Audio Version:

Pictures from the event:

Eagle-Eye Sensor Systems provides petroleum producers with instantaneous ‘Situational Awareness’ through the use of accurate measuring equipment coupled with real-time telemetry. If you are interested  in contacting Eagle Eye Sensors, check out their website http://www.eagleeyesensors.com.

Be sure to save the date for our next innovation luncheon  – March 10, 2012 from 12pm to 2pm.  Registration will open soon.

• When: Thursday, Feb 25, 2010. 5.30-8.30pm
• Where: Infomart #2019, 1950 Stemmons Freeway, Dallas 75207

Speakers and Topics

Here are the tentative program details.

5.30-5.45 Networking and Dinner
5.45-6.00 Introduction to MIT EF DFW by Brad Taylor,
6.00-6.20 Alexander Muse – Why this is a great time for startups in DFW
6.20-6.40 Ryan Roberts – Thestartuplawyer.com – Startup legal matters
6.40-7.00 Mike D. Merrill – 10 Ways To Promote Your Company For Free Using Social Media
7.00-7.15 Break
7.15-7.45 Entrepreneur Roundtable – DFW entrepreneurs in the trenches: Andres Fabris (CEO, Traxo) and Jeff Maynard (CEO, Biometric Signature-ID)
7.45-8.05 Gabriella Draney - Tech WildCatters – Microseed Fund in DFW
8.05-8.25 Nick Lawrence – Alternate Sources of Funding for Technology Entrepreneurs

Event Presentations

• Alexander Muse – American Idol – Bootstrapping

• 10 Ways To Promote Your Company For Free Using Social Media – Mike D Merrill.

• Alternate Sources of Funding for Technology Entrepreneurs - Nick Lawrence.

We plan to post video clips from the event soon. Here are some resources that entrepreneurs can benefit from.

• Pitching Hacks  - Venture Hacks (PDF)
• Book: Free Publicity – Jeff Crilley – Link
• Art of the Start (Presentation) – Guy Kawasaki – PDF
• Outline of the talk from JR Atkins on Selling for Non-Sellers

1. Sales 1.0 vs. Sales 2.0
2. Who are you selling too?
3. What are the needs of your prospect?
4. Pull vs. Push
5. The power of questions.
6. What is your value proposition?
7. Write and speak in the word of your prospect.
8. How do you like to buy?
9. KISS with details available
10. Use visual images
11. Use a simple leave behind.
12. How do you define selling?
13. What are the feelings associated with your product or service?
14. Be aware of feelings vs. figures
15. Be aware of Communication styles

Here’s the program summary.

As an entrepreneur you have often heard about the elevator pitch. There is more to pitching than 30 second pitches. It is critical for entrepreneurs to sell their ideas and products to customers and investors. Can you effectively communicate the value of your products and ideas? Do you know what does it take to sell to a CEO? What are the things that investors want to hear? Our panel of experts will share what works and what does not work.

Learn the rules for Effective Pitching with:
* Jeff Crilley, an Emmy award winning communication expert
* Laurence Briggs, President of InvestIn Forum, Private Investor Network
* JR Atkins, Sales specialist and social media speaker

Date: Jan 28, 5.30pm.
Location: Company|Dallas, Floor 2, 1701 N Collins Blvd, Richardson TX 75080.

About Jeff Crilley:
Jeff Crilley retired from TV news after 25 years in the business to start the country’s first “all journalist” PR firm. During his career he made hundreds of national news appearances including CNN, CNN Headline News, FOX News, The Discovery Channel, Good Morning America and The CBS Early Show.

He has been recognized by his peers with dozens of national and regional awards including the Emmy, the National Headliners Award,the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Thurgood Marshall Award and in 2004 was named by the Texas Associated Press, “The Best TV Reporter in the state.”

About Laurence Briggs:
Laurence is President of The InvestIN Private Investor Network. The InvestIN Private Investor Network is a company that:
a. brings the best deals to the investor network members ( smart money) around the world, and to its syndicate partners
b. advises early stage growth companies.

About JR Atkins
J.R. Atkins is a Social Media Speaker, Strategist and Sales 2.0 Consultant. As a speaker, J.R. is noted for “taking the mystery out of Social Media” and speaking in terms that “even a CEO can understand.” As a Sales 2.0 consultant, J.R. works with business leaders to understand the shift in selling that is occurring as more consumers and business turn to the internet for information before engaging in the sales process. How has selling changed?

J.R. began speaking publicly in 1994 and on social media in March of 2009. He holds an MBA from The University of Phoenix, Dallas Campus and a BBA from Texas A&M University. J.R. is an ASA certified sailing instructor and avid reader, as well as a musician.

Unconventional describes Alexander Muse.

He thinks big and – for the most part – it has paid off.

He helped start a half-dozen technology companies in Dallas – with creative names such as MotorSport Ranch and Big in Japan – since the late 1990s. He sold three of them for tens of millions of dollars; he still runs the others.

