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).

It’s the calm before the sought-by-southwest storm, so things are a little quieter this week. But quiet doesn’t mean dull. I've got some great stuff for you in here, including…

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-Ethan

PS. Speaking of Southby, I don’t typically cover it here in the newsletter. But if you’re looking for a great guide to the event, I recommend…

🗓️ TODAY: Raw Conversations: Arturo Pina’s monthly meetup for founders. This month’s topic: Conviction, how belief forms, grows, and breaks in early-stage investing and company building

🗓️ TODAY: GTM & OpenClaw: The second installment of Michael Daigler and Gary Sheng’s new series on practical uses for AI in business

🗓️ Feb. 27: Founder Coffee Tasting: Another one by Chris Taylor, drop by the Red Fridge Society for coffee and a chance to hang with other founders

🗓️ Feb. 27: Why Democracy Matters: Ari Weinzeig, who built the legendary Zingerman’s to $60m+, discussing his latest book about democracy in every day life

🗓️ Feb. 27: Founder Pickup Basketball: Every month, Nick Schenck hosts a pickup game for founders at Ramsey Neighborhood Park. Email him here to get on the list

🗓️ Mar. 2: Runnin’ Down A Dream: Matthew f*ckin’ McConaughey is sitting with legendary investor, Bill Gurley, to talk about his latest book on choosing work you love

🗓️ Mar. 3: Health Hustlers: An exclusive group for health and wellness founders, hosted by Corey Hiben and Scott Mitchell

🗓️ Mar. 3: Emerging Tech in the Fight Against Cancer: Andrew Mesecar director of the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research is lecturing on drug discovery & AI

🗓️ Mar 3-4: Texas Symposium on Machine Learning: Featuring 30+ speakers discussing innovation, ethics, and the future of Responsible AI & Robotics

🗓️ Mar. 6: Founder’s Tour - Inside St. Elmo: I'm excited for this one! Part of a new series I’m organizing, Bryan Winslow will take us behind the scenes at St. Elmo Brewing, and talk about what it’s taken to build one of Austin’s iconic brands

🗓️ Mar. 6: Cocktails & Conversations: There is no link for Nathan Ryan’s event (which adds to the allure). But it happens at 5PM on the first Friday of every month over at Remedy, the bar co-owned by Jay Boisseau, founder of the Austin Forum on Technology and Society

Other Fun Stuff Coming Up

Things are eerily quiet as we head into SXSW, but keep an eye out for…

Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders in ATX

1. The OpenClaw Handbook: Local founder Austen Allred has an AI agent building an iOS factory. The plan is for it to develop, launch, and sell apps on its own (first revenue rolling in last night). People ask how he did this, so he had his agent write a 240+ page book about everything they’ve learned. Available for free or a small donation on Gumroad

2. Fifty-Billion Organic Youtube Views: Alex Garcia and Brian Blum brought Paddy Galloway onto the Sweat Equity podcast for this epic conversation about how to make killer video content. Bookmark this one to watch with your eyeballs (not audio) – it's excellent and valuable right out of the gate.

3. The Nuclear Gauntlet: You may have heard of Aalo, the local energy startup that raised $136m to build modular nuclear reactors. Co-founder Yasir Arafat just penned this piece on how they’re responding to Dept. of Energy’s ambitious call for new reactors, and their plan to achieve criticality in time for America’s 250th birthday 🇺🇸

Kyle Voss is probably the first septic guy you’ve ever met who does content better than you.

He and his brother-in-law, Chad Riddersen, co-run Epic Septic & Service, a first-of-its-kind septic company that – I’m calling it now – will be a nationally-known brand by the time they’re done with it.

I came across their work via Kyle’s videos, and it was immediately clear that he belongs to that fascinating class of founders who are bringing modern marketing and scaling tactics to old-school unsexy businesses.

I did the same two things I always do when I find someone like that: Sent his stuff to Codie Sanchez (the godmother of Main St.), and asked him to do the ABR spotlight.

So without further ado, here’s Kyle…

My neighbor, who is in her 70s, was getting her septic tank pumped and the driver, who was smoking and super unprofessional, charged her $1,500 for 20 minutes of work.  I walked over to her and asked her “are you okay?” as she looked like she had a horrible experience. In that moment, I knew I could at least do better than that. And as I dug into the industry it quickly became clear that there was a massive business opportunity. 

The first business opportunity felt like tripping over a rock in Texas and discovering an oil field. We launched our website and we hadn’t event started marketing yet, and somehow somebody found us, called, and we had our first $700 sale without even doing anything!

There are two types of businesses that are in our industry. One, are rough-necks that come out of the oil field and they embrace the dirty job with an equally dirty appearance and unpolished brand.  The other, are little private-equity backed companies that roll-up a few companies under the aegis of “synergy” and they call themselves an “environmental” company and think they plant trees or save seals. 

We wanted to make septic EPIC! Our brand is like GI JOE drinking an energy drink.

While it seems genius in retrospect, at the time, we were worried customers, especially commercial customers, might not take us seriously. However, 20%+ of our business comes simply from seeing our branded trucks driving down the road while most companies in our industry derive no additive business from their brand. 

While no one would consider it a business book, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman is an incredibly valuable framework for team development and even closing customers. When people go from academia and early sports where everyone gets an A or a trophy, to the “real world” where the only thing we hear is criticism, people respond viscerally to positive affirmation and praise. The jedi-mind trick is knowing what type of praise people will respond well to. Whether it is words of affirmation or a small gift or an act of service, tailoring the positivity to the person is game-changing.

Sales solves all problems. While it may solve a lot of financial problems, which are critically important, being in sales mode can sometimes create unexpected problems. For example, for a mid-year one-on-one meeting with a colleague, if you are selling someone the dream of career advancement too hard, it can create an impatience or dissatisfaction with their current role. So, yes, sales is important, but sometimes you have to turn the dial-down a bit as you context switch from external communications to internal communications.  

Neurogum. I used to drink coffee and I was always driving around town with a bladder about to burst and ulcers in my stomach due to all the acidity (btw, I drank a LOT of coffee).  Now, I just have Neurogum and it gives my a similar degree of focus and I can finally digest food like a normal human again.

Yes, I’m happily married with a 1 year old daughter, Laguna. My wife is a successful entrepreneur as the owner of Culture ATX Salon in Lakeway.  That shared experience of building a company and managing people and personalities allows us to connect in a level that many people cannot. My wife also keeps me grounded in non-professional aspects of life that are very important. I know myself, if I was a lone wolf I would just work obsessively until I hit my goal and at that point realize my one dimensional life had no meaning.  

My now wife, Natalie, and I went on a first at Cosmic Coffee which sparked the “cosmic” connection that led to us “founding” a life together. I suppose it may not be super under the radar, but it is a place that you can stay at for hours and you won’t get kicked out for overstaying your welcome.

When I first started Epic Septic I was actually behind the wheel driving and I rediscovered the forgotten art of blue collar lunches at gas stations. My business partner, who is my brother-in-law, and I would stop by gas stations eating meat and cheese spreads drinking 40 gram chocolate protein milk talking about building the business. There is something purifying about eating on the road while making $700 for an hour of pumping poop. Plus, most normal food establishments frown upon the septic splattered odor on my clothes.

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