One of My Favorite Businesses In Austin

Welcome to the latest issue of The Austin Business Review, a roundup of great local events and insights for Austin business owners (plus some other cool stuff for your life outside of work).

This week, I am SO stoked to profile one of my favorite businesses here in town – The Red Fridge Society. If you’ve been reading a while, you’ve seen me mention them many times. But this is the first-ever deep dive on them, and it was a blast to write.

We’ve also got…

• 🗓️ A bunch of events

• 📣 Opportunities: Speak, Pitch, and a business for sale

• 🎨 The elusive painter behind Austin’s famous signs

• And more…

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

-Ethan

PS. Huge shout-out to Matt Loszak, who’s having a hell of a month. He got his green card less than two weeks ago, and his company Aalo, just closed a $27m Series A to build nuclear reactors here. Love to see it! Tell him congrats 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.

🗓️ TONIGHT: Billion-dollar jewelry founder, Kendra Scott, and Emmy Award winner Julianne Hough, are meeting at Book People to discuss Hough’s latest book. Not strictly business, but should be great.

🗓️ TONIGHT: Tech Third Thursdays: Shout out to Sara Loretta for putting Henry LeGard’s event on my radar (there will be pickle ball)

🗓️ Aug. 16: Founder Walk: Every other Friday, Ellen Cassidy organizes an early-morning walk around the lake for experienced high-growth tech founders. They meet at Mañana (north of the river) at 7AM. Ping her on LinkedIn for details!

🗓️ Aug. 16: Get Sh*t Done - Women’s Event (Online): Join Paris Bland to set your fall priorities and network with other established female founders

🗓️ Aug. 16: Lean Coffee: William Baxter and Duri Chitayat, veterans of Lean Coffee NYC, are bringing the format to ATX. This is the first one!

🗓️ Aug. 16: AuthenTECH Women’s Summit: A series of speakers and panel discussion focused on empowering women in entrepreneurship, including a keynote from Shuronda Robinson, CEO of Austin Woman Magazine.

🗓️ Aug. 16: Female Founders & Friends: Hosted the third Friday of every month by Juliette Richert of the Artemis Fund

🗓️ Aug. 16: Intro to Quantum Computing: Tom Bishop, who sold two different companies to IBM, speaks very highly of this 3-hour event by Jay Boisseau

🗓️ Aug. 17: The Board Walks: Not strictly business-related, but Elle Beecher’s group is my top rec for anyone new to the city, and lots of founders/investors are regulars

🗓️ Aug. 18: Sprint Club: Every Sunday, Ankith Harathi hosts a sprint workout group – open to all, but most of the attendees are seasoned founders in ATX

🗓️ Aug. 19: Austin Notion Meetup: If your company uses Notion seriously, you should know Sara Loretta

🗓️ Aug 19-20: State & Local Gov’t AI Summit: Shout out to Kat Rector for finding this one. If you’re technical, you’ll love the calendar she curates

🗓️ Aug. 20: Barf & Brag: Yashas Singri is bringing a small group of founders together to share real talk on what’s going good and not-so-good at work

🗓️ Aug. 20: The Collective - Monthly Power Hour: Led by Catherine Meyer, The Collective is a collaborative network for women in business, and people love it

🗓️ Aug. 20: Book Club: The Austin Forum on Tech & Society is meeting to discuss the dystopian thriller, The Future. Heads up – Next month’s book is Kurzweil’s newest, The Singularity is Nearer

🗓️ Aug. 21: Austin Coaches Collective: If your business involves coaching of some sort, check out Erin Laverone’s mixer

🗓️ Aug. 21: The Lion in a Changing Jungle: Geopolitical specialist, Vidya Moorthy, is discussing recent global changes, their impact on American business, and what’s needed to maintain supremacy

🗓️ Aug. 21: Climate Innovation Group: This month, Jacob Borgeson’s group is focused on innovations in the CPG arena related to climate tech

🗓️ Aug. 21: Turn Up! CPG Happy Hour: Hosted by Bill Murphy and Marc Nathan and showcasing great local CPG companies (you can apply to display your CPG brand here)

🗓️ Aug. 21: Creator Ecosystem Meetup: David Nassau and Akash Kanojia are bringing together media professionals

🗓️ Aug. 21: Founders, Investors & Friends: A rooftop social, hosted by Julian Jimenez

🗓️ Aug. 22: Wake Up! CPG: Start the day right with Marc Nathan, and founders from Austin’s top CPG brands.

