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Austin's First Poet Laureate
Ethan Brooks
April 03, 2025
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
💸 A $100k Pitch Competition
🎙️ Inside Tim Ferriss’ Business
🎭 Local Artist of the Week
And more…
Did someone forward this to you? If you like it, you can sign up here!
-Ethan
PS. You read this newsletter to meet other cool business owners here in ATX. So this week, I want to introduce you to Andy Daidone, co-owner of Usual Wines.
Andy’s a product guy. He bootstrapped his other company, ScrumLaunch, to 8-figures in rev, and always joked that the dream was to ditch tech and open a wine shop. Then, last year, Usual came up for sale, and a few things stood out:
It was completely DTC (no wholesale) – so room to grow
They had a patent on these single serve bottle designs (different)
Raving fan base – even though they shut down for months during the transfer, churn was effectively zero
He broke the whole business model down the other night at a tasting at The Red Fridge Society (one of my favorite spots in town). Pinot Noir stole the show, but I think the Rosé was my favorite (because… chilled).
Either way, all of them are natural, with no additives, and no added sugar. So… lower hangover risk for old people (it’s me… I’m the old people 🧐)
Give him a shout on LinkedIn to say hey. And if you have a shop here in town, Usual is expanding into a handful of retail locations, so drop him a line if you want to chat about that.
Upcoming Events
Events are light this week. Trying to keep this section curated to more intimate stuff for later-stage founders, so if you see something in town, drop me a line.
🗓️ Apr. 4: Founder Fridays: Hosted every month by founders Georges Colbert and Ash Uprety in partnership with LAUNCH, the VC firm founded by Jason Calacanis
🗓️ Apr. 4: Post-Exit Founders: A relatively new group in town, I talked to Sahin Boydas and it is indeed for exited founders only. So if that’s you, drop him a line to link up
🗓️ Apr. 5: The Board Walks: One of my most-recommended events, every Saturday, Elle Beecher gathers dozens of people for a walk + talk around the lake. If you’re new to ATX, this is probably the fastest way to get connected
🗓️ Apr. 5: ATX Writing Club: Hosted by my buddy, Zac Solomon. Not strictly business-related, but a great spot to meet cool people and get good work done
🗓️ Apr. 5: ATX Newsletter Writers: Michael Daigler is bringing together a group of active newsletter writers to meet, trade notes, and build connections
🗓️ Apr. 8: AI from the Viewpoint of the CIO: This month, for their breakfast roundtable, The Austin Technology Council is bringing together a panel of CIOs to talk about how AI is changing the IT department
🗓️ Apr. 8: Boris Fishman at Book People: This is not strictly business, but Boris Fishman teaches creative writing at UATX (the innovative new university co-founded by local billionaire Joe Lonsdale), and is giving this talk about his latest novel. For more on him, check out his recent article about what it’s like being a liberal at a “conservative” school
🗓️ Apr. 9: The Cybernetic Border: UT professor, Iván Chaar López, is giving a talk about his latest book, warning of the dangers of certain technologies deployed to guard the border. Not my usual jam, but I’m curious, and thought you may be too
🗓️ Apr. 9: The Seller Perspective on Acquisitions: A few weeks ago, I told you that local brewery Blue Owl was up for sale. Well… It sold. Dan Jensen is bringing in the previous owner, Jeff Young, to talk about the sales process. Investor Raj Mahajan of Jaan Capital, will also be sharing perspectives on the sale of location-independent companies.
One more thing… Books, Beers, and Baklava (Round 2): Another one from my buddy, Zac. Austin Reddit went wild for this the first time around. Hnudreds of people showed up to swap books, swill beers, and… Baklava.
So it’s happening again, April 12th!
If you’re looking for a cool way to meet other nerds interesting people, grab your book-to-swap and I’ll see you there.
Hosting something cool? Email me the details below and I’ll try to share it in the newsletter or on LinkedIn.
Hors D’oeuvres with an Olympian…
Two-time olympian, Alison Gibson, is hosting a gala on April 27th at the Buena Vida Estate just outside town.
The evening will feature food from local Chef Kevin D’Andréa – who was named Best Young Chef in France in 2016, and appeared on both Top Chef America and Top Chef France, where he was a finalist – and music from Kristen Gibbs (maybe the only harpist you’ll find who also covers Etta James and Johnny Cash).
