Before there was the Capital Factory of today, there was the more conventional, startup version of Capital Factory. This startup version involved a down-selected cohort, a time-boxed startup prep school curriculum, and a final cornerstone graduation day program, dubbed with the universally-known moniker, "Demo Day."

From the get-go, Capital Factory Demo Days were a must-attend event. Not only because of the companies pitching, but because the audience was like a freeze-dried version of Austin, with key investors, founders, large and small company CxOs, tech media, support counsel (attorneys, accountants, etc.), and more, all compressed into one big room.

Last but not least, in addition to opening remarks by Josh and team, there was usually a featured speaker. The most impactful one, for me, was Ash Maurya, the year that he presented a brief introduction to the Lean Startup methodology, as presented in his book "Running Lean." I had heard Eric Ries speak and had sped-read his book, "The Lean Startup."

But, Ash's concise, powerful presentation was a revelation, packing so many core concepts into a short 7-8 minute talk, and making it so simple to understand. As Ash knows, I have borrowed from that presentation (always attributing him!) many times, parroting much it for audiences from Shanghai to St. Edward's University. It's one of the more valuable moments from the Demo Days I attended.

With every event we touch at Red Velvet Events, you never know where it might lead. The very first Demo Day was held at AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center back in September 2009, and I remember vividly Josh explaining the concept of the program and how we would be featuring presentations from a variety of startups. Josh, Sam and Bryan had already set the tone as to what to expect, and that helped with exceeding our room capacity for this single event. If you were involved in tech in any way – investor, developer , or media, you did not want to miss being a part of this event.

This was just the beginning. This was my first interaction with SpareFoot. Little did we know that we would only be hosting it twice at AT&T before moving it into Capital Factory’s very own space, which is now what everyone knows as the 16th floor.

I personally love this event because it gives you a glimpse into how talented our Austin tech community is, and what starts here at Capital Factory really can change the world.