Austin's New Hardware Incubator

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)

• ⚙️ Austin’s Newest Hardware Accelerator

• ☕ New Favorite Coffee Truck In The Domain

• and more…

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

-Ethan

PS. The Michelin list is out! Huge shout-out to friend-of-the-newsletter LeRoy and Lewis for their star, and to Dai Due for being one of only two Green Stars (“leaders in sustainable gastronomy”) in the city.

I wrote about Dai Due recently, and how founding chef Jesse Griffiths started that company with $230. You can read the whole story here.

Got a restaurant you think should have made the list? Contribute to my new series, The Michel-outs, by sending your recs here.

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.

🗓️ Nov. 15: Dawn Patrol: Adamant founder, Jason Yeh, is hosting the first-ever Austin edition of this event series, focused on founders who are actively fundraising

🗓️ Nov. 15: Female Founders + Friends: Hosted the third Friday of every month by Juliette Richert of the Artemis Fund (last one of ‘24!)

🗓️ Nov. 15: No Nonsense Nonprofit: TWIB featured speaker, Kristen Huguley, shares frameworks that increased revenue at the nonprofits she’s led

🗓️ Nov. 16: First Annual Astronaut Summit at UATX: SpaceX and Blue Origin astronauts join researchers and professors from across the country for a day of talks 🚀

🗓️ Nov. 17: Austin Professional Networking Event: Neeraj Salvankar plans these fun social get-togethers all over town as part of the Austin Social Club. Photos here!

🗓️ Nov. 19: Thinking of Selling Your Business? Ken Dorward is hosting a panel of bankers to discuss the state of M&A, valuation, diligence, and more

🗓️ Nov. 19: SKU Fall Showcase: Keynote by SKU co-founder Clayton Christopher, who started Sweet Leaf Tea Co, Deep Eddy Vodka, and Waterloo Sparkling Water

🗓️ Nov. 19: Fireside Chat with a Founder: Rajiv Bala, founder and GP at Clutch VC, is chatting with Mike Meyers, founder at Reflex, which has raised ~$16m

🗓️ Nov. 20: All-In Meetup with JCal: You read that right. Jason Calacanis is coming to Alice Huang’s next All-In fan meetup. Come say hey!

🗓️ Nov. 20: South Korean Tech Showcase: Wen Zhang is hosting this lunch with several AR startups. By the way, if you’re fundraising, her pitch workshop is quite good

🗓️ Nov. 20: Metropolitan Breakfast Club: Longtime director of the Blanton Museum, Simone Wicha, shares her experience shepherding ATX into a hub for the arts

🗓️ Nov. 20: Austin Women in Tech - AI IRL: Speakers will share their hands-on experience (good, and bad) implementing AI. Call for speakers is still open too

🗓️ Nov. 20: TurnUp! CPG Happy Hour: Hosted by Bill Murphy and Marc Nathan, this is always one of the best CPG events in town

🗓️ Nov. 21: Live Recording - LoneStartup: One of my favorite local podcasts is interviewing one of my favorite local businesses (Red Fridge Society)! Come check it out

🗓️ Nov. 21: Authentic Austin: They call it A-Squared, and it’s all about authentic conversations and deeper connections. Kristen Pavle hosts this month!

🗓️ Nov. 21: Invest Blue Angel Network: Kentuckians – Raechele Smalls is focused on connecting founders/investors with Bluegrass ties here in Austin

🗓️ Nov. 21: Book Discussion (online): If you’ve read Yuval Harari’s new book, Nexus, join Jay Boisseau and members of the Austin Forum on Tech and Society to discuss

🗓️ Nov. 21: Nerd Night: Like a local version of TED, but for nerds, by nerds. This month’s theme is the healing power of laughter,

🗓️ Nov. 21: Hardware Meetup: For anyone building real stuff in the physical world, check out Nick Frank’s meetup. Also don’t miss the new hardware accelerator in the Word on the Street section (below)

🗓️ Nov. 22: AITX + Llama Hackathon Reception: AITX is hosting a hackathon with Meta, and this reception is the night before kickoff. Hackathon info is here

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

Tickets for Hamilton go on sale today. The show opens in March ‘25, as part of the Broadway in Austin series that includes Peter Pan, Les Mis, Moulin Rouge, and more. Also…

