JBTVL in 2019: Year in Review
As we wrap up 2019, marking our 35th year of supporting entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin and beyond, we take a look back and reflect on how JBTVL made a positive impact with the help of all our stakeholders.
JBTVL Investment Competition
Our flagship event, the Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition (TVLIC), is held towards the end of each Spring and Fall semester. We get hundreds of applications from UT Austin graduate students that want to pitch their startup ideas and compete for cash prizes and the chance to go to New York and participate in a Nasdaq bell ceremony.
In 2019, TVLIC selected 47 companies from the many high-quality applications we received for our Spring and Fall competitions. For the 10 student startups that made it to the finals from both events combined, we gave out over $58,000 in prizes!
Mark your calendars for the next TVLIC, which is scheduled for Friday, May 8, 2020.
JBTVL Practicum
One of the main ways we support entrepreneurship is by working with graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin in our JBTVL Practicum class. This multi-disciplinary class gives select graduate students from all across campus a behind-the-scenes view of how startups build their businesses. By matching the student teams with companies from our JBTVL Accelerator, the students get hands-on experience by providing consulting and market research to help accelerate growth.
Looking at both the Spring and Fall semesters in 2019, we had 148 applicants and accepted 95 into the class. Those students contributed hundreds of hours of hard work to our accelerator companies, conducting semester-long projects to give a deeper understanding of industry and market dynamics, target customer profiles, financial modeling, marketing strategy, and much more. From all that hard work, we can point to millions in fundraising done by our alumni companies since leaving those cohorts and many students that have gone into their careers with a richer understanding of working with a new venture.
Our Spring 2020 class is shaping up to be another amazing group and we can’t wait to get started in January. We will also begin recruiting for the fall semester starting in February.
JBTVL Accelerator
We recruit early stage ventures from all across the Texas startup ecosystem to participate in our equity-free, no-cost accelerator program. These companies get hundreds of hours of research and consulting from UT Austin’s best and brightest graduate students who apply for our Texas Venture Labs Practicum.
The 2019 Spring cohort of the JBTVL Accelerator was comprised of 14 amazing companies ranging from aerospace manufacturing robotics, AI-enabled drones, and 3-dimensional data visualization to safety eyeware innovation and a Latin food company. Many of those companies have gone on to raise more funding from grants and investors.
Our 2019 Fall cohort saw 12 companies take strides towards their next major milestones. This group included tasty innovations in the health-food market, promising new methods for delivering supplements, advanced methane detection, a wearable device for cattle health, groundbreaking energy storage technology, and advanced AI for sensor data in manufacturing, along with other fantastic up-and-coming companies.
Stay tuned for details about our upcoming cohort and the projects that JBTVL will be helping them with starting in January.
JBTVL Venture Expo
Both nights of the JBTVL Venture Expo, our biannual celebration of early-stage startups, were full of world-changing potential. A total of 59 companies from across the UT startup ecosystem participated. These startups, including 26 from our Spring and Fall accelerator cohorts and 23 from the ranks of our accelerator alumni, came together to show off their progress, find new partners, attract talent and connect with investors. We had hundreds in attendance and many meaningful connections were made.
Our next Venture Expo is tentatively set for April 23, 2020.
Well…that’s a wrap on 2019 and another successful decade. Have a wonderful and prosperous new year!
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