearchSpring, Leader In E-commerce SearchSpring“Every step of the customer journey in e-commerce has a big impact on sales – from search to landing pages to merchandising, said Lew Moorman, Scaleworks general partner and co-founder. "With Nextopia and SearchSpring we are assembling the best-of-breed toolset to help merchants of all size sell as effective...
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What You Need To Know About New Texas Cybersecurity Laws And GSA Contracting Changes
19Jul By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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What You Need To Know About New Texas Cybersecurity Laws And GSA Contracting Changes

Representatives from San Antonio cybersecurity companies such as Webhead, IPSecure, and Inflow packed a standing room only room at a San Antonio Chamber of Commerce cyber networking event Thursday evening to learn about the latest cybersecurity and information technology (IT) laws and federal contracting innovation.The Chamber invited Amanda Crawford, executive director of the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) and Government Services Administration (GSA) regional administrator Robert "Bobby" Babcock to share news about the latest Texas state legislation and changes in federal government contracting. Future events will feature other state and federal experts who can help inform San Antonio's cybersecurity community about relevant developments, Chamber president and CEO Ric...
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CANopener Labs Launches R&D, Prototyping Services for San Antonio Innovators
12Jul By Iris Gonzalez2 Comments
Articles, Featured

CANopener Labs Launches R&D, Prototyping Services for San Antonio Innovators

Startup founders interested in creating a technology product start with an idea. What if that founder lacks specific skills, highly specialized equipment, space, and manufacturing contacts to turn that idea into a working prototype?San Antonio's startup ecosystem now has a pre-fabrication service that can help early-stage innovators who lack the resources to develop technologies on their own. CANopener Labs is the first local company designed to help tech founders get their product idea ready for the market.Co-founders Drue Placette, Dale Bracey, and David Elam opened a 7,000-square-foot warehouse, located at 1235 Safari St. near the San Antonio International Airport. The trio bootstrapped opening their prototyping space, building many of its features and often reusing materials an...
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Fast-Growing CNF Technologies Opens Cyber Lab at Port San Antonio
10Jul By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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Fast-Growing CNF Technologies Opens Cyber Lab at Port San Antonio

One of the fastest-growing cybersecurity companies in San Antonio opened a state-of-the-art cyber research and development (R&D) facility. CNF Technologies launched its new cyber lab in Port San Antonio's first specialized cyber-capable Project Tech building Wednesday. The new CNF cyber lab is 6,000 square feet with another 12,000 square feet to be added by 2020 for cybersecurity operations support. CNF Technologies is one of the 100 fastest-growing companies in San Antonio for 2019 and is a leading source of specialized cybersecurity expertise nationwide. In 2015, CNF Technologies had only 26 employees and annual revenue of $4.5 million. The early projections for 2019 are about 155 employees and annual revenue of $32 million, according to chief operations officer Stephen Barish. ...
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UTSA Names Former Cyber Command Commander as National Security Collaboration Center Director
10Jul By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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UTSA Names Former Cyber Command Commander as National Security Collaboration Center Director

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) named U.S. Air Force (USAF) Brigadier General (Ret.) Guy M. Walsh as the founding director of its National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC) Wednesday. Walsh begins his new role at UTSA immediately.The university’s new National Security Collaboration Center will be co-located with UTSA’s School of Data Science and next to the university’s new location for its College of Business. Construction of the $33 million, 80,000-square-foot facility is slated to begin in 2020, with an anticipated opening in 2021. The new center will focus on cybersecurity, data analytics, and cloud computing research and education to help develop the much-needed workforce for many high-technology jobs.Walsh previously led the U.S. Cyber Command, the Depart...
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Exclusive Interview with Amanda Keammerer, New Cybersecurity VP at SA Chamber of Commerce
20Jun By Iris GonzalezNo Comments
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Exclusive Interview with Amanda Keammerer, New Cybersecurity VP at SA Chamber of Commerce

The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce confirmed Wednesday that Amanda Keammerer, who has served in an acting role since January, has been named as the Chamber’s permanent vice president of cybersecurity and director of the Chamber’s CyberSecurity San Antonio.“Amanda joined my team less than two years ago and has since become one of the business community’s most important cybersecurity assets," stated San Antonio Chamber president and chief executive (CEO) Richard Perez in an announcement. “From strengthening relationships to increasing our region’s global name recognition, Amanda plays an important role in elevating San Antonio’s contributions to local and national security.”Keammerer is a native San Antonian who possesses a strong background in federal cybersecurity and information ...
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