As Rafiki once said, it is time.
The Austin Meetup goes down tomorrow, and we couldn’t be more excited to have some of the brightest new startups in the area pitch on our stage.
And now, with great pleasure, it’s time to introduce the judges who will join us on stage and help us determine a winner.
Without any further ado:
Joshua Baer helps people quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs at Capital Factory, Austin’s largest coworking space and most active investment fund. Josh founded his first startup in 1996 in his college dormitory at Carnegie Mellon University and now teaches a class at the University of Texas for student entrepreneurs. He was recently recognized as a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations Young Leaders Forum, and an Eisenhower Fellow. Josh lives in Austin with his wife Amy and three children.
Mellie Price, a 25 year Austinite, is the Executive Director of Technology Innovation at the Dell Medical School. She is an experienced investor, executive, fund manager and eight-time entrepreneur with a range of business experience from small private sector to a large publicly traded organization. She has created and managed both organic and explosive growth scenarios for variety of organizations.
Mellie is a founding mentor and Managing Director of Capital Factory as well as a General Partner to its investment fund. She is the co-founder of SoftMatch, which connects enterprises interested in innovation to the highly fragmented global startup ecosystem. Ms. Price was also the Founder & CEO of Austin’s own Front Gate Solutions and Front Gate Tickets, one of the largest privately held ticketing companies in the US/Canada from 2002 to 2015 when it was sold to Live Nation.
Ms. Price is an active member of the Texas entrepreneurship community and a winner of the prestigious Austin Business Journal’s 2015 Profiles in Power Award as well as the 2014 Tech Titan Award. She is a proud member of the Board of Directors for Leadership Austin and the Sustainable Food Center. She is also a founding Advisor to Texas Competes and currently serves on the Social Innovation Council and the Technology Advisory Committee for Austin Mayor Steve Adler.
As a seasoned entrepreneur and investor, Alec spent 10+ years building rockstar startup teams and products that realize the future of scalable mobile technologies.
Alec is an angel investor and most recently was a General Partner at advantEdge Partners, India-focused early stage venture development fund obsessed with finding the top teams, ideas and execution proof points in emerging mobile-first tech sectors with immense potential to extend into a cross-border platform.
Alec is a limited partner and strategic advisor at Eniac Ventures; notable investments include Vungle, Localytics, TapCommerce (TWTR). He is also an advisor to Hearst Ventures and Naya Ventures on mobile investments; and a regular speaker at conferences such as SXSW, CES, Digital Hollywood, iMedia, Columbia Business School Venture Competition, Advertising Week and OMMA Global.
Tickets are selling out quickly, so if you’re interested in attending the fun tomorrow at 6pm CT, hit up the event page here and buy yourself some tickets.
We can’t wait to see you there!
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