You can spend a lot of time in Texas without ever making the trek to El Paso, Houston or Dallas. But you'd be missing out on a lot of innovative ideas.
That's why MassChallenge Texas, which is anchored by its new accelerator in Austin, has been on a series of road trips across the Lone Star State. They've already connected with startups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, San Antonio and San Marcos. And the team is planning additional events in Dallas, El Paso and Houston by the start of December.
MassChallenge Texas Managing Director Mike Millard and his team will be at Rice University and Station Houston next Tuesday, Nov. 28. Then, on Thursday the 30th, the team will be at WeWork in Dallas. The tour will be in El Paso on Dec. 1. (See details.)
While Austin's startup scene is a standout in the state, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio also have surging interest in building and investing in venture-backed tech startups. That has led to more cooperation, largely led by Capital Factory in Austin, between the state's top incubators, including with MassChallenge supporters Station Houston, the Dallas Entrepreneur Center, Geekdom (San Antonio) and the El Paso Hub of Human Innovation.
In other words, while these organizations compete to attract top startups to their cities and their co-working spaces, they've found mutual benefit in sharing resources, including access to top investors and customers inside these big cities, each of which seems to have its own strengths, weak spots and culture.
MassChallenge Texas is one of the new organizations in the mix. The Boston-based organization launched in Texas in September. After a series of launch events, it's now on the road promoting its Austin-based accelerator program in which it selects 100 startups that compete for up to $500,000 in equity-free cash. Meanwhile, it uses its mentors and its global network to help those startups innovate and grow. The deadline to apply is Dec. 5. Finalists will be announced in February.
MassChallenge Texas also has upcoming events in Austin, including one at 5 p.m. Nov. 21 at WeWork Domain and a pub quiz at Easy Tiger at 5 p.m. on Nov. 30.
The organization mostly backs startups that have raised less than $500,000 in equity funding and are generating less than $1 million in annual revenue.
"Through a zero-equity program, participating startups will get world-class mentoring from industry experts, tailored programming, access to corporate partners, free office space at WeWork Austin and the opportunity to win up to $500,000 in cash prizes," Millard said in a news release.
