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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).
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I’ll keep this intro short because we’ve got an absurd number of unique and worthwhile events this week.
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Also in this issue…
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💰 J-Cal’s Writing $25k Checks for OpenClaw Startups
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📉 An Honest Look At Losing Millions In Revenue
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☠️ A Spooky Warning Against “Busyness”
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And more…
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Did someone forward this to you? If you like it, you can sign up here!
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-Ethan
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Upcoming Events
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🗓️ TONIGHT: Acquire & Invest Happy Hour: Dan Jensen, Yvette Owo, and Henry Carter’s monthly happy hour for people who buy businesses.
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🗓️ Feb. 13: Texas ETA Summit: Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition, hosted by UT, with a keynote from Joe Lonsdale, local founder of many billion-dollar companies
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🗓️ Feb. 13: Texas Women In Business is gathering to make bookmarks for Book Drive for Kids, which runs book fairs in underserved areas. Also check out TWIB’s monthly happy hour and luncheon going on next week
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🗓️ Feb. 13: Founder Pickleball: Part of a new ongoing series by John Davison, Connor Tomkies, and Nate Schiedehaus
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🗓️ Feb. 13-14: Moltathon: Several of Austin’s key AI communities are coming together for a multi-day multi-track hackathon focused on OpenClaw
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🗓️ Feb. 17: 501c Drop: I almost never have online events here, but Leya Simmons is a true expert and is giving a talk on momentum-based fundraising for anyone in nonprofits
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🗓️ Feb. 17: Founder Invitational Poker Series: A crowd favorite, hosted by Chris Taylor down at the Red Fridge Society a few times each year
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🗓️ Feb. 17: Building In Regulated Industries: Co-hosted by Texas Venture Group and Y-Combinator, Jared Freeman and Nelson Ray are talking defense startups
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🗓️ Feb. 17: Level Up Your Story: Kevin Yang and Greg Carlson are hosting this hands-on workshop designed to help you elevate your career
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🗓️ Feb. 18: Metropolitan Breakfast Club: Austin Mayor Kirk Watson is speaking
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🗓️ Feb. 18: Scaling Your Business: Austin Chamber is hosting a session on building strong teams, accessing capital, and navigating leadership transitions at the library
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🗓️ Feb. 18: Texas Futures Coalition: Local founders Andie Marsh and Erik Fritz are both running companies focused on soil health and will discuss innovation in the space
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🗓️ Feb. 18: Austin AI Alliance: Meeting over at ACC’s Center for Government and Civic Service, near the capitol building downtown
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🗓️ Feb. 18: Modern Tools for the Mental Load: Laura Cunningham is bringing together a series of founders building products to support parents and caregivers
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🗓️ Feb. 18: Austin CTO Club: Every month, William Baxter curates a discussion for senior tech execs. This month’s topic: How does AI affect your existing SDLC?
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🗓️ Feb. 19: GACC Luncheon: Kim Pollok, CEO of SWBC Payroll + HR, is joining to discuss networking lessons she’s learned while building her company
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🗓️ Feb. 19: Communicate With Confidence: Jim Comer is joining the West Austin Chamber’s monthly luncheon to discuss how to present your ideas with more impact
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🗓️ Feb. 19 Female Leaders of Austin: Amy York is bringing in Myrfe Cabansay to teach a hands-on Canva workshop
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🗓️ Feb. 19: Third Person VIP Operators Dinner: Matt Hertz is curating this experience for leaders of CPG brands, 3PLs, and logistics tech companies
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🗓️ Feb. 20: Texas Venture Group is co-hosting a “c0mpiled” hackathon, YC-backed founders will judge and builders will prototype what AI-powered cities could look like
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🗓️ Feb. 21: ATX Writing Club: If you want to hang out with a truly absurd number of fascinating local thinkers and writers, check out my buddy Zac Solomon’s annual event
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Grab Coffee with ABR Readers…
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Last year, I started an event called the “We-should-get-coffee” Coffee. It’s a normal coffee meetup for readers of this email with one fun twist – you can also invite anyone you’ve been meaning to grab coffee with, and knock out all those meetings at once (while making some new friends).
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Here’s what I do:
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Life is busy. Stop feeling like a terrible person just because you’re so popular. Come on out, and if there’s someone you know you’ve been meaning to catch up with, feel free to invite them too.
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Other Fun Stuff Coming Up
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My favorite roundup of Valentine’s Day date nights is over on Tribeza’s event page. Tons of great happy hours, dinners, and tastings there.
