Is This Mic On?: Capital Factory Members at #SXSW2018
All of Austin is getting ready for SXSW- and that means us too! With ~1,500 startups, the Capital Factory community will be all over SXSW! Find out what our members at these official panels during Austin’s biggest week in tech.
SXSW Pitch Events
You know we’re no stranger to pitch competitions, and SXSW is no exception! Check out these Capital Factory companies pitching during SXSW.
Partake: SXSW Release It
SXSW Release It provides a platform for companies to launch a new and innovative product or service during a pitch competition at the SXSW Conference. A panel of hand-picked judges, comprised of technology industry experts, venture capitalists, and high-profile media, will select the product or service most likely to succeed in the marketplace.
Date: Fri March 9, 2018
Time: 11:00 AM — 12:00 PM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown — 4th Floor, Salon AB
Register: SXSW badge required
Fastvisa & Message.io: Enterprise and Smart Data Technologies
SXSW Accelerator Pitch Event is a platform to allow early stage technology startups to pitch their product and/or services to industry technology experts, high profiled media personnel, and Venture Capitalists / Angel Investors. Five companies will dazzle a live audience, panel of judges with their ideas, innovations, product and/or service on Saturday, March 10th.
Date: Sat March 10, 2018
Time: 12:30 PM — 1:30 PM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown —Salon AB
Register: SXSW badge required
GrubTubs & Big Wheelbarrow: Food+City Prize: Food System Innovations, Session 1
The fourth annual Food+City Challenge Prize will be part of SXSW for the first time in 2018. The Food+City Challenge Prize is an international competition among early stage business startups encouraging innovation in the urban food system. Finalists addressing issues such as storage, distribution, packaging, waste, and more, will compete for up to $50,000 in prizes.
Date: Tues March 13, 2018
Time: 9:30 AM — 10:30 AM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown — Salon C
Register: SXSW badge required
Capital Factory Member Panels & Presentations
Companies aren’t the only ones getting ready for SXSW. These members are taking the stage to deliver some epic panels and presentations.
Third Coast: Can Austin Be The Next Big Tech City?
Austin, we have a problem. Despite regularly being named the “Best City to Live” and attracting 150+ new residents every day, Austin’s tech community lags its coastal peers in both investment dollars and successful exits. Does the city adequately support growing tech businesses? Leaders from Austin-area companies will share their experiences and perspective in this panel.
Date: Fri March 9, 2018
Time: 5:00 PM — 6:00 PM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown — Salon K
CF Member: Blake Garrett, Aceable
Register: SXSW badge required
Welcome to the “Internet of Threats”
Biometrics, voice interfaces, and the Internet of Everything are enabling technologies creating innovative processes and experiences but also creating new threat vectors, potentially exposing organizations, employees and consumers to different exploits. In addition, insider threats, spear phishing activities, social engineering have exacerbated the issue. This panel will bring together experts to discuss how we secure data, yet remain productive and take advantage of new innovative technologies?
Date: Sat March 10, 2018
Time: 5:00 PM — 6:00 PM
Location: Fairmont Manchester CD
CF Member: Earl Crane, Emergent Network Defense
Register: SXSW badge required
Casa México’s Opening Reception
Amy Jarczynski will be sharing Kiss & Tell’s #1st100Couples initiative and making a special announcement regarding their #LoveRescueMe Destination Wedding Giveaway at Casa Mexico’s Reception on Saturday at 7:00 pm. Casa Mexico is Mexico Tourism & the Mexican Government’s SXSW hub.
Date: Sat March 10, 2018
Time: 7:00 PM — 9:00 PM
Location: Mexican American Cultural Center
CF Member: Amy Jarczynski, Kiss & Tell
Sex & Text: Breaking Down Movie Stereotypes w/ AI
Bad boy, home-wrecker, damsel: why is every hit movie and TV show home to at least one sad, sexist cliche? Are they storytelling tropes, or cultural symptoms? Applying AI models to box-office hits and misses unearths intriguing details about some of society’s most polarizing and sexist stereotypes. This talk will look at what machine learning reveals about the hidden forces at play in male/female character dynamics, how we perceive stereotype in dialogue, and good or bad, what it says about us.
Date: Sun March 11, 2018
Time: 12:30 PM — 1:30 PM
Location: Austin Convention Center — Room 12AB
CF Members: Monica Landers & Grace Lin, StoryFit
Register: SXSW badge required
A World of Blockchain Powered Communities
In this session we will share our journey to introduce verified permanent digital identities, blockchain based shared ownership of City Platforms through local CityShares, and how CityTokens can help to energize the local community and support a peer-to-peer economy.
