Blog

This is the story of how we planned and pulled off the first City of Houston Hackathon.  It’s a story that has an ensemble cast filled with software developers, policy wonks, civic innovators, bagels, and bahn mi.  Here’s a video.  It would not have been possible without the support and leadership of Mayor Annise Parker and Council Member Ed Gonzalez.  In an election year, endorsing anything with “hack” in the title could be seen as a political liability, but they did it anyway.  We are grateful for that.

Like so many good stories, this one began at a bar.

Bruce Haupt, Performance Improvement Director, City of Houston:

I walked in to the Ginger Man in Houston’s Rice Village after work on Monday, December 3rd to meet with Jeff Reichman of January Advisors. We shook hands, ordered beers, and Jeff asked me to tell my story. I told mine and then Jeff told his. I had no idea how much time we’d spend together over the next six months because of this conversation.

Jeff is a storyteller at heart.  While his work centers on innovation and startup consulting, he has a background in writing.  One conversation with Jeff will leave you thinking about the larger narrative that you fit into. Beyond the startups he’s launched and those he works with now, Jeff also serves as Houston Chair for Startup America. Jeff’s goal is to tell the story of Houston’s startup and technology ecosystem, and interweave the stories of our varied and disconnected communities to highlight the great things going on in our City, the fourth largest in the United States.

Jeff Reichman, Principal, January Advisors:

Bruce and I first met at Startup Weekend Houston last November. Bruce’s team earned a first place finish for a clean little webapp that streamlined the business permitting process. I loved the idea of making it easier to “do business” with the government, and I was surprised and happy that someone from the City would actually participate in the event.

About ten years ago, I was working for a startup, writing proposals, and building out a municipal sales organization. The first thing I learned was that the procurement process was totally busted, and I geeked out on ways to fix it. Even back then, it wouldn’t have been difficult to build a lightweight website to manage the RFP process.

And while technology is no longer a barrier, the problem still exists today. Across all of our local governments, we don’t have enough people in power who know how to source and implement current technologies. Change is always risky, and there always seems to be a reason to say no. So I really admired Bruce and his team for picking a problem and spending their weekend showing us what’s possible with a little bit of code and a lot of common sense.

Bruce had all the pieces of the puzzle. He knew where processes were broken, he knew that the technology to fix them could be built very quickly, and he knew how to match the right stakeholders with the right ideas. Which is why I just kept smiling when, halfway through the second round, Bruce looked up from his beer and said, “What if we held a hackathon?”

Bruce:

New York City held a hackathon. Boston held a hackathon. Austin held a hackathon. Even the White House held a hackathon. Civic technology groups are springing up around the country. Most important from my perspective, I had just seen what a team of civic technologists could create in a day at Houston Startup Weekend.

I was surprised by the product our small team developed in 24 hours versus the 1-2 year long multi-million dollar IT projects I was familiar with. Perhaps long term, ultra-expensive IT is the norm in governments and large corporations,  but like Neo after taking the blue pill, my world had changed and I saw another way.

If hosting a hackathon could generate customized, citizen-centric solutions for government, provide others the same life-changing epiphany I’d just experienced, and help unite and showcase Houston’s tech community – then checkmate: Jeff and I were committed to making a hackathon happen.

Jeff:

A hackathon? No problem. Various groups around town had been holding hackathons every month for at least a year. I learned a few lessons as a constant observer and occasional participant. But a City of Houston Hackathon?  It had to be big, exciting, and unique.

With a handshake and a fresh round, I committed to the project. We would need to prepare datasets, and we’d need a venue, some food, a website, a marketing plan, and lots of other little things. Together, Bruce and I divvied up the work. And maybe I was feeling confident from what I’d seen at other hackathons, or maybe it was just the giddy feeling of three beers and a new project, but somehow I put myself on the line for at least 150 registrations.

I went home that night very excited and a little nervous.

Mayor Parker & Council Member Gonzalez Make it Real

Bruce:

We began canvassing our respective circles. After speaking with Mayor Parker’s senior staff, I learned that several people were interested in pursuing open data and open innovation initiatives like hackathons. Andy Icken, the City Chief Development Officer, connected us with Council Member Ed Gonzalez and his Chief of Staff Jerry Peruchini. Without strong executive support from their team and the Mayor, our story would have ended. 

Jeff:

Behind the scenes, Bruce pulled all of the right project stakeholders together. Through his preliminary discussions, we’d caught wind of another event being planned by Council Member Gonzalez and his innovation committee. They wanted to showcase Houston’s vibrant technology and startup communities, and we were invited to join their planning committee.

Bruce:

We met with Council Member Gonzalez’s planning committee for two hours in a City Council board room. We reconciled our ideas and the vision for what we could do together. We agreed that the City of Houston Hackathon could serve as the first step towards a larger event in the fall. At the same time, we could also launch a whole series of initiatives and build upon the legacy of innovation and technology that exists in Houston.

We only had a few months to execute, so I started organizing project sponsors and subject matter experts inside the City. Mark Cueva, the Mayor’s Education Liaison in the Department of Neighborhoods was one of the key people in the beginning with ideas and solutions. Other key people included:

• James Koski (Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff)

• Jackie Smith (CTO for the City Enterprise GIS system)

• Justin Concepcion (the Mayor’s Social Media Guru)

• Charles Thompson (City Chief Information Officer) to include Patrick Plummer, Andre’ Allen, Mary Ann Grant, Rex Billings, and others on his team

• Gwen Tillotson (The Mayor’s Deputy Director of Economic Development)

• Laura Spanjian (The Mayor’s Sustainability Director) and Lisa Lin

• Danielle Folsom (Attorney in the Legal Department and SME for TPIA issues)

• Kelly Dowe (City Chief Financial Officer, and my boss)

Jeff:

While Bruce worked on securing the project stakeholders inside the City, I lined up the event logistics, figured out how to make good on the 150 developer promise, and built us a website.  Nothing makes it more real than putting it on the internet.

