THE CENTER OF GRAVITY FOR ENTREPRENEURS IN TEXAS
One event on February 5, 2020 at 8:45am
An event every month that begins at 8:45am on day First of the month, repeating until December 31, 2020
RSVP FOR THIS EVENT | Free
Need a break from the snarky, sharky, and stiff pitch forums? Come join the Kauffman Foundation’s 1 Million Cups for a cup of coffee and a community-centered approach to helping start-ups answer that 1 question that is stumping your business. Presentations start at 9am sharp so come a few minutes early to grab a cup of coffee and settle in.
How 1MC works:
On Wednesday mornings, one or two early-stage businesses present their companies to a diverse local audience of peers, mentors, educators, and advisors.
Each founder’s presentation lasts six minutes and is followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session with the audience.
After the question-and-answer session, the presenter is always asked this question: “What can we, as a community, do to help you?”
1 MILLION CUPS is a free, nationwide program designed to educate, engage and accelerate early-stage startups. We believe in the notion that entrepreneurs can discover solutions and thrive when they collaborate over a million cups of coffee. Drop in on our community of innovators and entrepreneurship enthusiasts to connect and support our local startups.
The 1MC name was inspired by an article titled “A Million Cups,” written by Seth Kravitz, founder of Technori. The premise of the article is that true communities are built through meaningful interactions between people over a million cups of coffee.
1MC’s culture is supportive and neutral, welcoming entrepreneurs to be open and honest about their businesses and the challenges they face. The program’s platform is not a traditional “pitch” environment. Rather, an entrepreneur makes an educational presentation to a room of individuals who can provide constructive criticism, share experiences and support one another as a community.
Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting entrepreneurs globally in partnership with Google for Startups.
The cornerstone of our global community are monthly events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Founded in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs build their businesses, connect with strategic partners, and secure funding.
Start a Chapter in your city! – http://www.startupgrind.com/start
Sponsor an event! – https://www.startupgrind.com/sponsor
Have a Startup? your startup & meet investors at a regional conference through our Startup Program – http://bit.ly/sg_meetup_startup_first
Starting a startup is easy. Building a great company is not. Amongst all the excitement of running a startup is a lot of hard work and stressful decisions. Founders Academy Essentials is a 4-day lunch-n-learn curriculum designed specifically for driven entrepreneurs that are passionate about their business potential!
Whether you’re working on your MVP and preparing for launch or already generating revenue, you will be exposed to fundamental insights and tools to help dramatically increase your odds of success.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Program Dates – April 13-16
11:15AM (arrive early – bring your own lunch); 11:30AM – 1:30PM (lectures).
*Hosted from Austin and live-streamed to partner sites throughout Texas.
Day 1:
-Developing Your Idea
-Elevator Pitch Secrets
-Sizing your Market
-Customer Acquisition Strategies
Day 2:
-Marketing & Pricing Basics
-Optimizing CAC, Churn & LTV
-Demystifying Cap Tables
-Controlling Legal Costs
Day 3:
-Business Development Secrets & Strategic Partnerships
-Setting the Stage for a Future Acquisition Exit
-Running a Clean Business
Day 4:
-How Much Should You Raise & When?
-Seed Funding Vehicles and Terms
-Finding & Pitching Investors
-Negotiating Valuation
-Fundraising Issues, Hints & Tips
Please plan to attend at least 3 sessions when registering.
SPECIAL THANKS TO…
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Gordon Daugherty is a best-selling author, seasoned business executive, entrepreneur, startup advisor and investor. A proud native Texan, Gordon grew up in a small town and graduated from Baylor University with a computer science degree. He spent the first ten years of his career in brand-name companies such as IBM and Compaq and then progressively gravitated towards early-stage and high-growth companies. Gordon spent eight years in the videoconferencing industry, including four years as president of an Israeli-based company that grew from $5 million to $36 million in a short few years and went public on the Euronext Stock Market.
Gordon oversaw most company functions while serving in executive capacities, but his primary focus was on strategy, marketing, sales, business development, and M&A. He was a senior executive for Austin-based NetQoS, which grew rapidly to more than $55 million in revenue before being acquired by CA Technologies for $200 million, and he was a founding advisor for digital advertising pioneer MediaMind, which reached $65 million in revenue and a NASDAQ IPO in 2010.
Gordon has vast experience with early-stage fundraising from both sides of the table. As a venture fund manager and angel investor, he has made more than 200 investments. He has also helped raise more than $80 million in growth and venture capital as a company executive, fund manager, board director, and active advisor. Fundraising is the focus of the first book he authored, titled “Startup Success: Funding the Early Stages of Your Venture”.
Through his content creation practice, Shockwave Innovations, and as co-founder and president of Austin’s Capital Factory, Gordon now spends 100 percent of his time educating, advising, and investing in tech startups. He serves on the board of directors for several Austin-based technology companies and is a managing director at SoftMatch, a corporate innovation advisory firm.
Over the years, Gordon has given personal advice to several hundred entrepreneurs, and more than 1,000 startup founders have completed his Founders Academy boot camp. He has published more than 150 startup advice articles and is the producer of a video library with 50 streaming titles of educational content for startup founders.
WHAT ARE STARTUP FOUNDER’S SAYING ABOUT FOUNDERS ACADEMY?
“Founders Academy is a must! Gordon unlocked new value in concepts I thought I was already familiar with.”
“I’d recommend Founders Academy to other startup founders because of critical early alarms about easy to overlook things.”
“I wish we had done this a year ago.”
“I could not have been more pleased with how clearly Gordon explained things.”
“The way you convey the material is great and the examples you give makes things clear.”
