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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!).

Thank you to all the well-wishers who sent me notes last week. This week, we’ve got a few things on-deck:

• 📅 Upcoming Events (a bunch)

• 🎤 Hans Zimmer, Kevin Hart, and Kumail Nanjiani in town

• 🎨 A Secret Mural To Impress Your Friends

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

-Ethan

PS. A lot has happened in the last week…

• Local boy, Elon caught a rocket… Again.

• TikTok was banned and then… Not.

• We got a blizzard… Sort of.

But I think my favorite thing to come out of the news was this work of art, created by Luke Bugbee, local head of design at 8VC. It’s a little side project – a proposed seal for the new Department of Government Efficiency. And yes… That’s a DOGEagle

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.

🗓️ Jan 24: Austin Union: Philosopher Curtis Yarvin will debate llya Shapiro on, "Is electoral government the optimal path to preserve capitalism?" Limited seating but you can apply to attend here.

Heads Up: Seems like they’re still working the kinks out of their RSVP process. Right now, if you apply to attend, it appears you’ll only hear back if your spot is confirmed 😬

🗓️ Jan 25: Documentary Screening - Common Ground: If you have any interest in regenerative agriculture, you’re gonna love this. Vista Brewing is hosting a screening of this highly anticipated documentary followed by a panel discussion on the promise of soil regeneration. Beer. Food. Firepit. Film. Farming. F*ck yeah

🗓️ Jan 28: One Ecom Webinar To Rule Them All (Online): Local founder and email marketing heavyweight, Jimmy Kim, is co-hosting this session with Chase Diamond and others. If you don’t know Jimmy, his new Send It podcast on email marketing was an instant addition to the rotation when it launched in the fall

🗓️ Jan 28: Facilitation Lab: Every month, Douglas Ferguson and Erin Warner host this hands-on meetup where leaders hone their group facilitation skills

🗓️ Jan 28: AITX: Jake O’Shea and Michael Daigler are back with the very first AITX Austin meetup of the year

🗓️ Jan 28: Business After Hours: For those of you out west, tired of going downtown for events, the West Austin Chamber is hosting one of their regular happy hours

🗓️ Jan 28: TWIB Happy Hour: Karen Bodu is hosting this Texas Women in Business gathering in her staging warehouse just south of the city.

🗓️ Jan 29: Your Startup Sucks: This one’s just a good time – founder's pitch a panel of VCs and comedians, and get absolutely roasted. Still time to sign up to pitch if you dare

🗓️ Jan 29: Business Planning Mastermind: Katy Ward is a friend of mine, and one of the more thoughtful event hosts I’ve met in town. She runs a copywriting and brand strategy practice, and is organizing a meetup over at High Sign to go through quarterly planning and brainstorm challenges with your peers.

🗓️ Jan 30: Speak Your Truth: This is the first time on my radar, but it seems cool – Colleen Schell is the founder of FABx, which teaches the craft of storytelling to leaders. This event is a combo of talks by students, training exercises, and open mic. If you’re trying to improve your public speaking this year, might be worth checking out..

🗓️ Jan 30: Bits In Bio: If you have absolutely any idea what this means, than this biotech meetup might be for you! (nerd 😉) 👇

🗓️ Jan 30: Immersive Tech Meetup (with Demos!): Professor Erin Reilly of the Texas Immersive Institute will be guiding attendees through hands-on demos of new tech designed to blend the physical and digital worlds

🗓️ Jan 30: Nerd Nite Austin: Like a local version of TED, this month’s theme is all about the nuts and bolts of making movies, and includes talks from Emmy-nominated sound designer Lyman Hardy, and filmmaker Jason Neulander

🗓️ Jan 31: TexAI: This event’s focused on AI policy in Texas, and is bringing together leaders from both the government and big tech to talk about the future. Shout out to Kat Rector for surfacing it. If you like these types of deeply technical events, check out the calendar she curates for Austin.

One More Thing… Some of you know that before starting ABR, I spent a few years at The Hustle, developing a book on how newsletters work. Matt McGarry was one of my colleagues there. He’s done growth for just about every major newsletter out there (1440, Milk Road, The Daily Upside, Ben’s Bites, and many, many others)

He’s organizing a newsletter marketing summit, February 27-28. It’s here in town, and the speaker lineup is top-notch.

Typically, I’m not much of a conference guy. We don’t even cover SXSW in this email. But Matt knows his stuff, and you’re lookin’ at a who’s-who of newsletter growth here. So if you’re investing heavily in either your company’s media or owned-audience strategy this year, this is worth checking out.

