|
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:
|
|
|
|
Did someone forward this to you? If you like it, you can sign up here!
|
|
-Ethan
|
|
|
|
|
Tonight: From Farmer’s Market to ~$2B Exit
|
|
Final call to join this private Q&A with Allison Ellsworth, local co-founder of Poppi, the better-for-you soda brand that just sold to Pepsi for $1.95B.
|
|
Ellsworth originally developed Poppi in her home kitchen here in Texas, and under her leadership, the brand:
|
-
Raised $52M+ (including early funding on Shark Tank)
-
Won 19% of the prebiotic soda market, and 36,000 retail doors
-
Did $500M in revenue in 2024 – a 5x increase over the previous year
|
|
Tonight, she’s sitting down with the Austin Hampton community to talk all about the experience. These events are typically member-only, but they set aside a few seats for ABR readers interested in learning more about the group.
|
|
So if you’re a high-growth founder, or you’ve raised/exited recently, and you’d like to spend the evening with some inspiring peers, request a spot here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other 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.
|
|
🗓️ TONIGHT: Superagency (Online): Jay Boisseau of the Austin Forum on Technology & Society is hosting a digital discussion of Reid Hoffman’s latest book
|
|
🗓️ TONIGHT: Speak Your Truth: Colleen Schell founder of FABx, teaches storytelling to leaders. This event combines talks, training exercises, and open mic
|
|
🗓️ TONIGHT: Nerd Nite Austin: Like a mini TED, for nerds, by nerds, this month’s topic is “Rebuilding after life knocks you down.”
|
|
🗓️ TONIGHT: Beyond Cold Calls: Sales leaders Jeff Riojas and Alexander Laursen are sharing their warm SDR strategies
|
|
🗓️ May 30: Climate Tech Coworking: Join Sean Voigt and other founders/investors in the climate tech space, hosted over at Antler HQ
|
|
🗓️ May 30: TWIB Coffee Connect: Texas Women in Business is hosting a coffee hour at Sierra Bailey’s co-working space, Maeve House, down south.
|
|
🗓️ May 30: Pickup Basketball for Founders: Every month, Nick Schenck hosts a pickup game for founders at Ramsey Neighborhood Park starting at 5PM. Drop in, or email him here to get on the list for future dates
|
|
🗓️ May 30: Beyond Human: Meet Brian Sanders, founder of the Sapien Center, along with other biohackers for clean BBQ and specialty wine, cocktails, and mocktails
|
|
🗓️ May 31: Beyond the Conference: Following on the event above, Upgrade Labs is hosting a post-conference longevity event at their location on 5th street
|
|
🗓️ June 3: Navigating Uncertainty: Amber Gunst, co-founder and CEO of FundLyst, is joining this panel on how founders pivot/adapt during times of uncertainty
|
|
🗓️ June 3: Founder Coffee Tasting: Chris Taylor at The Red Fridge Society is hosting a morning meet-up for founders and CEOs
|
|
🗓️ June 4: TWIB Happy Hour: Learn to pour your own soy candle with other members of Texas Women In Business. They’ve also got an online meetup at lunch
|
|
🗓️ June 5: Open Coffee: Since 2009, Damon Clinkscales has been hosting this laid back bi-weekly coffee chat for founders and investors
|
|
🗓️ June 5: Hardware Happy Hour: Their description is better than mine – "ragtag group of entrepreneurs [meeting] for beers, nerdy conversations & other shenanigans”
|
|
🗓️ June 5: AI Tinkerers Dinner: Co-organized by Achyut Boggaram, computer vision scientist and Sr. ML Engineer developing autonomous semi’s at Torc
|
|
🗓️ June 6: Founder Fridays: Hosted every month by founder Georges Colbert in partnership with LAUNCH, the VC firm founded by Jason Calacanis
|
|
|
|
One More Thing… I’m not quite sure what to call this next one. “Conference” is clearly too stuffy a term for any event with the phrase, “Holy sh*t balls” in the description. But “dance party” doesn’t fully do it either. It’s more than that.
|
|
Angie Lee runs a multi-million dollar CPG brand and has built a huge podcast with millions of downloads. And Melody Afkami is a founder, TEDx Speaker, and dance instructor (multi-time ClassPass Instructor of the Year) with appearances at SXSW, ACL, and more.
