Software Company Newton Insight, gift card retailer CardLab, Biotech Company Kewl Innovations, IceRocket, RadioTime and Simpli.fi are some of the biggest local startups. With the help of both individuals and networks of incubators and angels, hundreds of local entrepreneurs are developing their businesses more quickly. While Dallas is the preferred stomping ground for many corporate giants, including Southwest Airlines and AT&T, there is no lack of opportunities for budding entrepreneurs here.

One of the key reasons why Dallas receives a lot of start-up investment dollars is its low cost of living. In fact, a survey conducted in 2012 tells us that Dallas and neighboring Fort Worth were ranked among the 20 least expensive cities across the country. Dallas has no wage, occupation, or personal income tax. With low property, sales and utility taxes, and business license fees, the city of Dallas makes an ideal place to start-up a business.  Moreover, there are many different communities that provide even the smallest tech companies with workshops and resources, and even offer one-on-one counseling to these future CEOs. Business Assistance Center Program, Tech Wildcatters and the Dallas County Community College District are some of the local organizations that offer resources and support to the start-up community.

Dallas Hot Startup Companies

The following are some of the hottest startup companies born in Dallas –

Traxo – Co-founded by Andy Chen and Andres Fabris in the year 2008, Traxo helps frequent travelers organize their travel life. The company gets a funding of $ 1.25 million from angel investors that includes several travel industry executives. They have 6 full-time and 6 part-time employees.

Traxo is a digital travel wallet that automatically compiles all of your travel information into one dashboard. It consolidates travel itineraries, flight status, reward points and travel miles from over 200 travel websites, leaving you worry- free about writing down your travel history or finding reservations. Also, it automatically syncs your travel with your calendar and allows you to share your travel experience with your friends, family and colleagues.  You will also be able to save about 10 percent on reservations, and can get a chance to win free round-trip airfare and car-rentals by maximizing your Traxo Travel Score, according to the company. They are soon going to launch an app for iPads and iPhones.

GENBAND – Founded in the year 1999, this company is based in Frisco, a suburb in Dallas.  GENBAND develops technology that allows service providers to deliver video and voice over the internet. Brendon Mills, Steve Raich, Ron Lutz and Paul Carew are the Initial startup co-founders of GENBAND. For the past 9 years, the company has been led by president and CEO, Charlie Vogt. The company receives more than $500 million in funding from venture-capital firms and One Equity Partners. With major operations in 50 countries, it employs over 1700 people.

GENBAND makes IP multimedia applications and infrastructure solutions and products for mobile, fixed wire lines and cable network service providers. Currently, they work with 80 of the global top 100 network operators, including AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. Over the years, the company has developed a number of VOIP related products and services. Call Grabber is one of their widely acclaimed apps that allow the user to transfer a video call from a fixed line to a broadband enabled TV or mobile device.  Committed to providing large telecommunications companies as well as smaller businesses with smart networking solutions, GENBAND is now focused on developing the technology to make every call, either made from a mobile line or a landline, a video call if the user wants it to be.

MODX – MODX develops content-management platforms that allow small and midsize business customers to create their websites. Awarded with Packt Publishing’s “Most Promising Open Source Content Management System” in 2007, the company offers a free web application framework and open source content management system for publishing content on the internet.

MODEX was co-founded by Ryan Thrash, Jason Coward and Raymond Irving in 2004. The company has a team of 11 project-based part-timers and 12 full-time employees in the U.S., Netherlands, England and Canada. It receives its funding from about $3 million bootstrapped and angel investments.

Koupon Media – This Digital Campaign Management system allows retailers to create, redeem, distribute and analyze online coupons. Their elegant B2B platform is a sole-source solution for promotional marketers. It includes coupon clearing, multi-channel distribution, campaign management and consumer analytics. It is a centralized platform that can easily be tailored to meet specific needs. The platform helps users to distribute and measure promotions through multiple channels.

Based in the Dallas Suburb of Frisco, Koupon Media was co-founded by TJ Person and Scott Hutchinson in 2011 and receives $6.5 million in funding from venture-capital firms. With 20 full-time employees, the company is focused on acquiring more customers and hiring more employees to grow the business.

NetSocket – This real-time, cloud-based monitoring system has the ability to anticipate and identify problems in internet networks. It can reduce a businesses’ problem resolution time by 70 percent by figuring out the source of an internet-network problem efficiently, as claimed by the company. The NetSocket solution automatically offers a complete view of session, content and IP network topology on a hop-by-hop basis. Powered by ICE (IP Correlation Engine), this cloud experience manager captures and correlates network behavior in real time across multiple vendors and on any size network. Along with providing a trouble-free UC experience, NetSocket solution also ensures a higher IP network session quality and helps lower support costs.

NetSocket is a Plano-based company and has become a leading provider of network service assurance solutions for unified communications issues. Receiving $25 million in venture capital, the company was founded in the year 2007 by Ken Lewis. Presently, it’s working on growing its customer base by selling its software to more network service providers and enterprises.

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