This Austinite Led 400k+ IBM Employees

Welcome to this issue of The Austin Business Review, a weekly roundup of great local events and insights for Austin business owners (plus some other cool stuff for your life outside of work).

All you really need to know is that the Austin Mac & Cheese Fest is coming up soon.

That’s it… That’s the newsletter.

If you somehow care about anything else, I suppose read on for…

• 🍔 Leadership Lessons from P. Terry’s Founder

• 🖥️ A Signed Book From IBM’s Global Head of Design

• ⚙️ Austin’s Newest Hard Tech Meetup

• 🎨 (Plus A Neon Party at Willie Nelson’s Ranch)

Did someone forward this to you? If you like it, you can sign up here!

-Ethan

PS. If you want your dev team to use AI better next year, come to my fireside chat with Ash Tilawat next weekend. He’s head of curriculum at Gauntlet, which is teaching engineers at Trilogy, Automattic, and elsewhere to ship more, faster, with AI.

Upcoming Events

If you enjoy a swanky fundraiser, end-of-year events are on for Austin Business Woman, the Austin Asian American Chamber of Commerce, and Austin Women in Tech

Also…

🗓️ TONIGHT: Leading With Values: Patrick Terry, of P.Terry’s fame, is sitting down with the Austin Business Journal for their Power of Better Business roundtable 🍔

🗓️ TONIGHT: Bio Bash: The new UT Discovery to Impact Innovation Lab is opening, and leaders from the biotech field like Mark Arnold are speaking and leading tours

🗓️ Nov. 7: Coffee & Connections: For those of you out west, tired of going downtown for events, the West Austin Chamber is hosting their coffee hour

🗓️ Nov. 7: Lean Coffee Austin: Every month, William Baxter and Duri Chitayat host this coffee conversation on all things leadership and tech

🗓️ Nov. 7: Friday Office Hours: Jay Boisseau, founder of The Austin Forum on Tech & Society, owns this bar, and opens early every Friday for the local tech crowd to hang.

🗓️ Nov. 8: Female Leaders of Austin: Amy York and Sarah Davis are co-hosting this brunch conversation for founders and CEOs over at East End Ballroom

🗓️ Nov. 10: Austin Hardtech: A brand new event series, co-hosted by Nick Frank, Peter Taylor, and John Davison - all long-time founders with deep experience

🗓️ Nov. 11: Preparing For Exit: Part of Shannon Sibold’s excellent annual ScaleUp series, for founders growing from 7- to 8-figures

🗓️ Nov. 11: Femme Founder Showcase: ATX Women in Web3 is wrapping up their latest bootcamp, and this event showcases the founders/companies coming out of it

🗓️ Nov. 11: Startup Tax Incentives & Grants: Ari Salafia and Jacob Schoenberg both built companies that help founders find millions in government incentives

🗓️ Nov. 12: ACG Luncheon: If you’re in biosciences (or investing in health-tech) you may enjoy this intimate panel of founders/investors

🗓️ Nov. 12: An Evening with Stephen Mills: Emmy award winning choreographer, Stephen Mills, will discuss his 20+ years leading Ballet Austin to international fame in one of the most cutthroat creative fields on Earth.

🗓️ Nov. 13: Creator Mastermind: A day-long event, hosted by Mighty Networks, and focused on growing/monetizing content & community-based businesses

🗓️ Nov. 13: Acquire & Invest Happy Hour: Dan Jensen, Yvette Owo, and Henry Carter’s monthly happy hour for people who buy businesses.

🗓️ Nov. 13-15: Texas Tribune Fest: A three-day event focused on the. policies shaping Texas (there’ll be 300+ speakers including Walter Isaacson)

Other Fun Stuff Coming Up…

Over the next week or so, we’ve got appearances from comedians like John Mulaney, Dan Soder, Drew Lynch, and Ron Fuches, plus the 50th Annual Big Garage & Estate Sale, Texas Book Festival, Austin Food & Wine Fest, Second Annual Austin Chicken Wing Fest, Panda Fest…

…Oh, and have I mentioned THE AUSTIN MAC AND CHEESE FEST?!