Matt’s podcast is also the final word on the subject. So if you can’t make the conference, definitely check out the pod.

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

Brewery fans: If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, check out Marco’s Intergalactic Kegger over at Zilker Brewing. Music. Costume Contest. And the limited release of their new Spacey-Hazy Marco IPA. Perfect way to celebrate the second successful tower catch in human history last week.

Also check out…

• TONIGHT: Trivia and Glow Golf at Butler Pitch & Putt

• Jan 24: Bourbon & Bronfman - Piano at The Mansion

• Jan 25: Coffee Club Pop-Up at Codependent

• Jan 25: Beyond Booze Fest - Explore Non-Alc with SwiftFit

• Jan 25: Yoga Class & Glass at Vintage Books and Wine

• Jan 25: Eats, Beats, & Tees at Holey Moley Mini Golf

• Jan 25: Secret Classical Concert on a Cliff

• Jan 25: Living Cabinet of Curiosities - Magic Experience

• Jan 25-26: Le Garage Sale - 140+ Boutiques & Brands

• Jan 26: Winter Reset Yoga Workshop

• Jan 26: Concert in the Dark with Songwriters Dan Navarro & Will Turner

• Jan 27: Off The Menu Supper Club by Texas Food & Wine Alliance

• Jan 29: Mexican Wine Tasting

• Jan 29: MOONLauf - Night Hours at Umlauf Sculpture Garden

• Jan 30: Moontower Comedy Presents Kumail Nanjiani

• Jan 31: Mentors of Mozart - Classical Soloist

• Jan 31: Kevin Hart Live at Bass Concert Hall

• Jan 31: Hans Zimmer Live at Moody Center

• Jan 31: Secret Disco - 80’s in Aspen Party

• Jan 31: Honor, An Artist’s Lecture, with Lili Taylor

• Feb 1: Ali Siddiq at Austin City Limits

• Feb 1: Radiohead Cover Concert In The Dark at Casa de Luz

• Feb 2: Jo’s 18th Annual Chili Cookoff

Last But Not Least… I don’t usually talk about things this far out, but we had two cool food & drink festivals confirmed in the last few days. Might wanna snag tickets early if these are your jam:

• April 5: Whiskey Riot: Dozens of whiskey distillers converge for one big tasting event. Your ticket includes a custom glass and access to 200+ tastings

• April 27: Field Guide Fest: A food festival that combines dozens of local farmers and chefs to bring you closer to the land.

Word On The Street

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

• UATX is Hiring: Not directly related to business, but this one caught my eye – the innovative new university co-founded by local billionaire Joe Lonsdale, is looking for a professor to lead their Intellectual Foundations series.

  From the JD…

  “I.F. is an interdisciplinary core curriculum required of all students. Seminars examine subjects such as the foundations of civilization and political life; the importance of law, virtue, order, beauty, and the sacred; the unique vibrancy of the American form of government and way of life; and the character and consequences of ideological tyranny…

  “As our founding faculty in the arts and humanities, IF seeks scholars and/or creative practitioners with a range of interests who can teach across more than one historical period, geographical region, and scholarly or creative discipline. In addition to ethics, political philosophy, literature, and creative writing, evidence of a developed capacity for teaching, research, and/or creative practice in any of the following disciplines may be of interest: history, philosophy, theology, literary theory, theater, film, painting, sculpture, and art history.

  Knowing this audience, a bunch of you would actually be perfect for this if you were between companies, looking for something fascinating to be part of. You also probably know several great candidates. Feb 12 is the cutoff.

• Reminder: This year is the first AI Film Festival at SXSW, and they’re accepting submissions through Feb 15. Videos should be 1-90 minutes, with the majority of visuals made using AI tools, but most writing done by humans. More info here

Local Mural of the Week

I was clickin’ around on Google maps a little while ago (as one does), and stumbled across something I’d never heard of before.

Up at the Domain, on top of one of the buildings – a huge 30,000 square foot mural.

It’s painted in 3D, and it’s the only one around. So at first, I thought it was something Google Maps was adding to the image.

But nay! It’s a huge, hidden, rooftop mural. And now you know it’s up there too.

It was designed by Ignacio Garcia a few years ago, and contains a bunch of Austin-type stuff, like a Willie Nelson portrait, bats, and blue bonnets.

Why’s it up there?

Who knows?! But the next time you’re at the Domain with your spouse, sipping lattes (perhaps from my favorite coffee truck), and strolling past the Tommy Bahama furniture store, you can turn to them, knowingly, and say, “You know, there’s a giant guitar up there.”

You’re welcome.

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