Bigfoot Networks, the networking technology company behind the Killer line of gaming network cards, today announced it has raised $8 million in a Series B financing round led by existing investors North Bridge Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures and Raven Venture Partners. It will use the investment to fund product development and expand its go-to-market capabilities. Bigfoot Networks has raised a total of $20.75 million in funding to date.

Bigfoot Networks also announced that it has hired former Polycom executive Wayne Dunlap as vice president of engineering and added veteran consumer technology executive Greg Ballard to its board of directors.

Reporting to Bigfoot Networks CEO Michael Howse, Mr. Dunlap will direct development of the company’s high-performance online gaming technology. As former CTO and vice president of engineering at Polycom, Dunlap brings extensive experience in networking and data communications. At Polycom’s Video Solutions Division he was instrumental in creating the top-ranked HDX high-definition videoconferencing product line. Prior to Polycom, Mr. Dunlap held technical lead and senior engineering positions with Wang Laboratories, Nomadic Systems and The Complete PC. He has several US patents in visual collaboration.

“Bigfoot Networks’ technology targets a growing demand for improved networking performance in online gaming,” Dunlap said. “I’m thrilled to lead a team that is pioneering this exciting new category of networking solutions and evolving the experience for gamers around the world.”

Bart Bohn, our Wireless/IT Director helped to coordinate, coach, and advise the teams and served as the main ATI point of contact throughout the process.

There was a wonderful mix of computer science, engineering, law, and business students all working together to come up with creative ideas.  The 4 ideas that made it to the end were around the following concepts:

• greeting cards
• educational gaming
• mobile, location based services
• new media for sports entertainment

Judges included Adam Dell, Charley Dean from Silverton Partners, Rob Neville from ATI member company Savara, Joshua Bauer from Other Inbox, Paul Hurdlow from DLA Piper, and a few others.

Check out the 3 Day Startup blog to learn more.  I’m glad I was able to make it and see all of the creativity in progress!  Stay tuned for the next one happening at ATI again in April 2009.

What it’s all about:

The idea of 3 Day Startup is simple: start a technology company over the course of three days. We rent work space for an entire weekend, invite 40 students with a wide range of backgrounds, cater food, drinks, snacks, and coffee, pick the best idea for a software startup during the Friday brainstorming session, and release a minimal prototype by Sunday night. The goal is to build enough momentum among a network of motivated people to sustain the company beyond the weekend.

Who participates:

Passionate students with an entrepreneurial drive, including Computer Science (PhD, MS, undergraduate), MBAs, JDs, graphic designers, PR, business undergraduates, etc. We are looking for strong candidates that can fill the following roles:

Software Engineer
Business (Finance, Marketing, Biz Dev)
Graphic Design (Web, Print)
Advertising, PR
Legal
Raw Passion

Check out the 3 Day Startup Blog to see how things progress over this weekend.  We can’t wait to see what great ideas come out of this weekend!

ActaCell lands $1 million state grant

By Lori Hawkins
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Austin-based startup ActaCell Inc., which is developing advanced battery cells, has received a grant worth as much as $1 million from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.

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Jack McDonald, chairman of the Central Texas Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization, which nominates Austin companies for technology fund grants, said: “Plug-in hybrid cars offer a path to American energy independence if we can develop cost-effective battery technology. With this investment, the Emerging Technology Fund advances the goal of American energy independence while keeping Texas at the cutting edge of green-energy technologies and creating jobs right here at home.”

ActaCell is one of more than a dozen companies racing to develop battery cells for hybrids, and most are also focusing on lithium-ion technology, such as Austin-based Valence Technology Inc., which makes batteries for a variety of vehicles, including the Segway personal transporter.

Read more…

TREIA represents over 500 member companies, organizations, agencies and individuals providing products, services and information in the areas of solar electric generation, solar hot water, large and small-scale wind electric generation, biomass electric generation and liquid renewable fuels, geothermal heating and cooling, geothermal electric generation, and sustainable (green) building design and construction.

The Texas Renewables 2009 Conference is about: Policy developments and business activity in the renewable energy field: wind, solar electric and thermal, biomass electric, ethanol, biodiesel, geoexchange and geothermal electric.

The third was held on October 26 which we will be posting about soon.  The third session in the series on term sheets and valuations was a panel comprised of successful entrepreneurs.   They  shared their tips and tricks on getting financing rounds managed and closed as well as what terms are most important to them.

The following was written by Celeste Mejia, one of our ATI Interns, who previously interned with Goldman Sachs.  She  is currently working with member companies InXero, Unwired Nation, and Agile Planet.

