Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Alex has helped bring more than $160 million in funding to Texas startups through SBIR, STTR and other government funding programs for companies like Essentium, ICON 3D, and LIFT Aircraft. He was also born here and went to UT Austin before heading out to Silicon Valley for a stint. STOIKY is his callsign.

Austin 110

Austin Texas Cofounder Los Angeles 110

Gust

DECEMBER 1, 2011

Several sources (including Startup by Elizabeth Edwards ) estimate that $2-3 billion per year is awarded to very early stage companies by federal government grants (mostly SBIRs). At $100,000 or so per grant, perhaps 2-3000 pre-seed and seed/startup companies receive SBIRs and other government grants per year.

SBIR 120

SBIR Startup New York City Angel Investor 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Much of what makes the USA, and Silicon Valley in particular, such a great place to start a company is the result of good government policy. I'll add one more point: The SBIR program is based on a dated notion of small business research, and the multi-year process doesn't line up with the speed of many modern startups.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

Steve Blank

MAY 3, 2022

With offices in Silicon Valley, Austin, Boston, Chicago and Washington, DC, this is the one DoD organization with the staffing and mandate to match commercial startups or scaleups to pressing national security problems. (One new entrant which DIU introduced, Anduril , just received a follow-on contract for $1 billion.

Ukraine 277

Ukraine China Private Equity Russia 277