Blog

January 18By Read more...

Top 3 Startup Founder Resources

At every stage of your entrepreneurial journey you will need support. One of the hardest lessons I, as a founder, have learned is to accept guidance and support. Learning that lesson has taught me to not only accept the support, but to seek it. I encourage you to seek the support you need to strengthen your skill set, define your goals and to create meaningful growth for your business. As you go looking for resources to support your startup there are a million different options, let’s take a little time to sort through the different types of resources available...

November 5By Read more...

2021 GEW Sessions You Don’t Want to Miss!

This annual event gives residents a chance to get to know Fort Worth’s local community of innovators, while also providing aspiring entrepreneurs with a variety of informative sessions and networking opportunities. Participants can take part in-person and virtually. Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) returns to Fort Worth Sunday, Nov. 7 through Friday, Nov. 12. This popular event offers a variety of workshops, panel discussions, informational sessions and networking events that showcase Fort Worth’s entrepreneurship community while also engaging with larger industry trends. During 2020, Fort Worth’s Global Entrepreneurship Week was the largest celebration of its kind in the world with 93 sessions, more...

October 13By Read more...

5 Reasons Your Business Needs a Podcast

Podcasts are a booming medium right now. According to Edison Research and Triton Digital’s Infinite Dial 2021 study, 80 million Americans ages 12 and older listen to at least one podcast a week, with the average listener enjoying five shows in that time.   The number of podcasts grew to 2 million in 2021 (Winn, 2021) and advertisers are expected to spend over $1 billion on podcast campaigns this year alone (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2020). Here are five reasons your business should ride this wave and consider starting its own podcast:  Podcasting is a functional medium. They can be listened to while doing other activities, like driving or house chores. This means your busy audience can take...

September 22By Read more...

Business Relocation Spotlight: SmartAction

Gary Davis, the President and CEO of SmartAction, recently made an appearance on the Innovate Fort Worth podcast to discuss his company’s relocation to Fort Worth.  SmartAction uses artificial intelligence – or rather, algorithmic intelligence – to improve companies’ customer service. A “virtual agent” is trained to engage with customers in specific ways that are entirely driven by that customer’s typed or spoken response – think of it like an algorithmic “choose your own adventure” of solutions and answers to customer problems.   Gary had hoped to return to his Texas roots after running SmartAction from El Segundo, California, for several years,...

September 16By Read more...

10 Ways Sparkyard Can Help Your Business

Sparkyard, you have heard of it, but do you know the man behind it? Meet Marco Johnson, the “Entrepreneurial Cat Herder” and main Spark Plan builder at Sparkyard. What you may not know is Marco has vast experience in entrepreneurship and economics. I sat down with Marco and wanted to share our conversation so you can learn more about the Spark-Man himself. My first career was in international development where I lived in 8 countries over 15 years and worked in a variety of sectors, including humanitarian work with refugees, microfinance, private equity investment, agricultural development, and impact investing. While I lived overseas, I was...

September 13By Read more...

Startup Capital Series: Angel Investors vs. Venture Capital

All startup companies require capital of some kind. In the initial stages of a company, funding can be hard to find. Most founders get started by using personal funds, bootstrapping money from personal savings, loans and credit cards, or using revenue from the company's profit to reinvest back into the company (known as sales-led growth strategy). When businesses need to scale at a faster pace than these methods provide, they will often turn to outside investors to fuel the growth of their company.  It is important to note that less than 1% of all companies raise angel or venture capital. The companies that do are typically launching a hot new technology and they need...

September 8By Read more...

Is a Nonprofit the right road for you? 

Are you considering starting a nonprofit? Pam Cannell from BoardBuild breaks down the road map for deciding if a nonprofit is the best road for you to take.   You see a problem, you think you have a solution, so you say to yourself, “I think we should start a new nonprofit.”  Do you have a unique solution? First you should verify that your ideas are different from the more than 7000(!!!) nonprofit organizations already operating in Tarrant County and, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the 1.5 million nonprofits registered in the United States. Surely the mission and...