Olympian Kickstart

Celebrity endorsement gives Austin venture big boost

The Wall Street Journal "How Phelps Became the Face of PureSport - WSJ.com" reports that 8-time gold medal winner Michael Phelps is a pitchman and equity stakeholder in Human Performance Labs LLC, an Austin-based startup with a protein energy drink. The company is led by Michael Humphrey, a former sales executive with Broadcast.com and CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster.

Because of Phelps, the company received $5 million from Terry Gilmore, an oil, gas and real estate investor, in January.

The Journal article describes what would be every startup's dream come true: "In Beijing, every time Mr. Phelps emerged from the pool at the Water Cube, a coach handed him a plastic bottle filled with PureSport's protein and carbohydrate-filled cocktail. 'About halfway through the meet, people started knocking on my door asking me what I was drinking and if they could have some,' Mr. Phelps said during a recent interview." .:.

Gaming Venture Pockets $10M

Latest round gives Austin firm ready cash

Game maker Challenge Online Games Inc. takes $10 million round of venture capital, reports VentureWire Alert. The company's main product is an online game called "Duels."

The current round follows close on the heels of a $4.5 million round in July 2008 from Sequoia Capital. The Austin-based company was founded in 2006 by Andrew Busey, who retains role as CEO. .:.

Reduce, Reuse, Rebrand

Also-ran identities live again

In the latest issue of Springwise (Springwise newsletter | 18 September 2008), Texas-based IncSpring was featured. The company creates an online market for corporate brand identities that have already been created, or in other words pre-fabbed brands.

Where do they come from? Any company launching a new branding identity knows that there are always also-ran ideas that didn't make the final cut. The founders of IncSpring realized those brands still had value, even if they weren't selected by the original client, so why not recycle the alternate brand identities?

Clever idea. But we'll have to see if entrepreneurs, who are notoriously cheap, will be willing to pay for even a "discount" brand. .:.

P.S. The non-Texan creators of Websource.it (a nifty little search engine that essentially works like the "Ask the Audience" lifeline on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) have posted a six-page PDF case study of the process they used to develop their brand name. Interesting read.