(As it appears on the Capital Factory website)
Austin, TX (PRWEB) April 22, 2009 — Capital Factory, an early stage technology incubator in Austin, Texas, announced investments in five emerging technology startups selected to participate in its inaugural 2009 summer program. Each company will receive a cash investment of up to $20,000, more than $20,000 in free services, and mentorship from some of the top entrepreneurs in central Texas. The free services include office space, legal counsel from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosatti, public relations support from Porter Novelli, and accounting support from The Accounting Group and vCFO, among many other benefits.
Investments:
* Cubit Planning – Environmental reports at the click of a button
* FamiGo – Mobile games that bring the family together
* Homstie – Person-to-person marketplace for storage space
* Hourville – A marketplace for services by the hour
* petzMD – Website for Pet Health, from A to Z
Capital Factory also recognizes five additional finalist startups that were top runners among the program applicants as well, including:
* Infochimps – An open marketplace for data
* Notesmart – Buy & sell classroom notes efficiently
* Pear Analytics – Marketing decision analytics
* POLCO – Public policy portal for measuring your representation
* ProspectIdentify – Sales intelligence tool to find who to call, when, and what to say
The five startups were selected from a list of more than 250 applicants and five additional companies were recognized as finalists. Applications were submitted from all over the country although more were from Texas than any other state. Four of the five startups were already located in Austin and one, Homstie, will be relocating from California this summer.
“We were only planning on investing in three startups this year,” said Capital Factory managing director, Joshua Baer. “But we received three times the number of applications that we expected and ended up investing in five! We just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with these entrepreneurs.”
The selection process included a one page application and five minute video. After reviewing hundreds of applications, about five percent were invited to in-person interviews with the mentors. With many promising entrepreneurs to choose from, the mentors focused on startups who they could help the most and with the greatest chance of success.
“The interviews helped us understand what these companies needed and the extent to which we could help them,” said Sam Decker, Capital Factory managing director. “All of them stated that the money helped, but the mentorships were what they needed to get their idea off the ground or to the next level.”
The mentorship program starts on May 22 and lasts throughout the summer, ending with a “Demo Day” where the five startups will present their business to investors, the press, and the world.
About Capital Factory:
Capital Factory is an early stage technology incubator based in Austin, Texas. Startup companies participate in an intense 10-week summer program that gives them up to $20,000 in cash, more than $20,000 in free services, and mentorship by a group of successful entrepreneurs. The program culminates in a demo day where the startups present to investors, the press, and the world. For more information on Capital Factory, visit the website at www.capitalfactory.com or on Twitter @capitalfactory.
