Welcome to this issue of The Austin Business Review, a weekly roundup of great local events and opportunities for Austin business owners.

This week’s issue is a bit shorter than normal. One of my best buds from high school touched down in El Paso with his unit on Saturday, fresh back after spending the last year getting shot at in the middle east, and when I got the word, I had to go.

Now, before you go thinking what a good friend I am, you should know – I’m not. It’s just that I’m an incorrigible road-tripper, who will take just about any reason to drop every responsibility and drive (particularly if it’s through West Texas, which is the kind of driving god had in mind when he invented cruise control).

Besides… El Paso is in Texas. So I could snap a few photos (I figured) and the whole thing would be a tax write-off.

Well, there are no photos from this particular homecoming.

Our boys were under strict instructions not to leave the base, not to fraternize with outsiders, and certainly not to drink, smoke, gamble, spit, swear, think impure thoughts, jay walk, or otherwise engage in any shenaniganry whatsoever.

So let the record show that none of that happened… Not on my watch.

Speaking of homecomings, we’re headed for one of my favorite seasons in Austin – late August, when everyone returns from their summer travels. Events ramp back up, you get to see the faces you’ve missed, and it’s all patios and cold beers under the string lights each night. It always feels like a grown-up version of summer camp to me.

You’ll see what I mean. Even with a slimmed-down email this week, we’ve still got…

This is the best time of year to be here. Hope to catch you out there soon.

-Ethan

🗓️ Aug. 22: Founders & Funders Social Dance: No pitches or panels. Just laid back music and a li’l two-steppin’ with Kevad Belle and others

🗓️ Aug. 22: Opening Of The Austin STEM Center: This is very cool - a brand new maker-space for all ages, with machine shop, robotics arena, electronics lab, and more

🗓️ Aug. 25: AITX: One of the bigger AI meetups, with monthly demos and networking hosted by Michael Daegler and Jake O’Shea

🗓️ Aug. 25: Business After Hours: For those of you out west, tired of going downtown for events, West Austin Chamber is hosting this at the Courtyard Lakeline

🗓️ Aug. 26: Workplaces In The AI Era: Austin Tech Council is hosting a panel of CEOs to discuss how management, ops, and KPIs are changing with AI

🗓️ Aug. 26: The Future of Making Sh*t: Marcus Metzger, founder of advanced manufacturing accelerator, HICAM, will share his journey through robotics, art, and more

🗓️ Aug. 26: Central Texas <> Korea Summit: Several local chambers of commerce are joining forces for a full day of cross-cultural business talks and networking

🗓️ Aug. 26: Austin in 2030: This is a wild panel – organized by Dr. Ronke Komolafe, of TEDx South Congress, and moderated by Hugh Forrest (who led SXSW for 35+ yrs)

🗓️ Aug. 26: Is It Fall Yet? A fun cross-over happy hour from two of my favorite people – Teresa Taylor, Executive Director of Rotary Austin, and Jay Boisseau, Founder of the Austin Forum on Tech & Society and Austin AI Alliance (he also owns the bar!)

🗓️ Aug. 27: Wake Up! CPG: Marc Nathan’s events are some of the best in town for meeting true CPG veterans

🗓️ Aug. 27: Networking Night: Local investor, Cody Todd, is hosting a laid back happy hour at Cosmic Saltillo

🗓️ Aug. 27: Build Your Autonomous Code Factory: David Boskovic is hosting this 10 hour hackathon with John Davison and Jake O’Shea

🗓️ Aug. 27: Leadership In The Age of Uncertainty: The US India Chamber is hosting its annual summit, focused on Texas: America's Engine for Innovation

🗓️ Aug. 27: Better Together: Texas Women In Business is partnering with the National Association of Women Business Owners for this crossover happy hour

🗓️ Aug. 27: Why AI Adoption Fails: One of the very few webinars I’ll ever let in here – Austin Alred, founder of Gauntlet, is sitting down with Google’s GTM Engineering Lead, Vinit Mehta. If you haven’t heard of Gauntlet yet, I wrote more about ‘em here

🗓️ Aug. 28: Fridge Fire: Chris Taylor’s firing up the brand new sauna over at The Red Fridge Society for a founder social with Mark Hellweg of Vim Custom Saunas

🗓️ Aug. 28: Creative Business Co-Working: Join Kristen Pavle and other business owners leaning into their creative side for some focused work at Stargazer

🗓️ Aug. 30: Reverse Brain Rot: One hour of focused reading. One hour of focused writing. Hosted by Nicole Stump, one of Austin’s great stewards of all things interesting

A roundup of cool opportunities you should know about…

📣 Call For Pitch Decks: Just about a week left to submit your pitch deck to Morrison Foerster’s 2026 Fall Pitch Competition. Selected founders get coaching, and a chance to pitch a panel of investors. Simply send a non-confidential deck to this email by Aug. 28th

📈 Femme Founder Bootcamp: Women in Web3 is about to kick off season 3 of their six-week virtual cohort-based bootcamp, designed specifically for women building in AI, Web3, or emerging tech. There’s an info session August 26th, which you can find here

💰 Central Texas Angel Network is heading into its 4th funding cycle of the year. If you’re raising soon, there’s a virtual info session on Sept. 1st ahead of the Sept. 6th application deadline. Details and dates for everything (including decision timelines) are available here

Have you started messing with Grok Bot yet? It’s the first time in a while I’m thinking of upgrading my AI subscription, and I’m trying to decide whether this puppy’s worth the $200/mo.

If you’re using it, what have you built with it? And what do you think so far? Is it worth the money??

Until next week,

-Ethan