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Whoa, so after Pluto got booted from the list of qualifying planets spinning around the sun with us, it turns out there may be a #9 after all. They're calling it Planet X. But that's kinda lame. I'm calling it the Death Star until we have more info.
Now, let's hit it...
The Big One
Brent: Civitas Learning is in acquisition mode following their $60M round last year. Their first big move: Acquiring Chico, Calif.-based College Scheduler. The company, which has 15 employees, looks like a perfect fit for Civitas' data analytics platform that helps higher ed administrators and students make smart decisions most likely to led to graduation.
Billy, nice timing here. Don't we have a little more fresh Civitas news worth a gander?
Billy: I'm a big fan of Civitas, not only because we (and our readers) are getting the chance to sit down with CEO Charles Thornburgh at our first State of Innovation meetup, but also because the problem Civitas is solving is close to my heart.
With their acquisition, Civitias can set students up for success before they even step foot inside a classroom. College Scheduler gives them the ability to move up the pipeline and give students resources to create the best schedule for them, instead of, say having calculus at 8amon Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays during their first year of engineering school, like myself. I had no options when it came time to pick my schedule, and due to a summer job and family vacation, I could only do the very last orientation -- orientation is when engineering students pick their schedule at UVA. That meant I had the absolute least-desirable schedule and it really wasn't a good match for my 18-year old self. A few too many early and poorly-attended classes later, I found myself on the back of a crewboat at 3am in the Gulf of Mexico wondering "how did I get here."
Had Civitas been around back then, I have no doubt that I would have been able to survive engineering. But, there's always a sliver lining - had it not been for the false start, I wouldn't come back and graduated with a BA in History and ended up here, working with awesome people in a cool city, writing about a subject I find thoroughly fascinating.
Wooderson: When I wake up on the back of a boat at 3am I know I'm having a pretty good night, man.
Making Moves
Brent: More acquisitions, yo. Austin-based On-X Life Technologies Holdings, Inc. signed an agreement to be acquired by Atlanta-based CryoLife, Inc. (NYSE: CRY). Nice stock ticker. And, speaking of tickers, On-X is a mechanical heart valve company that has had their product implanted in 200K-plus patients.
Deal terms: CryoLife will pay $130M up front on a cash-free, debt-free basis. It's roughly 70% cash and 30% CryoLife stock. CryoLife says the deal should close later this month. The Austin American-Statesman reports that a few Austin jobs could be cut because of redundancies -- fewer than 10 of the company's 140 headcount.
Billy: I was really hoping that CryoLife is Ted Williams' new startup, but alas.
Even though the Austin-based company may be acquired, it's another testament to how strong our biomedical sector is.
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In the Community
Brent: Today was the grand opening for a new clinic in east Austin designed to help folks who have limited or no access to healthcare. The Sandra Joy Anderson Community Health and Wellness Center is a pretty awesome piece of teamwork by Huston Tillotson University, Dell Medical School, CommUnity Care and Austin-Travis Country Integral Care.
Healthcare is, well, supremely messy these days. I dig seeing this type of collaboration, in addition to all the biotech innovations that are brewing in Austin. As Bob Metcalfe said at a panel last fall, perhaps we need to simply build a new healthcare system and let the current one fade.
Billy: My girlfriend works in the hospital consulting field and "supremely messy" is actually an understatement. Between money coming from insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, and personal payers, hospital revenues aren't that predictable. And forecasting expenses is just as bad.
Here's a great Harvard Business Review article about how Intel used their power as a large employer to change the processes by which local hospitals address and treat common ailments.
Other News
Brent: Connecticut-based FocusVision has acquired Austin-based Kinesis Survey Technologies, a market research company. With the move, Kinesis Survey Technologies will become KinesisPanel, an online panel management platform.
Billy: Well, let's hope it can help address this nonsense.
What We're Checking Out
We tend to read a lot about tech (can you tell?). So, we're going to start sharing some of the best local tech and startup voices in this recurring segment. If you have a great post on Medium, a killer podcast, a cool story on your company's page or just a fun riff on your personal blog, please send them along to us at brent@austininno.com and/or billy@austininno.com.
Uchi? Austin Beerworks? Tell us more... SouthBites & SXSTYLE Can't Stop, Won't Stop Adding Programming
The Austin Chamber of Commerce jobs report... lots of good looks in there
Bob Metcalfe hosted an interesting Quora Tuesday, covering topics from working at Xerox to his favorite Austin startup.
Keeping Austin Weird and Wired
Brent: Dude, if the Startup Games happy hour at WeWork last night was any indication, Saturday is going to be a helluva a party. Sounds like everyone is out to take down SpareFoot, the 3-time champ. Well, here comes the weird part... this year's new event is Mario Kart, and it looks like SpareFoot is planning to bump the competition off the path. In a blog post, SpareFoot notes that one of its co-founders is named Mario (Mario Feghali). And the startup has assembled a team of three aces that "were relieved of their usual duties and sequestered to an isolated conference room for the duration of each work day to train."
I think I'm sensing sarcasm there. Or am I?
Billy: Here's a little PSA to all those competitors in the Startup Games: I'm a Kart mercenary available for hire. I accept payment in the form of Pearl Beer and Bulleitt Rye. Know the shortcut on Wario Stadium? I do. Trying to hit the shortcut in Koopa Troopa Beach? I don't even need a boost. I'll coach any willing Kart padawans the ins and outs of using the "?" boxes to achieve maximum effectiveness. Don't know how to power slide? Get out of my face.
That's only for Nintendo 64 though. Any other system and I'm screwed.
Unwanted Feedback
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Brent@AustinInno.com, Billy@AustinInno.com