(Community Matters) President Obama visited the Capital Factory today, an outstanding tech startup incubator co-founded & operated by several friends, especially Joshua Baer and Bill Boebel.
In the shared work space (250 entrepreneurs work at Capital Factory representing almost 100 different companies) he was treated to a demo of Mass Relevance by Eric Falcao and a demo by Stormpulse narrated by Matt Wensing.
Photos from many different sources, including yesterday’s official CF photographer: Alex Smith, and many my own
Josh then introduced the President to a room of 24 entrepreneurs, investors and
friends including me, Josh Dilworth-Jones, Brett Hurt, Gordon Daugherty, Michael Trafton, Bernie Brenner, Ross Buhrdorf, Russell Hinds, Andrew Busy, Dean Drako, John Price, Mellie Price, Rob Taylor, Kip McClanahan, Ronny Kahan, Josh Kerr, Cindy Lu and a few others. President Obama said he wanted to emphasize a focus on jobs, education and innovation. Prompted by a question by Ross about basic research, he asked us to speak up about the importance of government funded research for commercial innovation and job growth, acknowledging to the crowd that even billionaires were usually reluctant to fund the most basic.
With the President we watched demos of Lynx Labs by Chris Slaughter, Correlated Magnetics by Stephen Straus and Community Cars by Stacy Zoern.
There were a few light moments, including when Josh offered to interview POTUS for a startup slot when he starts looking for a new job in 2017, when the President’s staff signaled no more question and he brushed them aside, soliciting another, and when evidently being encouraged to cut the demos or parts thereof, Josh pushed through for all three.
They moved to demo with WP Engine, by Jason Cohen and Heather Brunner.
Earlier this year, the Entrepreneurs Foundation recognized Josh for his outstanding community service. He’s a serial entrepreneur who’s doing as much if not more than anyone else in Austin to build out Austin’s start up eco system, mentor first time entrepreneurs and connect them with investors and other mentors. The White House’s selection of Capital Factory as one of the President’s four stops was an excellent move. Kudos to all on a terrific afternoon.
Community Matters 