Apr. 29--When it comes to technology companies, Houston is no Silicon Valley, or even Austin. Not yet, at least.

But the world's oil capital is home to dozens of hopeful entrepreneurs looking to strike gold with a hot Web site, software or mobile phone technology. Here's one of an occasional set of snapshots of local tech startups. Time will tell whether they catch fire or flame out.

YouData

youdata.com

--Elevator pitch: An online broker that matches consumers with advertisers willing to pay for their audience's time.

--The idea: Co-founder Trae Nickelson describes it as an "eHarmony" for consumers and advertisers. Consumers create a "MeFile" that lists their demographics and preferences. YouData then matches users with advertisers willing to pay them to watch ads. "The real product being sold is consumer attention," Nickelson said. "We remind consumers that advertisers are buying your attention every day. They're just not buying it from you."

--Users: 17,000. The company started out targeting "mommy" bloggers but plans to hit up college students once it raises more funds.

--The brains: Nickelson and co-founder Jim Prather have worked at a series of tech companies in the past before forming YouData in late 2007. Nickelson, who has a marketing degree, worked at Houston-based mindWireless. Prather served as chief financial officer at Mindscape and Mattel Interactive and co-founder of software company Corporate Radar, which was eventually acquired by a Norwegian firm and then bought by Microsoft Corp.

--The competition: Nickelson considers all media as competition for advertising dollars, including Google and Yahoo. But unlike those online behemoths, YouData doesn't own the consumer data it collects -- the consumer does. "We mark the price up a little and take a cut," Nickelson said. "That's our revenue model."

--The money: The pair raised $1.1 million from angel investors last year and project they'll break even by April 2010.

Mezeo Software

Mezeo.com

--Elevator pitch: Software that allows IT companies to sell online data storage services.

--The idea: The company hopes to be a big player in an emerging market in cloud storage, which is secure online file storage, sharing and collaboration. Instead of keeping your files on computers, users store them and access them online. Mezeo provides a storage platform that companies can brand as their own and resell.

--Users: Five under contract, including Japanese telephone company KDDI, and another 15 potential customers are trying out the program. Each client reaches "thousands" of users so far.