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Notes From The Very First Texas Venture Gala & Forum
PLUS: Jordan Peterson is coming to Austin... 10 Years of the Tim Ferriss Show... The Austin Book Trail... And more...
Welcome to this issue of 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).
My name’s Ethan and I’m the one writing this (holler at me here!)
This week, we’ve got a few things on-deck:
📅 Upcoming Events - Biiiig week comin’ up
🤠 Notes From The First Texas Venture Forum & Gala
🍽️ Local Restaurant You Gotta Check Out
BUT FIRST…
Last week, a lot of you enjoyed meeting Thomas Shields, pickleball expert and local founder of Upswing Sports.
So this week, I wanted to introduce you to another person who’s crucial to this newsletter – CS Freeland.
I spend a lot of time looking for great local founder events to share, and CS hosts a lot of them.
She’s the co-founder of the Texas Venture Alliance, and the creator of the Texas Venture Fest – a massive multi-city experience that brought together thousands of people last year – along with many others. She’s also incredibly tapped into the local startup ecosystem and…
Spent the last decade as EIR at PowerShift Group, Austin’s first venture studio
Was the the youngest Executive Director of a venture capital association in the US
Publishes the Texas Venture newsletter to thousands of readers
And so much more…
Over the weekend, she hosted the very first Texas Venture Gala & Forum, which brought together hundreds of founders, investors, and government officials from across the state.
I got a chance to attend, and wrote about some of my key takeaways down below.
If you’re not following her on LinkedIn yet, be sure to do that and say hey!
-Ethan
Upcoming Events
Running a business is tough. Here are a few great places to meet cool people going through the same sh*t you are.
Apr. 19: ClimateTech Coffee: Join Kim Gilbert, PhD, founder of pHathom Technologies, and other founders/operators in the climate space
Apr. 19: Artemis Female Founder Coffee: The Artemis Fund invests specifically in female founders, and is building a community of innovators here in ATX
Apr. 19: Live Recording - The Girl’s Bathroom: Podcast host Angie Lee is bringing in three heavy-hitting founders to share no-bullshit advice on all things women's wellness, entrepreneurship, mental health and building a brand
Apr. 20: Tax Code Advisors - Save and Grow Wealth: In this session, Deepak Sharma and Sanjiv Gupta will give an overview of estate & retirement planning, how to minimize tax liabilities, insurance planning, and opportunities to invest in oil and gas, real estate, and startups
Apr. 24: Austin Technology Council Roundtable Breakfast: Join the ATC and guest Catalin Briciu to discuss how to leverage AI in your business
Apr. 24: Venture Debt 101: Shannon Sibold is a partner at Morrison Foerster, specializing in M&A, public and private financing, and advising emerging-growth companies. This is part of a series of ScaleUp seminars she’s giving (they get great feedback on LinkedIn!)
Apr. 24: Shopify & Ecomm Happy Hour: Come talk shop with Cameron Shaw, Patrick Pitman, and other local founders in the ecomm space
Apr. 24: Austin AI Alliance Monthly Meeting: The newly-formed Austin AI Alliance is focused on making Austin a world-class city for AI innovation. They’ve got a slack channel too!
Apr. 25: Wake Up! CPG: Start the day right with local super-connector Marc Nathan, along with founders and operators from Austin’s top CPG brands. Seriously, Marc knows everyone! If you’re in CPG and you haven’t met yet, prioritize this event.
Apr. 25: JA FEM Mentorship Event: Want a cool way to give back? This event empowers outstanding young women in high school by pairing them with local business owners for mentorship sessions
Apr. 25: Tim Ferriss Show Meetup: To celebrate 10 years of Tim Ferriss’ podcast, Andrew Pynch is hosting 150+ fans over at Cosmic Coffee on the south side. Wonder if Tim drops in… 🤔
Apr. 25: All-In Pod Meetup: Fans are also meeting up to celebrate episode 175 of the All-In podcast. Shout out to Opuada Abusi for wrangling everyone on this!
Fun Stuff Coming Up
…because if you’re anything like me, you work too much already. So here’s some fun stuff to do around town that’s not necessarily related to business.
Apr. 20: Field Guide Festival - Celebrate ATX Farmers & Chefs
Apr. 20: The 420 Spring Harvest Dinner
Apr. 22: Comedian Nate Bargatze live at Moody Center
Apr. 23: Jordan Peterson live at Moody Center
Apr. 23: Full Moon Paddle on Town Lake
Apr. 23: Pink Moon Hike around Town Lake
Apr. 24: A Night of Everything
Apr. 24: Happy Hour Horror - for horror movie lovers
Apr. 25: You Grill Girl - Female grill masters from around ATX
Apr. 27: Whiskey Riot - 200 whiskeys in one place
Apr. 27: Adventure Van Expo
Apr. 27: Austin Book Trail - Discounts and deals at 25 local book shops
Map of the Austin Book Trail, done in collaboration with local illustrator Ashley Robin Franklin (@arfranklinstein)
What I Learned From The Very First Texas Venture Gala & Forum
A friend of mine once said that when people talk about the second American renaissance, they’ll talk about Texas. Last week’s inaugural Texas Venture Gala & Forum sold me on that notion.
Even though I went in bullish on this state, I had no idea the scale of what’s really going on here. To give you a quick taste, Texas currently leads the country in…
Energy production
Semiconductor manufacturing
Overall exports (and technology exports)
Foreign direct investment
Population growth
And more…
It’s still early, but if you’re building here, you’re in for a wild ride. I wrote up my main takeaways which you can find here.
Restaurant You Gotta Check Out
People sometimes ask me whether these little local restaurant and artist spotlights are paid ads, and the answer is no. Not now, not ever.
I started this newsletter as a way of exploring the city, and I use this space to call out cool Austin businesses that deserve attention.
Lutie’s is one of those.
It’s run by local sweethearts Bradley Nicholson and Susana Querejazu – both of whom have experience in multi-Michellin-star kitchens – and it feels like a secret hideaway, with sunset views out over the sunken English gardens of the Commodore Perry Estate, and off to the gleaming towers of downtown beyond.
And the food? The food…
We got the trout with Blue Jasmoon Rice, the chickpeas with green corn and fermented herbs, and the estate bread, with Bradley and Susana’s signature home-spun brown and cultured butter.
I’m not a very eloquent food critic – too many years of backpacker food has left me without what you’d call a refined palate. But if you can measure quality based on the number of times I put my fork down and said, “Oh my god” then Lutie’s is very, very (two more “very”s) good.
That’s all for this week.
You can also email me here if you want to share any feedback, or let me know about an event you’re hosting.
Until next week,
-Ethan
Thank you to all the incredible local founders and leaders who share great insights and events. You can follow and connect with them here…