2014 Themes
Denton's Booming Startup Scene
6th out of 25
Counties with the most high-tech jobs
77
Meetups and events
$220K
For Innovation District from City of Denton
Women Business Pioneers
Top 5
City for Women in Tech in the US
98% Increase
of women-owned businesses in Texas
First Ever
North Texas Women in Technology Awards
Dallas ranks among the top 5 cities for women in tech
In a study from RJMetrics exploring the state of women in technology in the U.S. based on data driven from meetup.com, Dallas ranks among the top five cities for women in tech.Texas is #2 in growth of women-owned businesses
With a 98% increase of women-owned business, Texas ranks No. 2 among U.S. states for the fastest growth between 1997 and 2014.Tech Organizations Run by Female Teams
All female leadership teams are making an impact in Dallas with tech organizations like seed accelerator, Tech Wildcatters, and the weekly educational program 1 Million Cups Dallas.Golden Seeds investment group
Golden Seeds investment group, a female-led angel group with 25 investors in Dallas looking at startups led by women to invest in. Golden Seeds Dallas investors offer monthly office hours where entrepreneurs meet with experienced, early stage investors.Inaugural North Texas Women in Technology Awards
The first ever North Texas Women in Technology Awards, presented by Texchange and the Dallas Business Journal, honored 25 women making waves in the local tech scene.First female Board President of Texchange DFW
TeXchange DFW, coincidentally, had its first female Board President this year. Entrepreneur Bettina Bennett has helped to inspire and empower other local female technology entrepreneurs.D Magazine September cover story on Dallas women
In September this year, Dallas' own city magazine, D Magazine, published a great cover story profiling 5 Dallas executive women in leadership roles.Elizabeth Street Capital Program opens it’s doors to Dallas
The program, founded by Tory Burch, aims to provide $10 million in loans to women entrepreneurs across the country, and added the Dallas market in mid 2014.Startups move to Downtown Dallas
60,000 + SQ FT
Coworking space available for startups downtown
97
Most walkable neighborhood in Dallas
DART
Official transportation provider for startups
The revival of downtown Dallas
Since 2000, the downtown Dallas population has grown from just 200 people to over 8,000, with numerous CEOs, developers and entrepreneurs making Downtown Dallas home base because of its access to retail, favorable business climate and close proximity to public transit, coworking spaces and accelerators.The DEC moves to Downtown Dallas
After one year of operations, The DEC relocates to downtown Dallas to 10K sq ft in the heart of the West End Historic District, to be closer to DART, retail and business activity. The space hosts community events, mentor sessions, and houses the seed accelerator program VentureSpur.Seed accelerators Tech and Health Wildcatters move in
Seed accelerators Tech Wildcatters and Health Wildcatters relocate to downtown Dallas taking over 2 floors or 18,000-square-foot space at 211 North Ervay.Coworking expansions
The Grove coworking space in West End expanded this year to accomodate demand, quadrupling the size of their space. While longtime coworking resident Common Desk also expanded its coworking footprint in Deep Ellum, doubling its size, for entrepreneurs, startups and professional services companies.FortWork Joins the Party Downtown
Dallas Fort Work coworking joined the likes of Tech and Health Wildcatters at 211 North Ervay, moving locations from far North Dallas to downtown Dallas in early December and providing coworking desks, event space and an art gallery.60K+ Square Feet of Coworking Space
There are now 7 co-working spaces with some 60,000+ square feet of space in Downtown Dallas alone, three accelerators, and two or three incubators.Downtown now accessible by public transit for startups
DART becomes the “Official Transportation Provider of the Dallas Startup Community.” To learn more about the special "startup discount," visit dartup.co.Events & Programs
Startup events and programs that defined 2014
970
Events and Meetups
12,400
Cups of coffee consumed
320
New ideas and apps pitched
Startup Weekend in New Cities and New Verticals
Four Startup Weekend events were held in North Texas this year - in Dallas, Denton, and for the first time in Fort Worth including two Startup Weekend Bootcamps. Roughly 220 participants developed and tested 29 ideas throughout the 54-hour weekend events. This was also the first year that Dallas ran a vertical Startup Weekend event held in the Education and Health sectors.Startup Next is proving to be a catalyst for growth
