Welcome to this issue of The Austin Business Review, a mostly-weekly roundup of great events, resources, and opportunities for business owners in Austin.

I say “mostly-weekly” because as you read this, I’m headed for vacation – road tripping north for a month to visit family, grill by the lake, and get lost in the woods. And rather than writing from afar, I’ll be pausing the newsletter until I’m back.

I take a lot of pride in the fact that I don’t use AI to write this email. That when you read it, you’re getting the real take of a real person, really in Austin.

Writing about the city from two-thousand miles away would be a different kind of “artificial” intelligence.

Hence, vacation.

This is, in some ways, a small act of insurrection. It’s not common for people in our world to take time off.

Call it what you want – the algorithm, the content treadmill. Once you start publishing online, it’s suicide to stop. Or so they say.

The timing is also not convenient. It’d be easier to stay and keep working.

But my grandparents are getting older, my little sister is expecting her first, and a friend back home is headed off to war soon.

Twenty years from now, I’ll remember time spent with them over the work, or the money that came from it. And I’d rather risk it all than have decisions like that shaped by some algorithm.

Hence, vacation.

There’s a reason I put this wealth survey from Hampton in the email every week. I’m the one who wrote it, back when I was helping start that company, and the experience changed my career for good.

We asked founders with wealth ranging $1m to $100m+ about their net worth, their goals, and how much they actually spend month to month. And I came away from the data with three personal insights:

These three reshaped my frame, helping me think longer term, not just about the kind of business I wanted to build, but how I wanted to live while building it.

Hence, vacation.

Hope you consider joining my rag-tag rebellion. See you in August, Austin ❤️

-Ethan

Events In July

Things tend to quiet down a bit in July, but if you’re looking for a few great places to meet other founders, here are some of my go-to’s for the newsletter…

The Board Walks: My top social recommendation for anyone new to Austin’s networking scene. Elle Beecher is a wonderful host, and most local connectors are regulars here

The Red Fridge Society: The best place to connect with later-stage founders, owner Chris Taylor is getting back from his vacation just as I head out on mine

Austin Women in Tech: Tends to focus on professional development and has a few interesting workshops going on in July

Austin AI Alliance: Curates events from several local AI communities, all in one spot so they’re easy to find

Austin Forum on Society & Technology: Looking light in July right now, but always worth keeping an eye on, especially for events focused on AI & quantum computing

First Light Books: Not strictly business, but they do an excellent job bringing in all sorts of high-profile authors (e.g., Sahil Bloom, June 30)

I also recommend Kat Rector’s calendar for tech events, Leila Sales’ Lite + Brite for your dose of night life, and Michelle Rueda’s What’s Weird ATX for a bunch of crazy stuff that makes this city… well, weird.

Insights

Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders in ATX

1. Avoiding Another Dark Age: Niall Ferguson, president of the innovative new UATX, gave this wonderful talk on AI, its effect on your brain, and how our approach to learning must adapt to maintain strong, clear thinkers.

2. Reducing Arterial Plaque 36.6%: One of my favorite health writers is Justin Mares, local founder of Kettle & Fire. This thread on the benefits of Japanese natto, was fascinating.

3. An American Life: Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, passed away the other day. Maxwell Meyer, local founder of the Intergalactic Media Corporation of America (and one of my favorite magazines, Arena) wrote this wonderful obituary.

From Mini Fridge to Whole Foods: The Story of Kinship Milk Tea

You read this email to learn about other cool business owners here in Austin, so I’m stoked to introduce you to Caitlin Cash, founder of Kinship Milk Tea, whose story literally zig-zags the globe.

An Austin native, Caitlin majored in both business and French at UT.

“I went really hard into the French major instead of the business,” she laughed, landing a job out of school with the French Ministry of Education. She spent more than a year teaching English in France, then headed to Thailand for more of the same.

There, she fell in love with tea culture in general, and milk tea in particular, and as she continued traveling throughout her early career – teaching English, then leading bicycle tours all over the globe – tea and tea cultures kept entering her life.

Years later, back in Austin, she was working in tech, and brewing up milk tea to beat the summer heat.

“I just became really obsessed with getting it right for how I wanted to drink it,” she said. “Which was a less creamy version; A less-sweet version than you typically find in a Boba shop. And it felt really important to me that the quality was really good.”

Friends and family loved it, and before long, she was taking orders.

“I initially started selling it illegally on Instagram,” she smirked. “Just to like followers and friends.”

She kept a retro mini fridge on the porch. Orders came in on Venmo, and every weekend, she mixed and bottled batches, and either hand-delivered them or piled them in the fridge for local pickup.

Things snowballed from there.

In 2019, she went legit, getting her permits and officially starting the business. Then paused briefly when covid hit – time she spent dialing in the brand.

So it was that in 2021, fully-legal-Kinship started appearing on shelves around Austin.

“I didn’t know anything about CPG,” she said. “So I did what I thought made the most sense – I made a bunch of bottles of tea, and then I just went and popped in to all of these stores.”

Interestingly, this is a backstory she has in common with fellow Austin founder, Kendra Scott, who sold her first pieces of handmade jewelry from a tea box door to door, and grew that company to a $1B+ valuation.

The old Bento Picnic on E. Caesar Chavez was the first place to give Kinship a shot. Then the local grocers, like Thom’s, Royal Blue, and Tiny Grocer. Within six months, Central Market came knocking.

“I thought it was like a prank email,” she said. “The guy's name is Guy, actually, so I was like, Definitely, this is not real.”

But it was. And what’s more – about a year after that, they landed Whole Foods too.

Today, they’ve got three different flavors, and can be found on shelves in cities beyond Austin. Despite the growth, every batch is still made and bottled by hand, right here in Austin.

They’re also deep in product development on new SKUs that would open the coffee shop market, as well as extend shelf life so they can continue growing in Texas and beyond.

It hasn’t always been a straight path. But it’s one that’s deeply focused on building connection between the people involved.

In fact, it’s right there on the bottle.

The name itself harkens back to Cash’s love of community, and the threads that bind the far-flung tea cultures she spent so much time exploring.

And the logo?

“Everything comes from Japanese woodblock prints,” she says, “where nothing is quite perfect.”

It’s a subtle callback to those years after college, when her journey was preparing her for Kinship without her knowing it. When not leading bike tours, or exploring tea cultures, she spent seasons apprenticing with a renowned wood block artist here in Texas.

“There are no straight lines,” she says about the art form. But it goes for the art of business too.

That’s all for now. I’m coming back in August with a new slate of dinners, events, and more of the best from around town.

Looking forward to seeing you then,

-Ethan