• TONIGHT: Stories on the Lawn

• Nov. 15: Craft Cocktail Competition at the Sunset Room

• Nov. 15: Day Tripping Through Texas Whiskey (looks very cool)

• Nov. 16: Texas Craft Brewer’s Fest

• Nov. 16: Watercolor 101 - Holiday Cards

• Nov. 16: Vivid Parlor Art Pop-Up on the East Austin Studio Tour

• Nov. 16: Murder Mystery Steam Train Ride

• Nov. 17: Cars & Coffee at Circuit of the Americas

• Nov. 17: Matthew McConaughey Live at Texas Book Festival

• Nov. 17: Puff & Paint (pretty much what it sounds like)

• Nov. 17: Mariah Carey at the Moody Center

• Nov. 19: Jelly Roll at the Moody Center

• Nov. 19: Tara Chapman Beekeeping Talk at First Light

• Nov. 19: Collage & Connect at Riches Art

• Nov. 20: An Evening with Josh Brolin

• Nov. 20: Burbon & Blues at Still Austin

• Nov. 20: Floral Design Workshop + Nonalc Cocktails

• Nov. 21: ACL Celebrates 50 Years

• Nov. 21: South Austin Chess Club at Buzz Mill Coffee

• Nov. 21: Chocolate Souffle Class at Commedore Perry Estate

• Nov. 22: CandleLight Concert - Tribute to the Beatles

• Nov. 22: Street Expression Graffiti Workshop

• Nov. 23: Lewis Black - The Final Tour

• Nov. 23: Class & Glass - Yoga and Wine at Vintage Books

One Last Thing… Food influencer Matty Matheson is doing a tour event for his latest book, Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches. This is a big get. Matty’s got a CPG brand, a kitchenware brand, a hospitality group with multiple restaurants in it, and 3.5m subs across Youtube and IG.

Oh, and I guess he’s on some TV show called The Bear which I’ve never seen but people love (don’t @ me, I work for a living, dammit).

This is his third book (at least one of the other two is a NYT best-seller). You can grab tickets here.

Word On The Street

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

• Two Days Left to apply for the Texas Woman’s University early stage accelerator program. Seven founders will go through a ~3.5 month program, complete with weekly meetings, and access to local network connections.

• There’s a badass hardware accelerator opening just outside of town, run by 021 VC. They’re writing $1m checks, and taking a page from Shackleton when it comes to recruiting founders 👇

📚 Sidenote: If you’re looking for your next read, this book on Shackleton’s expedition was unbelievable.

Insights

Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by interesting thinkers in ATX

1. “[America’s] system is f*cking awesome” Capital Factory founder Joshua Baer, sat down with his longtime friend Jason Calacanis, to talk all things investing, startups, and how great America (and specifically Texas) is.

My favorite part is about 30 minutes in, when JCal lays out the economics of his VC fund (right before going on a rip with some crazy “hypothetical” stories from the trenches). Don’t forget you can grab coffee with JCal here.

2. Tear Down This Wall… I didn’t expect to be so captivated by this. Peter Robinson was the speech writer behind Reagan’s famous speech in West Berlin. He joined UATX (the innovative college co-founded by local billionaire Joe Lonsdale) to tell the story of exactly how those lines came to be.

Even if you, like me, were born after that speech, this one’s worth a listen. A great reminder of how individual people – ones you’ve never heard of – shape history.

3. Alright, Alright, Alright Local comedian, Tom Segura, sat down with fellow Austinite, Matthew McConaughey to talk about comedy, acting, writing, and the creative process. I’m only about half-way through this one as I write this, but had to include it. Great listen for anyone doing creative work.

Local Shop of the Week

Not an ad – just a cool spot you should know

Best Friend Coffee | 10901 Domain Drive

This one’s for everybody up north. A couple times a week, I take the dog for early-morning walks out at The Domain. So I was stoked when this spot opened right on our route.

It’s run by husband-wife team Whitney and Brady Johnson, who own a coffee shop in Dallas called Assemble. The trailer used to be Dallas-based too, but apparently the rules on food trucks up there are wild (like, you can’t leave them parked overnight) so they relocated here.

It opens at 7AM, six days a week, so it’s great for early birds. And I don’t know what they’re hiding in that little box, but they make a damn good latte (and I say that as someone who’s loathe to admit I even drink lattes). Check ‘em out next time you’re up.

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