to light a fire: igniting a cloud-oriented startup ecosystem in huntsville
DESCRIPTION
This was a conversation on what is missing in our town to get more startups that focus on web apps, mobile apps, SaaS and other cloud based businesses. Is it lack of good business ideas? Is it lack of a large urban population with interesting problems (like Uber)? Is it the lack of knowledge on "open" development platforms because those are not common/banned "behind the gates"? As a community we are missing out and there is really no good reason why we could/should not be doing tons of work on this space and I would like to have a general brainstorming/discussion/round table on why it is not happening. The panel included: Michael Comperda, Curse Hubert Thieblot, Curse Craig Kerstiens, Heroku Wesley Sparks, Rainspace Matt Bynum, Rainspace Everyone in the roomTRANSCRIPT
To build a fire: Lighting-up the cloud-based startup ecosystem
in Huntsville �
Antonio Montoya Craig Kierstens Bryan Powell Michael Comperda Wesley Sparks Ma< Bynum
August 23rd, 2014
Service Models
Deployment Models
Key CharacterisFcs
Cloud What? �
§ SaaS § PaaS
§ Private § Community § Public § Hybrid
§ On-demand self-service § Broad network access § Resource pooling § Rapid elasticity § Measured Service
§ IaaS § DaaS
* National Institute of Standards & Technology
Cloud Technology Perspective �
1960s Mainframe Computing
1970s Mini
Computing 1980s
Client-Server Computing
2000s Cloud
Computing
Incremental Improvements �Preserve Underlying Framework �
Evolution �
The rapidly falling cost of communicaFon is enabling a change in business organizaFons as profound as the shiK to democracy in governments.
Thomas W. Malone MIT Sloan School of Business
“
Dramatic Improvement/Change �Redefines Underlying Framework �
Disruption �
Marketed & Sold to �End Users (Personal Use) �
Designed to Grow Virally in Small Businesses & Teams �
Robust to support the entire enterprise �
…and beyond �
Team
Revolutionary Cloud Framework �
Enterprise
Personal Globe
…the most interesFng and advanced new technology now comes out for the consumer first. And then small businesses start to use it. And then medium-‐size businesses start to use it, and then large businesses start to use it, and then eventually the government starts to use it. But this is a complete change from the way it has always worked..
Marc Andreessen Andreessen Horowitz
“
2013 Growth 293%
Funding Received $28M
Acquired by Mindspark on May 20, 2010 Not Disclosed
Funding Received
$1.4M
Acquired by Open Table on December 13, 2013
$11Million
Funding Received $1.4M
Incubated in Cha<anooga at Lamp Post Group
Accelerated in Nashville at
Jumpstart Foundry
Huge Opportunity But Not Easy
• 8 Years (median) from founding to IPO
• 4 rounds (median) of funding
• 363 employees (median)
• 66% gross margin (median)
$32.8B 2016 Total Market
(projected)
2013 Gartner Forecast It’s damn hard to build an enterprise company Ben Sesser – Pando Daily
What Are The Roadblocks?
• ConnecFng – Finding developers
• Funding – Finding investors
• Taking the plunge – Being able to jump in the startup full Fme