Austin Takes On Oxford Union

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 is a little shorter than normal – I’m finally road tripping back to Austin after the holiday. But there are a few really cool things I wanted to get on your radar, so we’ve got…

• 🗓️ A Few Great Events

• 🇬🇧 Austin Challenges Oxford Union (very stoked for this)

• 🔥 Special Dinner by Aaron Franklin

• 📚 An Event with NYT Bestseller Rachel Hollis

• And more…

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

-Ethan

PS. I know a lot of you reading this came here from the west coast over the last few years. Hoping your friends and family back there are safe.

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 13. Austin Notion Meetup: Hosted by Sara Loretta – if your company relies on Notion, trust me, you should know her

🗓️ Jan. 14: MFM Fan Meetup: Alice Huang is getting people together for her first meetup of the new year (she also hosts events for All-In and Modern Wisdom fans)

🗓️ Jan. 14: Wine, Women & Vision: Texas Women In Business is hosting a wine + workshop on building your vision board for the year. Did I mention there’ll be wine?

🗓️ Jan. 15: CTO Club: Join William Baxter and other senior tech leaders to discuss the dangers of product-technical schisms and how to avoid them

🗓️ Jan. 15: Conscious Connection: Yash Singri is back with his non-traditional networking event focused on authenticity and depth

🗓️ Jan. 15: Founder’s First VA: Chris Taylor is getting founders together down at the Red Fridge Society for a talk from my buddy Tomer Soran on how to onboard your first VA.

Red Fridge is truly great. I wrote more about ‘em here. Chris is hosting one of his BoozyLess Happy Hours the following night too (Jan 16)

🗓️ Jan 15-16: Post-Quantum Cryptography Conference: If you like highly technical events like this, check out the calendar that Kat Rector curates for ATX

🗓️ Jan. 16: Startup Grind Global Pitch Battle: SG is hosting more than 100 pitch battles across 34 countries. This one’s organized by Paris Bland and Mianya Ong and there’s one day left to apply to pitch

🗓️ Jan. 17: Female Founders & Friends: Juliette Richert is back with her monthly meetup, hosted every third Friday (and recommended by many)

🗓️ Jan. 17: Elevated Interactions: Cody Todd is getting a group together at Cosmic Saltillo on the east side for drinks and conversation

🗓️ Jan. 17: ATX Youtubers: We started with one from Sara Loretta so we’ll wrap with another from her too – if you’re taking Youtube seriously in the new year, check this out

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

🇬🇧 Giving The Oxford Union A Run For Its Money

Okay, this is the main thing I wanted to write about this week. If you’ve been reading a while, you’ve seen me talk a lot about UATX, the innovative new university co-founded by local billionaire Joe Lonsdale.

As part of their fearless pursuit of truth, they’re launching the Austin Union, a live weekly debate series between inspiring public thinkers.

I can’t wait for clips from this to start going viral (a la Konstantin).

At the private test-run, Professor Morgan Marietta gave this wonderful speech, titled Lies Are A False Magic, on why open debate is the cornerstone of truth (the second half is particularly excellent).

Referencing a line from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, he said…

You can watch that test-run debate below, or register for their first public event, which is tomorrow night, Jan 10 from 6-8PM.

Fellow NYT authors and Yale Law professors, Jack Balkin and Akhil Amar, will be debating whether originalist interpretation of the constitution is the best way to secure the common good.

I love that Austin is becoming a seat for this kind of high-level national discussion. Check out the full list of debates (held every Friday) here.

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.

• Jan. 10: Paint Your Partner Night at Deep Eddy Vodka

• Jan. 11: Coffee for Creatives at Merfolk’s on South Congress

• Jan. 11: Vivid Parlor - Immersive Museum Cocktail Party

• Jan. 12: Live Event with NYT Bestselling Author Rachel Hollis

• Jan. 12: Non-Alc Wine Tasting at Dear Dry Drinkery

• Jan 13: Beatles - Full Moon Concert In The Dark

• Jan. 14: Winter Mocktail Class at The Backspace

• Jan. 14: Two Step Tuesday at Coral Snake

• Jan. 16: Candlelight Concert: The Best of Bridgerton

• Jan. 17: The Tim Burton Ball at Riches Art

• Jan. 18: The 4th Annual East Austin Cello Fest

• Jan. 18: Steakhouse: Mastering Sauces Cooking Class at Central Market

• Jan. 19: ATX Brew Crew - Coffee Tasting at Dark Horse Tattoo & Coffee

• Jan. 19: Roosevelt Room Masterclass on Classic Cocktails

• Jan. 14-19: Clue Live On Stage at Bass Concert Hall

🔥 One More Thing… On Jan. 21, ATX Supper Club is partnering with Frankie’s Supper Club (created by Aaron Franklin, of Franklin’s BBQ fame) for a one-off dinner, and a special prix fixe menu curated by Aaron himself.

The meal – served family style to a small group of attendees – is set to include Grilled Redfish with Red Chimichurri, Boneless Ribeye, Mushroom Stroganoff served with Egg Noodles, and more. Tickets are just $66, and you can get ‘em here.

Word On The Street

Have you had to let any great talent go recently? That always sucks. But a few great founders I know are hiring. If you have a former employee you’d recommend for one of these roles, shoot me their LinkedIn. Happy to try and connect dots.

• My friend Codie Sanchez is looking for a new full-stack dev to join her team here in Austin. They’d be working on BizScout, the business brokerage platform she’s building under Contrarian Thinking. Pays $175-225k. More Info…

• David Perrell is looking for a contract writer to work with him at Writing Examples. Should enjoy using AI tools, but not be slave to them, and be able to, “explain why Hemingway hits different than Faulkner” without sounding insufferable. Pays $500/article More Info…

• Bill Murphy is looking for an events person to join him at Willpower. If you don’t recognize the name, you will. Bill hosts some of the best DTC events in town, and frequently appears in this newsletter. Pays $40-$60k (tell ‘em to read to the bottom of the JD for the real application instructions) More Info…

Are you hiring for a key role? Let me know.

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