Startups Emerge from Cedar Park Investments

During the summer of 2009, Tech Ranch and the City of Cedar Park embarked on an unprecedented endeavor:  Jump start the organization of a community of entrepreneurs, support them to self-organize into a functioning “tribe”, and nurture startups that emerged.  Over the course of three months, the Tech Ranch team put a plan into action that has exceeded all expectations, creating a community of more than 250 participants with new ventures launching almost every week.

What has emerged is the Cedar Park “Enterprise Tribe”, supported by Tech Ranch Cedar Park.  While the tribe is very much a work in progress, the project is already able to highlight early success stories.  Following, you can hear from four new ventures that have launched in Cedar Park this summer with the support of the Cedar Park Enterprise Tribe and Tech Ranch Cedar Park:

BG Alert

In the fall of 2006, Mike Gromer was still an undergraduate at Neumont University in Utah when he created a website to track his diabetic son’s blood sugar levels. Mike’s son needed regular blood sugar monitoring and in addition a phone call to Mike from school three to four times each day to make sure his blood glucose levels stayed healthy. Instead of a constant phone call, Mike started Blood Glucose Alert, a website that his son could log into and record his blood sugar level. The website texts the B.G. levels to Mike’s phone, saving the phone call. The site also texts Mike’s son with instructions to eat or not based on the B.G. level.

“I eventually want B.G. Alert to be more mobile than a website. In the near future I want someone to be able to text their blood glucose level directly to the site and have the site reply with corresponding instructions.” In the future the site may even communicate directly with diabetic hardware.

Mike also wants to keep the site affordable for families, saying, “I want B.G. Alert to help people, not break their banks.”

Mike is a regular around the Tech Ranch and the Cedar Park Enterprise Tribe meetings, working with the Ranch Hands to get the B.G. Alert site and blog running. While Mike goes after the design of B.G. Alert, he gives Tech Ranch credit for helping him learn how to advertise the website. “It’s very motivating to be at Tech Ranch because being around other people who are starting things is helpful. You never know who you’ll run into.”

Endeavor Computer Solutions

It has only been four weeks since Wesley and Amy Sandlin started Endeavor Computer Solutions, but Wesley is confident that the company will be self supporting within a few weeks, saying, “I expect to be able to quit my part-time job in the next month.”

This is an exciting story for all current and future entrepreneurs in Cedar Park. Wesley and Amy Sandlin are just one example of the existing opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs.

The Sandlins attended the Tech Ranch Town Hall meeting in Cedar Park within days of Wesley’s current job being reduced from full time to part time. Attending the Town Hall encouraged the Sandlins, helping them to see that they are in good company and that there are lots of resources for entrepreneurs. “Had we not attended the Tech Ranch Town Hall meeting, we wouldn’t have been motivated enough to start Endeavor Computer Solutions, and I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Wesley’s goal for Endeavor is to be the help desk for small businesses, providing technical support for the wide array of devices, from computers to office machines to smart phones. Tech support is an essential service that many small businesses cannot afford on their own, but Endeavor Computer Solutions supply quality service at small business prices.

Just ask Wesley and he will tell his exciting story about striking out with his own venture, and the essential role that Tech Ranch played in giving him the push to get started. “Tech Ranch has helped us to know that we’re not alone. The kinship we feel is a big thing.”

Ytrepreneur

Starting from humble blog beginnings, the Ytrepreneur Social Media Street Team is in the process of creating virtual realms at business and entrepreneurial conferences. Ytrepreneur stands for Entrepreneurship through the eyes of Gen Y. Rubén and the his team were aware of the constant distraction of most people attending business conferences. With so much access to Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook in the palms of our hands, Rubén knew that many people were attending conferences but not maximizing their education and experience. Ytrepreneur was born out of the question, “what can be done to use the natural distraction of new media to deepen engagement in a business conference?”

Ytrepreneur has found that one answer is to create a virtual arena for a conference by tweeting about conference presentations, or posting a constant stream of photos on Flickr. By creating a constant stream of information about the conference as it happens, Ytrepreneur hopes to facilitate a digital conversation and ultimately use “distraction” as a way to fuel of education.

Rubén and the Ytrepreneur team are a great example of a team coming together as a result of the Tech Ranch networking hub. The team met one another at the Tech Ranch and started Ytrepreneur. The Tech Ranch hands eagerly await the potential of this new development in marketing.

VBrag

VBrag is a new Cedar Park Texas based startup focused on changing the way companies, teams and communities identify and reward the exceptional performance of their members.