McCombs Alumni Network News

The socioeconomic characteristics of people who play state lotteries are similar to investors who pick stocks with a lottery quality—high risk with a small potential for high return, and just like the lottery, returns on average are lower for those who invest this way in the stock market, research from The University of Texas at [...]

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From @Texas Newsletter
Texas Exes chapters, from Austin to Alaska, New Braunfels to New York and all points between, will gather together and celebrate Texas Independence Day. Whether you are traveling to one these cities or live there, join the Texas Exes on March 2 and make a “Toast to Texas.”  Read more about celebrations in [...]

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From The Campaign for Texas
By Jamey Smith
If you have the good fortune to meet William W. Cooper, a true gentleman if ever there was one, “prizefighter” is probably not the first word that will come to mind. Yet that word and many more — prodigious author, innovator, philanthropist — apply to this professor emeritus in [...]

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From CNBC
The economy may be far from turning the corner, but venture capitalists haven’t stopped looking for the next Google, Bill Gurley, MBA ‘93, weighs in.

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From Austin American-Statesman in McCombs Today
What has changed at Phurnace Software since it was founded two years ago?
Not much. Only the product, the marketing strategy, the customers it wanted to target, its hiring plan and the amount of money it intended to raise. Also the sales strategy — three times.
“At one point, we stopped writing [...]

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From MyCustomer.com, Feb. 23, 2009
In his own words:
Innovation is the differentiating aspect between successful long-term companies and those that die with a short lifespan. You have to basically be prepared to take risk (which means you’ve got to be prepared to make mistakes). Secondly innovation often times depends on good judgement rather than good research.
Watch [...]

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Texas Evening MBA alumni, Matt Trudeau, Fadi Gabra, Craig McDonald and Nicholas Van Loan, launched Hourville in 2008 as a marketplace and community where people can buy and sell virtually anything that can be priced by the hour.
Hourville received top honors as one of the ten most promising companies (of 55) at the Rice Alliance [...]

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From McCombs TODAY and Texas Magazine
By Rob Adams
The Chinese might have been prescient about the current world situation when they coined the phrase “may you live in interesting times.” However, most entrepreneurs and business owners are finding these times a little too interesting for comfort, and they are looking for insight on how to manage [...]

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The Women in Business Leadership Conference hosted their annual event Friday, Feb. 20 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. In her opening keynote address, Gayle Anderson, CFO of Match.com, cautioned that your job is just one aspect of your life—whether or not you choose to have children. She has learned five key things [...]

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Alison Heiser joked in her closing keynote address at the Women in Business Leadership Conference that she has done everything that she was not supposed to do in her career. She left jobs before having new ones, negotiated severance packages when quitting, and even eliminated her own role at one company.
She has discovered that there [...]

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