A short while later, I was having breakfast with Walter Ulrich of the Houston Technology Center.  We were discussing all of the changes in the Houston startup community, and what HTC could do to support the grassroots community initiatives.  In an extremely generous move, he offered the Houston Technology Center as the venue for the hackathon.

By early March, and with a venue, a website, and some sample projects in hand, we were ready to start marketing the event.  But the City wasn’t going to officially announce the hackathon until May 1.  With the event scheduled for May 18, that would only leave us about two weeks to drive registrations.  It just wasn’t enough time.

So I shared the website on Facebook.  And I’m glad that I did, because through the help of J.R. Cohen, Marc Nathan, the Houston Startups Facebook group, Code for Houston, Hack Houston, REDLabs and others, we had a core group of developers long before the official announcement.

Bruce:

Mayor Parker officially announced the event on May 1 at a press conference in City Council chambers.

Jeff:

We stood behind the Mayor and CM Gonzalez.  Every so often, we spoke into a gaggle of fuzzy microphones.

Bruce:

The Mayor and Council Member Gonzalez were excited to see their innovative concept come to life. They spoke of Houston’s surging economy and the number of high tech engineers and software developers that live here. Houstonians find energy miles below the ocean, are trailblazing in renewable energies (energy capital of the world), and we pioneer cardiac and cancer therapies in the Texas Medical Center (the largest medical complex in the world).  We’re no slouch when it comes to computer hardware and software technologies either. The hackathon was just one more opportunity to capitalize on the strengths of this City’s very talented and techie population to help solve real world problems.

Friday, we party.  Saturday, we work.

Jeff:

I was at SXSW in March, and I was inspired by a hackathon planned by Natalie Reichstein at T3.  She combined a parking lot party outside (food trucks, live music, and kegs of craft beer) with a quiet, comfortable hackathon inside.  We hadn’t yet tried the party + hackathon concept in Houston.

So I contacted Apurva Sanghavi and Guarav Khandawal, the two co-founders of the East End coworking space START Houston, to see if we could use their venue.  We would throw a blowout party on Friday night before the Saturday hackathon, and developers could stay there all night if they wanted.  They were excellent hosts, providing venue space as well as food.

We packed the place.  It helps when you have beer, pizza, and music.  Many thanks to Tom Paynter and Second Lovers for the live music, Rassul Zarinfar and Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company for the beer, Council Member Gonzalez for attending and speaking, and everyone for showing up and having a good time.

I have to admit, I really love the blueprint of party + hackathon.  We were able to draw out lots of people who were not going to participate in the hackathon, but they were curious, or they had developer friends, or they just wanted to hang out with 200 nerds, drink craft beer, eat some pizza, and listen to some great live music.  I fit squarely into that last camp.

Bruce:

We had a lot of volunteers and participants from inside and outside the City working on the hackathon, and, luckily, we had a lot of support from my team as well.

Even with a party Friday night, many of us jumped out of bed at 5:30 AM on Saturday morning (maybe slowly ambled?) to get to the Houston Technology Center. Leading this charge was Meredith Mulford from my team at the City. Even with Jeff and me pulling her into the fray a week beforehand, she was able to funnel everything into a clear schedule for the event, assigning a point person for every moving part, and anticipating problems before they became problems.  This was no small task.  From the morning through late in the evening after everyone else had left to the after party, Meredith was there, behind the scenes, making it happen.

Many people will remember MC Omar El-Halwagi. Omar also works on my team and served as our energetic and hilarious emcee for the hackathon. Like Meredith, he was drafted a week in advance and we asked him to put together speaking notes, bios, a judging process, and all manner of other needed details.

Most of the projects could not have come into existence without the data on the Houston Data Portal. Gerald Rich of Code for Houston setup the data portal and Frank Bracco from my team led the effort of approving and loading data with the City IT, Planning, and Legal Departments. Jesse Bounds and Will White  were very important contributors as well – on both the data and the projects. Without all these people and all hands on deck, we would not have had the 215+ datasets available (all obtained and loaded in the three weeks prior to the event).

Jeff:

Justin Concepcion, the Mayor’s social media liaison, was especially supportive throughout the hackathon. He worked with reporters, photographers, and videographers, wrangling the right people together for interviews. I don’t think he sat down the entire time.

Finally, we had to get the food right. We wanted to have as many local vendors at the hackathon as possible. For breakfast, we had a spread from New York Bagels and Katz Coffee. Lunch was a pile of Banh Mi from Les Givrales. Dinner came early from Oh My! Pocket Pies, a food truck that set up in the back parking lot and filled midtown with the smell of fresh empanadas.  Thanks to J.R. Cohen, we were able to pull together all of the right people.

Bruce:

When it was all said and done, nearly 300 people were at the hackathon throughout the day on Saturday. One of those people was Mayor Annise Parker, who was our surprise guest to kick-off all the demos on Saturday night. Mayor Parker took time out of her personal schedule and sat through all 26 demos with her partner Kathy Hubbard. She was incredibly impressed by the work from all the teams.

