AUSTIN (KXAN) – In a tiny Downtown Austin office, it’s a dream come true for California native Tim Rothwell and his business partner Brett Berman.

He launched UMeTime just 10 weeks ago and sees the growth Austin has to offer. Plus, there’s an added boost from Venturephile, an online network of resources for entrepreneurs on a range of topics such as anything from marketing and creative ideas all the way to investors and legal advisors.

“It would be a disservice to startups or entrepreneurs if they felt they could tackle on the world on their own,” said Venturephile founder and University of Texas graduate student Enrique Macias.

The idea grew out of the McCombs School of Business as part of a massive class project of sorts, leading to Venturephile’s launched a few months ago. UMeTime is one of the many startups Venturephile caters its resources to.

“Like how Harvard was to Facebook, Austin is to UMeTime,” said Rothwell. “This is our home. This is where we’re growing the business. And this is our sandbox. This is where we’re going to be testing out new technologies with the businesses and, you know, with the students on campus.”

UMeTime is a hyperlocal marketing and advertising platform that connects customers with daily deals at nearby businesses.

“It’s an advertising platform that’s geobased, that they’re in complete control o,  that’s unlike anything else in the market,” said Rothwell. “And now, we’re experiencing local businesses that are reaching out to us and on another hand, it’s a mobile app with real-time deal notifications.”

Testing the technology out on the absorbing, young minds at UT has proven fruitful. And it’s not just the students who have latched onto UMeTime’s concept.

“The merchant is in complete control. This is a hands-on advertising solution that they’re in control of,” said Rothwell. “They’re using it in ways that we didn’t see coming. It’s working, the technology’s working.”

Just 10 weeks in, Rothwell and Berman now have 125 businesses that are actively using the technology downtown and on UT’s campus — up from just 50 businesses when they started. In addition, UMeTime has seen 5,000 downloads of its app, and all through what Rothwell calls “organic marketing efforts.”

The growth is welcome in a world that both Rothwell and Macias said is segmented, though booming.

“There’s a lot of different groups here in Austin, and I sometimes feel like they operate on their own,” said Rothwell. “Venturphile’s goal is to bring that all together and make it one community.”

It’s bridging a very important gap in the uncharted world of budding businesses in tech-friendly Austin.

“You have a lot of economic impact in the community and beyond, and I think that it stimulates that once you connect both of those worlds together and expose them to the community that is needing this kind of activity,” said Macias.

Just like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you can like, follow, tag and post on Venturephile, so it comes pretty natural for those already on popular social networks.

Also, the RISE conference — a Relationship Information Series for Entrepreneurs — is in town this week. It’s free for entrepreneurs looking to network in person with other creative minds.