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Get Advice On Your Pitch Deck From Pro's
PLUS: Jason Calacanis' New Podcast Studio... Michael Dell's First Earnings Statement... This Artist Hosted 500+ Events In Town... and more...
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:
📅 Upcoming Events
📣 Get Help With Your Pitch Deck
🎨 This Artist Hosted 500+ Events In Town
And more…
Someone forward this to you? You can sign up here if you like it!
-Ethan
PS. Officially welcoming Jason Calacanis to Austin. Looks like he’s building a studio, so if you run a high-quality pod, be sure to drop your info on this post
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.
🗓️ TODAY: Founder Co-working at Antler VC: Principles Kelly LaBuff and Jake O’Shea are hosting, with breakfast, and investor open hours
🗓️ TONIGHT: Technically Ethical: Every month, Sam Levin brings this group together for thought-provoking conversations about modern tech
🗓️ TONIGHT: Pitches & Pours: Marc Bolh, founder of VidaLingua and other leading apps, hosts these Supercollider meetups for founders and investors
🗓️ Aug 2: GAACC Conversation Series: Zarina Lam Stanford served as CMO of IBM, Rackspace, and now, Bazaarvoice, and is sharing her insight
🗓️ Aug. 2: Coffee & Connections (West): Seems like people liked last week’s focus on events west of downtown. So here’s a coffee networking in Jester Village
🗓️ Aug. 3: Her Impact - Coffee & Connection: Join Lindsay Kirschner, Toria Marie, and other women business owners from around the city
🗓️ Aug. 5: Speak & Stroll: Not strictly business, but Emily Lambert’s group is focused on improving public speaking, articulation, and overall confidence
🗓️ Aug. 6: CTO Insights: A killer line-up of founders and CTOs will share how they identify and evaluate new tech, and bring it into their companies.
(Seriously, this lineup is full of studs – Vivian Chu is a founder and roboticist at Diligent, Tom Bishop led companies acquired by IBM and Goldman Sachs, and Bryon Jacob co-founded unicorn data.world)
🗓️ Aug. 7: AI and the Art of Competition: Elizabeth Quintanilla is giving a talk on how to use AI to analyze market opportunities and customer behavior
🗓️ Aug. 8: BizDev Happy Hour: Emily Preble and Barrett Crosswell co-host this happy hour every other week through the summer and it’s great!
🗓️ Aug. 8: Marketing Roundtable: The largest business incubator in ATX hosts this monthly roundtable for business owners to swap insights on marketing – geared more toward local SMBs than tech startups!
🗓️ Aug. 8: CPG Pitch Slam Watch Party: A group of local CPG founders is gathering to watch the national pitch competition. Shout out to local founder Whitney McElwain, of Daybreaker, who’s one of the nine contestants
🗓️ Aug 8: Pat & Umar’s Happy Hour: Shout out to Rich Fortune for getting this on my radar – Pat Moody and Umar Brimah are back with their epic meetup for 120+ founders, VCs, and operators here in ATX.
Hosting something cool? Email me the details below and I’ll try to share it in the newsletter or on LinkedIn
Fun Stuff Coming Up
…because if you’re anything like me, you work too much already. So here’s some fun stuff to do around town that’s not necessarily related to business.
Aug. 1: National IPA Day - Special Release at Pinthouse Brewing
Aug. 2: First Friday - Art Gallery & BBQ in Lockhart
Aug. 2: Pool Pass & Happy Hour with Misunderstood Whiskey
Aug. 3: Pints & Plants at Jester King Brewing
Aug. 3: First Annual Glow In The Dark 5K Run
Aug. 3: Volleypalooza Volleyball Tournament
Aug. 3: Ramen Bowl-Making Pottery Workshop
Aug. 3: Open Canopy - Tour Dozens of Artist Studios
Aug. 4: Willpower Women’s Wellness Retreat
Aug. 6: The Action Pack’s Supper Society at Casa Cartel
Aug. 6: Austin Beer Run - Weekly 5K
Aug. 7: Camp Lenoir Texas Wine & BBQ Experience
Aug. 8: Emmer & Rye’s Breaking Bread Guest Chef Series
Aug. 10: Mocktails, Bar Snacks & Non-Alc Beverage Class
Aug. 10: Lumosity Black Light Yoga Event on South Congress
Aug. 11: Bourbon Steward Certification at Kinfolk Spirits Library
One more thing… Meanwhile Brewing is partnering with Uptown Sports Club to host a multi-part BBQ series featuring chefs from around the city. This week, friend of the newsletter LeRoy and Lewis is headlining!
You can check out the full lineup, snag individual tickets, or an all-access pass to all four events here.
Word On The Street
A roundup of cool local opportunities to grow your business, personal brand, or visibility
Fundraising soon? Morison Foerster just opened submissions for their fall pitch day. Their firm has advised founders and investors on $110B+ in funding over the last five years, and pitch day participants receive coaching and a chance to pitch VCs live.
Speakers Still Wanted for the very first Austin Tech Week coming up in October.
Want a free mural? The Greater Austin Asian Chamber’s AAPI Hero campaign is looking for exterior wall space around town. People interested can check out sample pieces here, and email Tiffany Vela for more info
Nexus Grant: The city is offering fifty $5k grants to new and emerging artists or businesses in the creative space
Insights
Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders and business leaders in ATX
1. For STR Owners: Ben Wolff runs a $60m portfolio of STRs, and just released this piece showing how his team grew a client from $0 in direct bookings to $33k+ (and 22k IG followers) in less than two months.
2. All About The Austin Food Scene: Grace Chow, co-founder of Lobos Hospitality, joined Jason Scharf to talk about innovation in the Austin food scene and her experience building three restaurants here in town.
3. A Slice of History: Back in 1984, Michael Dell dropped out of school here in ATX, and founded Dell Computers. Forty years ago today, this was their first earnings statement 🤯 Someone on Twitter asked what kinds of ads he was running back then, and I love that kind of history, so I dug up this gem from the newspaper archive 👇
Back then, Dell operated as “PCs Limited” – Austin American Statesman, July 1984
Local Artist of the Week
Richard Samuel is a former pro-athlete and lifelong artist, and three years ago, he opened Riches Art Gallery over on East 6th. It’s way more than a gallery – it’s a community hub, hosting more than 500 on top of his own extensive work as an artist.
They do it all – art classes, DJ sessions, comedy, fashion shows, history lectures, yoga sessions, and more. Just a few of the cool classes coming up include:
They recently opened a second location – Riches Art Studio – which you can rent by the hour to record podcasts, host events, or even do music production thanks to a partnership with Mellow House Studios.
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
Thank you to all the incredible local founders and leaders who share great insights and events. You can follow and connect with them here…
Kelly LaBuff, Jake O’Shea, Sam Levin, Marc Bolh, Zarina L. Stanford, Lindsay Kirschner, Toria Marie, Emily Lambert, Vivian Chu, Tom Bishop, Bryon Jacob, Elizabeth Quintanilla, Whitney McElwain, Rich Fortune, Patrick Moody, Umar Brimah, Emily Preble, Barrett Crosswell, Evan LeRoy, Ben Wolff, Grace Chow, Jason Scarf, Richard Samuel