Our top four teams will present to the Mayor again at the end of this month, but we’re interested in working with all the teams, whether it’s a product for the City or for citizens using City data. Because of the hackathon and the teams that participated, there were many more believers at the City.

The Houston Blueprint

If you’re thinking about running a hackathon in your city, you should know that there are a lot of resources out there to help you. In Houston, we didn’t operate in a vacuum. We had a ton of help from people across the country.  How to Run a Hackathon by Socrata provides an overview of the things you need to think about. It’s a great place to start.

There are three workstreams that we followed to make this hackathon a success:

Internal Alignment

• Secure executive sponsorship from the Mayor, her Senior Staff, IT, and Department Directors
• Identify sample projects and project subject matter experts
• Identify City datasets relevant to the projects
• Review and approve all data for the open data portal with department owners, IT applications and security staff, and with City Legal

Logistics

• Locate a venue for the event (Houston Technology Center and Start Houston)
• Launch a City Open Data Portal
• Recruit a team of core volunteers to launch and run the event (from inside and outside the City)
• Schedule food, beverages, workspaces, and A/V for the event
• Consult with building managers regarding expected bandwidth and internet capabilities
• Secure sponsorships
• Set up a site to manage the hackathon projects and teams (we used Hacker League)
• Develop an event schedule and confirm speakers, judges, and bios
• Identify judges, set judging criteria and process, and identify prizes

Marketing

• Develop an event website
• Set up an event registration site
• Announce the event — soft launch and press announcement by the Mayor
• Develop network of community partners
• Talk about the event at meetups and other community events
• Develop a FAQ and respond to questions from participants, volunteers, sponsors, City staff, and the media

This blueprint will evolve with every subsequent hackathon.  Right now, we’re thinking about what comes next, like:

• How do we implement these projects?
• What will future events look like  (hackathons, meetups, Tech Street Houston, etc.)?  What is the strategy to tie them together?
• Should the City host a regular meetup for discussions and continued dialogue?
• How should we structure a permanent, up-to-date data portal?
• Can the City’s IT organization support the applications built during the hackathon?
• Does the organization have a procurement process for purchasing from the new startups that formed? 

Many Thanks

• Mayor Annise Parker and Council Member Ed Gonzalez for driving this forward.

• Chuck Gibbs and the Invent Houston Foundation for sponsoring the hackathon.

• Walter Ulrich and the Houston Technology Center for being generous hosts on Saturday.

• Apurva Sanghavi and Gaurav Khandelwal (START Houston and ChaiOne) for being generous hosts on Friday.

• All of the volunteers on Friday and Saturday who made the event successful.

• Gerald Rich of Code for Houston for setting up the data Houston Open Data Portal.

• James Wroblewski of Hack Houston for supporting the hackathon and volunteering.

• Sarah Worthy and Ed Schipul of NetSquared for hosting a meetup dedicated to civic innovation and the hackathon.

• Edward Aldridge of Foundation Republic for donating two dedicated servers that house the open data portal and hackathon projects.

• Frank Bracco, Jesse Bounds, Meredith Mulford, and Omar El-Halwagi from the City: they got the data, outlined and managed projects, managed day-of event logistics, emceed the event, and much, much more.

• Ben Lopez from January Advisors: leading up to the hackathon, he pulled together too many things to count.  Our wall-to-wall whiteboard was filled with notes.

• Justin Concepcion from the Mayor’s office for a variety of things big and small, including PR coordination and help with event management.

• Dexter Bayack of thatvideomagazine for putting together an awesome, cinematic, and possibly epic video of the hackathon.

• Jose Figureora for taking awesome pictures (and Culturemap for sharing them!)

• Everyone who wrote about the event (Mike Morris, Angela Shah, Michelle Lenzen, Brooke Browne, and many more)

• Our friends and families for being patient with us as we said the word “hack” more times than necessary

And a special message from Bruce:

One other volunteer was critical to my own emotional well being (and time available to work on the project). Emily Grudem was my girlfriend when I met Jeff in November. She participated in many of our after hours planning sessions, and she was my fiancee from March onward as the hours piled on. A week after the event, she became my wife on 5/24/2013 when we eloped the weekend following the hackathon. A wedding/elopement, like a hackathon, takes a lot of time to plan and organize. Emily contributed to the hackathon in many ways, and also made our wedding happen. A big thank you to Emily Kay Haupt for the hackathon and everything to follow!

Don’t worry, Rice Village isn’t like that bar without a sign. It’s not exclusive, and it’s not hiding from you. The neighborhood remains the same old destination for boutique shopping and great bars that Houston has enjoyed since the 1930s. But remaining the same isn’t one of Houston’s strengths. Up above the dress shops and taverns, tucked away in the canopy of second floor executive offices, there are startups working on what comes next.

When my company moved into the area last year, it felt like we stumbled across a secret startup world that was hiding in plain sight. Now that we’ve gotten to know a dozen companies in the neighborhood, it’s clear that Rice Village has all the ingredients to attract high growth startups. This blog is my first attempt to explain why.

---

We met up with Yuji, the New York Bureau Chief for Yomiuri Shimbun, on a chilly winter morning in Rice Village. Yuji was in town chasing a story about the shifting demographics of Texas, and how that changes our politics, too. I invited a few entrepreneur transplants to join us for lunch, hoping they would give him an honest earful about our growing startup community compared to the coasts. We met on a streetcorner in Rice Village and picked a restaurant on a whim.

Right inside the door, there were two startups holding separate lunch meetings. Our group fanned out for handshakes and backpats and smiles. Over the last year, these encounters seem to happen frequently. There are a lot of entrepreneurs in the neighborhood.

