March 7, 2018

The GOOSE Society has been funding startups since 2005 when it was formed by Jack Gill, a legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and Rod Canion, the founder and CEO of Compaq computers.   GOOSE stands for the Grand Order of Successful Entrepreneurs and every member has either started or ran a highly successful business.  The Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) is the largest and richest student business plan competition in the world.  The GOOSE Society has been awarding prizes to the winner of the RBPC program since its inception. The grand prize is now an investment prize of $300,000 from the GOOSE Society with potential for much more.The group is comprised of twenty members including five MBAs, one MD, four PhDs, and one JD. GOOSE has invested over $30 million in startups with four exits of 5-10x and has 16 current investments.  The net worth of GOOSE membership in aggregate is in the billions and the members thrive on rolling up their sleeves to help their portfolio companies. They have now opened an office at the Rice Alliance office on Rice campus to continue funding startups from the Rice Business Plan competition, the Texas Medical Center, Station Houston, and other sources.  Although based in Houston, TX GOOSE sources and invests in deals from all over the country. [SL2] They currently are invested in deals across industries from life sciences, energy, IT, and green tech.   Entrepreneurs who want to pitch the GOOSE society can send their executive summary and pitch deck to samantha@goosesocietyoftexas.com. Their website is https://goosesocietyoftexas.com/ If you are interested in tracking a startup, you can sign up for TEN Capital’s Monitoring service which tracks key startups and provides information about their revenue, earnings, and other key financial information.  The first 3 companies are free for 6 months. Signing up as an investor with TEN is easy and free. Visit our Investor Page and sign up now! If you have any questions, please contact us at info@tencapital.group.

For some people tokens appear to be a brand new concept that they’ve never seen before. But in reality, we all have seen use cases for tokens. Frequent flyer miles is an example of tokenizing a network. Airlines came up with the frequent flyer program many years ago by giving “miles” to those who flew on their planes.  They offered miles or tokens to reward those who joined their network and used it. One can think of an airline as a network of services such as booking agents, baggage handlers, pilots, and more. For those who flew more often the airlines gave frequent flyer “tokens”. They did not give cash for flying. Why? Because the airline wants you to continue using their network for flying and not a competitors’ network. At some level, it locks you into their network. The frequent flyer program is just one example. There are many others such as cash back on credit card usage, loyalty points for department stores, that free tenth cup of coffee at the coffee shop and there are many more. The only difference with ICO tokens is that there are many more examples of how you can use tokens and keep track of them. Instead of using a punchcard every time you order a coffee, the usage is stored on the blockchain.    Just as frequent flyer miles are not a currency but rather a pseudo currency so tokens are the same—they represent value but not necessarily legal tender. Just like the tokens used in an ICO they are designed to encourage you to use a specific network.     Hall T. Martin is the founder of TEN Capital and a builder of entrepreneur ecosystems by startup funding through angel networks, funding portals, syndicates, and more.  Connect with him about fundraising, business growth, and emerging technologies.     If you are interested in tracking a startup, you can sign up for TEN Capital’s Monitoring service which tracks key startups and provides information about their revenue, earnings, and other key financial information.  The first 3 companies are free for 6 months. Signing up as an investor with TEN is easy and free. Visit our Investor Page and sign up now! If you have any questions, please contact us at info@tencapital.group.