Hall Martin’s Texas Entrepreneur Networks offers an interesting alternative for Texas based companies looking for capital.  He runs what he calls Funding Forums where he assembles groups of investors at various locations around the state and stages for them presentations by 10 companies at each stop.  I attended the Austin event on January 12, 2012 at the Norris Conference Center (their generic photo above).

As an aside, this particular conference center is in itself what looks to be an interesting business model – repurposing shopping center space with poor frontage exposure into a destination for various shows and events.   I’ve been to several shows at this particular location, and there’s even an adjacent ice rink if you want to negotiate your deal on skates.

The January 12 Funding Forum was the first stop on a 4-city tour including Dallas, San Antonio, and San Marcos.  There were six investors or representatives of investor groups and family offices on the front row who introduced themselves, plus some number of others who were scattered in the audience.   Presenters pay $1000 each to appear at the 4 shows on this tour.  (No roadie jackets included, however.)

This is more of a matchmaking activity than a typical angel group investment “process.”  Hall has a good following of investors from low to high tech, and he attracts a similar diversity of presenters.   Each is given a 15-minute slot, 10 to present and 5 for Q&A.   All of the presentations showed evidence of coaching and included the fundamentals that any good pitch requires.  There were the few inevitable technical glitches, and, as is always the case, some presenters will never realize that very small fonts are unreadable beyond the very first row.

This particular batch included 10 companies raising in the aggregate $7,350,000 and with total 2012 projected revenues of approximately $13M.  A couple were under $50K in revenue, and one was more like $6M, so don’t divide anything by 10 and come to any conclusions.   The companies included 3 in the production and/or distribution of healthy foods (no biscuits & gravy mentioned), another dealing with assessing your personal health via a website, two social media plays, one car buying service, a multi-player online game company, a financial information provider for public company investors, and an SMB cross-platform marketing firm.

The success rate of the Funding Forums is pretty good in terms of actual transactions, particularly given the aforementioned diversity of deals and investors.   In this batch, I’d say maybe 2 were nonstarters, 2 didn’t really explain themselves well, 2 had possibilities but were early, 1 was technically interesting, 1 was a pure franchise play, and 2 seemed to be pretty far down the track toward proving unique models and establishing revenues.  But, those are just my opinions.  Most of the more than 1000 deals I reviewed in 2011 were pure technology plays, and I was not in my element here.  One thing is certain -- several of these companies will complete their current funding rounds as presented.

Texas Entrepreneurs Networks offers a range of resources and good connections for those seeking to start and grow businesses in this area, and its Funding Forum is a model that adds value to the startup ecosystem here.  Check the schedule for the next one coming to your area.

<photo from Norris website>