Tuesday August 2 was decision day for the ATI’s SEAL program – Student Entrepreneur Acceleration and Launch.  The ATI invited 5 student teams originating from the University of Texas at Austin to participate in a summer program to evaluate their big ideas and reach a go or no-go decision by August 2.  Their series of presentations was one of the more interesting startup events I’ve attended, and here’s a summary.

The SEAL teams under the leadership of Kyle Cox were provided coaching and mentoring resources, a co-working environment in the ATI, interns, and a timeline with clear deliverables.  They were all on a mission to determine if their ideas could be developed into real businesses.

The afternoon began with presentations from 3 predecessors from past ATI programs.  You can check their sites to learn more, but what’s cool about each:

Famigo has iterated from an app concept to a much broader model of search and discovery of apps using family-friendly criteria. Great line (paraphrased):  “Being a student is your secret weapon.  It’s like being a puppy -- everyone gives you plenty of affection.  Ask for all the free help you need.”

Ordoro is tackling the supply chain issues of the vast population of smaller online merchants, giving them a better solution to a point of obvious pain.  Here we have 3 MBA’s, none technical, who have managed to get their technology built and are in the market with enough live customers now to begin focusing on growth issues. 

Hoot.me is run by 3 rising Juniors who are using Facebook to tackle group study tasks and has found a revenue model in links to tutors.  Best line:  “HootyCall”

The five SEAL members then gave their reports:

Virtegrity is developing code to detect and counter malware in root OS servers, a growing issue with cloud computing.  They run atop the Hypervisor for KVM devices on Linux systems.  I had actually done some work last year on a KVM project and learned how to spell that. Very deep technical. Decision:  GO

ARC is recovering Nitrogen from waste water for use in fertilizer production.  They solve an important environmental problem.  I thought it was interesting that the 3 founders got to know each other on a water polo team and are now focused on waste ponds.  Decision:  GO

Pheir Healthcare is seeking to address medication mistakes made in nursing homes.  Fewer than 10% of those homes can afford current automated solutions, and Pheir is exploring a mobile app.  They presented five hypotheses they tested over the summer, and the idea failed on 4, including price, established competition, and perception of the pain by nursing home administrators.  Great line (paraphrased):  “Sat on this idea 2 years, better to have done this work and killed it faster.”  One of the most candid presentations I have seen in a situation where everyone wants to find a winning strategy.  Wanted to invest in this team, but – Decision:  NO GO

Shape Tracker is a team of ME students using technology developed at UT for 3D surface scans of humans.  Thought is it reduce high turnover in gym enrollments by showing body improvements with an easy, non-invasive method.  They found that industry too heavily franchised and centrally controlled and that a pilot program would be a necessary next step.  (Wondered if they could pilot with Kim Kardashian?)  Unfortunately the technology is not quite ready for that.  Decision:  Defer

VecturaLux is addressing the problem that existing Internet fiber is reaching capacity limits, and the company is using considerable math and some IP to create active optical cables.  (Similar notion to Atlanta originated Quellan, now part of Intersil.)  This group analyzed the prospects of providing the technology to major OEMs versus creating its own product line and chose the latter.  Decision:  GO

It’s exceedingly rare that startup programs produce “stopdown” decisions, but sometimes those are best.  The time lost on a bad idea can never be recovered, and making a painful decision early, calmly, and analytically is better than wasting time and passion on the wrong concept.  And, it’s also rare that we see founding teams give such insightful assessments of this process.

<image from Scientic American>