Insights From Starting Four $1B+ Companies

PLUS: Real Talk on Founder Divorce... VC from an LP Perspective... Don't Aim for a $100M Exit... And more...

Author

Ethan Brooks
May 02, 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

  • 📣 Word On The Street

  • 📚 Local Shop of the Week

BUT FIRST… I want to introduce you to someone

You read this newsletter to get tapped into the local startup scene. To do that, you gotta know Marc Nathan.

A long-time founder, investor, mentor, and connector, he’s the senior director of market development at Michael Best & Friedrich, but most people know him as “that guy who knows everyone.”

Seriously, he’s everywhere…

If you’re a CPG founder, you gotta check out his guide to the local CPG ecosystem, and get his events on your calendar.

Marc and the Wake Up! CPG crew

I asked him which local CPG brand he thinks more people should know about…

“It’s like asking which one of your kids is your favorite,” he joked. “I have one, but I won’t say who.”

So here are a few local brands he loves, in no particular order: Whim’s Delights, BabkaATX, Granarly, OpenEye Chai, Willpower, Lady Bird, Boozy Bites, Yellowbird Sauce

Outside of his events, he also loves Artemis’ Female Founders and Friends hosted by Juliette Richert, and The Board Walks run by Elle Beecher (I’ve been to this too and it’s excellent).

Finally, his top restaurant rec if you want to impress a client: Lonesome Dove Austin (try the rattlesnake and rabbit sausage as a starter).

Check out his interview with local podcaster, Abhinav Sinha, for more on the local tech ecosystem. Then hit him up on LinkedIn or Twitter to say hey!

And now, on to the rest of the newsletter…

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: Pat & Umar’s VC/PE/Tech Happy Hour: Hosted by Patrick Moody and Umar Brimah, both experienced members of the ATX startup and VC scene

  • May 3: Amazon Seller Week Wrap Party: JungleScout just finished a week-long online conference and is inviting local Amazon sellers to their ATX HQ for a wrap party

  • May 3: Founder Happy Hour at Cosmic: I’ve been to this several times. It was started by a few Hampton members here in town and is a great way to meet experienced founders. They meet at Cosmic on Pickle Road from 5-7PM. There’s no RSVP page, but it’s open invite. Ping Chad Sakonchick with questions (and look for him and the gang near the entrance to the bar)

  • May 4: The Ultimate Entrepreneur Experience: This sounds rad – Emily Hirsh, host of the Not For Lazy Marketers podcast, organized a 2-part experience for local founders. A fun ATX founder version of the Amazing Race in the morning, and intimate dinner with the group at night

  • May 6: Austin Startup Meetup: Hosted at Capital Factory by Suman Poluri, this looks like a good place to meet earlier-stage founders and get tapped into the local tech community

  • May 6: Venture Design 101: Shout out to Amanda Claypool for putting this on my radar. It’s hosted by Ada Ryland, and focuses on how to design strong companies that can attract investors.

  • May 7: Startup Incentives: Taught by Shannon Sibold, a partner at Morrison Foerster, specializing in M&A, public and private financing, and advising emerging-growth companies.

  • May 7: Inbound Led Outbound Workshop (ONLINE): You’ve seen me talk about Adam Robinson and the LinkedIn strategy his team used to book hundreds of sales calls. He’s opening up his playbook to dive deeper. Definitely worth checking out

  • May 7: Wine, Women, and Whatever: Hosted by Texas Women In Business - their events always sell out fast, so be sure to RSVP to this one asap!

  • May 9: Thinking of Selling Your Business? Broadway Bank and VCFO are co-hosting a panel discussion on the state of M&A, valuation, pre-sale prep, deal structure, surviving due diligence, and more

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.

  • May 3: To Dine For - Garden Party at Swoop House

  • May 4: Maifest - German Texan Beer & Wine Festival

  • May 4: Tequila Release Party at Crowded Barrel Spirits

  • May 4: Herb Day at the American Botanical Council

  • May 4: Rolling Rave - Basically a party on wheels

  • May 4: The Teskey Brothers - Winding Way Tour

  • May 4-5: Austin Record Convention - Vinyl Music Sale

  • May 4-5: Pecan Street Art Festival

  • May 5: Whiskey Tasting Experience at Standard Proof

  • May 6: The Office Trivia at Love Supreme Pizza Bar

  • May 7: Tuesday Twilight at Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

  • May 9: Salt & Time Farm to Table Dinner

  • May 9: Movies on the Lake - Mama Mia

  • May 11: Screen on the Green - The Goonies

Word On The Street

Thought-provoking ideas shared by founders in ATX

1. Building Four $1B+ Companies: Local founder, Joe Lonsdale joined the My First Million podcast to talk about lessons he learned from Peter Thiel, gaps he sees in the market, and the levers he’s used to build more $1B companies than anyone else in America.

2. Real Talk On Founder Divorce: In a recent episode of her new podcast, Codie Sanchez dug into the realities around founder divorce and what people have learned from going through it. I’ve never heard anyone get into this on this level before! Great show

3. Don’t Aim For A $100M Exit: Founders are taking on too much risk in the current VC model, Santosh Sharan says. He outlined a playbook for rebalancing the scales. What do you think? Email me with your thoughts!

4. VC From an LPs Perspective: Local investor Alexa Binns is a partner at Spacecadet and also runs a family office with her two sisters. In this interview, she shares tips for founders courting Angels, VCs courting LPs, what she’s seeing in the market, and more. Check out her pod, Swimming with Allocators for more on the state of VC

5. Using ChatGPT to Digest Customer Interviews: In this 8min video, Chad Sakonchick, shows you how he used ChatGPT to analyze long-form interviews his team did with customers. Fascinating way to

Local Shop of the Week

Okay, this one’s a little out of left field – but recently I’ve been wanting to learn more about book binding.

I’m thinking of building new bookshelves for my place, and…

  • Modern books don’t look very good on a shelf

  • They’re not made to last either

  • It seems cool to have custom versions of your favorite books

So I was stoked to hear the Austin Book Arts Center exists 🤓

With roots stretching back to 1986, they teach classes in bookbinding, paper-making, typography, etc, and have a membership that gives you access to their workshop on Lamar.

They’re also hosting a free book-binding class with the Austin public library on May 11. Definitely random, but cool if you’re a book/print media nerd!

That’s all for this week.

Email me here 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…