“I moved back to Houston to start my business,” Bryan Hassin told Yuji as we reconvened around our table. “It has a low cost of living, lots of friendly people, tons of talent, and it still has that up-and-coming cultural feel.  It’s a great place to uncover opportunity.”

[quote style="boxed" float="right"]Out-of-towners are usually surprised by Houston’s activity. We’re known as a sprawling yawn of a southern metropolis, with strip centers lighting the way to an edge city in every direction.[/quote]

Bryan is the CEO of Smart Office Energy Solutions and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Rice University. Along with Amitav Misra, he brought the Cleanweb organization to Houston, and was an organizer of the Cleanweb Hackathon in September. Bryan is part of a growing group of civic-minded entrepreneurs who are leading Houston’s startup community into 2013.

Still, out-of-towners are usually surprised by Houston’s activity. We’re known as a sprawling yawn of a southern metropolis, with strip centers lighting the way to an edge city in every direction. But we’re also a city of continued economic and cultural growth.

Houston keeps attracting out-of-town professionals who want a short commute, a vibrant urban core, and affordable housing. So our city is contracting to the tune of infill. This is great for real estate developers who, in the absence of restrictions, will tear down a single 1930s bungalow and and build eight townhomes on the same lot. It’s very sad for history. On the bright side, it’s not long before those townhomes are filled with doctors, engineers, and other skilled professionals who came to Houston for their jobs. (don’t worry: we try to save the magnificent trees)

There’s evidence of our current boom just about everywhere. Count the cranes and construction workers. I’ve been here for three years. Change is a way of life. We are forever turning this city into our vision of home.

But Rice Village is a little different. It’s Houston’s very own college town, surrounded by beautiful neighborhoods that resist change. They fight what they can see, like infill and nightlife. And their battle slows down development, preserving parts of Rice Village as a charming relic of Houston’s past.  But nothing is permanent in this town, and the neighbors are about to lose.

---

Other cities have iconic symbols of their startup community. Some of these symbols are established over years of innovation, like Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley. Some are assembled quickly by engaging all of the stakeholders in the entrepreneurial stack, like 1871 in Chicago or Geekdom in San Antonio. And some, like Tony Hsieh’s series of projects in Las Vegas, are brute force attacks that have the potential to transform the city.

Over the last nine months, as Houston’s greater startup community starts to coalesce, there have been rumblings about our startup symbol.  Many want to transform existing institutions into startup community hubs, and others want to build new facilities.  And while I think we’re still in the early stages of community building, I think we will accelerate quickly.  Houston has plenty of entrepreneurs — certainly more than enough to support a grand vision.  But our city is decentralized and fragmented. We don’t really know our own potential, and it’s hard to imagine what things will look like as we get more organized.

That’s why Rice Village is a good start. It’s an existing community where any entrepreneur can show up and set up. No individual business has singular importance. And by weaving in office space around an established retail core, Rice Village feels like the center of a small, boutique universe.

“Where else would I be?” asks Sameer Soleja, CEO of Molecule Software. Sameer’s company graduated from the first class of Surge Accelerator last June. Shortly afterwards, he raised a seed round and set up at 2444 Times Blvd. “We didn’t want to be in a building that reminded us of our old jobs,” he said. “It’s just not the right environment for a startup. I want to open my door and step into the street.”

In the executive office spaces dotting Rice Village, a software startup could fit a team of four in an office that costs, on average, about $700 a month.  (Don’t take my word for it — ask the guys at TheSquareFoot, a startup that took flight in the second floor coworking space at New Living).  There are plenty of one year lease options (instead of the typical three years), so as the startup outgrows the office, they can move into one of several Class B office buildings around the corner.

---

But for every established startup, there are many more aspiring entrepreneurs. These people don’t need a typical office. Many of them are tied to their laptop, and they’re looking for a productive and stimulating place to work.

They find a home at Platform Houston, a 5,000 square foot coworking facility at the corner of Times and Morningside. Platform opened its doors in October, and it fills the need for a low-cost, public workspaces that are a little classier than a coffeeshop.

Matt Olds, one of the four co-founders, came to Houston from New York where he spent a decade opening restaurants in up-and-coming neighborhoods. In addition to renovating and opening Platform Houston, his group will be opening a wine and cheese shop across the street.

“Houston has so much potential,” Olds said. “But lots of people here only see what’s directly in front of their face. We’re creating a place where they can come together.”

After a soft launch in the fall, Platform Houston has already hosted several lectures, social events, happy hours, and even a hackathon. Eventually, Olds and his partners hope to create a vehicle for investing in local startups, like an accelerator program or an angel fund. But community comes first. “We’re learning more about the startups here in town, and it’s exciting,” Olds said. “We’re still getting a lay of the land, but Houston’s potential is undeniable.”

In fact, the winning team of the most recent Houston Startup Weekend has been camping out at Platform for the last few weeks, making the most of those free memberships. “This is a great neighborhood,” said James Wroblewski, co-founder of PermitMe. His company aims to simplify the city permitting process for new businesses. “I get to meet all sorts of people who come in the door, and it’s refreshing to know that there are lots of startups facing some of the same challenges that we are,” he said.

While Platform nurtures new technology startups, Rice Village boutique PH Design Shop nurtures aspiring product designers. Students in the University of Houston Industrial Design program are showcasing their work this holiday season, and part of the process is leaning the ins and outs of commercialization. And as that program branches out with a focus on entrepreneurship, we’ll start to see new, complimentary talents in our startup community.

