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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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There’s a ton going on, so we’ll keep this brief. But in this issue, we’ve got…
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🗓️ Business Events (an absurd amount)
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🤑 Funding / Investment Opportunities (10.5% interest, anyone?)
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🎥 A Look At Duolingo’s Brilliant Anime Strategy (and other insights)
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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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PS. The year’s coming to a close, so let’s grab a drink before everyone takes off for the holidays! I’ll be at Remedy on Friday from 2-4PM, hangin’ out with other readers and people from the Austin business community. Come join us!
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Upcoming Business 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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🗓️ TONIGHT: Irresistible Change: Local Austinite, Phil Gilbert, led hundreds of thousands of IBM employees globally, and is sitting down to talk about his new book
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🗓️ TONIGHT: Ecosystem Space: Organized by the Space Workforce Incubator for Texas (SWIFT), and designed to connect talent/leaders in the aerospace industry
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🗓️ Nov. 13-15: Texas Tribune Fest: A three-day event focused on the. policies shaping Texas (there’ll be 300+ speakers including Walter Isaacson)
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🗓️ Nov. 14: BFCM Work Party 2.0: Hilarious copywriter Lianna Patch is coming in to share AI workflows that’ll make your pre-holiday sales emails easier and more effective
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🗓️ Nov. 15: Open Source Austin: Jake Crowley and LaToya Allison are hosting this intimate get-together for founders and investors in the city
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🗓️ Nov. 15-16: Amplify REI: A multi-day bootcamp for commercial real estate investors here in town
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🗓️ Nov. 16: Video Editing with AI: Jackson Tritt is leading this three-hour workshop touching on everything from clip creation to language dubbing
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🗓️ Nov. 18: SKU Fall Showcase: Watch founders pitch, and catch a keynote from Austin’s very own Allison Ellsworth (founder of Poppi, sold to Pepsi for $2B this year)
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🗓️ Nov. 18: Board Training Program: Okay, this is cool if you’re at a point in your career where you’re thinking of giving back. Full day board training with Christian Wells
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🗓️ Nov. 18: Founder Coffee Tasting: Chris Taylor is hosting Monica Rao and her co-founders – inventors of a newer, better cold-brew machine entering production
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🗓️ Nov. 18: Become A Powerful Speaker: Colleen Marie Schell hosts these great speaking and storytelling workshops here in town
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🗓️ Nov. 19: ATC Roundtable Breakfast: The Austin Tech Council is hosting Tony DeLisi for a conversation on What’s Next for Austin’s Tech Economy.
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🗓️ Nov. 19: ScaleUp Fireside Chat: The final installment of her annual ScaleUp series, Shannon Sibold is sitting down with a local founder & investor for a public chat
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🗓️ Nov. 19: Austin AI Alliance: Meeting over at ACC’s Center for Government and Civic Service, near the capitol building downtown
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🗓️ Nov. 19: Pickle & Pints: Jake Roeland and the team at Emporia Research are hosting this game for members of the local tech/research communities
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🗓️ Nov. 19: Robotics & AI Community Talks: Members of the local tech community will give 5-10 minute lightning talks! If you’d like to speak, submit yours here by Fri
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🗓️ Nov. 19: ATX CTO: Every month, William Baxter curates a discussion for senior tech execs. This month’s topic: Managing C-Suite Expectations
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🗓️ Nov. 20: Stories About Unique Jobs: Mark this down as “work-ish”… An evening of film, theatre, and stories from everyone from a professional mascot to a dominatrix
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🗓️ Nov. 20: Austin Connections: Devon Ambron is hosting the year-end edition of his recurring Austin mixer. Great spot to get connected if you’re new in town
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🗓️ Nov. 20: Chris Williamson Live: Modern Wisdom fans – Chris is wrapping up his recent live tour with a night at The Historic Paramount. Very few seats left!