Startup evangelist and entrepreneur Kevin Strawbridge led two programs this year, where 17 startup teams learned about customer development methodologies over the course of each five-week program.House of Genius Program Launches in Dallas
This unique program emerged in December last year and hosts two entrepreneurs each month in an anonymous setting. In one year they have hosted 108 collaborators and 32 presenters.Dallas New Tech Turns One
In just one year, Dallas New Tech has grown from an audience of 50 to 300 and 60 startup companies in the North Texas area pitching on stage. Notable story is Blownaway, Dallas’s premier on-demand beauty app, secured a six-figure investment from the Angels of Texas after presenting at September’s Dallas New Tech.Open Coffee Club span 5 cities in North Texas
There are 5 Open Coffee Clubs now -- two in Dallas, 1 in Fort Worth, 1 in Denton, and one with a video game focus in Plano. This weekly program has put in over 112 hours of discussions centered around the tech and startup community.Find Founder with CoFounders Lab
If you’re looking for a co-founder, you may have been one of 275 people that attended the Cofounders Lab meetups this year in Dallas, Addison or Plano.Wednesday with 1 Million Cups of Coffee and Startups
Hosted every Wednesday morning at 9am at The DEC and IdeaWorks, this program hosted over 49 weeks in 2014, heard 132 startups pitch. The program also holds true to its name consuming over 3,015 cups of coffee this year.LaunchDFW Happy Hours colliding connections over cocktails
Launch DFW hosted 16 happy hours this year -- where 1,135 attendees collaborated over 2,837 alcoholic beverages.Lean Startup Machine Launches in Dallas
International program launched in Addison for the first time this year and coordinated by community leaders Kyle Taylor and Kara Brown. With their focus on validating ideas, the 68 participants used over 350 post-it notes throughout the weekend, and came up with 8 innovative and customer-validated ideas.3-Month Apps Challenge promotes sustainability
North Texas Apps Challenge presented by the North Texas Commission and The Clean Web Initiative, which brought the City of Dallas, the City of Denton and the Town of Addison together with entrepreneurs to solve real-life issues for residents around clean water, sanitation, and health. Over $80K in cash and prizes were awarded to the winning teams.Attracting national Influencers at the 2014 AngelSummit
200 investors, corporate and community leaders from across 20 states came to downtown Dallas to talk about national trends in Angel Investing at the inaugural Angel Summit.Community Ambassador Program Promotes Give Before you Get
This year 55 DEC Ambassadors spent over 2500 hours volunteering their time and getting connected in with over 30 local and national organizations.Accelerators & Incubators
The year for new accelerators and incubators
9
Seed accelerators programs
11
Incubator programs
137
Startup companies accelerating ideas
Fort Worth opens new incubator for startups
IdeaWorks in Fort Worth is a nonprofit backed by donors, sponsors and the City of Fort Worth which serves startups through Entrepreneur Roundtables, educational events and community engagement.Startup resource for startup north of 635
A public-private partnership between The DEC and the Town of Addison, demonstrates that in our region, economic development is about more than just helping big companies, but also helping power small businesses.Preparing startups for international markets in Richardson
Richardson-based incubator that’s attracting local and international entrepreneurs to capital sources in China.Deep Ellum welcomes new collaborative workspace
The Garage is a collaborative workspace for startups to access mentorship, capital and rent office space.Socially Innovative startups making an impact with GroundFloor
United Way’s GroundFloor program is a social venture program launched in 2013, and most recently announced its second class of socially innovative companies. Its inaugural class leveraged investments of $310,000 to raise an additional $1.85M to fund their impact work.Mentors offering free advice and feedback to startups
