Monday Bites: June 16, 2025

Welcome to this bite-size issue of Austin Business Review, with a quick look at this week’s best upcoming business events (plus something fun for the weekend).

I started this quick Monday edition because stuff always pops up over the weekend after Thursday’s email goes out. Example: Startup Grind’s Summer Social, taking place Thursday.

Use this list to plan your week fast, and I’ll see you Thursday for the full-length newsletter.

-Ethan

PS. I’m excited to add a new “Questionable Decisions” section to this email. This is an ad specifically designed to support Austin Pets Alive. When you buy it, a portion of gets donated directly to them, AND we highlight a great dog or cat up for adoption.

The first sponsor is Brian Moran, founder of Bee Comfortable Heating & Cooling. They specialize in residential retrofits for single-family homes, and go anywhere within about 90-minutes of Buda (including all of ATX and San Antonio). Brian himself has more than 20+ years in the industry, so if you’re looking to stay ahead of the heat (or cold), give him a buzz.

Business Events This Week…

For frequent readers, events in red are new and weren’t in Thursday’s newsletter

🗓️ June 16: Conscious Connections: Sandra Bershad is hosting this non-traditional networking event focused on authenticity and depth

🗓️ June 16-18: PRX Podcast Creator’s Summit: Free multi-day series at Apple Campus. The session titles look excellent.

🗓️ June 17: Oracle Defense Tech Summit: With speakers from Lockheed Martin, US Army Future Command, Palantir, and more. If you’re in defense, check it out

🗓️ June 17: Entrepreneur Get Together: Connor Tomkies is getting post-exit founders together for drinks and a group chat

🗓️ June 17: Decoding the Quantum Revolution: Come hear from William “Whurley” Hurley, founder of Strangeworks, whose CV is so fascinating I can hardly summarize – Design @ Apple, Master Inventor @ IBM, Exits to Accenture & Goldman, (and that doesn’t even include red-teaming casinos or the Board of Awesomeness)

🗓️ June 18: Prohibition to Progress: Alcohol & THC industry insider, Lamar Romero, will share his views on problems with the SB3 bill, legislating hemp

🗓️ June 18: From Click to Cart: This one’s cool for Ecom founders – Taylor Jones is talking about “Product Configurators” and their impact on buying behavior

🗓️ June 18: Founder Night Out - Deep Tech Edition: Meet Riley Knox, co-founder of Leviathan Air, which is revolutionizing freight with, “ships that fly”

🗓️ June 18: Austin Coaches Collective: Hosted by Erin Laverone – this group’s for professional coaches, looking for peers to knowledge-share with

🗓️ June 18: Beyond the Algorithm: This event celebrates the different kinds of human intelligence, showing how our abilities go beyond that of computational systems

🗓️ June 18: Austin CTO Club: Every month, William Baxter curates a discussion for senior tech execs. This month’s topic: Technology in the Business Context - managing expectations with your CEO

🗓️ June 18: Women In Leadership Book Club (online): Erica Vargas and Angela Melpolder will lead a discussion on The Anxious Achiever

🗓️ June 19: Business + Birdies: Tomer Soran and Trent Warner host this Thursday morning meetup at Butler Pitch + Putt to chat business and play 9 holes

🗓️ June 19: American Physical Society: Shout out to ABR reader, Mario Sierra, who’s a panelist at this event, focused on deep tech and nanofabrication in TX

🗓️ June 19: Women Entrepreneurs Network: Focused heavily on financial literacy, building generational wealth, and understanding/avoiding downside risk

🗓️ June 19: Chamber Luncheon: West Austin Chamber is hosting special guest, Melinda Garvey, founder of Austin Woman magazine

🗓️ June 19: Tour of Robot Ranch: Local super-connector Glenn “LinkedGlenn” Hart is leading a tour of TerraFirma, which is developing giant autonomous heavy equipment

🗓️ June 19: Enter The Tiger: UFC Fighter Max Griffin is launching a clothing line to support charities. Join him at this launch event and fireside chat

🗓️ June 19: Startup Grind Summer Social: Join Paris Bland, Mia Ong, and other local founders down at Easy Tiger South

🗓️ June 19: Acquire & Invest Happy Hour: The name says it all – if you’re buying businesses, join Dan Jensen and others for drinks out at Meanwhile Brewing

🗓️ June 19: Navigating Our Future (online): Book discussion with author Michael Ignatowski who’s spent decades leading advanced R&D teams at AMD and IBM

🗓️ June 20: Female Founders & Friends: Hosted the third Friday of every month by Juliette Richert of the Artemis Fund, and Angie Neas of JustWorks

🗓️ June 20: TWIB June Luncheon: Meet Nicole Pletka, president of Austin Women In Tech, who also spent years leading project teams at AMD (and others)

🗓️ June 21: PowerPints at Highball: Not strictly business related, but there’s beer and power-points. Eight speakers each give five-minute presentations on niche topics

One for the Weekend…

The City-Wide Vintage Sale is taking place over at Palmer Events Center, Saturday and Sunday.

If you haven’t been yet, this thing’s got a fascinating back story. Born during the gas shortages of the 70’s, the original idea was to bring all the city’s garage sales into one spot.

In 2019, they changed to a vintage-only focus, and now specialize in second-hand, used, antique, and collectible vendors – no new merchandise or crafts allowed.

That’s all for this issue! Keep an eye out Thursday for the full-length edition.

Email me here if you want to share any feedback, or let me know about an event you’re hosting.

Until next week,

-Ethan