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Richardson nonprofit that helps tech startups seek funds expands its reach

A Richardson-based nonprofit set up to identify and funnel young companies to the Texas Emerging Technology Fund for potential investment is expanding its reach.

Now, the North Texas Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization will give entrepreneurs access to more investors and aims to help boost the number of women entrepreneurs.

The North Texas RCIC, one of seven such groups, has helped 40 North Texas companies land $42.1 million from that fund (with the potential for a total of $51.6 million if certain milestones are met).

The group’s new efforts, according to officials, include:

Screening investment prospects for the Orix Texas Technology & Infrastructure Fund, a $200 million investment fund started in May by Dallas-based Orix USA Corp.

Hosting its first Pitch Day on Nov. 17 in Las Colinas. The event gives five North Texas entrepreneurs 20 minutes to pitch their early stage technology companies to at least 35 potential investors, including angel investors and venture capitalists.

Teaming up with Texas State University in San Marcos to launch the Ramps program in December to help increase the number of women entrepreneurs in North Texas. Last week, the North Texas RCIC began recruiting 25 North Texas women to learn skills to start or grow a business.

The decision to expand was not related to criticism of insufficient oversight and funding problems at the 6-year-old Texas Emerging Technology Fund in recent years, said Vik Thapar, director of the North Texas RCIC.

The Emerging Technology Fund, administered by the governor’s office, has awarded more than $370 million to technology startups and universities for research. An April state audit called for increased transparency and oversight. In June, Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill to make several changes to the fund.

“Because of what we do for the ETF, it makes us very well-connected to the investment community and the entrepreneurial community,” Thapar said. “It made a lot of sense for us to expand and start more formally connecting entrepreneurs with investors and universities and companies.”

The North Texas RCIC noticed that women led less than 15 percent of the more than 2,000 ventures it has vetted since it began six years ago. Only three of its 40 funded companies have female chief executives, Thapar said.

Maria Smith, executive director of the North Texas RCIC, hopes the new Ramps program will increase not only the number of women building large businesses, but also the number of coaches and mentors who can help the next generation.

“It is our hope that we will not only create an invaluable network for the graduates of this program, but create women-led businesses that will drive opportunities for other entrepreneurs in Texas,” said Smith, who will be a program coach and mentor. “We know there are a lot of quality women out there doing it on their own, but we can do something to help ramp it up.”

The Dallas-Fort Worth area was home to 169,863 women-owned firms in 2007, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It ranked No. 4 nationally, up from No. 7 in 2002.

Census data shows that U.S. women are starting businesses at a faster pace than men, but women-owned firms tend to employ fewer people and generate less revenue.

Women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce and more than half of college students, but they lag in building high-growth companies with revenue above $1 million, according to a recent report by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The report concluded that women capable of starting high-growth companies may be the nation’s “greatest underutilized economic resource.”

So far, a handful of women have applied for the 25-week program, which costs $3,000. Applicants don’t have to have a business idea, or they may already be running a business. To apply, go to www.txstate.edu/rampcorp/apply.

Smith acknowledged that $3,000 is a hefty fee. Some of the money, she said, goes toward an entrepreneur-in-residence who plans the curriculum, teaches and mentors. The entrepreneur-in-residence for North Texas has not been announced yet.

Terry Chase Hazell, director of the Texas State RampCorp and a former entrepreneur, will be the main coach for the program in North Texas. Hazell and her Texas State colleagues launched Ramps early last year in Austin. The program spread to El Paso earlier this year and will expand to San Antonio and Williamson County in 2012.

“We’re very excited about more focus on the women entrepreneurial community,” said Whitney Johns Martin, managing member of Richardson-based Texas Women Ventures Fund. That fund has invested $6.1 million in five women-led businesses since 2006.

“I’d like to see women-owned businesses in this area grow,” she said. “More resources will bring more women-owned businesses in front of the capital providers. The more prepared those businesses are, the more likely they are to succeed in their fundraising.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/small-business/20111106-richardson-nonprofit-that-helps-tech-startups-seek-funds-expands-its-reach.ece