---

There are a few key ingredients to Rice Village’s rise:

1. Existing density. There are people on the street. The walkable retail cluster extends for blocks in every direction.
2. Variety of small, affordable office space. There are lots of executive office spaces sitting right above the action. Their small size, friendly lease terms, and affordable rents make them perfect for a small team. For startups that aren’t ready for a dedicated office, there is a public coworking space.
3. Places to socialize. There are plenty of lunch and happy hour destinations within a 5 minute walk. These destinations turn the neighborhood into a playground where chance encounters are frequent.
4. The party already started. Startups have arrived. Entrepreneurs like to be near one another.

Eventually, if Rice Village continues to be a hospitable place for entrepreneurs, it might resemble some of the dense startup clusters in other cities like N3RD Street in Philadelphia.

But it doesn’t have to be limited to Rice Village. Our city has thousands of entrepreneurs, and lots of hospitable neighborhoods. There are smaller startup communities throughout the city in neighborhoods like like White Oak, EaDo, Midtown, and Montrose. They cater to different kinds of entrepreneurs.  But that’s another article entirely.

So as the “icon” discussion continues to unfold, I think we should take a cue from Houston’s entrepreneurs.  They just do.  The organic rise of startups in Rice Village — and across the city — proves that no institution can control the startup community.  Our community cannot be master-planned.  Under the right conditions, we self-assemble.  All we really need is encouragement.

There were a dozen of us, elbow to elbow around the dining room table. It was August, it was hot, and we were about to drink a few test batches of a soon-to-open craft brewery in Houston.  Around me was a diverse group of young accountants, lawyers, graduate students, doctors — all brought together by their passion for craft beer.

Outside on the balcony, a few guys readied the growler. Back in the kitchen, our host Rassul Zarinfar poured tastes of a homebrew that he got as a job application from an aspiring brewmaster. It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon and I hadn’t eaten anything all day.

“Get ready for our first flight,” Rassul said as he entered the dining room with two handfuls of glassware. “We’re going to try several variations on Dodd’s Gingerbread Stout recipe. If we can get it right, this will be our Christmas beer and Dodd will be our Santa.”

Dodd poked his head inside from the balcony and gave everyone the thumbs up.

Rassul smiled and continued. “Before we get started, though, I want to answer two questions for you. Yes, it’s 11% ABV, and yes, you will get drunk.”

---

In the spring of 2011, Rassul founded Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company, a local craft brewery that is “fiercely and uniquely Houston.” (Full disclosure: I have a small equity stake in the business).  At the time of our tasting, Rassul had just signed a lease, and he was beginning the cumbersome process of permits and construction. Despite the red tape, he was optimistic about launching in the fall. So he wanted to perfect his recipes right away.  That’s why we were taking down flight after flight of thick ass stouts that no normal person would drink in the Houston heat. But these people were not normal people. They were beer nerds.

The last few years have been good to craft beer. The market has been growing in Houston and across the country. Several local breweries are diversifying and distributing their beer in kegs, cans, and bottles. St. Arnold’s annual Divine Reserve causes stampedes at Specs, selling out within minutes while latecomers scour Twitter for clues about a single or six pack. Even the service industry is growing: a husband-and-wife team up in the Heights launched BottleMark out of a garage, providing homebrewers with custom printed bottlecaps that will turn every beer into a brand. [quote style="boxed" float="right"]If we were on the Oregon Trail, I would have died of dysentery long ago.[/quote]

These trends validated Rassul’s instincts, but in the end, everyone around that table knew that he had to brew great beer. So we critiqued the variations. As the alcohol grabbed ahold of my liver like a cowboy at a rodeo, my companions stopped being doctors and lawyers and accountants. They became pioneers. They journeyed through new territory, using words like “mouthfeel” and “effervescent” to chart their course. I used words like “this tastes like vodka.” If we were on the Oregon Trail, I would have died of dysentery long ago.

Over the course of an hour, we tried ten varieties of Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company’s Gingerbread Stout. By Christmas, it was a universal hit. It tastes nothing like vodka.

---

When I met Rassul back in January 2011, I didn’t really understand the nuances of craft beer. To make matters worse, I liked pretty much everything I tried. I was just happy to have a beer with friends, whether it was glass of Dogfish 90 Minute IPA or a can of Miller Lite.

This would not stand. I had to learn more.

Some folks get their education from the chalkboard at the Gingerman over long, lazy happy hours. My schooling happened once a month on Sunday mornings. While my friends and colleagues slept off their hangovers, I made my way to Jerald’s house in Meyerland.

From the street, Jerald and his wife Shelli live in a nondescript, 1950s ranch house across from the bayou. But after passing through the front door, their home becomes a sweeping landscape of windows and light, barking dogs, football games, and laughter. Lots of laughter. Without wasting a minute, we grab plates and feast on bagels, lox, fresh fruit, and latkas — eyeing one another sheepishly while waiting for the dance to begin.

It always went something like this:

“Is ten-thirty too early?”

“That’s a half an hour from now.”

“I don’t think ten-thirty is too early.”

“I think it’s too late.”

“Is now too early?”

“Are we full?”

“Does it matter?”

Then our fearless host grows tired of the deliberation, so he gets up from the table and unloads the refrigerator. Carefully, in the measured way of an architect and a rock climber, Jerald lines up a dozen craft beers on the granite countertop.

We take pictures before battle. We load Untappd on our phones. Then we drink.