Also…

• Nov. 7: Cookbook Release - Borderlands by Hank Shaw

• Nov. 7: Soup Slut - Five-Course Soup-Forward Dinner Celebrating Fall

• Nov. 8: Spirited Away Painting Workshop at Merfolk

• Nov. 8: Advanced Sourdough at Easy Tiger

• Nov. 9: Jazz Brunch at St. Elmo Springdale

• Nov. 9: Frankie’s Supper Club

• Nov. 10: Journaling & Collage Club

• Nov. 11: Cookies - Live Talk with NYT Youtube Chef Vaughn Vreeland

• Nov. 12: Paint Your Pet - Christmas Ornament Edition

• Nov. 13: Unchained Art - Opening Reception for Erik Neimeijer

• Nov. 13: Modern Pioneer Pantry w/ Bestselling Author Mary Bryant Shrader

• Nov. 13: Lantern Tour at Laguna Gloria

• Nov. 13-16: How To Feed A Dictator - Author Event & Cooking Class

• Nov. 14: True Crime & Wine - Inside The True Story of the Eyeball Killer

• Nov. 14: A Closer Look at Dr. Death

• Nov. 15: Texas Craft Brewer’s Festival

• Nov. 15: Live Tour of the ACL Live Venue + History

• Nov. 15: The Annual Carnival ‘O Pizza at Home Slice

• Nov. 15: Padma Lakshmi at LBJ Library

• Nov. 15: A Night of Photo Journalism

• Nov. 15: Movie in the Park - Honey I Shrunk The Kids (1989)

• Nov. 15: Local Seasonal Floral Arrangement Workshop

• Nov. 15: Wicked-Themed Vintage Cake Decorating Class

• Nov. 15: Whiskey & Holiday Shopping On South Congress

Insights

Thought-provoking pieces published by owners & operators in ATX

1. Newsletter Drop: We’re about a month into the newsletter class I’m teaching, and damn… I love seeing these come to life! If you’re looking for your next favorite read, check out…

• The Exit Journal (M&A): ”Revenue Multiples Are A Lie (Sort Of)” 

• Nest Ledger (Finance): “Profit Isn’t A Feeling (Part 1)“: 

• Bolts & Bytes (Hard Tech): “The Rule of Thirds in Running A Factory”

…And if you want to hear about the next cohort when it opens just click this.

2. Holiday Recipes: This week, I’ve spent more time consuming EJ James’ writing than any other business owner in town. She’s a private chef in ATX, and her newsletter is excellent (I tested this salted maple peanut butter pie on friends yesterday)

3 The Kill Tony Origin Story: Brian Redban, co-host of the legendary Kill Tony comedy show here in town, went on the local NADC Podcast to share the show’s lore. If you like podcasts, you need to catch this one. Redban is responsible for many of the biggest shows today – he helped launch Joe Rogan’s, Tom Segura’s, and many more.

Bonus: I think last week was the all-time best episode. I wrote about why here.

Local Artist of the Week (and Party At Willie Nelson’s)

This is a fun piece for me, because Ion Art is one of the first local artists I ever highlighted in this newsletter back when it started.

Husband-wife duo, Greg and Sharon Keshishian, are responsible for so much of the signage that makes Austin iconic – from the ATX sculpture outside Whole Foods on 5th, to the glowing backdrop of the Capital Factory stage, to the signs at Franklin BBQ and Stubbs, Starbase, and many, many more. They and their team made them all.

They also host this annual light show called Surreal Luck, and this year, they’re partnering with Willie Nelson’s Ranch to make it bigger and better than ever. Music, food, live performances, and 100+ neon sculptures, plus a chance to roam Willie’s (mostly private) town, Luck, Texas.

It’s happening over both of the next two weekends: Nov. 7-9, and Nov. 13-16 and you can snag tickets here.

That’s all for this week!

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

Until next week,

-Ethan