Takeaways:

Some key mistakes entrepreneurs make when approaching VCs and discussing term sheets include:

• Not paying attention to ownership and equity. Not being flexible in terms of percentage ownership.
• Focusing too much on the pre-money value, when post-money value is often more important for VCs.
• Being overly optimistic. Assume things will go badly and plan for that.

Tips for entrepreneurs:

• The more entrepreneurs can control on the first round, the more options and leverage they will have on  further rounds
• Understanding what “preferred stock” and “participating preferred stock” means is important. Typically, common stock will get very little money at exit.
• Typical ownership that VCs ask for in Series A will range from 25% to 35%.
• The employee stock pool shouldn’t be ignored. By exit, VCs will probably want to carve out the pool and it will be 100% dilutive to owners. Entrepreneurs should try to make that pool as small as they can.  Relative range: 20% or less if possible.  The employee pool is generally refreshed at each investment round.
• Due to the state of the economy, there is a disconnect between what VC’s expect, in terms of return, and what they can realistically get. In order to compensate for this difference, VCs will ask for more ownership
• Going to VC’s that have experience in your company’s field and striking a connection with them is very important
• It takes a long time to secure A round financing. Typically, companies will speak to 30 or more VCs before meeting a match. Meeting frequently with VCs even if there’s no immediate need for money will help build important relationships.
• Angels are a great place to go to get “enough traction” that leads to VC investing

Speakers:

David Altounian is the President and CEO of Motion Computing, a leading provider of Slate Tablet computing products.   He was the founding member of the Motion team and was a key product officer until 2006 when he left to pursue a graduate degree.  Mr. Altounian rejoined Motion in July of 2008.  Mr. Altounian has more than 20 years of management and staff experience in the technology sector. Retired from Dell Computer Corporation after nearly seven years, Mr. Altounian served in senior marketing executive positions for both the notebook computer and workstation product businesses where he was responsible for the Worldwide Product Marketing organizations. He spent two years in Europe as the General Manager, Workstation Line of Business for Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Prior to joining Dell, Mr. Altounian managed marketing and business development teams for leading technology companies including Motorola, Compaq Computer Corporation and Ashton-Tate.  He was the founder and is currently a board member of iTaggit Inc., a web 2.0 company committed to helping people document, showcase, monetize, and value the things that they collect.     He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from California Coast University and earned his MBA at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Ana C. Ward is currently Senior Vice President, General Counsel for Asuragen, Inc. Prior to Asuragen, she was General Counsel for Ambion and was responsible for a wide variety of legal issues including licensing, corporate transactions, patents, and trademarks. Prior to joining Ambion, Ms. Ward served as Senior Intellectual Property Counsel for Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., and as an associate at the law firm Sidley & Austin. She has a BA in French/Zoology, a Masters in Molecular Biology, a Doctor of Jurisprudence, and a Masters of Business Administration, all from the University of Texas at Austin. Ms. Ward is also a registered patent attorney, and served as an adjunct professor at the UT School of Law.

Larry Warnock is the President & CEO of Phurnace Software, Inc., an ATI alumni company.  He provides strategic guidance and operational expertise to the company. Larry has over 25 years of experience working with start-up and established technology companies. Most recently he was CMO of Vignette, a publicly traded enterprise content management software company. As a Venture Partner at AV Labs (Austin Ventures), Larry assisted with the incubation of several early-stage software companies. Previously, he was an executive at start-up OnLink Technologies which was acquired by CRM market-leader Siebel Systems. Earlier in his career, Larry was a VP at Documentum, a publicly traded content-management software company (acquired by EMC) from its start-up phase through a successful IPO and into the market leader. Larry holds a BBA in Marketing from Texas A&M University where he was a Cadet Lt. Colonel in the Corps of Cadets. He is currently a guest lecturer at McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, and the Acton MBA program of Hardin-Simmons University.

Sponsored By:

Andrews Kurth is a leading law firm for entrepreneurs, public and private emerging grown companies, and venture capital and private equity firms.  Our firm’s Technology & Emerging Growth practice comprises a dedicated team of attorneys in technology centers around the United States providing focused representation to public and private emerging growth companies and entrepreneurs as well as the venture capital and private equity firms that finance them.  We take pride in having a practical, business-life approach to advising our clients, and we share their entrepreneurial spirit and drive.  Our driven client service teams combine relevant experience with an understanding of a client’s business and markets to provide efficient, cost-effective legal services and creative solutions with an outstanding degree of responsiveness.  We thrive in the fast-paced entrepreneurial world by combining flexibility and speed with the experience that comes from taking billions of dollars in new ventures from inception to IPO and beyond.

An overview of the event was written up on The Daily Texan at Contest Promotes Marketable Ideas.

Fifteen teams from 19 universities and eight countries presented their inventions and marketing strategies at the seventh annual Idea to Product Global Competition over the weekend at UT.

