Grab Coffee with JCal

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, keep an eye out for:

• 🥃 A Live Intro to Whiskey Investing

• 🤖 AIs Discussing Aristotle and Machiavelli

• 🚀 SpaceX Astronauts Speaking Near You

• And more…

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

-Ethan

PS. You read this newsletter to meet cool local founders, so today I want to intro you to Tony Martin, former co-founder of iCracked (YCW12, acquired by Allstate).

His new company is turning poker into the modern version of golf, marrying corporate events, online poker, live dealers + real cards. They’re the ones powering this founder poker club Shaan Puri tweeted about.

Fun Fact: I actually got to test Tony’s platform back in the early days. We used it for a team-building event at Hampton. Had a blast. Even if you’re not a poker person, he’s really nailed the social side of the product. Definitely check it out if you’re looking for something to do with your team ahead of the holidays.

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. 8: Morning Marketing Mixer: Amy Jackson and Destinee Berman both run performance agencies, and are starting this series for marketing leaders in ATX

🗓️ Nov. 8: Cosmic Coffee Happy Hour: Cody Todd, from Blue Anchor Investments, is hosting this informal get-together for founders and investors

🗓️ Nov. 9: AI & Literature: UT’s Dr. Samuel Baker joins other professors and authors to explore how writers have used various artificial intelligences for inspiration

Note: This is part of the larger Literature & Change event, running today through Saturday, which is open to the public

🗓️ Nov. 11: Supper Club with Texas Venture Partners: TVP Partner, Tal Shmueli, is co-hosting this exclusive Chatham House dinner roundtable

🗓️ Nov. 12: Conversation on Board Diversity: Panel discussion and networking event for women interested in pursuing board positions

Interestingly, there’s a similar event happening the same day across town for anyone who wants to join non-profit boards

🗓️ Nov. 12: ShitPitch: Hilarious concept – Three founders spin the wheel of ridiculous business ideas, then get 15 minutes to prepare a pitch. Later, they’ll pitch their actual business to the crowd. Applications are still open.

🗓️ Nov. 12: Female Leaders of Austin: Join dozens of founders, VPs, and CEOs, co-hosted by Lidija Newman and Zoe Tong’s Executive Chef Simone Tong

🗓️ Nov. 12: AWS x NVIDIA AI Pitch Event: Join Ryan Ramkaran and VCs from around the city as six AI startups pitch their wares at Amazon’s Austin HQ

🗓️ Nov. 12: Leveraging County-Funded Interns: This workshop is being hosted by the Economic Growth Business Incubator

🗓️ Nov. 12: Preparing for Exit: Seriously, make time for this. Shannon Sibold’s team at Morrison Foerster puts on these Lunch & Learns for scaled founders. Not a lame sales thing, they guard this info pretty closely, so it’s worth going in-person to learn.

🗓️ Nov. 12: Founder Chocolate Tasting: Not into all the happy hours or coffee events? Chris Taylor, down at the Red Fridge society has you covered.

🗓️ Nov. 13: Growing Your Brand on Social Media: UT’s Kendra Scott Women Entrepreneurs Leadership Institute is hosting this panel discussion with five local founders.

Side Note: Kendra’s is one of our city’s most fascinating unicorn founders. Check out my full case study on how she built her business here.

🗓️ Nov. 13: Austin Tech Council Roundtable Breakfast: Isabella Naidoo, Chief People Officer at the billion-dollar Wise, is giving the keynote on lessons learned from building out their people-centric org

🗓️ Nov. 14: You Sold Your Company… What’s Next? Another one from the Austin Technology Council, focused on charitable opportunities post-exit

🗓️ Nov. 14: Women in Art & Business: Every month, the Austin Chamber hosts a business connections mixer. This one includes a panel and fireside chat with several leaders in the arts & business, including Joyce Durst, a pioneer in enterprise software, tech, and near-shoring, and Vidya Moorthy, President of Austin Business Woman

Directly afterwards, there’s a social mixer benefitting the Austin Creative Alliance.

🗓️ Nov. 14: Wine & Wellness: The Asian Chamber’s women’s club is meeting with Kristine Viray Lai for a wine tasting and intro to mindful consumption

🗓️ 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’s featured speaker is Kristen Huguley, who’ll be sharing different frameworks that have helped increase revenue at the nonprofits she’s led

🗓️ Nov. 15: Whiskey Masterclass - Founders & Investors Only: For dedicated whiskey lovers, this is a must-go. Expert guidance on whiskey tasting, plus fascinating insights from the world of whiskey investing.

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

One Last Thing!… A couple of weeks ago, I told you about the inimitable Alice Huang, who hosts a bunch of events here in town, including one for All-In podcast fans.

Well… She did it.

She got JCal (our newest Austin resident) to join the group at the next All-In meetup It’s coming up on the 20th, over at Cosmic Pickle, so swing by, grab a coffee or a beer, and say hey!

