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Startup
ENO8 President and Co-founder Jeff Francis. [Photo: LinkedIn]
The Last Word: ENO8’s Jeff Francis on How Rushing Doesn’t Always Win the Software Startup Race
by Dallas Innovates | Staff Report | Oct 28, 2022
DFW-based Francis says he helps tech founders launch their digital products "with clarity and confidence while increasing success raising capital and reducing risk in execution."
He's been putting some interesting advice up on LinkedIn. Last week he shared this: "I have two kids, and a phrase you will NEVER hear me say to them is, 'Second place is first loser.'"
by Lance Murray |
Oct 28, 2022
Two months after acquiring Fuzse, a payment processing integrator, Dallas-based ParkHub has scooped up Smarking to broaden its product suite and expand into new end markets. Founded in 2014, San Francisco-based Smarking is a SaaS-based solution that enables customers across North America to effectively manage their parking assets through access to real-time data and analytics.
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by Kevin Cummings |
Oct 28, 2022
In this week’s North Texas deal flow, you’ll also find news about Taysha Gene Therapies landing a $50M investment; music tech startup MAX’s Series B raise; Dallas Venture Capital’s latest investment; Tyler Technologies’ $68M acquisition of Rapid Financial Solutions; NaturalShrimp hitting the Nasdaq Capital Market; and more.
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by Dallas Innovates | Staff Report |
Oct 28, 2022
Read “who said what” in our roundup of quotes about all things North Texas, including ENO8's Jeff Francis; MyndVR's Chris Brickler and Ted Werth; Axxess' John Olajide; the Urban Land Institute's Ron Pressman; Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson; the Mavs Foundation's Katie Edwards; UT Arlington's Yi Hong; HomeUSA.com's Ben Caballero; ParkHub's George Baker Sr.; and more.
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"This investment allows MAX to continue fulfilling its mission to automate and digitize artist sponsorships and create a new marketplace for the creator economy,” said CEO and founder Nathan Hanks. [File art; Illustration, Dallas Innovates]
Tuning Up: Frisco-Based Music Audience Exchange–aka MAX–Raises Series B Funding To Expand
by Lance Murray | Oct 26, 2022
Frisco-based MAX, a tech marketing company that powers brand and music partnerships, raised $6 million in 2017. A new round led by Interlock Partners will help fund the development of SET.Live. The new platform lets artists engage with fans at live shows while creating unique sponsorable assets for brands like Ford, McDonald's, and more.
“This investment allows MAX to continue fulfilling its mission to automate and digitize artist sponsorships and create a new marketplace for the creator economy,” says CEO and founder Nathan Hanks.
“This investment allows MAX to continue fulfilling its mission to automate and digitize artist sponsorships and create a new marketplace for the creator economy,” says CEO and founder Nathan Hanks.
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by Quincy Preston |
Oct 26, 2022
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 10 for patents out of 250 metros. Patents granted include: Capital One's system and method for social home buying, Hunt Energy Enterprises' subsurface electrical storage batteries, Intellective AI's pixel-level based micro-feature extraction, and Walmart's systems and methods of product identification within an image.
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by Kevin Cummings |
Oct 24, 2022
In this week’s North Texas deal flow, you’ll also find news about Sinclair Digital Services’ $5 million fundraising effort; Energy Spectrum Capital helping to launch a new energy firm; Darling Ingredients’ $1.2 billion acquisition; the Dallas Cowboys’ official accounting firm merging with BKM Sowan Horan; and more.
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Maintenance Marketplace Startup Stellar Has Eyes on ‘Next Phase of Growth’ With New Name and New CTO
by Kevin Cummings |
Oct 20, 2022
Dallas-based Stellar connects contractors with property managers in the single-family rental market. With $15M in funding to date, it's punching up its tech with new CTO Renaud Casanova—whose Silicon Valley background includes stints with Facebook and the San Francisco 49ers.
"We're on a continued trajectory to build world-class software to power one of the market’s top managed maintenance marketplaces," says Founder and CEO Dustin Marx.
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U.S. Patent No. 11,463,811 (Speaker system with overhead sound projection) was assigned to Harman International Industries, Inc.
