Russ: This is the BusinessMakers show, heard on the radio and seen online at the businessmakers.com. We're at PKF Texas. Another one of their doing business over coffee events. Real cool networking event and my guests are the people of Culture Pilot. The founder, Tim deSilva and Grace Rodriguez. Welcome to The BusinessMakers show.

Tim: Thank you very much.

Russ: Well, Tim, why don't you start by telling us about Culture Pilot?

Tim: Okay. Well, we started about eight years ago. Sort of a traditional graphic design firm in a sense. And over the course of the years, we've sort of developed into more of an interactive media firm that focuses on brand development and in marketing and we really just like to have fun.

Russ: All right. Now, having fun is fun, but at the end of the day, business can be pretty serious, so how are you doing? How's the company doing?

Tim: Doing well. We actually - I find that we've had steady growth every year, thankfully, even in these rough times, let's say 2010, may be one of our hardest years, but I think we pushed through it and 2011 's been a whirlwind and it's been great. Grace joined the team; we have so much going on it's a whirlwind. It really is. That's all I can say.

Grace: I think I found that since joining Culture Pilot, a lot of businesses and a lot of other businesses want to have fun, too and that's why we're doing so well, because I think people are tired of taking business too seriously and there's a time when the numbers count and there's a time for being adventurous.

Tim: There's a time to kick your shoes off.

Grace: Yeah, exactly.

Russ: Well, I noticed, Tim, every time you said, "Then things picked up" you kept kind of pointing at Grace so does that mean she brought business to the firm?

Tim: Well, it's funny, we've been working together for - I don't know how many years. Maybe two or three years previous and on more fun events, we partnered together on Twestival, several sort of fund raising like events and eventually we said, "Look, we like working together. Let's just make this more official."

Russ: Okay, well, now I know, Grace, that you also have sort of a second career going on simultaneously with DFJ Mercury. How does that work together with Culture Pilot?

Grace: Well, it's stems from a passion of mine to help entrepreneurs and startups and people who just want to bring ideas to fruition and I originally founded a branding firm called "Unbrand" and that's how we first met with Culture Pilot. I was also doing - hosting Twestival, which is a Twitter festival - an international festival that helps raise money for different charities every year and Javier Fadule, who's one of the culture pilots, had contacted me on Twitter and saw it and got involved in the event and then it kind of grew from there and I met with Zees Gallany from DFJ Mercury, who's now a director there. He's been a friend of mine for a while and he told me that there was an opportunity opening bit at DFJ Mercury and I thought, "Well, I've never had experience from the venture capital side or from the funding side, and that would be very valuable to help the startups and entrepreneurs that I knew." And then with the Culture Pilot, there's the design and branding and identity side that would also help. So I felt like all of those things would help me be a better facilitator or supporter of the startup community.

Russ: Sounds like it might be a pretty heavy workload, though. Is it?

Grace: It is, but it's not work if it's fun and that's what you're passionate about, I think.

Russ: Okay. Now I keep hearing this fun word. Describe for me a typical Culture Pilot client. What are you doing for them?

Tim: I think a typical one might be your upcoming interview with Rassul. So he's a founder of a new craft brewery in town. We helped brand his company with a little bit of logo and messaging and we're also partnering with the Black Sheep Agency on the marketing side of that -

Russ: Amy Woodhall, we've had her on the show before, too, yeah.

Tim: Amy Woodhall. Good friend of ours. We really enjoy the type of client that is willing to take a little risk and again, have fun with our marketing and have fun with their messaging and the way they speak to people. I mean, just to throw and idea out there, I think Rassul should probably think about maybe having a Ping-Pong tournament around people that are into craft beer.

Russ: All right. And you're talking about Rassul Zarinfar, the founder of the Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company, right, who hasn't really launched yet, but we are gonna interview him right after this, too, so I'm looking forward to that as well. So a Ping-Pong tournament.

Tim: Oh, I don't know, I just - Ping-Pong's on my brain lately.

Grace: Another client, very good example, is Surge Accelerator, the new energy accelerator that's launching in Houston. And Kurt Cobrand had approached us about doing their branding, doing their website, helping them with the messaging and crafting video and all of these other things and he was willing to - he wanted to push it as far as possible. He wanted it not to look like every other incubator or accelerator around the country because he wants to make sure that Surge attracts the kinds of entrepreneurs that are at the leading edge, or bleeding edge of technology.

