How One Local Founder Went From Food Truck To Five-Hundred Stores

If you’re like me, and you just found out there’s a holiday this weekend, you’re in the right spot!

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

• 📣 Word On The Street: Fundraise, Pitch, Biz For Sale

• 🤠 Learn BBQ From A Master

• And more…

Did someone forward this to you? If you like it, you can sign up here!

-Ethan

PS. You read this email to get connected here in town, so today I want to introduce you to Morgan Potts, a badass CPG founder.

She passed on vet school to start her whiskey-baked granola company, Granarly (despite never having made granola in her life), then built it from food truck to nationwide rollouts with Target, Sprouts, and beyond.

But I think my favorite story is the way she got into Whole Foods (it’s so gangster). I sat down with her recently, and you can read the full story here.

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. You can

🗓️ TONIGHT: Nerd Night Austin: This is like a mini-TED event, hosted by Mickey Delp and Amy Cavender “for nerds by nerds.” This month, speakers share fascinating stories of historic disasters and what happened after

🗓️ Aug. 30: Lean Coffee: William Baxter and Duri Chitayat, veterans of Lean Coffee NYC, have brought the format to ATX

🗓️ Aug. 31: ATX Writing Club: Not strictly business-related, but Zac Solomon’s writing group is a great way to meet interesting people and get some focused work done

🗓️ Sept. 3: The Future of Chips: Three leaders in the semiconductor space, including Thomas Fedorko, COO of Inspire semiconductor, will discuss the current state, trends, challenges, and future of the industry

🗓️ Sept. 4: Amplify Lead Generation with AI: Fernando Gonzalez Aguirre has led growth teams in several B2B SaaS companies and is speaking at this month’s Marketing Automation & AI meetup

🗓️ Sept: 4: SMB Mix & Mingle: Hosted at the Captain Morgan Club up at Q2 Stadium

🗓️ Sept. 4: Texas Women In Business Online Connect: TWIB’s in-person events always fill up fast so it’s cool to see them do online mixers too

🗓️ Sept. 5: Supercollider: Marc Bolh, founder of VidaLingua and other leading apps, hosts these Supercollider founder meetups around the city and they look like a blast

🗓️ Sept. 5: Networking for Wellness Founders: Probably the biggest community of health + fitness founders in ATX, this group’s led by Corey Hiben, founder of Andro Brands and host of the The Health Hustle podcast

🗓️ Sept. 5: Open Coffee (Downtown): Since 2009, Damon Clinkscales has been hosting this laid back bi-weekly coffee chat for founders and investors

🗓️ Sept. 5: Hack AI: The first Thursday of every month, Bryce Miles and Reid McCrabb bring people together to talk AI and jam on projects

🗓️ Sept. 5: Esports & Gaming Tech Meetup: Hosted by Justin Schoenfelder, founder of Fantasy Elect, and Dean Elazab, an attorney who specializes in startups and esports

🗓️ Sept. 5: Product Happy Hour South: Hosted on the first Thursday of every month by Reza Shirazi, and Tulsi Dharmarajan

🗓️ Sept. 6: Lonestar Cyber Shootout: Shoot guns and hang out with cyber security experts at Staccato Ranch (very demure… very mindful). Includes gun rental, ammo, factory tour, training sessions, food, cigars, and swag. F*ck yeah

🗓️ Sept. 7: ATX Newsletter Creators: Michael Daigler is bringing together dozens of newsletter writers in ATX to meet, trade notes, and build connections

🗓️ Sept. 7: Asian Eats with GACC: The Greater Austin Asian Chamber is hosting a charity dinner, followed by a pop-up nightclub afterparty

Last But Not Least… In 2007, John Arnold became the youngest billionaire in America. A few years later, he and his wife dedicated themselves to philanthropy, and have been disbursing nearly half a billion a year ever since.

On September, 6th, he’s giving a talk at Arena Hall. It’s a private event, but you can request an invite here.

Hosting something cool? Email me the details below and I’ll try to share it in the newsletter or on LinkedIn.