In an old warehouse just north of downtown Houston, Saint Arnold Brewing Company looms large as the oldest and most established craft brewery in town.  Despite this reputation, St. Arnold’s still has the atmosphere of a startup and the attitude of an underdog.

St. Arnold’s CEO Brock Wagner met me at the door. We weaved through an open workspace of ping pong tables, dart boards, and a lot of dudes wassuping and high-fiving. But when we arrived at his office, it looked more fitting for a Fortune 500 technology CEO, with leather furniture, soaring windows, and loft-like environment. He seemed uncomfortable with the extravagance. [quote style="boxed" float="right"]“When we started out, there weren’t a ton of craft beer drinkers out there,” St. Arnold’s CEO Brock Wagner said.  ”Around 2000, the average age of craft beer drinkers started to drop. Now people come celebrate at the brewery on their 21st birthday. This generation grew up with craft beer, and they expect lots of options.”[/quote]

“It’s funny,” he said. “When we bought this building, I got to create my own office. I wanted to do it right. But it looked a lot smaller on paper than it turned out to be,” he said as we sat down. “It’s still a little intimidating, and I work here every day.”

Born in 1994, St. Arnold’s has grown considerably over the last 18 years.  As the industry grew, St. Arnold’s grew, too.  Brock has decades of experience cultivating a rabid fanbase of beer fans from all walks of life. He is also deeply committed to the integrity of the craft beer community. As a result of his success and his generosity, the upstart breweries see him as a wise man, and they speak of him with reverence.

“When we started out, there weren’t a ton of craft beer drinkers out there,” Wagner said.  ”Around 2000, the average age of craft beer drinkers started to drop. Now people come celebrate at the brewery on their 21st birthday. This generation grew up with craft beer, and they expect lots of options. We do our best to keep up.”

St. Arnold’s produced over 23,000 barrels from January to June of 2012, representing 37% growth over that same period in 2011.  In fact, “the first six months of 2012 exceeded the amount Saint Arnold produced in all of 2008.”  Compared to Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company, St. Arnold’s is a monster. But compared to the Golaiths of AB/Inbev or MillerCoors, even St. Arnold’s is a David. The craft breweries know their they need to work together to peel away business from big beer rather than compete with one another.

“As a craft brewery, it’s our job to connect with people and give them what they want,” Wagner said.  ”Then they go ask for craft beer at the bar, and we all benefit.”

Big beer sees this trend, and they are trying to raise the stakes. Many craft breweries produce beer that is named after something local — a landmark, a historical figure, or even just an area code.  Last year, AB/Inbev quietly filed provisional trademarks for area codes, and this year they’re trying for airport codes, too.  Big beer companies have purchased successful breweries in big cities like Goose Island in Chicago, or set up craft beer divisions like MillerCoors did with Tenth and Blake Beer Co. These are industry consolidation moves disguised by marketing.

But that doesn’t deter craft brewers. There is still room to compete.

“I don’t think craft beer is a trend,” Wagner said. “Because it’s about more than beer. It’s about local breweries connecting with customers, and beer drinkers connecting with each other. It’s about building a community.”

---

This explosive growth in craft beer is happening in spite of Texas state regulations. Open the Taps, a consumer advocacy group, works at a grassroots level to educate craft beer drinkers about the law, and to put pressure on legislators for change.

“There are two things that the Texas legislature can do to make the industry more entrepreneur friendly,” said Leslie Sprague, PR Director for Open the Taps. “First, they can allow breweries to sell their beer on site. Right now, you buy a ticket for a brewery tour, and you get to try the beer. But you can’t order an individual beer like you could at a bar, or buy a growler to take home. Those are high margin products. Much higher than a ticket for a tour.”

She paused to let that fact sink in.  ”But it’s just the opposite for brewpubs. That’s the second thing. They can make it easier for brewpubs to distribute their beer, because right now, they can only sell on site. You can’t take home a six pack or a growler.  As consumers, we want more choice, and we get there by making it easier to get beer into the hands of a customer.”

In an election season that is about jobs, jobs, jobs, our politicians talk about small businesses and entrepreneurs as the gasoline powering our economic engine. Compared to technology or professional services, beer is a low margin business. It’s essential to find ways to increase the value of each customer. So craft breweries often look at their tours as an essential revenue stream. And yet, despite the well-reasoned logic laid out by Open the Taps, the law remains the same.

---

Every year around Labor Day, over 100 craft breweries converge in Galveston for the Brewmaster’s Festival. I drove down with a couple of friends, and we burst into the exhibition hall like 10 year olds at a baseball card show. Each brewery had a kiosk, and they poured their flagships, their seasonals, and their one-offs for us. The place was crowded, but there very few lines. Walk right up, get a taste, wander around, and socialize.

Except for Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company. Now approaching their one-year anniversary (with an impressive rookie season), Rassul and his crew set up shop towards the back of the hall, where they needed a little extra space to accomodate a constant line of 20+ people. It was, by far, the longest line in the room. We thought it was very unusual. Why would these people stand in line when they could walk up to another kiosk and drink excellent craft beer?

So I asked them.

I spent about 20 minutes asking two basic questions: Had they ever tried this beer before? Had they ever heard of the company before today?

“I got in line because there’s a long line,” one woman said. “But I don’t really care who they are.  As long as it’s good, I’ll be happy.”

Last week, I had the opportunity to accompany the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness to three roundtable meetings in Houston, Texas. We met with over 50 leaders from business, government, and academia. Together, they tell the story of Houston for the last 30 years, from boom and bust to recovery and resilience. Even though I wanted to write a “just the facts” report of our time together, this blog is also a love letter to Houston.  I can’t help myself.  Houston is an easy city to love.  Many thanks to Startup America for providing this opportunity, and for connecting entrepreneurs across the nation.

