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...

Author

Ethan Brooks
August 01, 2024

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:

  • Aug. 5: Learn To Paint Your Favorite Album Cover

  • Aug. 12: Custom Kicks - Learn to Customize Your Own Jordans

  • Aug. 13: BYOB Creative Writing & Poetry Class

  • Aug. 23: Street Expression Graffiti Class

  • And many, many more

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.

Check out the website, or follow Richard or the gallery on IG for more.

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…