Josh Baer

CEO & Founder, Capital Factory

Josh Baer is the patron saint of the Austin startup ecosystem. From getting investor-ready to maximizing your social capital, this is a rare opportunity to fire all your questions at an entrepreneurship legend.

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Jan Ryan

Serial Entrepreneur

Jan speaks on countless topics, from how to raise a seed round, to building a great team, to social capital and more. With decades of experience as a founder, board member, investor, UT director and more, Jan is a trove of startup wisdom.

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Natalia Peart, PhD

Founder and CEO, Catalyst Innovation Group

Finding a meaningful career has become more difficult than ever. Based off her book, Future Proofed, Dr. Natalia Peart shares a step-by-step pathway to finding a fulfilling career and a more inspired future.

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Blake Garrett

CEO & Founder, Aceable

In our opening keynote, Blake shares how he launched his company, Aceable. His story is inspiring, humble, funny, and full of actionable insights.

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Bob Metcalfe

UTAustin Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Investor, professor, and inventor of the ethernet (remember when you needed a cable to get online?), Bob is one of the smartest, most insightful and well-connected people in the 3DS network. 

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Mary Walker

Cofounder & CEO, Day Dreamer

Founding a tech company is hard when you’re not a developer. Mary shares how she did it, with lessons for founders who have little or no tech or coding experience themselves.

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Sandra Spencer

Startup Advisor, Voliton

From pitch to series A, Sandra has years of experience helping founders with every step of the process.

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Ekaterina Matveeva

CEO at Amolingua | Best-Selling Author

Few industries have been more disrupted than education. Ekaterina shares her international experience highlighting new jobs and market opportunities in edtech.

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Bob Bridge

Executive Director - Southwest Angel Network

Many founders feel a deep drive to make an incredibly positive impact on the world. But how does this gel with raising money, where investors want to see a big return?

Bob Bridge of Southwest Angel Network shares his thoughts on what founders of socially conscious startups can do to appeal to investors.

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Gerrit McGowan

Investor, Director of Entrepreneurship at WHU Germany

While marketing can be tricky for any company, it is even more complicated when focusing on social good as well as profit. Gerrit shares some of the obstacles and challenges companies face when marketing for social good, and how to use technology to reach customers more effectively and build meaningful brand loyalty.

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Nancy Grden

Director of Entrepreneurship, Old Dominion University

When you’re a solo founder, making the leap to identify trusted cofounders, staff, and advisors can be challenging. Nancy shares a plan for how to project an “enterprise personality” to shape a team, and launch your company.

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Kerry Rupp

General Partner, True Wealth Ventures

Kerry is a venture capitalist specializing in early-stage women-led companies. She’ll be joining Bob Metcalfe for a Fireside Chat to wrap up the conference.

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Sterling Smith

SaaS Startup Founder & Product Advisor

When founders need to build a prototype, but don’t have coding experience, they need to take the no-code approach, essentially building an app through a series of easy to use, often free tools. Sterling, an expert in no-code, covers what founders can accomplish without any knowledge of software.

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Amy Bell

Director, Impact Investment

Many founders are interested in starting ventures that have a great positive social impact, but aren’t sure how investors assess these types of companies or how other entrepreneurs have built models that successfully achieve both financial and impact objectives. Amy Bell talks about her experience of investing in social-impact startups over the last decade.

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Claudia Roeschmann

Communication Design at Texas State University

Branding, design thinking, and identity, are essential to the success of early stage startups. Claudia demystifies these concepts in this session where attendees will come away knowing how to build their brand and build with customers in mind. 

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Ruben Cantu

UT Executive Director of Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship,

As companies rush to hire Chief Diversity Officers and build a culture that is open, diverse, and inclusive they will miss the mark if they have truly not understood the dynamic in which they are playing in.

When we build a company centered around racial equity, we will continuously iterate, and remain profitable and relevant.

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Elliott Adams

Founder and Educator, Stanford, Babson

While founders neglecting their health and family have too often been glorified, a new school of thought centers around balance and well-being. Based on his new book, Elliott Adams shows how your company and your personal life can thrive in tandem.

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Cam Houser

CEO, Actionworks, Founder, 3 Day Startup

During the pandemic, video has become more important than ever. Cam gives a hands-on crash course on how to get started making videos. His session will be useful for anyone who wants to tell their story better.

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Van Truskett

Executive Director - Texas Innovation Center at The University of Texas at Austin

Tech commercialization and transfer is something most grad students wait too long to figure out. Van Truskett shares her extensive knowledge of how grad student founders can get ready to take their research to market.

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Nick Chagin

Program Manager, 3 Day Startup

Friday night of the conference ends with a super-sized Minnow Tank pitch competition. We’ll put you into a team that will come up with awful startup idea that you will then pitch to your peers. The top team will win the contents of Nick’s glove compartment, which probably consists of an out-of-date Ohio road map and some scratched up sunglasses.

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Maia Patrick Donohue

Author, The Startup Mentor | 3 Day Startup

Having a great mentor can be the x-factor in launching a company, but only if you know how to be a great mentee. In this talk, based on his book, Maia covers actionable steps on how you can leverage the power of your mentors to succeed as an entrepreneur.

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