“Fantastic. The camp really provides a complete view of the components necessary to build your business. The additional personal stories you interjected really validate your message.”
“I didn’t know anything about starting a company before joining Capitol Factory, and this workshop has probably taught me the most.”
“If you are thinking about becoming a founder this is an up-close and personal intro from the trenches. If you’ve been around the block a few times, you’ll still learn something. A founder can’t hear this stuff enough.”
“I wish I could have done this years ago because my first venture with VC’s did not go well. You don’t know what you don’t know and the startup landscape is hard to navigate.”
Challenge Purpose
The Challenge is designed to help small business owners who struggle with flat sales OR wanting to hit the “next level” OR looking to build value for future sale OR wanting to recapture momentum in their business.
Who is it for?
This program is for entrepreneurs with established businesses, earning between $50,000 and $250,000 in annual revenue, who want to achieve growth.
Length
This program runs for 60-days with onsite group sessions every other week through interactive course work, combined with 1-on-1 and group tutorial support.
Fees & Scholarship Opportunity
The fee for this program is between $200 – $400 US. [Per Company (CEO and key team member)]
If you have a USA-based business with at least $50,000 of annual revenues, and qualify in one of the below categories, you may be eligible for a premium wage Job Creators Scholarship.
Special considerations for:
-Woman-owned business,
-Ethnic minorities,
-Military Veterans,
-Membership in participating business organization,
-Located in a low to moderate income (LMI) area
-Cash & Prizes
Upon successful completion of this Challenge, those businesses who meet our criteria will be given the opportunity to present at our Pitch, Presentation & Graduation Day.-5-Minute Presentation
-Opportunity to win cash & prizes of $5,000
-Celebrate with Family, Friends and Fellow Participants
-Winners Qualify to Participate in next-level upcoming Founders “Boot Camp”
Join us for a night of networking and pitches. You’ll hear 5 Austin based start-ups pitch their product for 99 seconds!
Founders Live is an unforgettable happy hour competition sweeping the country where up to five handpicked companies take the hot seat, with only 99 seconds to pitch their company and describe their value proposition in front of an eager audience. After the pitches and audience Q&A, the crowd will vote on a winner who will not only receive an award, but recognition from the crowd and also the opportunity to talk more about their product or service. So bring your friends and coworkers, grab some food and drink, get to know your local entrepreneurs and vote for what you think will be the next big thing… built in Austin
Sponsors:
AWS (presenters receive 5,000AWS credits)
Google Cloud (presenters receive 3,000 Google Cloud credits)
Come talk about your startup, ideas, challenges, experiences, etc. Get support, feedback and advice from experienced entrepreneurs. Also, every month we invite an Austin startup to share their experiences, challenges, failures, successes and learnings from their startup journey.
Need a break from the snarky, sharky, and stiff pitch forums? Come join the Kauffman Foundation’s 1 Million Cups for a cup of coffee and a community-centered approach to helping start-ups answer that 1 question that is stumping your business. Presentations start at 9am sharp so come a few minutes early to grab a cup of coffee and settle in.
How 1MC works:
On Wednesday mornings, one or two early-stage businesses present their companies to a diverse local audience of peers, mentors, educators, and advisors.
Each founder’s presentation lasts six minutes and is followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session with the audience.
After the question-and-answer session, the presenter is always asked this question: “What can we, as a community, do to help you?”
1 MILLION CUPS is a free, nationwide program designed to educate, engage and accelerate early-stage startups. We believe in the notion that entrepreneurs can discover solutions and thrive when they collaborate over a million cups of coffee. Drop in on our community of innovators and entrepreneurship enthusiasts to connect and support our local startups.
The 1MC name was inspired by an article titled “A Million Cups,” written by Seth Kravitz, founder of Technori. The premise of the article is that true communities are built through meaningful interactions between people over a million cups of coffee.
1MC’s culture is supportive and neutral, welcoming entrepreneurs to be open and honest about their businesses and the challenges they face. The program’s platform is not a traditional “pitch” environment. Rather, an entrepreneur makes an educational presentation to a room of individuals who can provide constructive criticism, share experiences and support one another as a community.
Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting entrepreneurs globally in partnership with Google for Startups.
The cornerstone of our global community are monthly events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Founded in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind has helped millions of entrepreneurs build their businesses, connect with strategic partners, and secure funding.
Start a Chapter in your city! – http://www.startupgrind.com/start
Sponsor an event! – https://www.startupgrind.com/sponsor
Have a Startup? your startup & meet investors at a regional conference through our Startup Program – http://bit.ly/sg_meetup_startup_first
Join us for a night of networking and pitches. You’ll hear 5 Austin based start-ups pitch their product for 99 seconds!
Founders Live is an unforgettable happy hour competition sweeping the country where up to five handpicked companies take the hot seat, with only 99 seconds to pitch their company and describe their value proposition in front of an eager audience. After the pitches and audience Q&A, the crowd will vote on a winner who will not only receive an award, but recognition from the crowd and also the opportunity to talk more about their product or service. So bring your friends and coworkers, grab some food and drink, get to know your local entrepreneurs and vote for what you think will be the next big thing… built in Austin
Sponsors:
AWS (presenters receive 5,000AWS credits)
Google Cloud (presenters receive 3,000 Google Cloud credits)
Come talk about your startup, ideas, challenges, experiences, etc. Get support, feedback and advice from experienced entrepreneurs. Also, every month we invite an Austin startup to share their experiences, challenges, failures, successes and learnings from their startup journey.
No Appointment Necessary
Stop by for a tour any Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at 4pm. We're located at 7th and Brazos in the middle of downtown Austin. Get Directions