Mon March 12, 2018
Time: 3:30 PM — 4:30 PM
Location: JW Marriott — Salon 7
CF Member: Frank Robles, DigitalTown
Register: SXSW badge required
The Quantifiable Business Benefits of Blockchain
Billions flowed into crypto and blockchain in 2017 as investors expressed their excitement for the future potential of blockchain, but the fact is that blockchain technology is changing many businesses today in measurable ways. This panel will reveal some of the surprising ways blockchain technologies are being applied in industry today and give insight into what benefits companies can look forward to in the future.
Date: Mon March 12, 2018
Time: 5:00 PM — 6:00 PM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown — Room 400–402
CF Member: David Aktary, ERC dEX
Register: SXSW badge required
Austin: A Global Center for Blockchain Innovation
This panel will discuss why Austin has emerged as a fantastic city for the blockchain and crypto community. Top local innovators will highlight Austin’s most exciting blockchain companies, why Austin has become a hotbed of crypto innovation and the role that the Austin Blockchain Collective is playing in putting Austin on the global blockchain map.
Date: Tues March 13, 2018
Time: 3:30 PM — 4:30 PM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown — Room 400–402
CF Member: Tushar Jain, Multicoin Capital
Register: SXSW badge required
Social Maps and the Future of Location-Based
Mobile users are becoming increasingly comfortable with sharing their location. This, along with advances in location-based tech and the mainstream adoption of social mapping platforms (Snapchat Maps, Waze) is opening doors to how we use mobile apps to connect with our surroundings. It’s changing the way cities, events and brands engage with local users.
This session will cover the latest in location-based technology and what it means for developers, users, cities, events and advertisers.
Date: Thurs March 15, 2018
Time: 11:00 AM — 12:00 PM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown — Salon A
CF Member: Kelsi Kamin, Capital Factory Venture Associate
Register: SXSW badge required
Capital Factory Panels
We couldn’t just let our members have all the fun. Capital Factory is participating in and hosting several panels as well.
Attracting VC Funding Outside Silicon Valley Panel
We do a lot of things differently in Texas, including fundraising. Join us and learn how to attract Venture Capital investment in your startup when you live somewhere other than Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, or Boston. Hear from venture investors and successful entrepreneurs to find out what factors they considered and how you can make your pitch stand out from the rest.
Date: Fri March 9, 2018
Time: 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown — Salon C
Register: SXSW badge required
The Texas Startup Manifesto SXSW Panel
The Texas Startup Manifesto is call to action to connect Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and the rest of the state into a Texas Startup Megatropolis, unlocking billions of dollars in capital and unleashing thousands of diverse entrepreneurs. If you live in Texas, find out how you can tap into the network. If you’re not, learn how you can facilitate collaboration across your region with the Union platform.
Date: Fri March 9, 2018
Time: 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown — Salon C
Register: SXSW badge required
SXSW Startup Crawl
If one list isn’t enough, visit the Capital Factory megastop during SXSW Startup Crawl to see all of our member companies in action! What better way to kick off SXSW 2018 than with all the hottest tech and coldest beer in Austin?
Date: Fri March 9, 2018
Time: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: Downtown Austin (Sign up to see your starting location)
Inclusion and Diversity Panel
Voltage Control welcomes you to a distinguished panel of experts from Atlassian, Uber, Zayo and other companies discussing Inclusion and Diversity. The panel covers a range of perspectives including companies with established programs, companies just getting started, thought leaders, and services organizations helping others design and execute internal programs.
Date: Sat March 10, 2018
Time: 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM
Location: Capital Factory — 1st floor Voltron
Pitch Competition for Underrepresented Founders
The future of tech is every color, gender, belief, origin, and community. The future of tech is accessible, flexible, and inclusive.
To spread this message at SXSW and beyond, Capital Factory is hosting a Pitch Competition for Underrepresented Founders* in collaboration with the AWS Startup Team and AWS We Power Tech. We will select 6 startups to pitch for 3 minutes each in front of a panel of VCs and early stage investors. All contestants will receive an allocation of AWS Activate Promotional Credits (some limitations apply). The winner will be featured on the AWS Startup Blog, receive 3 months of free coworking from Capital Factory, and receive various additional prizes that will help enable their company to grow.
Date: Mon March 12, 2018
Time: 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM
Location: Capital Factory — 1st floor Voltron
Interested in seeing the full list of events happening at Capital Factory? Check them out, and RSVP here!
SXSW dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. The event, an essential destination for global professionals, features sessions, showcases, screenings, exhibitions, and a variety of networking opportunities. SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together. SXSW 2018 will take place March 9–18, 2018.
SXSW 2018 is sponsored by Bud Light, Mercedes Benz, Capital One, and The Austin Chronicle.