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🗓️ Nov. 20: Lunch with Derek Johnson: West Austin Chamber is hosting lunch with former NFL player, non-profit founder, (and UT legend), Derek Johnson
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🗓️ Nov. 20: Nerd Nite Austin: Like a local version of TED – This month’s theme is space talk, with three different talks on everything from cosmic history to black holes
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🗓️ Nov. 21: Founder Pickup Basketball: 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
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🗓️ Nov. 21: Tales, Truths, and Thanksgiving: Texas Women in business is hosting a lunch panel, looking back on the year with president Matilda Jones and other members
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One More Thing…
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This weekend, I’m sitting down for a fireside chat with Ash Tilawat, head of curriculum at Gauntlet, to talk about how to help your devs to use AI better.
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I interviewed Ash as part of the recent deep dive I wrote on Gauntlet, and he has fascinating thoughts on how to teach AI to long-time engineers in a way that’s actually useful and evergreen.
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This’ll be a senior-level talk, geared toward later-stage engineering leaders, so it’s not open to everyone. But if you’re a CEO/CTO, thinking about ways to get more leverage for your engineers next year, you can read more and get on the list here.
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Other Fun Stuff Coming Up
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On the comedy docket, we’ve got liver performances from titans like Hasan Minhaj & Ronny Chieng, Stavros Halkias, and Chris Distefano
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Nov. 13-16: How To Feed A Dictator – Author Event & Cooking Class
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Nov. 15: Texas Craft Brewer’s Festival
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Nov. 15-16: Minutes & Hours Watch and Exotic Car Show
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Nov. 16: Art, Fashion, and the Museum
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Nov. 16: Cocktail Master Class – Autumn Daisies
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Nov. 18: Gather & Pour – Wines for the Season
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Nov. 20: Reel Science – Science-Themed Documentary + Talk
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Nov. 20: Fire Cider Fermentation Workshop
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Nov. 21: Beerthoven Concert Series
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Nov. 21: A Day To Remember & Yellowcard (for my elder millennials)
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Nov. 22: Strange & Extraordinary Fest
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Nov. 22: Matthew Shipp Live in Concert
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Nov. 22: Mozarts Festival of Lights Kickoff
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Nov. 23: Cake Decorating Class with Wine & Charcuterie
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Nov. 23: Sip & Sculpt Pottery Workshop
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One More Thing…
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The Austin Studio Tour is taking place this weekend, and it’s way bigger than I thought. More than seven-hundred local artists, showcasing across three-hundred and nineteen physical spaces around the city.
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My friend, Katy Ward, laid out the case – if you’ve never gone before, this is your year…
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“The Studio Tour has been running for something like 25 years,” she said. But a local group called Almost Real Things took over the event this year, and went way above and beyond in organizing…
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“I’ve never seen a catalogue of a city’s local artists like it!” Katy said “This is a big deal for Austin :)”
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You can check out her studio for live painting, drinks, and salon-style discussions on the 15th (it’s located at production HQ for the entire event) or see all the other listings here.
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Word On The Street
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A roundup of cool local investment/funding opportunities to take a look at
(not investment advice, do your own research, etc. etc.)
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💸 CPG Founders: On Nov. 21st, SKU is hosting an info session about their Spring ‘26 CPG accelerator track
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🤑 Angels & Pre-Seed Investors: Fintech startup. Lead secured, prudent terms, winning team, fat pipeline. LIMITED SPACE $10-100k checks. Email Founder, Jessi Roesch for more
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🍷Wanderlust Wine is running a fundraising campaign to help kick off the launch of their CPG line, and offering investors 10.5% interest
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Got something you want to share? Snag a classified ad here to reach thousands of Austin’s best-looking readers.
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Insights
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Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders & operators in ATX
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1. The Case For Billionaires: UATX made a stunning announcement last week – thanks to a $100M donation from Jeff Yass, tuition will be free for all students in perpetuity. You can contribute too. When people say billionaires shouldn’t exist, show them this (I f*cking love this country).
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2. A Fascinating Content Strategy: Lindsey Ramey spent 20 years in Hollywood, and now she helps startups tell their stories better. She just published this fascinating piece on how Duolingo launched an anime series, and what it can mean for your brand.
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3. How To Run A $400k Consulting Practice: I’ve been consulting for years, and still found this piece by Lauren Wambold Patel refreshingly useful, clear, and concise.
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Final word from Elon… 👇
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Austin ++ indeed. 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 time,
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-Ethan
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