Making a DTC Video Ad With AI

PLUS: An LOI Template... A Billionaire On Writing... You Don't Want To Rule The World... And More...

Author

Ethan Brooks
February 15, 2024

Welcome to this week’s 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

  • 📣 Word On The Street

  • 📸 Local Artist of the Week

  • 🤠 Local Shop of the Week

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

-Ethan

PS. Last week, I asked if you wanted daily updates through SXSW. Thank god, almost no one did. That frees me up for more intellectual pursuits, like startup beer pong. Still, if you want a great insider’s guide to what’s going on that week, I suggest Marc Nathan’s top secret google doc.

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.

Fun Stuff Coming Up

…Annd 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.

  • Feb 16: Cash Bash - Annual Johnny Cash Tribute at Mean Eyed Cat

  • Feb 17: Galaxy Whiskey Gala… It’s for the children (sort of)

  • Feb 19: Black Violin - A mash-up of classical + hiphop 

  • Feb 19: Wine Pairing Workshop at Playground ATX incubator

  • Feb 22: Nicole Cardoza - Black Magic Tour

  • Feb 23: Swift Fit - Weekly Meetup at Sans Bar (Non-alc bar)

  • Feb 24: Snow Moon Hike around Lady Bird Lake

  • Feb 25: BYOT - It stands for, “Bring Youtubes. Okay, Thanks.”… Basically go watch great Youtube videos in a bar with strangers. Hosted by Lite + Brite, (they have an excellent event newsletter)

  • Feb 29: Candlelight Concert - Best of the Beatles

Word On The Street

Thought-provoking ideas shared by founders in ATX

  • You Don’t Want to Rule The World: I can’t stop thinking about this quick read from Ryan Holiday. For me, it’s a welcome reminder to focus less on outcomes and enjoy the process of building more. Favorite quote… 👇

We are lucky that destiny has not made us sovereigns, even in modern times (just ask King Charles what his childhood was like). But we are still ambitious, still have dreams of extreme wealth and power and influence. As if it actually serves the people who get it well—as if it doesn’t rip their families apart, doesn’t consume their every waking moment with dread or busyness.

Marcus Aurelius would have given anything to have had a life even half as normal as yours; half as stressful, burdensome, corrupting as his. You are so lucky…and yet here you are, dreaming of things that would ruin it.

-Ryan Holiday

  • A Billionaire On Writing: Shout-out to David Perell for surfacing this ~20 year old gem from Paul Graham. Takes just 2 minutes to read, perfect for anyone trying to write more/better.

  • A Woman’s World: In this essay, Elle Beecher, founder of The Board Walks, reflects on her experience re-discovering her unique strengths as a woman, after years of muting them and learning to emulate men.

  • 45 Million Americans Are Functionally Illiterate: In this piece, Amir Husain, local founder of the unicorn SparkCognition, makes the case that AI regulation is being over-emphasized, and, “the real insurance against disinformation is the ability of citizens to sift fact from fiction through knowledge, logic, a good education, and the application of the scientific method.” The stats in this piece are shocking.

     

  • Making A DTC Video Ad with AI: If you’re trying to figure out practical ways to use AI in your business, you need to be following Michael Daigler here in town. He leads the AITX community, and recently made this video ad for a DTC concept using AI. He does a great breakdown of the full process here.

  • LOI Template: Eyeing an acquisition? Codie Sanchez shared a customizable LOI template crafted by her lawyers, along with some interesting data on survival rates across industries. Good insight if you’re looking to buy!

Local Artist of the Week

Shout-out to Ellen Cassidy for turning me onto Erica Wildman, who does these incredible acrylic paintings.

Her work’s appeared in multiple TV shows and movies, including Property Brothers, Dusk Til Dawn, and Song to Song, starring Ryan Gossling and Natalie Portman. Just look at how these things pop on the wall!

She’s got a gallery just off South Lamar, which doubles as event space. And if you’re having trouble visualizing a piece in your home, she actually does a mobile gallery too, where you can choose up to 5 pieces to have driven out to your place for a live look.

Shop original pieces on her site, and follow her on Instagram to stay updated on new work. Oh… And you can get these looks on yoga pants too.

Local Shop of the Week

This isn’t your typical smoke shop. Since 1997, Bobalu has been hand-rolling their own cigars every day, and currently offers 25+ lines, all made in-house. They’ve even got a live-feed where you can watch ‘em do it.

Their storefront on Burnet doubles as a BYOB cigar lounge, open until 10PM four nights a week. And for $50/yr you can join their buyer’s club, which gets you buy-one-get-one on all single cigars, plus 10% off their sampler packs and accessories.

Couple other cool things they do:

I’ve been going here for years, and these ones are my favorite. They’re mild, and make sure I’ve got a few any time friends are coming into town. They’re celebrating 27 years in business this week (congrats!), so there are a bunch of sales going on.

That’s all for this week. If you liked this, do me a favor and forward it to another business owner here in town you think might get some value from it!

You can also email me here if you’re hosting something for local founders that might be a fit for the newsletter.

Until next week,

-Ethan