Housing over 100 startups in their space this year and offering a free mentorship program to anyone in the community. Over 14,000 hours of coaching and feedback have been provided to entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs in the community.Big Win for Tech Ft. Worth: First IPO of a biotech company in Texas in 10 years
ZS Pharma raised $107 million in their IPO this year and now have a market cap of $900 million. ZS Pharma was a part of the Tech Ft. Worth incubator back in 2009 after relocating from Indiana to Fort Worth.Dallas-bred Restaurant and Retail Tech Seed Accelerator
The only retail and restaurant focused accelerator program in the world, featured 6 startups this year from across the globe. Four of the six companies in this year’s class have decided to stay in Dallas, a great indicator of companies moving here because they believe the resources, customers and capital here will help make them more successful.Health-tech focused accelerator program graduates seeing traction
The only health-tech focused accelerator program in the Southwest graduated its second class during Global Entrepreneurship Week in November. The 12-week program made $30K investments in 11 startup companies from across the US and the world, while announcing earlier this year that its inaugural class has collectively raised $4.6 million.Veteran seed accelerator program Tech Wildcatters making an economic impact
Currently housing a portfolio of 63 companies that have collectively raised more than $40 million in capital and helping create more than 300 jobs. The application deadline for this highly competitive program closes on January 13th.New Accelerator launches to fund innovative startups using NFC
New accelerator program launched this year and housed in the Garage invested in 4 startup companies.DFW-based startups generating revenue accepted into inaugural class
Collide Village received over 120 applications in the Fall and selected 6 local and revenue generating startups for its four-month program that launched in November at the Addison Treehouse.Investments
Investing in Startups
$323 Million
Invested across 32 companies
Ranked 18th
Dallas ranked best city for VC funding
Active Angels
Texas accounted for 12% of all deals in Q2
Dallas ranked 18th best city for VC funding
The total investments made in the first three quarters totaled $323 million across 32 companies, and North Texas was also home to the second largest venture capital deal in Texas during the third quarter - Teladoc, a telehealth service provider, raised $50.25 million from a group of investors.Strongest Q2 for investments since 2006
Of these investments, the top spots went to ZS Pharma with a $40 million raise (and then later followed by an IPO), while $84 million went to Teacher Synergy, and $50 million in Teladoc. This year saw the strongest Q2 since 2006, with 5 times more investments made in Q2 2014 than Q2 2013.Angel investment and interest on the rise in Texas
Across the US, 12% of angel investments made during Q2 this year were in Texas. And Dallas recently hosted a national Summit on Angel Investing, with local influencers helping the national Angel community spearhead the discussion about how to create the next 1 Million Angels in the country.Banks are getting in the action to help accelerate startups
In Dallas, Comerica Bank just completed a $50,000 cash grant and was awarded to the startup company Rollout. In Fort Worth, Capital One Bank sponsored the fourth annual Fort Worth Business Pitch Competition, awarding $12K in cash and prizes.Grassroots startup competition Startup Jackpot at AngelSummit
While another contest called Startup Jackpot, backed by VC firm Trailblazer Capital, funded $15,000 in cash to accelerate another local startup during the Angel Summit. Congrats to the winner Cariloop, a graduate of the 2013 Health Wildcatters program, who also closed a seed investment round of $400K led by Green Park and Golf Ventures.Companies behaving like investment backers
Another way companies are behaving like backers is by creating internal venture arms -- like Dallas based 7-11 Ventures, Texas Instruments TI Ventures, and the Mark Cuban Companies. Cuban has made investments in several Dallas-based startups this year including these two startups and UT Dallas alumns: iLumi and Xpire.Outside capital firms looking at Dallas-based companies
Austin-based VC firms like LiveOak Ventures announced that they’re looking at more deals in Dallas. A few months after making their announcement, they made their first investment of $3.5M in Razberi Technologies, a Carrolton-based company developing network video solutions for security surveillance.Entrepreneurs leveraging crowdfunding for startup capital
