Category Archives: News

Juan has joined as a Director and will be assisting the Bob in managing the network.

Juan has extensive experience as a Mentor, Startup Investor and Sales Consultant, and is focused on helping early stage companies get to the next level. He particularly enjoys working with B2B SaaS companies, platforms, communications, health tech, beer and social good.

He is passionate about helping teams find customers, listening to their challenges and delivering win-win solutions.

He is currently a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, and has held executive sales positions at Retreaver and Twilio. Juan has also has contributed in sales and technical areas at seven other companies, including both start-up companies and IBM.

See the list of networks.

The Southwest Angel Network is the only network in Texas focused on social-impact companies, and one of a handful in the US with that focus. In the 2nd quarter we had 25 companies apply for funding, including 10 from Austin, 10 from Dallas and Houston, 3 from California, one from Colorado and one from the Netherlands. Our angels reside in both Austin and Houston.

An Innovation Partner is an organizations that supports commercialization, entrepreneurship, and translation of National Science Foundation funded technologies into the market. Partners serve as a resource or sounding board for the research teams.

One of the social-impact areas of interest for the Southwest Angel Network is the environment. Therefore we are pleased to have been invited to become an Innovation Partner for the Nano Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Research Center at Rice University. The objective of NEWT is to develop new technologies to treat industrial/oil & gas wastewater in a more efficient, sustainable manner, and to make clean, safe water available to the millions of individuals who lack access to it by the use of innovative, low-cost, sustainable approaches.

Rice leads a consortium of four universities:  Rice, Arizona State, Yale University, and University of Texas (El Paso) for the NEWT program, which is expected to receive $37 million from NSF over 10 years.

Startup Investor Spotlight: Southwest Angel Network

2016 was a great first year for the Southwest Angel Network.

The network ran four quarterly funding cycles. A total of 85 social-impact companies applied for funding during the year, including companies from the Austin, Houston, Dallas, the bay area, the east coast and the Midwest. The angels got to meet very interesting and talented executive teams, all of whom share a passion for making the world a better place.

Fifteen companies were selected to pitch at our four events, and four of those companies received funding:

Brobe is a women-led business that improves the lives of post-surgical breast-cancer patients. Our funding allows the company to increase inventory, which then allows a rapid increase in sales.

Flow Below reduces the ecological impact of tractor-trailer trucks by improving fuel efficiency and reducing their CO2 footprint. Our funding helps the company to expand their customer base to include truck manufacturers.

OneSeventeen Media is a women-led business that supports the emotional well-being of junior high and high school students by providing a mobile app, MyMobileMentor. Our funding allows the company to finish development of their initial product.

Querium furthers the education of students who lack the math skills needed to succeed in today’s technological society.  Our funding helps the company to enhanced their product technology.

This successful year could not have happened without our insightful and collaborative angels who are working to address significant societal problems, who enjoy helping young companies, and who are striving to achieve a financial return on their investments.

The network also participated in a wide variety of social-impact community events, including running an 11-week class for budding social entrepreneurs, and organizing in April a city-wide event addressing whether Austin can become a national hub for social entrepreneurship.

The Southwest Angel Network participated in the Social Impact Epic Office Hours at the Capital Factory.

The Southwest Angel Network participated in the Intro to the UT & Austin Startup Ecosystem event at the UT McCombs School of Business.

The Southwest Angel network held its third-quarter evening dinner pitch event.