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

…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.

• Nov. 8: Cannabis Infused Culinary Experience at Pershing

• Nov. 8: Upcycling Hand Embroidery Class at Hamilton Pool Vineyard

• Nov. 8: Meanwhile Brewing’s Four Year Anniversary Party

• Nov. 9: WeStrive Games

• Nov. 9: Special Release: Buorbon-Aged Sotol at Desert Door Distillery (…and yes, there will be Armadillo races)

• Nov. 9: Book Signing with Food Influencer Justine_Snacks

• Nov. 9: Brews & Hot Air Balloons on Lake Travis

• Nov. 9: Blazing Saddles showing at Alamo Lakeline

• Nov. 10: Breakfast Club Beer + Bike Crawl

• Nov. 11: Mindful Mixology - Nonalc Cocktail Class

• Nov. 12: Exhibit C, True Crime Live at The Paramount

• Nov. 12: ATX Supper Club Friendsgiving

• Nov. 13: Priest Ranch Wine Tasting at Pershing (Free)

• Nov. 13: Bob Ross Paint Along at Flipside Warehouse

• Nov. 14: Ink & Drink Tattoo Workshop at Dark Horse

• Nov. 15: Wine Tasting & Chef’s Table at Pershing

• 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: Introduction to Kumiko Woodworking

• Nov. 16: Watercolor 101 - Holiday Cards

• Nov. 16: Family Resource Festival - hosted by Center for Child Protection

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

One More Thing… The Cars & Coffee series at Circuit of the Americas is coming back November 17th. Tickets are free for spectators, and if you’ve got a car you want to show, you can register here for $12.

Word On The Street

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

• AI Founders: AITX is co-hosting a hackathon with Meta this month. Great chance to show off your ideas, and all participants qualify to apply for the special event tranche of Meta’s Llama Impact Grant ($100-$600k).

• Is your kid heading to college soon? UATX, the fascinating new university co-founded by local billionaire, Joe Lonsdale, is having an open house. Thanks to their innovative funding model, 100% of accepted students get a full-ride

• SXSW Is Coming: If you can believe it, it’s already time to start thinking about your SXSW strategy. Peter Lewis, their chief of partnerships, is laying out options at next week’s Tacos & Topics event

• Calling All Artists: Austin has a program called Writing on the Walls, designed to beautify the city via murals. You can read more here, and sign up to be notified when new spaces open up

• Can’t believe I have to write this… But there’s a $10k bounty for tips that lead to arrest of people stealing copper from local AT&T lines

• Here’s your regular reminder that if your business is based in ATX or relocating here, the city offers thousands back in job-based awards and tax refunds

Insights

Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders in ATX

1. An absolute must-listen: Local investor Brendan McCord hosted a reading club on the intellectual origins of tech, exploring how authors as far back as Aristotle may contribute to the future of AI research.

Then, one of Palantir’s AI developers took the recordings and original texts, and turned them into an ai-hosted podcast series and it’s fascinating.

There’s something otherworldly about listening to AI discuss how AI may need to embrace the teachings of Machiaveli in order to be more human. Just wild.

2. Speaking of Palantir, I just came across Codie Sanchez’ recent interview with founder Joe Lonsdale (who’s now built something like 8 or 9 billion-dollar companies).

Their discussion is great – especially the section about 35 minutes in, where they talk about how to find CEOs, structure executive comp packages, and more.

3. Last thing about Joe, I swear… He and his team at 8VC published an excellent deep dive on how AI is powering new service-based businesses that are, in many cases, more defensible than SaaS alone.

They’ve invested in a bunch of these, and break down 4 key components they’ve found set businesses in this space apart.

4. A Great Newsletter On Writing: I’m calling it now – Madi Taskett is going to be a household name one day. She has one of those voices that just can’t be anything else. Like lightning, waiting to strike.

She’s been exploring the craft of fiction in her newsletter recently, sharing techniques she’s experimenting with, and even resources (like Chuk Palahniuk’s newsletter – author of Fight Club – which is fantastic). If you’re into writing as a pursuit, check her out.

5. Revisiting Trump’s Rogan Discussion: Local founder Jessi Roesch wrote a piece re-examining some of the climate-related parts of Trump’s recent discussion with Joe Rogan. She’s the founder of Downland, which helps support regenerative farming, and is one of the most dialed-in founders I’ve met in a long time.

Forget politics for a second. My favorite thing about this piece is the red-, yellow-, green-light system Jessi used to categorize topics.

It felt very fair from a journalistic perspective, and reminds me of Jefferson’s old line, that a truly great newspaper would be broken into four sections: “Truths, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Lies.”

That’s all for this week! Technically, this is a shorter issue. I blame John Davison’s fantastic bourbon-tasting event last night. You can sign up here to hear about the next one.

Email me here if you want to share any feedback, or let me know about an event you’re hosting.

Until next week,

-Ethan