"Blackboard killer" Instructure.com Closes Initial Funding Round - BYU Founders Close to Deals with Universities

Devlin Daley and Brian Whitmer seem to have hit a vein; local investors agree, and have funded Instructure.com to the tune of $50,000. This will take them through 1 year from now, and into near-complete product development and launch. The team has a meeting with several venture capital firms (vSpring among them) this week, so more deals are likely forthcoming.

After years of dealing with the holes and problems with Blackboard, the software that helps universities around the country manage their students, classrooms, grades, etc., the 2 Computer Science PhD's from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT decided to do something about it. They founded Instructure.com.

Many startups make the mistake of spending too much time developing a product before talking to customers to make sure they're making something that will sell. Instructure.com has done the reverse. They've spent the bulk of their time talking to universities before developing it so that they are sure they are building the right thing. The team just finished a nation-wide tour. As they criss-crossed the country's universities, their strategy was simple. "We just asked the school's CTO's what their frustrations with Blackboard were," Devlin told me in an informal chat on campus. They told us, "If you can fix problems x through y, you've got a deal. We'll try your software."

I'm excited to see what comes of this (and so should the millions of students who use Blackboard). I'll keep you posted on any developments on the story.

Edited for clarity.

Tagged Startups Utah Tech Startups angel investors byu startups instructure.com seed financing

EnticeLabs.com is Hiring BizDev Interns

EnticeLabs is a cool startup based right here in Provo. Stephen Liddle is their CTO. Liddle is the iconic Silicon Valley geek (Professor Liddle, if you're reading this, you know I mean that with respect and admiration -- In my book, geeky is good) who started programming at home (in San Jose I believe) right about the same age as Bill Gates (13ish) and outside of riding motorcycles and spending time with the fam, loves programming. Entice also boasts a strong and impressive CEO in Ryan Caldwell. His bio pretty much speaks for itself, so I'll just let you read it:
Ryan directs EnticeLabs' strategic vision and leads its talent team towards ever increasing levels of performance for its customers, partners, and shareholders. While still in college, Ryan founded and developed multiple Internet and tech businesses and drove them to multi-million dollar exits. Additionally, Ryan has spearheaded acquisitions and mergers for several startups he has directed. Ryan has worked for the smallest hot startups and the largest Fortune 500 companies. He has consulted in the US, Singapore and London for large corporations including Visa and Microsoft.
emphasis added EnticeLabs is a startup to watch. They're hiring exceptional people for part-time work in business development. I have a friend that works there, and he loves the people, the challenge, and the product. If you're interested, go here. Reading this from a feed? Go to the original article to make a comment.
Tagged Startups Utah Tech Startups entice labs enticelabs.com ryan caldwell stephen liddle tech startups

Big Kickoff Event - Web Startup Group/CEO Networking and Food

Just got out of the CEO Leadership meeting. No, we're not a bunch of people who think we're CEO's - it stands for Collegiate Entrepreneur's Organization. Pretty clever, eh? We are still hashing out all the details for the kickoff Web Startup/CEO meeting, but it will basically be as follows:

When:

Oct 23 at 7pm

Where:

BYU, in the (Talmage Building) TMCB auditorium 1170.

What:

See below

Who:

Entrepreneurs, angel investors, and anybody who's interested in entrepreneurship in or around BYU. A note from the guys at the Web Startup Group (Matt Smith, Sam Curren, Brian Whitmer, and Devlin Daley):

Meeting Format

The overriding emphasis will be on interesting, relevant information quickly disseminated. It should have punch. We feel that shorter is better. The officially organized portion of the meeting will be between 30-45 minutes. A typical meeting has three parts: 1. BizTech 2. Fast Pitch 3. Group Gab Two BizTech talks, 1-3 Fast Pitches. The open Group Gab (with food) is left open ended so that everyone can mingle for as long as they like.

BizTech

These talks will be 15 minutes in length. They will be on topics technical in nature while emphasizing how the technology can be applied to business, or how it affects startups. Some possible topics: • Amazon Web Services/App Engine • Android/iPhone • What's happening with the browser and javascript performance: v8/tracemonkey/ squirrelfish • Hybrid applications betwen web & desktop (Prism, Fluid, chrome, air (dynamic language:desktop lua & adobe, rubycocoa, pycocoa) • How to hire good employees (what to look for in a marketer, developer etc.) • Facebook/OpenSocial application development • Ajax vs. Flash/Flex The state of Ajax -- what you can do and what you can't :) • Making your website mashable (amenable to greasemonkey, and mashing up with other services) • Leveraging LinkedIn/Facebook • Making usable applications

Fast Pitch

Fast Pitches are short 5-minute mini pitches made to the whole group. The idea being you an pitch an idea, something you need feedback on or if you are looking for collaborators. Five minutes means they've got to be to the point. These can be startup ideas, or, like a tech talk by a techie looking for how to make money off a tech idea.

Group Gab

Group gab is designed to facilitate networking, but also to find birds of a feather. Anyone wishing to talk about a specific topic, whatever it may be, writes the topic on a 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper. They then have one minute at the microphone describing what the topic is, why others may be interested etc. The meeting MC then basically assigns that "idea" a location in the hall to congregate. The paper is taped to the assigned wall and after all the ideas have been announced, the formal portion of the meeting is completed. Everyone can grab some grub and then participate in the self-forming groups. After that, there will be food and a little bit of time to talk, have some pizza and drinks, and get to know other tech entrepreneurs in the area.
Tagged Utah Tech Startups WebStartupGroup networking software startups utah technology
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