We were in a small meeting room at the back of the Houston Technology Center, making introductions and killing 15 minutes of time while we waited for an escort to the first meeting of the day. Don Graves, the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and his Associate Director, Danielle Evers, had just arrived in Houston from San Antonio. That evening, they were heading off to New Orleans. We had seven hours together. After pleasantries, I got right to it.

“I’ve been following the JOBS Act,” I said. “From what you can see, what are some of the big challenges to implementing and regulating the crowdfunding provision?”

There was a pause.  We let the question hang in the air for a brief moment.  Then Mr. Graves smiled and leaned back in his chair. Dr. Evers joked, “Who tipped you off? Are you a plant?”

I laughed, and they began speaking passionately about a variety of ways that crowdfunding can change the nature of fundraising for small businesses, and promote economic development in troubled regions.

At that moment, I realized I was in the room with policy experts, not politicians. They were here to learn about Houston, not to grandstand during the silly season.  We had some great meetings lined up. It was going to be an interesting day.

---

As the Executive Director of the Jobs Council, Mr. Graves provides “non-partisan advice to the President on continuing to strengthen the Nation’s economy and ensure the competitiveness of the United States and on ways to create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for the American people.”  In other words, he and his staff recommend ways to encourage job growth and streamline government.

Mr. Graves and Dr. Evers were in the middle of a four-day fact finding mission. I had about a week to arrange as many productive meetings as possible, and a seven hour window to make it happen. But I wasn’t worried. I’ve lived in Houston for three years. It takes two things to throw a party here: a date and a time. So with the assistance of Marc Nathan, Deborah Mansfield, Greg Wright, Matthew Wettergreen, and Amy Kavalewitz, we arranged roundtable meetings at the Houston Technology Center and Rice University. Afterwards, I got to tag along to a third meeting at the Greater Houston Partnership.  [quote style="boxed" float="right"]There is a story happening here in Houston.  Over 50% of our population moved here in the last seven years.[/quote]

There is a story happening here in Houston. It’s easy to dismiss the city as a mess of brutal summers, treacherous storms, and flying cockroaches. Yet people keep coming here. They come from every state and almost every country. Our newcomers are young, educated, and motivated by quality-of-life issues. Over 50% of our current population moved here in the last seven years. We’ve experienced tremendous job growth for a while now. Our median age is 33.

And Houston had a good week leading up to the visit. There was a fantastic write up in the Economist, our Mayor represented well on Colbert, and Forbes named us the #1 coolest city in America.

But no article or ranking can really capture what’s happening down here. You have to see it to believe it.

---

The Houston Technology Center (HTC) is a not-for-profit technology incubator, supported by over 300 companies and local government.  It is a catalyst for commercializing breakthrough technologies coming out of Houston’s enormous scientific community (which includes NASA, MD Anderson, University of Houston, Rice, and many more), and accelerating companies led by promising entrepreneurs. In 2010 alone, its clients raised over $88 million and created almost 3,000 jobs. Our roundtable, curated by CEO Walter Ulrich, included leaders from Fortune 500 companies, established entrepreneurs like Ed Muñiz of MEI Technologies, startup community leaders like Marc Nathan and Javid Jamae, and leadership from the University of Houston Small Business Development Center and Houston Community College.

Everyone had a chance to speak, and everyone had something to say. There were concerns about readying the workforce for a technology-heavy economy. Job training took center stage, as employers see a “skills gap” in recent graduates. Community colleges are trying to respond to the market by adapting into job training centers.  In the next few decades, they predict, community colleges will become a source of innovation and entrepreneurship as they prepare the next generation of skilled workers.  As a result, these colleges want to deepen their relationships with the business community.  Several attendees stressed the importance of looking at successful college/business partnerships as a model for the next generation of job training.

There were also concerns about the government not adjusting to changes in the business of technology. Leaders from government, academia, and industry all echoed a general point: the government isn’t really set up to support early stage technology commercialization. There are lots of ways that this can change. We can support successful organizations that promote good ideas, like Rice Alliance, BioHouston, and the Houston Technology Center. We can expand SBIR and other programs to support new methods of commercialization, administered by people who specialize in early-stage technology. NSF can sponsor more “big prize” contests, modeled after programs like Shell GameChanger. We can use the government as a way to promote groundbreaking ideas, like the State Department’s LAUNCH: Energy Forum, or as a way to encourage growth by creating special tax reinvestment zones for entrepreneurs.

Mostly, we shared good ideas. In a brief but powerful story, Chris Melson of Vendor Safe Technologies talked about a challenge he faced a few years back.  When running the numbers, he realized that he could save a lot of money if he outsourced his customer service to another country.  But he didn’t like that solution.  Instead, he kept working on it, eventually developing a work-study program with a local college.  He would employ students as part of the college’s work study program, delivering paid, on-the-job training with college credit to boot.  When he ran the numbers again, the student program cost about the same as outsourcing.

As we left the meeting, I was impressed that so many different civic and business leaders, from diverse backgrounds and with different strategic interests, could unite around basic problem solving.  They’ve been doing it for years.  But more on that later.