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Elsewhere, we have…
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Feb. 15: Brisket 101 with Chef Kareem Elghayesh of KG BBQ
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Feb. 16: Mardi Gras at Mozarts
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Feb. 18: Functional Embroidery Workshop – The Art of Visible Mending
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Feb. 18: Schitt’s Creek Trivia at Pinthouse (…ewww, David)
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Feb. 19: Food & Wine Alliance Off the Menu Supper Club
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Feb. 19: Professors & Pints – The Rise of Medieval Romantic Love
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Feb. 21: Cupid’s Undie Run
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Feb. 21: Lunar New Year at Austin Pickle Ranch
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Feb. 21: Your Best Skin: A Sip & Shop Event
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Feb. 21: Pour Decisions – Candle Making Class
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Feb. 22: ACL Live Community Day
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Feb. 22: Hand Rolled Cigar Class at Bobalu
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Feb. 22: Free 4th Sunday at Science & Natural History Museum
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Feb. 22: Con’Olio Olive Oil & Barrel Aged Vinegar Tasting Experience
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Word On The Street
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A roundup of cool jobs, product launches, fundraising opportunities, and more.
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$10k Grants for High Schoolers: Got a kid who’s nearing college? Local billionaire Joe Lonsdale’s company, Palantir, just rolled out their Valley Forge grant program for students working on real-world projects now
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$25k for OpenClaw Startups: Recent Austin transplant Jason Calacanus put out a call for founders working on OpenClaw-based projects
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Wanted: Professional Vibe Coders: Codie Sanchez’s team is hiring A-players with Lovable/Replit/Bolt/v0/Cursor/Kling skills for roles across marketing, podcasts, advisory, and more.
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Wanted: Social Media Creator: Charlie Dominguez, local founder of chkm8, is seeking a part-time content creator for the brand (10-15 hrs a week). Know someone? Email him here
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Also…👇👇👇
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Insights
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Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders in ATX
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1. Revenue Down 50%: AppSumo founder, Noah Kagan, wrote an incredibly honest and helpful piece about challenges the company is facing and what they’re testing to solve them. A must-read for any founder, especially those building software.
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2. On The Glory of Busyness: Allyson Brenner is the founder of InnerVue, an AI-powered platform designed to enhance self-awareness. I’ve been enjoying her newsletter lately, which is written in this spooky almost-Machiavellian voice (“The Voice Within”) that breaks the mould of typical business writing
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3. Texas Cottage Food Laws Changed: The new laws are great news for small businesses producing food at home. Max Kunik, co-founder of Wingman Kitchens, broke down the details you need to know (also check out his recap on food permits)
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Lessons From Hormozi’s $105M Book Launch: Recently, I spent a week dissecting Alex Hormozi’s latest book launch, which shattered records and did $105M in sales in three days. He doesn’t live in Austin, so those notes wouldn’t fit here. But I shared a 42-minute Loom over in the ABR Insights Network, where the aperture of conversation is much wider.
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In it, I break down…
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What happened (and what most analysts got wrong about it)
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A full breakdown of his email strategy (frequency, length, topic, etc)
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The invisible incentives he used to get 100k+ to log into the launch event
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Why this was never about the books (and what it’s really about)
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What we can all steal for our own product launches
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You can watch the full video, and discuss with other interesting people over in the Insights Network. To join the conversation, upgrade to the ABR Insights Network today. We’ll see you on the inside!
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Local Artist Of The Week
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Kelly Chambliss | Rockywoods Studio
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Kelly Chambliss is an artist and an art teacher, and found herself surrounded by wasted paper (especially among young Rembrandts who, “one line into a drawing, declare that they hate it and need a new paper.”)
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To try and be a little more eco-conscious, she started turning all that waste into custom paper of her own.
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Now, she runs Rockywood Studio, a boutique handmade stationary business here in Austin that specializes in custom wedding invitations, greeting cards, and plantable calendars.
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If you’ve never heard of “plantable calendars” before, they’re made with flower seeds sewn into every page. So as each month passes, you rip it off, and plant it in the yard.
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“I think what people love most about the plantable calendars is the process of getting to tear up it at the end of the month,” she said. “It can be therapeutic, if it wasn’t a good month. On the flip side, if it was a good month, then you get some new plant babies to remember it by. Win win!”
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She also runs paper making workshops as a team-building activity so if you’re looking for a unique way to connect at your next retreat, give her a shout!
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That’s all for this week!
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Email me here if you want to share any feedback, or let me know about an event you’re hosting.
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Until next week,
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-Ethan
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