SXSW Capital Factory A-List Pitch

Capital Factory brings you our A-List of Austin's early-stage startups raising Series A funding in a series of five-minute pitches.

Austin, Texas is the fastest growing city in the country and has a booming startup and technology scene that attracts talent from both coasts and around the world. Capital Factory is the center of Austin's startup ecosystem and has filtered through them all to bring you the very best.

Come get a taste of Texas at this special SXSW pitch event! Kick off SXSW with some fresh new ideas – you might want to use their products, apply for a job, or make an investment.

The five companies will present to hundreds of people, as well as our three all star judges who will ask questions and decide the top pitch; John Thornton, from Austin Ventures, Jonathan Coon, the founder of 1-800 CONTACTS and our special guest judge, US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker (you can find their bios below).

Check out the five companies that will be pitching!

Aceable

Chiron Health

Goodybag

Loop & Tie

Manager Complete

These Austin technology companies are early-stage startups raising Series A funding that have qualified for a matching investment from the Capital Factory Fund and our venture capital partners. Most have initial revenue but some are pre-revenue.

Penny Pritzker has served as the 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce since being sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden on June 26, 2013. As Secretary of Commerce, she is focused on providing American businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools they need to grow and hire.

Secretary Pritzker is a key member of President Obama’s economic team, with 27 years of private sector experience. Before joining the Obama Administration, Pritzker founded and ran five different businesses in the real estate, hospitality, senior living, and financial services industries.

Since taking office, she has worked closely with the business community and helped advance the President’s priorities of expanding growth and opportunity for all Americans. Guided by conversations with more than 1,500 CEOs and business leaders, and over one-third of the Fortune 500 CEOs, Secretary Pritzker has developed the “Open for Business Agenda.” This bold strategic plan and policy blueprint for the Commerce Department focuses on expanding trade and investment, unleashing government data for economic benefit, spurring innovation, protecting the environment—and executing these priorities with operational excellence as careful stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Secretary Pritzker earned her bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University and J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford University.

Jonathan Coon started 1-800 CONTACTS in 1992 in his dorm room with $50. The company was sold in June 2012 for $900 million.

A few highlights of those 20 years:

- Public CEO from 1998 to 2007

- Had to get federal law passed to give Americans a right to their contact lens prescriptions.

- Lost in 19 of the 22 state capitols where they attempted to change the law

- Personally invested over 300 days in DC over 5 years

- The Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act passed as a stand-alone act through the House and Senate and became law in 2004.

- Had to sue Johnson and Johnson to compel them to sell to 1-800 CONTACTS (big anti-trust case).

- Made a movie with his younger brother called Napoleon Dynamite.

- Married 24 years.

Jonathan's favorite quote - "The difficult we do now. The impossible takes a little bit longer." - US Army Corps of Engineers.

John Thornton joined Austin Ventures in 1991 and focuses on software investing and firm strategy. Previously, John was with McKinsey & Co., where he served clients in the U.S. and Europe. He has worked with companies such as Active Power (NASDAQ: ACPW), Dazel (NYSE: HP), Lombardi (NYSE: IBM), Metasolv (NASDAQ: MSLV), Mission Critical (NASDAQ: NTIQ), Motive (NASDAQ: MOTV), Pentasafe (NASDAQ: NTIQ), SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI), TechRepublic (NYSE: IT), Tivoli (NYSE: IBM), Vignette (NASDAQ: VIGN), and Waveset (NASDAQ: SUNW).John received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his BA summa cum laude from Trinity University, where he graduated first in his class. He is former board member of Ballet Austin, the Austin Museum of Art, and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas; a founding board member of the Entrepreneur’s Foundation; and a former trustee of Trinity University. In 2009, John founded The Texas Tribune, the nation’s first statewide, non-profit, non-partisan, online news organization. - See more at: http://capitalfactory.com/mentor/john-thornton/#sthash.iVuAS1Wx.dpuf