A Fascinating Influencer Growth Tactic

PLUS: 3 New Grants To Check Out... Real Talk On Power-Couple Relationships... The Future of Anti-Fragile Power Grids... And More...

Author

Ethan Brooks
June 20, 2024

Welcome to this issue of Austin Business Review, a weekly roundup of great local events and insights for Austin business owners (plus some 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, there’s an absurd number of founder events. Get your fill, because the 4th is just around the corner, and I’m tellin ya now, the calendar’s a ghost town then.

Other things in this issue…

  • 📈 A Fascinating Influencer Growth Tactic

  • 💰 3 Grants to Check Out

  • 🎨 The Street Artist Behind A Bunch Of Iconic ATX Murals

  • And more…

-Ethan

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: TurnUp! CPG Firestarter: The summer solstice edition of Bill Murphy and Marc Nathan’s monthly happy hour showcasing local CPG brands and founders

🗓️ June 21: Pitch & Run: Join Zeke Torres and other ATX founders to chat business and get feedback while running 4.2 miles around the lake

🗓️ June 21: Founded With Pride: Rooftop happy hour for LGBTQ+ founders, co-hosted by StartOut and Sputnik

🗓️ June 21: Artemis Female Founders & Friends: Hosted the third Friday of every month by Juliette Richert of the Artemis Fund

🗓️ June 22: The Board Walks - No. 100: If you’re in Austin, you’ve probably heard of Elle Beecher’s incredible walk & talk group. This week’s special because it’s the 100th installment.

🗓️ June 23: B-Roll Content Day: This is cool – learn to shoot and edit short-form video, then work through a guided shot list, collecting B-roll footage you can use over and over

🗓️ June 24: Philanthropy In Action: Come learn best practices from founder/CEO Bobby Jenkins, current Vice Chair of Austin Gives

🗓️ June 25: How To Go To Market: Learn from Autumn Manning, investor, advisor, and multi-time founder who scaled YouEarnedIt (acquired) and CrateJoy to global audiences

🗓️ June 25: What She Said Co-working: Emily Salberg and Sarah Catherine Baker are building a referral network for women in business. Join them for a mid-week co-working session at VUKA

🗓️ June 25: AITX Meetup: Every month they have a few live demos, and dozens of founders and operators building in the AI space

🗓️ June 26: Austin Shopify Meetup: Talk shop with Cameron Shaw, Patrick Pitman, and other local founders in the ecomm space

🗓️ June 26: Friendworking Happy Hour: Erin Laverone is a founder here in town, and she hosts these highly curated happy hours that people love. Been trying to get her to let me share ‘em here for months!

🗓️ June 26: The Modern Customer Journey on LinkedIn: Brooke Bains specializes in scaling companies from $1m to $15m+ and in this session she’ll dive deep on building your LinkedIn presence

🗓️ June 27: WakeUp! CPG: Start the day right with Marc Nathan, and founders from Austin’s top CPG brands.

🗓️ June 27: Future of Chabots & Conversational AI: A summit specifically exploring everything from personalized CX chatbots to AI-powered virtual assistants

🗓️ June 27: How to Raise Your First Round: This is a two’fer – a webinar with Sputnik starting at 3PM, followed by an in-person happy hour at 5PM with other pre-seed founders

🗓️ June 27: Sip & Socialize Ecomm Meetup: Join Becky Gross for a laid-back evening talking all things ecomm

🗓️ June 27: Tacos & Topics: SXSW is opening their call for speakers soon. Co-President Hugh Forrest will tell you how to craft your proposal

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.

  • June 20: Summer Solstice at Laguna Gloria

  • June 20: Latino Moonlight Serenade

  • June 20: Movies on the Lake - Ferriss Bueller’s Day Off

  • June 21: Summer Music at Zilker Bottanical Garden

  • June 21: Full Moon Drum Circle (because why not?)