Read more…

The winners are listed on the Global Idea to Product Site and are as follows.  You can also view videos of the presentation from links listed on their site.  I’m happy to say that the team I coached from Purdue/Indiana University called Glucago won one of the first place prizes.  And Bart Bohn coached the Keio University team that took 1st place in another category.

Cockrell School of Engineering Global Championship

1st place - Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho/ Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa/Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Brazil

2nd place - Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship, Sweden

3rd place - University of Colorado at Boulder

McCombs School of Business Global Championship

1st place - Purdue University/Indiana University

2nd place - Texas A&M University

3rd place - COTEC, Portugal

Technology Entrepreneurship Society Global Championship

1st place - Keio University, Japan

2nd place - Illinois Institute of Technology

3rd place - Penn State University

Understanding Funding Sources

Creating New Business Plans and Ventures

Technology Transfer and Commercialization Class at UT

Intellectual Property and Business Formation

We really appreciate Beth taking the time to write up her takeaways on the series!  She even says “I’m sad the series is over, I really enjoyed it! It certainly got me thinking about technology from a different point of view.”  This is just one example of the education and learning opportunities we provide our interns.

Entrepreneur as Innovator and Technology Venture | October 16^th, 2009

The speakers was Mr. Charles Griffin who worked at CarboMedics for 25 years, first as a Research Engineer and most recently as President, until the company was acquired and moved to Italy. The company made artificial heart valves and Mr. Griffin was able to use his experience in the medical device industry for his next venture. He was contacted by Santé Ventures, a local VC firm, to be President & CEO of BioStable Science & Engineering, Inc.  The company is developing products for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Mr. Griffin used his contacts from CarboMedics to put together an experienced management team. The first product they created was the HAART device used in aortic valve repair. This decision was based on research showing that it is better to repair then replace the heart mitral valve and there was currently no product on the market for the aortic valve.  Future plans are to expand product development to maximize market revenue. Mr. Griffin had some advice:

Develop Philosophy & Culture

• Do it right every time
• Learn from failure
• Let your employees operate freely within constraints & understand their motivations
• Hold people accountable

Build a team

• Select vendors and treat them well to get good quality
• Only hire when it’s necessary to get the best people

Build a business to treat an unmet need (or disease) not to commercialize a technology

• Develop a good plan
• Stay focused

Market Launch | October 23^rd, 2009

The speaker was Mr. Rick Wittenbraker who is a general partner at Stage One Capital, an early stage VC firm, and also works as an independent advisor to other ventures. Previously, Mr. Wittenbraker was Chief Operating Officer at Patton Medical. This company created a device that minimizes injection puncture sites (i-port® Injection Port). He discussed the importance of taking technology and turning it into a product.

VC questions (mentioned multiple times during the semester so they must be important)

• Is there a need?
• Does the product meet that need?
• Is this the right team to get it there?

Funding

• Stat with technology (focus on R&D) but once you decide to bring a product to market you have to focus on $$
• Determine company goals, work backwards

Market strategy

• What is your competitive edge?
• Who are you as a brand?
• What is your strategy? What are you selling?
• Who is your audience? What is your message?
• *Be careful, you might have more audiences that you anticipate*
• Consumer, Partners, Distributor & Acquirers
• Relationships are critical to find, build & maintain

Growth Challenge

• Focus on strategy
• Intelligent spending
• Revenue is top priority
• Follow the plan (but revisit often)

The second session was held on October 5 and the third was on October 26 which we will be posting about soon.  The second in the series on term sheets and valuations builds on the terms and term sheets discussed in the first session.  This session consisted of a panel of investors who discussed their perspectives on the investment and valuation process for companies seeking funding.

A Few Takeaways:

Some key mistakes entrepreneurs make when approaching VCs and discussing term sheets include:

• focusing too much on valuation and not on the term sheet as a whole package
• not doing enough due diligence on the VC
• not taking time to really understand the option pool
• not articulating well how they are going tom ake the team rich
• sending a n unsolicited, self prepared term sheet to the VC
• having unique and complicated debt structures that ’scare’ away some VC’s
• having employment agreements with certain employees that make investing by a VC difficult

Some terms that are important to understand:

• liquidation preferences
• anti-dilution clauses
• ratchets
• option pool

Speakers:

Charley Dean is a Principal with Silverton Partners, an early stage-venture capital firm based in Austin, Texas.  Prior to joining Silverton, Charley worked with Thomas Weisel Venture Partners in Menlo Park.  He has also worked in the investment banking group at Thomas Weisel Partners and with Cargill in their distressed commercial loan fund.  He received both his BS and MBA from Stanford University.