Russ: Okay, well, now I love everything you're talking about and I love having fun and stuff, but at the end of the day, sometimes it comes back down to business and so when you engage somebody like that is it like a typical agency thing where you're billing on a per hour rate?

Tim: I don't know what typical agency would be, but for us, we typically work with every client on an individual basis, so I would say we base everything on an hourly rate because, really, that's all we have to offer is our time involved. So at the end of the day, I guess you could say, yes, it all comes down to how many hours are we gonna spend on this project because you're paying us for our professional services.

Russ: Well, I apologize for getting off of that fun topic a little bit.

Grace: No, no, not at all.

Grace: I mean, there's a dark side to it.

Tim: Why you trying to stress us out, Russ?

Russ: A dark side to it...

Grace: There's a dark side - well, dark side, it's not really a dark side, but it's that we also try to get retainer clients who want us to consistently help them with their branding and then we also take on a lot of non-profit projects that we really believe in and want to help and then make sure that we help subsidies social good.

Tim: At the end of the day, we're fortunate enough to work with the type of clientele we care for and are passionate about and I think bottom line is, we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't have that passion behind the people that we're helping.

Russ: Right, well, that's real cool. Now, I want to talk about these sort of localized events that you guys are also championing right after this. Talking with Tim deSilva and Grace Rodriguez of Culture Pilot and we'll be back with more with them right after this. This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com. This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard on the radio and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com. Continuing on with Tim deSilva and Grace Rodriguez of Culture Pilot. Okay now, there are a couple of projects that you guys are already famous for. First one being TedEx Houston. Tell us how that happened.

Tim: I think that was born out of our passion for education. I mean, Ted provides sort of this father platform of 20 minute idea sharing. It enables anyone to get on stage and share an idea, whether that be on technology, entertainment, whether it be designed base - it's sort of - whether it be innovative or just something completely random. And I think that's something that's just truly unique and it's an amazing opportunity to showcase the cultural mecca that we live in and in terms, for Houston, bringing that experience to Houston.

Russ: Did you feel like it was a success?

Tim: Definitely, yes. I mean, it's very gratifying on a personal level. I hope everyone else felt it was a success.

Grace: Bringing a lot of people together afterwards who've said, "I've met more people like me". Letting people know that they're not alone in wanting to push the boundaries of what's happening in Houston.

Russ: Okay and you plan to do it again next year?

Tim: Most likely.

Russ: Okay. All right.

Grace: Actually, TedEx Woodlands is coming up this Saturday.

Tim: This weekend.

Russ: TedEx Woodlands. Wow. That's interesting. I assume someday there'll be TedEx San Filipe Drive.

Grace: You want to start it?

Russ: No thanks, no thanks. Tell me a little bit about your audience though. I mean, what was the age range? What do you think the average age was?

Tim: It actually varies widely and I think that's one of the beauties about it. It really attracts such a wide demographic. Mostly doers, I would say. People that are interested in taking a full Saturday out of their busy lives to actually go out there and learn something new and help collaborate.

Russ: Did anybody from Culture Pilot actually present at TedEx?

Tim: No, it's really a showcase for other talents.

Russ: And is it controlled? Can people show up there and decide, "Hey, I've got something to say."

Tim: No, they cannot. It's a very -

Russ: You're taking all the fun out of it.

Grace: It's not a bar camp, though.

Tim: No, it's not. It's actually a very closely curated process, so what we did was develop a committee of other leads in Houston that we felt that we worked well with and inspired to. Aspired to, I should say. We're a team of about 20 that puts this on with another team of about 40 volunteers that take time out of their schedules to make it come to life.

Russ: Cool. Okay, now, what I really want to talk about mostly in this session with you guys is this Houston south by southwest thing that you got going. Tell us about that.

