Building Successful Tech Businesses w/ Brett Hurt (Bazaarvoice & data.world CEO)

Join our 100% free speaker series and network with other individuals interested in FinTech, entrepreneurship, technology and startups.

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Learn more about us at www.fintechaustin.com (http://fintechaustin.com/)

About our speaker:

Brett Hurt (http://lucky7.io/about/) is a serial entrepreneur who is best known for founding Bazaarvoice (http://www.bazaarvoice.com/)(NASDAQ: BV) and serving as CEO and President for 7½ years, leading the company from a bootstrapped concept through its successful IPO. He is now co-founder and CEO of data.world (https://data.world/), which is building the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world as a Certified B Corp.

Prior to Bazaarvoice, Brett founded Coremetrics (https://www-01.ibm.com/software/info/coremetrics-software/)and helped grow the company into a global, leading marketing analytics solution for the eCommerce industry before its acquisition by IBM for around $300m.

He is also a seed-stage investor at Hurt Family Investments (http://lucky7.io/portfolio/) (HFI) in partnership with his wife, Debra. HFI are involved in 53 startups and 12 VC funds. HFI has directly made 42 startup investments, and Brett has also joined the Advisory Board of 11 additional companies.

In his talk, Brett will share his story of starting his first company and taking the lessons he learned to build Bazaarvoice and leading the company to its IPO. He will discuss the strategic mindset, the role of technology, and his perspective on data and innovation that enabled him to build the successful businesses he envisioned. Lastly, he will discuss why he started data.world (https://data.world/), his first B Corporation, and why he believes this is the most important and biggest venture he's ever been apart of.

The keynote will be followed by a Q&A led by Shehzad Bharwani (https://www.linkedin.com/in/shehzad-bharwani-8627b658/) and Adnan Merchant (https://www.linkedin.com/in/adnan-merchant-b222ab97/) with the opportunity for audience questions.

Meetup Details:

When: Tuesday 10/3/2017 | 5:45pm - 8:30pm

Where: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos St, 1st Floor

Who: Brett Hurt (https://capitalfactory.com/mentor/brett-hurt/)

Meetup Agenda:

5:45PM – Networking and refreshments

6:30PM – Brett keynote

6:50PM – Q&A and Discussion

7:20PM – Networking

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You Will Learn/Takeaways:

• Lessons to entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just getting started

• Advice on how to take your company from an early stage to a late stage, specifically in Austin TX

• Raising venture capital vs. bootstrapping

• The importance of pursuing your passion but first researching your business idea for months in advance

• How to build a great Advisory Board and investor base

• How culture plays a critical role in making your startup successful

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More About Brett:

Brett holds an MBA in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Wharton School. Brett previously served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the McCombs School of Business and also served on the Board of Directors of Shop.org for six years. Brett established the Bazaarvoice Foundation and is very active in the philanthropic arena. He received the Austin Entrepreneurs Foundation’s Community Leadership Award in 2012.

Brett is entrepreneur empowerment group RISE’s Serial Entrepreneur of the year for 2012. He was named by E&Y as Entrepreneur of the Year for Austin in 2009 and is a member of the Austin chapter of the international Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). Brett was named CEO of the Year for large companies by the Austin Business Journal in 2012 and received the Joseph Wharton Award for Young Leadership in 2013. Brett and Debra received the LBJ Humanitarian Award in 2014 for their dedication to public service, philanthropy, and the Austin community. Brett was awarded the Henry Crown Fellowship from The Aspen Institute and joined the 2015 XIX class, named "Dare, Greatly". On Oct. 11, 2017, Brett will receive Austin Business Journal’s Best CEO Legacy Award and in the same month data.world will be named in the top 10% of all B Corporations in the world.

To help support Austin's entrepreneurs, Brett serves as a Partner at Capital Factory and Mentor at Techstars Austin; invests in early-stage companies, funds, and philanthropic endeavors with Hurt Family Investments; and blogs at Lucky7.io. He serves on the non-profit Boards of Data Coalition and Data Foundation, both of which are dedicated to advancing the open-data movement in government. He recently served on the Board of Directors of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas as well as Conscious Capitalism, both of which are non-profits designed to bring out the best in business in the way it can serve society at large. Brett can be followed on Twitter at @databrett (https://twitter.com/databrett).

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FinTech Austin

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Co-Founders

Shehzad Bharwani - Twitter @shehzadbharwani (https://twitter.com/ShehzadBharwani)

Adnan Merchant - Twitter @adnanmerchant (https://twitter.com/AdnanMerchant)

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Event Sponsored By:

• Cryptonomex (https://billionherocampaign.com/) (Elite)

• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (https://www.wsgr.com/WSGR/Default.aspx) (Elite)

• Capital Factory (https://capitalfactory.com/)

• Foster Global (http://www.fosterglobal.com/)

• UT MSTC (https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/mstc)

Beer Sponsored By:

• Oasis Texas Brewing Company (http://otxbc.com/)

Videography By:

• Zabo Digital Agency (https://www.zabodigital.com/)