Idea Finishing School April Mixer
// April 14th, 2010 // No Comments » // idea xchange
I first started sharing space with Ideagin and the Idea Finishing School late last year. We’ve had a couple of fun get togethers that we’ve called the Idea Xchange, but I missed last months meeting when I had to jet back to Oz. Apparently, the meeting had some oopsies, so this month, I got put in charge. I’m a social person, so it should be a fun task.
It all started because Dean McCall was the go-to guy in San Antonio for start-ups. He figured if he was always going to be giving all this good advice, he may as well make it formal and start the Idea Finishing School. On the other side, Dean is hooked up with Rudy De La Garza, a financial wiz. People with money to invest came to Dean and Rudy, looking for start-ups to invest in. So, here we are today, at the San Antonio Technology Center building on Magic Dr, ready to help you out.
The Idea Finishing School is an incubator for small business start-ups. Basically, if you have the next big thing, and you’re super focused on your product, but you’re having trouble getting the business off the ground because you’re no good at the paperwork or legal stuff, then we’ve got your back. You’re free to focus on making a great product, while we teach you how to deal with marketing, legal, financial, etc. Once we’ve got your paperwork looking pretty, then we can take you to meet some investors who’d like to help you grow your company. Everyone knows you can’t get funding till you’ve got a great business plan, and the Idea Finishing School will make it perfect.
The most important thing about the school, and what sets it apart from anything like it, is that once you’ve “graduated”, Dean and Rudy will take your finished business plan and present it to 16 big money investors in San Antonio who are actively looking to invest in new companies in the San Antonio area. Where else will you get to present your idea to that many people? Well, besides some shonky reality show? Now, they are biased and prefer technology start-ups, but at least if you’ve got the next great SAAS product, you won’t be competing with a pet rock guy….
The best way to check out the school and see if there’s something in it for you is to come along to one of our mixers, The Idea Xchange. It’s always on the last Wednesday of the month. This month, we’ll be having it on April 28th. It starts at 4pm. People get to mingle and meet other entrepreneurs, as well as some VC’s. This month our guest speaker is a lawyer, who’ll give advice on new businesses.
So, if you’re in San Antonio and you’ve got a start-up that you could use some help getting in front of investors, come out to the Idea Xchange. Pick our brains, meet some people and see if there’s a way we can help you.
RSVP for the April event here: http://twtvite.com/AprilIdeaXchange
(that’s my dog Maya) and the TV, all the laundry and the yardwork, I don’t always get a lot done. As a new company, I didn’t want to rent space. I was hesitant to go into another co-lo sharing situation like at my last job, where people playing Wii and RockBand were more distracting than Oprah. However, when good friend 