  • June 22: Wine Tasting Series - Chilled Reds

  • June 22: Sip & See - Tour at the Rosebridge Estates

  • June 22: New Faces of Austin Comedy

  • June 23: Puff & Paint (exactly what it sounds like)

  • June 23: Brushes & Brews - Pet Portrait Class

  • June 23: Omakse Vinyl Experience

  • June 24: Vandals at First Light

  • June 24: Heroes of Intellect - A Talk On Enlightenment Thinkers

  • June 25: Vinyl Night at Slackers - Bring a record for $1 off beer

  • June 25: Drink Sake + Learn Japanese Flower Arranging

  • June 25: The Roundtable - 20 Years of Magic & Mentalism

  • June 25: Zero Proof - Cheese & Non-Alc Cocktail Tasting

  • June 26: The Office Trivia

  • June 27: Burlesque on the Lawn

  • June 27: The Drop In - Free Summer Concert Series

  • June 28: Beginners Acro-Yoga

  • June 28: Couples Floating Sound Bath

Last thing… if you have any interest in getting closer to your food, Stewards of the Wild is hosting a wild hog butchery class with Jesse Griffiths, the award-winning chef at Dai Due.

Jesse’s a legend. He’s a leader in the local food movement, and outside the restaurant, he runs these incredible chef-guided ethical hunting and cooking schools that sell out faster than Taylor Swift concerts (for real).

His book on hogs (aptly named The Hog Book) won a James Beard Award, and I can’t stress enough how rare it is to learn with him.

You’ve gotta be an SOTW member, but you can join the Austin chapter here, then snag a ticket here.

Learn more about him in this 5-minute YETI documentary or his recent appearance on the MeatEater Podcast.

Word On The Street

Thought-provoking ideas published by ATX founders

1. Fascinating Influencer Growth Tactic: This week, the best thing I read was this piece by John Hancock, co-founder of Stonks, about how he and Sam Rattner got 500+ influencers to post about Sam’s newest company without paying cash up front.

They designed a new system that unlocked a little equity for each post someone made, and get this – they built the entire thing in Notion.

Fascinating idea from two very seasoned founders, and definitely worth a read.

2. Grants To Check Out: One of my favorite newsletters here in town comes from IP attorney Nicole Schwartz. Almost every week, she includes a roundup of 1-3 grants and funding opportunities for founders. This week, she shared…

3. The Future of Electricity: Climate tech people will enjoy Seyi Fabode’s piece on the future of antifragile swarm-like energy grids. Pairs nicely with this podcast he recorded with fellow ATX technologist, Reza Shirazi (they literally discuss robot space laser powerplants).

4. Real Talk On Relationships: Codie Sanchez sat down with Mikhaila Peterson for a deep dive on relationships, psychopaths, finding love as a hyper-successful woman, working with your spouse, and more.

Local Artist Of The Week

The sidewalk gets so much more interesting when you know the stories behind all that street art. Take this for example - a mural of Tupac down on S. 1st. It’s cool on it’s own, but it gets way cooler when you realize that the person behind this is also behind a ton of other famous pieces here in town.

She goes by Niz, and she’s a self-taught street artist from Peru – and one of the only large format female stencil artists in the world – with a style that blends hip-hop, nature, pop culture, mythology, and rebel activism.

Once you know her look, you’ll recognize it everywhere. From the South Lamar underpass to electrical boxes across town, to the walls of iconic Austin businesses like Amy’s, Home Slice, The Far Out, C-Boy’s, and more.

She also does private commissions for Airbnb’s (like this “Mt. Rushmore” of Austin podcast hosts)

She’s on a crew called Few and Far – more than a dozen women around the world pushing the envelope in skating and street art. And she was featured in this episode Muraling Austin, a three-part series PBS launched about a year ago.

So keep an eye out for her name on the wall next time you’re walking around. You can also check out her Instagram or website for more.

That’s all for this week! Email me here if you want to share any feedback, or cool events you’re hosting in Austin.

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…