Blair Garrou has significant experience in operating, investing and advisory roles with start-up companies, with a particular focus on enterprise and consumer software. Prior to co-founding DFJ Mercury, Blair was the CEO of Intermat, Inc., a leader in product information management software, where he led the sale of the company to IHS, Inc. (NYSE: IHS). Prior to Intermat, Blair was a Principal of Genesis Park LP, a Houston-based private equity firm, where he focused on the firm’s venture investments, including Intermat, FuelQuest (acq. by Saracen Energy), and SAT Corporation (FTSE: ISYS.L). Prior to Genesis Park, Blair helped launch and was the Director of Operations for the Houston Technology Center, the largest technology incubator in the state of Texas, and led the formation of the Houston Angel Network, one of the largest and most active angel investment organizations in the US.  Previously, Blair was an investment banker with BMO Nesbitt Burns, and an auditor with Deloitte & Touche. Blair is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas. He received a B.S. in Management with special attainments in Commerce from the Williams School at Washington & Lee University.

Doug Mangum is a managing director in Silicon Valley Bank’s Central Division. He is responsible for business development and growth in the division through his work with high-growth technology and life science companies and private equity firms.  In his tenure at Silicon Valley Bank, Mangum has specialized in unique financing solutions for high-growth technology companies, focusing on software, semiconductor design and web 2.0 enterprise companies. He has served as an integral business partner to over 150 technology and life science companies in Austin, Dallas and Houston helping develop debt infrastructure plans to help companies grow and succeed.

Christopher Shonk – Chris started his first business at fourteen and has been financially self-sufficient from that day on.  Beyond that he has actively sought out opportunities to improve the environment of those around him.   Chris served in the US Special Forces to provide money for college and attain leadership and strategic execution skills from the world’s most elite operators.  Chris won the highly prestigious Special Warfare Soldier of the Year award while on active duty.  He specialized in unconventional warfare, medical and communication training.  He worked as an analyst at Merrill Lynch before attending the nation’s most competitive MBA, Austin’s own Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship.   Upon graduation Chris cofounded Austin’s first local investment bank, Virtus Financial Group, and managed the firm’s private equity fund. Chris sold his interests in 2006 and focused on personal investments.   Chris is committed to excellence and the betterment of local businesses, he is an active angel investor and brings experience, counsel and capital to many companies looking to grow.   Known as a numbers based operator Chris is a sought after director and adviser, he is a director at  Display Points Holdings and Minggl and the Central Texas Angel Network.   Chris currently owns and operates several Massage Envy clinics in Austin, Texas and a chain of pawn shops in Arizona.  He helps provide local jobs for over 250 people in Austin.  Chris has been interviewed by such major publications as Business Week, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Forbes.   He was the first alumni to start an endowment for the Acton MBA to afford other deserving entrepreneurs to follow in his footsteps.

Sponsored By:

Andrews Kurth is a leading law firm for entrepreneurs, public and private emerging grown companies, and venture capital and private equity firms.  Our firm’s Technology & Emerging Growth practice comprises a dedicated team of attorneys in technology centers around the United States providing focused representation to public and private emerging growth companies and entrepreneurs as well as the venture capital and private equity firms that finance them.  We take pride in having a practical, business-life approach to advising our clients, and we share their entrepreneurial spirit and drive.  Our driven client service teams combine relevant experience with an understanding of a client’s business and markets to provide efficient, cost-effective legal services and creative solutions with an outstanding degree of responsiveness.  We thrive in the fast-paced entrepreneurial world by combining flexibility and speed with the experience that comes from taking billions of dollars in new ventures from inception to IPO and beyond.

The post is called Ozone Therapy: Is this the Silver Bullet for Herniated Disc? Check it out!

About Minimus Spine:

Each year in the United States there are approximately one million patients that try steroid injections to relieve the pain associated with a disc herniation in their lower back.  Another 250,000 patients have exhausted non-surgical treatment and opt for surgery.  Minimus Spine believes that it can benefit these patients with a single injection and reduce the number of patients that ultimately need surgery.

We at Minimus Spine are developing ozone injection technology for spinal applications.  Ozone has been used to treat disc herniations in Europe for over 15 years and there are over 20 peer-reviewed papers documenting over 8,000 patients.  We are working to improve the existing technology and responsibly commercialize this novel therapy in the United States.  This will involve rigorous clinical trials conducted by spine surgeons and interventional radiologists.  The study will seek to confirm that an injection of ozone into a herniated disc is safe and effective.  The results of these trials will be submitted to FDA for marketing approval.  Currently, ozone cannot be legally marketed for medical application in the U.S.

This product is not yet available but efforts are being made to begin clinical trials in 2010.  Check back periodically for more information.

We hope to improve patient care and believe that we can save the health care system billions of dollars each year on unnecessary injections and surgeries.