Companies are also turning to crowdfunding to seed fund their next venture this year - like TCU undergrads Dropshades that raised $78K; more than $100K was raised by iLumi prior to their investment by Cuban; or Chui, the world’s most intelligent doorbell raising $86K for pre-orders.Universities
Our Powerful Student Ecosystem
144 Teams
Participated in business plan competitions
$161,500
Student competition cash and prizes
17% Growth
In enrollment in entrepreneurship courses
Students accelerating their ideas with competitive contests
Almost 200 teams participating in the highly competitive business pitch competitions including UTD Business Plan Competition, Baylor’s New Venture Competition, TCU Values and Ventures, and the SMU Business Plan Competition. Together these students teams were awarded a total of $161,500 in cash and prizes.Student teams get connected at UNT Innovation Greenhouse
This past year, the Greenhouse helped 36 student startup teams apply what they learned in the classroom to their business ideas, and many went on to win cash awards like the Founders’ Award from TCU, the NTx Apps Challenge, and the Sabre App Hackathon Challenge.Venture Development Center incubates startup teams
Active mix of UTD technologies in cybersecurity, medical devices, biotech, material sciences and software, companies typically have a mix of university technology, licensed and free. In 2014 the combined 35 companies have raised over $5M in a variety of federal grants as well as some equity investment.Entrepreneurship enrollment on the rise at UTD
UTD is expecting a growth in enrollment of about 17% with a total of 1180 students expected to take Innovation and Entrepreneurship courses in the Naveen Jindal School of Management.UTD Startup Launch Courses and Seed Funding Opportunities
The “Startup Launch Track” is a specialized track offering a unique opportunity for a select group of entrepreneurs to take up to 4 startup launch courses and to receive up to $25K in seed funding. Since inception in Spring 2013, three student teams have been selected for the competitive, including the Rollout, the winner of this year’s DEC and Comerica $50K Business Pitch Competition.UTD alumni startup team from business idea competition to growth
In 2010, The UTD two student founders of iLumi won the graduate UT Dallas Business Idea Competition in 2010 and later when on to launch the company with faculty mentoring. Following a successful crowdfunding of more than $100K, iLumi went on to receive a $350K investment from Mark Cuban on Shark Tank in April 2014.Funded ventures emerging from established programs in SMU’s Cox School of Business
SMU’s Cox School of Business is helping accelerate and celebrate entrepreneurs. The school hosts two business plan competitions with $50K in prize money available, the Southwest Venture Forum, the Dallas 100 Awards honoring the fastest growing privately held companies in Dallas, and manages the MBA Venture Fund. Over the last 5 years, a combined investment in Cox grad and undergrad ventures have reached $140M.SMU accelerates startups with real-life experience and capital
Accelerate your Startup program at SMU enabled 5 companies with a total of $25,000 total with a new class starting again in January and Austin College is going to be launching their first mini-accelerator programing starting in the Spring semester through a partnership with the DEC.Entrepreneur Clubs gaining interest from students and the community
SMU’s Cox School of Business boasts 2 Entrepreneurship clubs for Grad and Undergrad students. The UTD E-Club attracts 150 students at their events from all seven schools within UTD. Meanwhile, TCU’s Entrepreneurship Club is the largest chapter affiliated with the National Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, and is one of the largest organizations on TCU's campus.First Entrepreneurship Program in the country continues with high accolades
The Baylor Entrepreneurship Department was one of the first entrepreneurship programs in the country, which started in 1977. The program is currently ranked #3 in the US by Princeton Review and Entrepreneurship magazine. The program has grown by approximately 100% over the last seven years.With 200 undergraduate students majoring in Entrepreneurship, and another 100 students getting minors.Corporations
Corporations connecting to startups
Nine
Hackathons hosted by corporations
Two New
Corporate innovation centers in 2014
600+
Corporate connections to startup talent