---

Since moving to Houston, I’m no longer in a rush. It’s hard to hurry in 100 degree heat. When the HTC meeting wrapped up, we were running 20 minutes behind schedule. There were some very important people waiting for us at Rice. But we were not going to speed down Fannin Street to make up the time. Instead, we cut through Montrose, a large and historically bohemian neighborhood dotted with old craftsman bungalows, modern townhomes, and boutique office buildings. Then we cruised down through the Museum District, home to a walkable network of 19 museums and countless art galleries.

As we approached Hermann Park and Rice University, Mr. Graves complimented the lush canopy of oak trees lining the streets. “Houstonians love trees,” I said. “Last year, we had a devastating drought that killed millions of them. It was amazing to watch the whole city came together for replanting efforts. In a few minutes, you’ll get to see a product designed by Rice students that makes watering oak trees more effective.”

Because there’s opportunity everywhere – even in the trees.

---

President Leebron reached up and pointed out, his face serious, like Babe Ruth calling his shot. “Right there across the street,” he said. “We’re curing cancer!”

That “we” refers to Mr. Leebron’s colleagues at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the #1 cancer hospital in the nation six years running. It’s possible that he was referring to Rice’s many collaborations with M.D. Anderson, but it’s more likely that he was simply talking about the scientific community in Houston at large. Sharing credit was a recurring theme of the day. Houston’s leaders know that it takes a sophisticated and enlightened community to fuel and support world-changing ideas. In a city where the free market dominates, cooperation is essential.

That theme of community is part of what Dr. Stephen Klineberg has spent his career exploring. The Houston sociological expert and Rice professor sat next to Mr. Graves and listened intently, adding a few important points about job training and workforce development. Dr. Klineberg doesn’t need to explain his work, though when he does, it’s a powerful reminder of how different Houston really is. Dr. Klineberg’s work drives the macroeconomic model of our city, and his impact is recognized throughout government, business, and academia.  [quote style="boxed" float="right"]President Leebron reached up and pointed out, his face serious, like Babe Ruth calling his shot. “Right there across the street,” he said. “We’re curing cancer!”[/quote]

We packed into the conference room at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen at the edge of campus. The OEDK is a design kitchen that teaches engineering students how to build products that solve important business and global health problems. Dr. Maria Oden and the OEDK staff curate design projects, bringing together interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate engineers and teaching them how to work together using a common language. The teams work side by side in a 12,000 square foot facility, designing infant apnea monitors with $35 worth of materials, or crucial blood testing equipment from the guts of a salad spinner. Every year, the OEDK produces dozens of projects that improve lives.

In that environment, it’s easy to see every incremental innovation having a powerful impact in the world. That was the backdrop of a spirited and optimistic roundtable with Rice faculty and community members. Dr. Marcia O’Malley discussed many of the interdisciplinary projects happening in Houston. Brad Burke advocated the approach and effectiveness of the Rice Alliance, a catalyst for launching startups and the host of the prestigious Rice Business Plan Competition.

Toward the end of the meeting, Bryan Hassin, a cleantech entrepreneur and Rice faculty member, raised a concern about measuring the success of Jobs Council programs simply by looking at job numbers. “When I build a technology company, my goal isn’t to create jobs,” Mr. Hassin said. “But even if a company doesn’t create jobs directly, it can still make huge contributions to the economy in other ways.”

Hassin’s point was a common thread among the entrepreneurs who attended the meetings at HTC and Rice. They all conceded that job creation is a noble goal, but they urged the Jobs Council to find ways to empower entrepreneurs without focusing exclusively on job creation.

---

We were running 30 minutes late to our next meeting downtown at the Greater Houston Partnership. The GHP are public policy advocates for Houston’s business community. They are a big reason why Houston is known as a business friendly town, and they unite companies and industries around civic initiatives.

If you’re new to Houston, one the first things you’ll learn is that the city entered the recession late and got out early.  This is because of factors like consistent job growth, a stable housing market, and community reinvestment strategies, among others. But it wasn’t always this way. Back in 1982, oil prices dipped and Houston went broke. Some have compared Houston in 1983 to present day Detroit — a shattered economy, but also a blank slate for innovation. Many of the GHP meeting attendees played a big part in our recovery during the 1980s, and their insight is especially valuable today.

For example, Cafe Adobe Restaurants CEO Bob Borochoff told his story of entrepreneurship in early 1980s Houston. Mr. Borochoff has owned and operated dozens of successful restaurants over the last 30 years. He talked about the business climate after the oil bust, when credit was playing hard to get. The model for financing new companies was broken. But if you could scrape together enough cash to get up and running without requiring a line of credit, Houston had lots of great opportunities at a fair price.

The staff at GHP presented an overwhelming amount of evidence that Houston, from a macroeconomic perspective, is a unique American city.  We have very little zoning.  Our city, founded by entrepreneurs, is known as being business-friendly.  And when disaster strikes, like it did in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina and 2008 with Hurricane Ike, people open their doors and share with their neighbors.  It’s a city full of risk and opportunity, but also full of people who share their success and help when times get rough.  After all, you can’t predict the weather.

---

The Jobs Council isn’t a big government organization.  Simply getting on a plane and visiting different business communities face-to-face takes a special effort.  I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about how our federal government is trying to address the biggest problems facing our country, and I was very impressed with Houston’s ad hoc response to the visit.  At every turn, people were polite, respectful, and grateful to be heard.

But, naturally, everyone wanted to know why Mr. Graves was in town. Could it really be as straightforward as a listening tour? Is the President really interested in what we’re doing down here in Texas?  Is there some other motive — something that we can’t see?  The answer is pretty simple.  Mr. Graves explained: “The President said, Don, get out of Washington. So I did.”