Other 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.

• TONIGHT: Movies on the Lake - Footloose

• Aug. 30: Float Films at Austin Motel - Scream

• Aug 31: Sip & Play Pickleball Social

• Aug. 31: WILLSPIKE Volleyball Fest – All skill levels welcome

• Aug. 31: UT vs Colorado at Desert Door Distilling’s Rackhouse Venue

• Sept. 1: Print Rodeo Art Market at Central Machine Works

• Sept. 1: Labor Day Pool Party at Bad Larry Burger Club

• Sept. 3: Carousel Group Painting at ATX Art Nights

• Sept. 3: Lazarus Bookclub Discusses James (Sam Parr enjoyed)

• Sept. 4: Doodle Night + All Day Happy Hour at Community Garden

• Sept. 4: George Strait Release Listening Party at Waterloo Records

• Sept. 4: Underground Voices Rap Tournament

• Sept. 5: Poolside Movies – The Breakfast Club

• Sept. 5: Movies on the Lake with Karaoke & Tequila Tasting

• Sept. 6: Farmers Market at Treaty Oak Distilling

• Sept. 7: Girls That Golf - Morning Round

• Sept. 7: Pistons & Pitties - Car Show Benefiting Dog Rescue

• Sept. 8: Cars & Coffee at Circuit of the Americas

• Sept. 8: 34th Annual Hot Sauce Festival

One More Thing… This Saturday, West Chelsea Contemporary opens their latest exhibit, The Austin International Art Fair. It’ll run through Sept. 29th, showcasing work from 40+ artists in 20+ countries, including legendary names like Picasso, Dali, Miro, and more.

Plus modern street artists, like Aboudia, who was born on the ivory coast, kicked out of his childhood home, and built an international name for himself whilst painting in the midst of a civil war.

Word On The Street

A roundup of cool local opportunities to grow your business, or acquire one

• Fundraising? Central Texas Angel Network has two more cycles of funding this year. Application deadline for this one is Sept. 16, and there’s a zoom call on the 9th with more info

• SXSW Pitch is taking early applications through next week (Sept. 8) After that, fees go from $100 to $220, but entry remains open through Nov. 3

• Looking for a Boring Biz? Apparently pool cleaning routes cash flow well, but sell around 1x revenue. This one in ATX reportedly does $414k in rev, looks like ~42% margin, and asking price $380k. Local founder Codie Sanchez actually did a video on this space here!

Local Shop of the Week

Not an ad – just a cool spot you should know

KG BBQ | 3108 Manor Rd

Sure, you’ve had good BBQ. But have you ever had quit-your-job-in-finance-and-move-across-the-globe BBQ?

That was the experience of Kareem El-Ghayesh, better known as Chef KG, who after one visit to Rudy’s, left his life in Egypt to become a pit master, chef, and restaurant founder here in Austin.

Today, he owns the award-winning KG BBQ (perhaps you’ve seen him on Netflix?), where his team slings incredible Egyptian-Texas fusion, and where you, dear reader, can attend his Brisket 101 class, hosted every month. I went; It’s rad.

My big takeaway: Stop being such a nancy about your brisket.

I used to overthink every aspect, but Chef KG showed us that when you know what you’re doing, you can season simple, prep fast, and turn out mouthwatering roasts on anything from a cold smoker to a conventional oven, and even your grill. Great class. Definitely recommend.

Local Artist of the Week

I mentioned the Austin International Art Fair above. Well, this guy’s a major part of that.

Born in Australia, raised in the south of France, and currently living just outside of Austin, Gil Bruvel is an award-winning sculpture artist with work on display in galleries around the globe.

He caught my eye with his “Masks” series, which is made from hundreds of intricately charred, stacked, and painted wood block “pixels” arranged to look like human faces.

“My inspiration is exploring the human form through the face and infusing it with a sense of peace,” he once told City Lifestyle.

You can catch him live at the fair, where he’s giving the opening talk on August 31st at 2PM.

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