|
|
On June 6, they’re hosting Recess – a conference-business-dance-party-type-thing for ambitious women, sick of the routine. Join them. Meet cool people. Get inspired. Then get back to me so I can tell the boys what to call this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other Fun Stuff Coming Up
|
-
TONIGHT: NYT Bestselling Historian at First Light Books
-
May 31: Wine & Food Foundation’s Wine & Food Fest
-
May 31: Block Printing 101 – Wood Carving
-
June 1: Swamp Dogg – If You Can Kill It, I Can Cook It
-
June 3: Jazz Meets Classical at AO5 Gallery
-
June 5: Balcones Spirit Society – Tasting Texas Whiskeys
-
June 6: Donut Day Boat Festival at Mozarts Coffee
-
June 7: Punchlines & Punishments – Comedy Under Terrible Circumstances
-
June 7: Electric Jellyfish Day – 10 Years of Great IPA
-
June 7: Jaws on the Beach
-
June 8: Toast of Texas – With 20+ Texas Wineries
-
June 8: Whiskey & Fire (it is what it sounds like)
|
|
One More Thing… If you’re bar-ba-curious, but don’t really know where to start your smoking journey, Chef Kareem Elghayesh of KG BBQ is teaching two installments of his Brisket 101 class June 14 and 15.
|
|
I’ve taken this with friends and it’s a good time. Chef Kareem’s story is wild (he was working finance in Cairo when a trip to ATX got him hooked on BBQ), and he went from a Weber grill in Egypt, to working with Austin’s greatest pit masters, to growing his restaurant, an appearance on Netflix, and more.
|
|
Good time. Great food. And he makes it all super approachable. Definitely recommend.
|
|
|
|
|
Insights
|
|
Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders in ATX
|
|
1. How to MCP: If you’re like me, you’ve heard this term going around for a while, but have almost no idea what it means. Well, Timothy Porter’s got our backs with a human-readable guide to what this is and how it works (he also recommended this free course)
|
|
2. New Hemp Laws: You may have heard, Texas senate recently approved SB3, a bill with wide-rangeing impacts on the hemp industry. It’s now headed for the governor’s desk. But what’s in it? Shayda Torabi Howell, co-founder and CEO of RESTART CBD, one of Austin’s first CBD brands, broke it down here. I wrote a longer piece all about Shayda, her sisters, and their advocacy work, which you can find here too
|
|
3. Be Kinder To Yourself: Chris Williamson has been experimenting with new video formats, and I really enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at a big week of travel and content production – Rogan, Ravikant, and a product shoot in California – all while grappling with some serious self-criticism. This line keeps coming back to me:
|
|
I think I’d actually rather be 5 or 10% worse, and be kind to myself, than be 5 or 10% better and never be satisfied
|
| |
| Chris Williamson |
|
|
|
We need more honesty like this from content creators, and I hope Chris continues with this format.
|
|
|
🤖 The Great Humanoid Debate: Far From Over
|
|
A few years ago, during an investor presentation, Elon Musk sent someone (an intern, we must presume) prancing on-stage in a body suit, pretending to be a robot.
|
|
“The Tesla bot will be real,” he said back then. And in that moment, I felt confident it wouldn’t. Even as a Musk fan, the gap between the prototype (e.g., there wasn’t one) and the final product was too wide. It seemed impossible.
|
|
Fast forward to the other day, Tesla released this video of Optimus dancing, and I’m sorry to say, but its moves are fleek-er and fly-er than that poor soul on stage. It’s clear now, humanoid robots are an imminent reality.
|
|
So I asked what you think, and whether you actually want one, and was actually shocked by the resounding answer…
|
|
|
|
“Time’s too valuable to spend any of it on chores,” was a common feeling in the “Yes” camp.
|
|
“But is a life without any hardship even worth living?” came the response from the other side.
|
|
Yes, or Hell No, but very little in between.
|
|
Opinions didn’t break along clear industry lines either. Sure, several of my ornery writer friends were with me in the “Hell No,” camp. But weren’t alone over there.
|
|
“Elon is insane to want robot babysitters,” wrote one founder, whose company has been on the cutting edge of AI-gen media. “Humanoid robots are stupid and will make us less human.”
|
|
So people’s feelings are very interestingly mixed.
|
|
My take?
|
|
Look, I want to be optimistic. For one thing, it seems like this is inevitable. I’ve also met the founders of some of these companies, and they’re good people. The engineering is impressive. My friends have invested in them. I want them all to win.
|
|
But on a somewhat comical level, I still don’t see why this thing – that’s smarter, and faster, and stronger than me, with perfect memory and access to all the world’s information – would agree to fold my laundry. Not for long, at least. Not when LLMs are already dabbling in blackmail.
|
|
More seriously, there’s one important thing I don’t see anyone talking about…
|
|
Watch this video and tell me how it makes you feel.
|
|
|
|
Awful. The answer is, you feel awful. Even if logically, you know it’s just a pile of bolts.
|
|
As a human you’re biologically hardwired to feel a deep sense of empathy for anything that resembles you.
|
|
This is the best part of you. The part that recognizes yourself in others.
|
|
And what I don’t love about this humanoid robot trend is that, in order to embrace it, we’re being asked to override this instinct. Not just once, but over and over. And I wonder what that does to us long term.
|
|
The alternative is to eventually view these as members of society. I actually suspect this is where things will go.
|
|
Either way, that poses some deep questions about what it’d mean to have a robot servant class. Much more to come on this, I’m sure.
|
|
|
|
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
|