Dallas Invents: 129 Patents Granted for Week of October 4
by Quincy Preston | Oct 19, 2022
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 10 for patents out of 250 metros. Patents granted include: Bank of America's multi-tiered digital wallet security, Nike's ground-engaging structures for articles of footwear, Capital One's systems and methods for training machine learning models, Raytheon's policy engine for cyber anomaly detection, and more.
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by Kevin Cummings |
Oct 18, 2022
Dallas-based Nanoscope Therapeutics is accelerating the development of therapies that could restore sight in patients with the help of a publicly traded firm. The retinal degenerative diseases-focused biotech company announced a new gene therapy manufacturing partnership with contract research organization Charles River Laboratories International.
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by Quincy Preston and David Seeley |
Oct 18, 2022
Bringing 36 years of experience from his Best Buy days, Brad Anderson isn't just joining Spacee's advisory board. He's also investing in the startup—which aims to transform retail businesses with its HoverTouch interactive experiences, while helping industries track inventories with its Deming shelf-mounted robots.
"I was attracted to the company’s learners and adapters," Anderson tells Dallas Innovates. "They're a team of people that when you have a problem, they are unencumbered in their ability to innovate to solve the problem."
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by Dennis Cagan |
Oct 17, 2022
Entrepreneur, investor, and corporate governance authority Dennis Cagan shares insights on seldom-taught things an entrepreneur needs to know about equity and governance—before making needless mistakes—in The Shadow CEO series.
Part 11: Protecting Founders and Special Voting Preferences
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Foundry Brands leadership: Top row, left to right: CFO Hendre Ackermann, CEO Helen Vaid, and CTO John Heintz; Second row: Patrick Coddou, Mario Pacini, and Steve Stagner; Third row: Kyle Walker, Stefan Haney, and Matt Rhodes
Dallas’ Foundry Brands Is Building a Portfolio of ‘Micro-Tribe’ Direct-to-Consumer Businesses
by Kevin Cummings | Oct 13, 2022
Launched last year with $100 million in debt-free equity capital, Dallas-based Foundry Brands is an acquisition platform that aims to amass a portfolio of 30 to 50 direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands. It's already acquired eight—most recently the Fort Worth-based men’s grooming product company, Supply. Co-founder Matt Rhodes told Dallas Innovates that Foundry seeks brands who've developed "micro-tribes."
“Ultimately, we're looking to be a multibillion-dollar business," Rhodes told us.
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by Kevin Cummings |
Oct 12, 2022
Aaron Pierce, the co-founder and board chair of Venture Dallas, has a deep investment background and a history of supporting the local entrepreneurial community. As partner at Perot Jain, his role is "all encompassing." One item on his agenda is overseeing the firm's investments in Major League Cricket—along with managing the firm's investment portfolio of more than 60 companies.
“We have the ingredients required to be a major player in the national investment landscape," Pierce says, "especially as the family office and private investment focus grows from funds to direct investments in venture-backed companies.”
“We have the ingredients required to be a major player in the national investment landscape," Pierce says, "especially as the family office and private investment focus grows from funds to direct investments in venture-backed companies.”
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by Kevin Cummings |
Oct 12, 2022
To create a device for the world of quantum computing, you have to think small. Richardson-based Zyvex Labs has been developing a device since 2007 that acts as a type of microscope that can manipulate atomic structures on a surface. That's led to the ZyvexLitho1 system, which enables more precise, automated patterning at a sub-nanometer resolution. It's also led to $28 million in funding from agencies like DARPA.
John Randall, the company's CEO, says the new system will be "really useful for research that's going to lead to better quantum computers"—eventually leading to one "that can do the ridiculous number of fabulous things that they say it's going to do.”
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by David Seeley |
Oct 11, 2022
The Central Intelligence Agency has invested in Colossal through its nonprofit VC investment arm, In-Q-Tel, reports The Intercept. Named in honor of Q—the tech genius from the James Bond novels and movies—the VC firm was founded in 1999 to keep U.S. intelligence agencies on the cutting edge of "innovative and impactful technologies coming out of Silicon Valley and beyond."
So why Colossal? "Strategically, it’s less about the mammoths and more about the capability," In-Q-Tel says.
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