🗓️ Aug. 22: Unbreakable Women’s Conference: All-day event, organized by Theresa Pore, up at Chateau Bellevue, home of the Austin Woman’s Club

🗓️ Aug. 22: The Future of Commerce: This is the second installment of the Creators X Convos series and the last one got great reviews from attendees

🗓️ Aug. 22: Boozyless - NA Happy Hour: Curious about N/A cocktails? Chris Taylor has gone way down the rabbit hole and will be your guide

🗓️ Aug. 22: Founders Network Happy Hour: Led by Chapter Director, Kevin Bradt, this event’s open to non-members who are full-time founders

🗓️ Aug. 22: Female Founder Happy Hour: Hosted by Destinee Berman in collaboration with The 10th House, a private network for female founders

🗓️ Aug. 22: Taco Tales: Eat tacos, drink mezcal, and trade stories with experienced operators, like Carlos Oviedo, and guest speaker, Stephanie Postles, CEO & Founder of Mission.Org

🗓️ Aug. 22: Austin Women In Tech: Executive coach Aaron Thweatt will be answering questions about negotiating salaries and comp packages

🗓️ Aug. 23: Tech Bytes: A networking event powered by the Austin Urban Technology Movement, and four of the biggest black social groups 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.

• TONIGHT: Movies on the Lake at Mozarts - Into the Spiderverse

• TONIGHT: Behind the Frame - Art History Lecture at Riches Art

• Aug. 15-18: Songblazers by Cirque du Soleil

• Aug. 15-18: Hitchcock Week at the Paramount Theatre

• Aug. 16: Dad Joke Competition (pun-believable!)

• Aug. 17: Summer Walkabout at Still Austin Whiskey Co.

• Aug. 17: UFC Fight Night at Lou’s Barton Springs

• Aug. 17-18: City-wide Vintage Sale

• Aug. 18: Lagers & Literature at Meanwhile Brewing

• Aug. 19: Full Moon Swim at the Austin Motel (it’s a Supermoon!)

• Aug. 19: Grill & Chill at King Bee Cocktail Bar

• Aug. 22: Poolside Movies on the roof at Ariba Abajo - Spirited Away

• Aug. 22: Bootlegger’s Ball - Dinner and Gambling at The Driskill

• Aug. 23: Whiskey Business (It’s in San Antonio, but looks epic)

• Aug. 23: A Night of Pure Indulgence - Fried Chicken & Champagne

• Aug. 24: Secret Disco - Triple Venue Takeover

• Aug. 24: Wine Tasting - All Star Female Winemakers

• Aug. 25: Paddle for Puppies - Benefits Austin Pets Alive

One Last Thing… Twice a year, Le Garage Sale brings together more than a hundred local boutiques to sell off excess inventory. I covered this in the very first issue of ABR, and it’s back again. Aug. 24-25 down at the Palmer Events Center. Doors open at 11AM, but a VIP ticket ($30) will get you in at 9:30

Word On The Street

A roundup of cool local opportunities to grow your business, wealth, or personal brand

• Last call for speakers at the first-ever Austin Tech Week – Submissions close today (Aug. 15)

• Fundraising? Pitch VCs at Morrison Foerster’s Fall Pitch Day. Finalists get coaching from the MoFo team (which has advised startups and investors on $110B in financing over the last 5 years)

• For Sale: Terrible Love Coffee is moving into a new space, and founder Bryan Knowles is selling the converted trailer they’ve called home since 2021. If you’ve ever wanted to start a coffee bar, this seems like your sign.

Local Artist of the Week

Fun fact about the coffee trailer above – it was painted by Greg Jones, a long-time staple in the Austin art scene. Specifically, the hand-painted sign scene (which is as niche as it sounds).

He’s done work for landmarks here in town, like Chuy’s, Jo’s Coffee, Torchy’s Tacos, Heritage Boots, and others.

His work even appeared in the 1998 Sandra Bullock film, Hope Floats, which was shot around here (he did the sign for Honey’s Diner and other buildings on set).

Despite all that, he’s practically impossible to find online. I had to dig deep into the newspaper archives. But (as always) they delivered…

Here he is hand-lettering the menu for Jo’s at 2nd and Lavaca almost twenty years ago. A fun reminder of the history that’s hidden in plane sight all around us here.

Local Spot To Know

The Red Fridge Society | 508 Oakland Ave

One of my all-time favorite businesses – After selling his software company, Chris Taylor decided to turn their old office into a private club for founders and investors.

This week, I got to do the first deep dive on what they’re up to 👇

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