Musk Says X Headquarters Is Coming To Austin

PLUS: How to Write Fearlessly... The Infinite Marketing Budget... Meet The Color Cartel... and more...

Author

Ethan Brooks
July 18, 2024

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 bunch!)

  • 💸 The “Infinite Marketing Budget”

  • 🏎️ These Street Artists Paint Porsches

  • And more…

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

-Ethan

PS. Keep an ear out for the new All-In pod today. People are expecting Jason Calacanis to announce a move to Austin after this tweet. Musk also announced he’s moving X and SpaceX headquarters to Texas.

Upcoming Events

This is a big week for AI meetups:

  • 7/20: AITX Community Hackathon

  • 7/23:AITX Monthly Meetup

  • 7/24:Austin AI Social Hour

  • 7/24: Austin AI Alliance Meetup

  • 7/25: AI Camp

There are also a bunch of other general interest founder events – all great places to meet other people building in the trenches…

🗓️ July 19: Pitch & Run:Chat business with Zeke Torres and 100+ other founders, funders, and startup folks on a 4.2 mile run around the lake

🗓️ July 19: Female Founders & Friends:Hosted by Juliette Richert of the Artemis Fund on the 3rd Friday of every month - comes highly recommended

🗓️ July 19: Let’s Do Lunch - Female Networking Group:Hosted by Lauren Eckles and open to women from any industry in Austin

🗓️ July 20: Founders Running Club:Launched just a few weeks ago by Anette Armenta and Tim Tkachenko. They run 5k around the lake every Saturday and have a very active WhatsApp group

🗓️ July 20: The Board Walks:Not strictly business-related, but Elle Beecher’s group is fantastic, and lots of founders/investors are regulars.

🗓️ July 21: Ladies’ Friend-working: Erin Laverone is a founder here in town, and hosts these highly curated happy hours that people love.

🗓️ July 23: Facilitation Lab:Shout out to Sara Loretta for putting this on my radar – get hands on practice that’ll help you lead your teams better with facilitation techniques like “Liberating Structures,” Game Storming, “Thinking Wrong,” and more.

🗓️ July 25: Wake Up! CPG:Start the day right with Marc Nathan, and founders from Austin’s top CPG brands.

🗓️ July 25: Women in Web3:This session is focused on innovations beyond crypto-currency, and why people in other industries should still care about Web3.You can get in free with code WiW3

🗓️ July 25: Shopify & Ecomm Happy Hour: Talk shop with Cameron Shaw, Patrick Pitman, and other local founders in the ecomm space

🗓️ July 25: Understanding Nonprofit Financial Reports:For anyone getting into philanthropy, the city of Austin is hosting a multi-part event on non-profit financials, including a follow-on session on bookkeeping that’s available both in-person and online

🗓️ July 26: Tash Oakley at Book People:Natasha was one of the first large-scale online influencers, and has parlayed that following into a nine-figure business portfolio, co-founding brands like Monday Swimwear, The Pilates Class, and more. She’ll be at Book People for a talk next week, and signed books will be available.

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.

  • July 19: Ribbon Cutting at Austin Craft Brewing

  • July 19: Music Under The Stars at the Bullock Museum

  • July 20: Underdog’s Summer Wine Tasting Series - BBQ Wines

  • July 20:Dirty Dancing Playing at the Blue Starlight Drive-In

  • July 21: Herbal Remedies for Sun, Bug, and Outdoor Care

  • July 21: Whiskey Tasting & Cocktail Class at Standard Proof

  • July 21: Buck Moon Hike Around The Lake

  • July 22: Taste & Toast Cocktail Showdown at The Royal Sonesta

  • July 23: The Zing Thing Wine and Food Workshop

  • July 24: The Famous Emmy Burger Pop-Up

  • July 24: The (f*cking) Cannalina Wine Mixer

  • July 25: Latin Food Night Market

  • July 25: Games Y’all - Local Indie Game Creators

  • July 26: ZZ Top Cover Band - 50 Years of Tres Hombres

  • July 26:Blade Runner Final Cut with Deleted Scenes at Austin Film Society

One last thing… Parker + Scott are hosting the next installment of their Super Secret Social Club for Snackers on the 24th.

If you haven’t heard of them yet, they’re great. Run by husband/wife duo Jess and Ian Haisley, their shop has hundreds of carefully curated food, home, and lifestyle brands, most of which are women-owned and made right here in Texas. I wrote more about ‘em here.

The Social Club is a fun chance to try out new CPG brands, and your $45 ticket gets you access to the event, a $50 in-store credit, and 10% discount on snacks through September, so it’s basically all up-side. More details here.

Word On The Street

Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders in ATX

1. Infinite Marketing Budget:Unicorn founder, Jason Cohen, hit the front page of Hacker News with this brand new article on the beauty of the annual pre-pay model and how it helps your cashflow.

2. How to Write Fearlessly: If you enjoy Scott Galloway’s unique style, you’ll love this interview he did with David Perell.

My favorite takeaway: Galloway’s trick for developing a strong voice is to write, “as if the only audience is my boys, when they’re 40 and they have some perspective, and I’m gone. And what I want is I want them to think, Wow, dad was smart and dad was fearless.”

Absolutely love that line.

3. House To Check Out: I mentioned above that Elon’s moving X HQ to Austin. Last time he did that (moving Starlink and Boring Company to Bastrop) property values went up… Like a lot.

Well, he’s also moving Neuralink to the Del Valle neighborhood just outside of Austin Bergstrom, and in this week’s issue of Selling Austin, Kirtana Reddy wrote more about that, highlighting this potential deal for anyone looking:

  • 4 beds, 2 baths, 1.06 acres

  • $555k (though she suggests $510k)

  • 3.5% assumable mortgage 🤯

It’s the best damn Real Estate newsletter in ATX, and you can read more here

Local Artist of the Week

Last week, I told you about Mike and Erin Johnston, the duo behind the street crew, Team TRUTH.

Well, they’re not the only artist couple in town…

Meet the Color Cartel, comprised of Andrew and Nikki Horner (their street names are Apse and Iva respectively).

They do a lot of commission work (like this trailer for Tesla) and murals for hotels and other companies that have been featured in Architectural Digest.

But the thing they might be best-known for is the stuff they do on high-performance cars and motorcycles, like this 1974 Porsche 911 – a truly unique canvas that speaks to their shared love of motor sports.

They’re also the first artists I’ve seen who offer unique events and experiences (like graffiti classes).

TONIGHT: They’re hosting an event at their private studio called Street Pulse. It’s a mix of music, art, and exotic cars (and there will even be a racing simulator there built by PushStart Simulators – another badass ATX startup).

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

Thank you to all the incredible local founders and leaders who share great insights and events. You can follow and connect with them here…