Grace: It started three years ago. Matthew Gwardagreen who was a co-founder of Caroline Collective and I had been talking to a bunch of people in the music industry and Alfred Cervantes of the Houston Film Commission and Michelle Mower from SWAMP had talked to me about the film industry and how they represented it South by Southwest because South by has three different parts of it - interactive, film and music - and the stories that we heard across the board were that Houston wasn't very well represented and Matthew crunched the numbers and found out how many bands from Houston had been accepted into showcases at South by South West and found that Houston had dropped off by 60 percent, whereas other cities - after the economic recession had found that the other cities maximum were like 12 percent to 20 percent so we were wondering why so many bands from Houston weren't getting picked and why so many films from Houston weren't getting picked to showcase at South By and decided to put on an event just to showcase Houston. And it's grown every single year since then. This year, I think, was the largest that we had so far. PKF Texas was a sponsor of it and we're very thankful for that because companies like PKF Texas and Foster Quan and New Data and like all these different companies, they're supporting Culture Pilot and Primer Gray and Sheer Creativity, our Black Sheep Agency, sorry. I was thinking of a Twitter handle. Help put these things together to showcase Houston's creative talent, without expecting anything in return. In fact, we never make any money off of it, but we make sure that the artists get paid and that the filmmakers get at least gas money for showing up, because we want to make sure that the rest of the world - everybody who's showing up at South By, which I think is like over 30,000 now - get exposed to the talent that we have.

Russ: Okay and so this is an event in Austin, during South By and it's titled, "Houston South By South West". Do any other cities do this sort of thing?

Grace: There are a few. There are a few that do their own events at South By South West but of course they call it something differently. Like New Orleans does one. Boston and Austin did one and we had talked to them about partnering on an event for next year, so we'll see how that develops.

Tim: Really, it's just it's very accessible to Houston being only an hour and a half, two hours away.

Russ: Absolutely. Do you do this officially in conjunction with the South By South West people or are you just kind of independent?

Grace: It's very grassroots, gorilla type of event and just very lucky that a friend of mine had gone to Austin and opened up a couple of clubs and bars so we have a few venues that are very Houston friendly, cuz I think there are a few that afraid that if they did something that wasn't sanctioned by South By they would get shut down.

Russ: Yeah and there hasn't been any friction so far with them?

Grace: Not really. And I think at first there was a little bit - this year. The first two years there wasn't but I think because it's been growing and we finally got on the radar and sent me a nice email and I talked to a few people -

Russ: Was that a tongue in cheek nice email or was it really a nice email?

Grace: It was a tongue in cheek nice email but the follow up email turned out to be a very real and genuine nice email so it seems like next year they'll be supportive and I think the Culture Pilot and DFJ relationships that we have with the South By organizers now has turned it into, "Okay, we won't hassle you about using the South By name" or "Just change the name a little bit" in which is why we changed the Twitter handle to HoustonTXSW cuz it could be Houston Texas South West.

Russ: So you don't feel like there's gonna be attacks coming along someday and that sort of thing?

Tim: I think they understand that it's not a sort of competitive atmosphere. That we're just fully supporting what they're doing just right alongside like so many others are doing.

Russ: Right, okay, so but you mentioned music, so is it predominately music Houston South By South West or are you doing the other two venues as well, film and interactive?

Grace: We actually want it to be as interactive and by that meaning integrated with all these different industries as possible. So we have tech companies or startups present early on and then we have film or depending on the scheduling, we have filmmakers come and talk about their films and show clips of them. And then we have bands perform in the evening. And so the format might change for next year. That was a traditional format. But we look forward to developing more ways of having these different creative people work together in their presentations or their shows.

Russ: Cool and does it go on throughout the whole time of South By South West?

Grace: No, it's just one day. So that way people can still attend the other events at the conference.

Tim: It doesn't necessarily happen during the conference itself, but during the evening.

Russ: Okay. So let's say that somebody's sort of interested in helping or participating. How do they get in touch with you?

Grace: On Twitter it's HoustonTXSW. On Facebook, it's Houston SXSW. There's also a website - HousonTXSW.US. So if you think Houston, Texas, South West.US.

Russ: Okay. And the people backing you - the sponsors are who?

Grace: Well, there are a number of them. The primary ones this past year were PKF Texas, DFJ Mercury, Foster Quan, U-data, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other people but it's on the website and slose -

Tim: Those supporting firms.

Grace: Yeah, C2 Creative was a fiduciary sponsor this year and it's a non-profit startup incubator that started last year but is going to launch into co-working space this year. So we look forward to their participation as well.

Russ: Okay, well, congratulations on what sounds like a cool successful event and thanks a lot for coming in and sharing your story with us.

Grace: Thank you.

Russ: You bet. That' s Tim deSilva and Grace Rodriguez of Culture Pilot and this is The BusinessMakers Show - heard on the radio and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com.