RecycleMatch Featured in the Austin American Statesman

When Houston-based RecycleMatch was chosen to take part in Capital Factory's 2010 summer boot camp, the company's two founders packed their bags and headed to Austin.

For 10 weeks, Brooke Betts Farrell and Chad Farrell spent their days — and many nights — taking part in the intensive annual mentoring program, which was launched last year by a group of Austin entrepreneurs. "There were a lot of 16-hour days, and they pushed us to take on more than we ever thought we could, but we became a much stronger company," said Betts Farrell, whose year-old company provides an online marketplace for connecting companies with waste with companies that can use the materials.

Capital Factory chose five startups from a pool of 200 applicants to participate in this year's program, which kicked off in late May. In exchange for a 5 percent stake in each company, Capital Factory provided up to $20,000 in cash and in-kind services including office space, legal counseling, and public relations support and mentoring from Austin tech executives. "Money and free services are attractive, but the entrepreneurs get the most value out of the mentorships," said Bryan Menell , who co-founded Capital Factory with fellow veteran entrepreneurs Joshua Baer and Sam Decker . "Each mentor brought something unique including expertise in sales, partnerships, fundraising, engineering and marketing."

On Wednesday, the companies made their debut to a crowd of 250 people at the University of Texas AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center . Each company had eight minutes to make a presentation, followed by questions from the audience, which included 100 investors as well as entrepreneurs and UT students.

In addition to RecycleMatch, participants were:

Hurricane Party, based in Austin, offers a location-based social networking application that helps users create, manage and discover events that are relevant to them.

Keepstream, based in Cleveland, provides a social media tool for saving and repurposing content from Twitter, Facebook and websites.

RippleFunction, based in Boston, provides an online service that lets event organizers create and launch event promotions — such as early-bird discounts or last minute deals — via Twitter and Facebook.

Smackages, based in Dallas, an online beauty community that connects members with cosmetics brands and lets them try products before buying online.

Baer said the companies started out at different stages — some had working products, others were still in development. Keepstream and RippleFunction changed their names, with the help of Austin advertising executive Yvonne Tocquigny . "Each one had different milestones to reach, but we wanted to make sure that by the end of the program every company was prepared to meet with potential investors," said Baer, who has started a number of tech companies, most recently OtherInbox, which provides e-mail management . "That means they're polished, they're structured properly and they can talk about their business in the way that investors expect to hear about it."

Betts Farrell said Capital Factory mentors coached RecycleMatch on how to use Internet marketing tools such as search engine optimization and helped the company adjust its pricing structure. "We're going out to raise our first round of outside funding, and thanks to Capital Factory, we are ready," she said.

The company plans to return its operations to Houston, but could return if it receives funding from Austin investors, she said. Meanwhile, Capital Factory organizers said they are getting ready for the 2011 program. "When you see the end result, how far the companies have come, you can't wait to do it again," Baer said.

Written by Lori Hawkins - Austin American Statesman Staff

View the article at http://www.statesman.com/business/technology/prepped-at-austin-boot-camp-startups-make-their-904794.html