Proceeds and donations from the evening are going to help build this medical center in Lochoredome, Kenya, where malnutrition rates are 30% and the closest hospital is almost 40 miles away. You can find tickets here, and if you’d like to support the fundraiser directly, you can read more and donate here.
Word On The Street
A roundup of cool local opportunities to grow your business, wealth, or personal brand
1. Investors: Wheatsville Co-op is Texas’ largest consumer co-op. Opened years before Whole Foods, major brands (like Siete, which sold to Pepsi for $1.2B) get their start on these shelves. They’re raising money for an upcoming expansion/relocation.
Some highlights from the prospectus:
Previous expansions drove 15-20% growth in 3 years
This expansion is projecting 18-25% revenue growth
Investors receive a 3.5% dividend yield
Contact Bree Whitehead for more info.
2. A $100k Pitch Competition: Austin FC is partnering with Q2 (a bank), to host the Dream Starter Pitch Competition. Founders apply, and five finalists will get coaching and pitch live to a panel of judges. Winner gets awarded a $100k check, during a game at the FC stadium (so… publicity).
Insights
Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders in ATX
1. HBR Published a 40-Page Case Study on Tim Ferriss: It’s focused on a tough decision he had to make recently – what to do with the podcast, ten years in. The first quarter is mostly background that long-time fans will know (fun to revisit). But my favorite part starts around page 12, where Tim shared all kinds of inside baseball about the pod, including:
Ad pricing and revenue in the early days
How his email, social, podcast, and blog serve as a media flywheel
Alternative businesses he considered (doing $10m+ per year)
And more…
There’s even a page-long email in there from 2023, when he voluntarily refunded sponsors thousands of dollars to help them weather the economic storm (which shows how he managed that logistically to avoid de-valuing his own CPMs). It’s a very cool inside look at how he runs his biz.
2. Naval Ravikant sat with Chris Williamson for his first serious podcast interview in years. Any time I hear Naval in long-form conversation, it’s like one of those vitamin IV drips – I can’t tell you specifically what I get out of it, but it leaves me feeling better overall.
3. Using AI to Streamline Newsletters: If you run a DTC brand, you’ve got to check out Cathryn Lavery’s recent deep dive on how she’s using Claude as thought-partner/editor over at Best Self Co. This is probably the most detailed breakdown I’ve seen on this topic, including
Specific prompts you can copy/paste
Her 4-part quality control process (human filter)
The feedback loop that improves each subsequent email
4. Speaking of AI… I’ve really been enjoying Bethany Babcock’s account recently. She’s a commercial realtor here in town, and has been learning to use AI to build tools for herself, her team, and her family.
It started with a typing coach for her kids, then a system for property managers to manage bids. Now, her 9-year old is even building with it. Very cool to watch (and she’s also just generally a hilarious follow).
5. The CPG World was rocked the other day when Pepsi announced its ~$2B acquisition of Poppi. In case you didn’t know, that’s an Austin brand (the second 10-figure CPG acquisition in the last few months alongside Siete). I’ve been enjoying this throw-back interview with co-founder Allison Ellsworth.
Image Credit: Zell Miller III, via Austin American Statesman
Local Artist of the Week
Zell Miller III was just named as Austin’s first-ever poet laureate. Apparently, we were the only major city in Texas not to have one! (shout out to KB Brookins, who was a driving force behind this program)
A long-time Austinite, Miller has been in the arts scene here for decades. As far back as the mid-80’s, his name appears over and over in pages of the Austin-American Statesman, and he was voted best local poet by the Austin Chronicle back in 2004, and inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in 2017.
Here’s why he stood out to me…
As more of my friends become husbands and fathers, we’ve been having ongoing conversations about masculinity, responsibility, and what it means to be a man. While bingeing his work, I found Zell has a wonderful performance exploring this too (give it a few minutes to get going, it’s worth it).
As poet laureate, he’ll be focused on expanding literacy and elevating poetry, especially among Austin’s youth.
There’s an event celebrating his welcome on April 14th, complete with performances from him, KB, our youth poet laureate Ella Kim, and Texas state’s poet laureate Amanda Johnston.
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