LayerOne, a telecommunications infrastructure company he started in 1999, went bankrupt. Muse raised $4 million in venture capital to buy back the assets and relaunch the company. He sold it to Switch & Data for $22 million on Sept. 12, 2001.

“I was supposed to sign the deal on Sept. 11. That was so scary. I had a newborn baby, a big new house and a Porsche. I thought, ‘If this doesn’t happen, I could lose it all,’ ” said Muse, 38. “We ended up making a lot of money, but we lost a lot of money for a lot of people. That was a turning point for me.”

Early on, Muse named himself CEO of all his ventures. But he learned his attention span was limited to about two years.

“I’m more effective being part of a leadership team than the leader,” he said.

Now he finds partners to incubate ideas at Architel, an IT outsourcing company he started in 2001. If successful, they’re spun off with a CEO who has an equity stake in the company.

Muse focuses on Architel and ShopSavvy, a cellphone application that lets users scan a product’s bar code to compare prices online and at local stores. Revenue reached $11.5 million at Architel and $1 million at ShopSavvy in 2009. Both turn a profit.

With a foosball table and a giant Incredible Hulk at his Dallas Infomart office, Muse created a fun place to work as well as a nurturing environment for budding entrepreneurs. He shares spare office space, invests in promising ideas and holds monthly happy hours where he foots the bar tab.

In 2005, Muse launched the Texas Startup Blog and co-founded SpringStage in 2008 as an online network to promote local entrepreneurship.

An avid blogger, Muse writes about his adventures, attracting at least 175,000 online followers. Soon, he plans to start a blog called the Startup Muse.

Next? Muse wants to develop apps that integrate social networks with services.

Congratulations to Gabriella Draney for her tireless efforts to bring the first microseed fund to DFW. Read more about it at techwildcatters.com , get to know the mentors and apply to TechWildcatters here.

2010 is going to be a big year for startups in the Big D!

Here are the details, taken from a post at Ryan Roberts’ blog.

TechWildcatters is a mentorship-driven microseed fund and startup accelerator that just launched in Dallas, Texas.
TechWildcatters is now accepting applications for their first 12-week accelerator “bootcamp” and 20 startup teams will have the opportunity to pitch on March 11, 2010.

The first program begins April 5, 2010. The selected startups will get up to $25,000 in seed funding, intensive top-notch mentorship, and the opportunity to pitch to angel investors, venture capitalists and corporate dev teams at their biannual “Demo Day”. Their first Demo Day is scheduled for June 30, 2010.

Here’s the type of startups TechWildcatters is looking for:
-Applications: B2B Web/Enterprise 2.0, BI/data/analytics, gaming/simulation, etc.
-Technology: Web, SaaS, open source, data integration, middleware, etc.
-Customers: SMB through Fortune 500 (no consumer apps)
-Location: Come from anywhere, willing to locate to Dallas for the program
-Founders: Well-rounded founder teams >1 person, demonstrated understanding of entrepreneurship, relevant technical and business knowledge
-Capital: Needing seed capital to support living expenses while bootstrapping, can make efficient use of limited capital, would generally be planning on self/angel/customer financing as a next step coming out of the program

MIT Enterprise Forum DFW – 2009 Overview

Dallas Startup Weekend

Dates: Friday Nov 20- Sunday Nov 22, 2009.
Location: Infomart, 1950 Stemmon Freeway, Dallas 75207

As contributor to the Global Entrepreneurship Week, MIT Enterprise Forum is proud to support the first Startup Weekend in Dallas, scheduled for Nov 20-22. If you ever wondered about the startup scene in DFW or wanted to make connections with the entrepreneurs, this is the event for you.

Check out the video from Startup Weekend Dallas

Other November Events:

MIT Enterprise Forum DFW is supporting UTA, the local partner with Kauffman Foundation to participate in the week of “Unleashing Ideas” event.Nov 17 – Free event on Branding for Entrepreneurs. See details in this brochure.

Nov 18 – The Texas governor’s office is sponsoring a free, one-day event on November 18, 2009 organized by the Small Business Development Center for Enterprise Excellence headquartered at UTA’s ARRI campus. Details are here.

Gabriella Draney of Tech Wildcatters at Startup Weekend.

Alexander Muse, host and sponsor of Startup Weekend Dallas.

First ever startup weekend in Dallas kicked off yesterday evening. Over 50 energetic and enthusiastic folks got together at Infomart over pizza and drinks, eager to pitch their ideas and to network. I think this is a great time for Dallas Fort Worth to build on the momentum that some of the successful local entrepreneurs have provided.  I enjoyed spending time with Marc, Gabriella, Steve, Ryan, Eddy, Alex and meeting Blake, Seth, John P, Jake, Jordan and  many others who were there.

There was a presentation by John P of Woopra, followed by 90 seconds pitches for ideas. The 25 or so ideas got interesting comments and responses by the crowd. Overall it was fun and interesting. Voting for the top ideas began around 9pm with each participant getting 2 dollar bills to stuff in the envelope of their favorite idea.

As you can see here, the brainstorming has already started. Let’s see how thing progress over the weekend!