At the Texas Venture Labs Expo on Thursday, a number of consumer-facing startups presented to a room full of investors, hoping that they can get an investor, or at the very least an introduction. They had all completed the Texas Venture Labs Accelerator, working with graduate students on topics ranging from product-market fit to competitive analysis. This was the culmination of a semester's worth of work to get their companies investor-ready.
First presenter in the B2C category was our old friend BeatBox Beverages. They've come a long way in the past year, getting on Shark Tank and filming their follow-up episode. They've outsourced distribution and hired a bunch of college-aged brand ambassadors. "We want to be a national alcohol brand by school-time next year." - said CEO Justin Fenchel. More products are in store as they are experimenting with single-serving dispensers and "Beatsicles" - think of Daiquiri machines for BeatBox.
A company for a significantly younger but equally rowdy market, Bran Thomas of PopUp Play is commercializing the old cardboard box. Well, not really old cardboard boxes, he's giving children the ability to create, customize, color and interact with custom-made 1/4" fiberboard playhouses. Children can go online to design their castle or gingerbread house (rocket ships coming in January 2016) and customize it with different artwork and features. Once it arrives at their home they assemble it, color on it, and can use their iPad app to interact with it using an augmented reality feature.
Following PopUp Play was Unsweet Tea who is working to create a "craft tea." Coming out of Bunker Labs, the company is taking on the Ready to Drink tea segment. With the decline in demand for carbonated beverages as everyone becomes more health-conscious, Unsweet Tea is taking advantage of the opening and offering natural craft tea. Each flavor has a wellness purpose such as "Detox," "Skinny," and "Buzz" while every market has a specific local production so there'll be fresh product going into the market.
The final consumer-focused product was Unveil who gives brides the ability to "create a wedding day look" through augmented reality. When using Unveil, a bride-to-be can see what different makeup and jewelry combinations will look like in reality. While the expo was designed to give investor-ready companies the opportunity to solicit funding, Unveil was acquired by Blippar during their time at TVL.
