The Very First ABR Holiday Gift Guide

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 ton)

• 📣 Word On The Street: Opportunities to grow, hire, and fundraise

• 📸 Local Artist of the Week

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

-Ethan

PS. Shout out to local athlete, Matt Johnson, who’s about half way through an 850-mile run from El Paso to Galvaston right now, raising money for vets.

This dude’s an animal. Inspired by David Goggins’ book, he finished his first marathon in under 3 hours, and has since done ultras, an Ironman, and once ran 130 miles carrying an American flag (hell yeah).

For this challenge, he’ll run 12 hours a day for weeks. The route brings him straight through town any day now. You can track him live here, and follow him on IG for video updates, and support the mission here (just saw donations double overnight).

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: Hardware Meetup: If you’re building a physical product, check out Nick Frank’s event, piggy-backing on this week’s Embedded World conference

🗓️ Oct. 11: Pitch & Run: Chat business with Zeke Torres and a bunch of other founders, funders, and startup folks on a 4.2 mile run around the lake

🗓️ Oct. 11: Lean Coffee: William Baxter and Duri Chitayat, veterans of Lean Coffee NYC, have brought the format to ATX

🗓️ Oct. 11-12: Fridge Fit: Two cutters from Savile Row are setting up shop at Chris Taylor’s Red Fridge Society. RFS is partnered with ABR, and I chose them in-part because Chris does cool stuff like this for the community. He’s also got a sommelier-guided wine tasting coming up!

🗓️ Oct 12: The Board Walks: Not strictly business-related, but Elle Beecher’s group is fantastic, and lots of founders/investors are regulars.

🗓️ Oct. 12: Founder Runner’s Club: Every Saturday, Anette Armenta, Eddy Hernandez, and others host a 5-10K run/walk around the lake for founders

🗓️ Oct. 12: ATX Relationship Builders’ Guild: If you build in-person communities as part of your job, Chukwudi Kanu’s new group is for you. I know Chuk, and he’s one of the best.

🗓️ Oct. 13: Sprint Club: Every Sunday, Ankith Harathi hosts a sprint workout group – open to all, but most of the attendees are seasoned founders in ATX

🗓️ Oct. 14: AI For Data Analysis: Part of a new series focused on sharing AI use-cases for non-profits, brick & mortar, or less-technical businesses

🗓️ Oct. 15: Unlocking Africa’s Future: Economist, speaker, and author Magatte Wade, is joining Arena Hall for this invite-only session. You can request access at the link above

🗓️ Oct. 16: Building A City That Works: Another off-the-record sit-down at Arena Hall, this time with current mayor of Austin, Kirk Watson

🗓️ Oct. 16: Austin CTO Club: Every month, William Baxter gathers senior tech talent for a lean-coffee-style meetup. This month’s theme is dealing with GenZ Managing Across Generational Gaps

🗓️ Oct. 16: Women In Business Happy Hour: Hosted by Rachel Domangue, who leads biz-ops at Glass Staircase, a killer marketing agency for female founders. Cool side note: They’re hosting at BOXT’s clubhouse, a local wine brand that recently appeared on QVC (shout-out Sarah Puil)

🗓️ Oct. 16: Conscious Connection: Yash Singri is gathering a small group of leaders to connect and discuss challenges in their work and personal life

🗓️ Oct. 16: TurnUp! CPG Happy Hour: Hosted by Bill Murphy and Marc Nathan, this is always one of the best CPG events in town

🗓️ Oct. 16: What She Said: Emily Salberg and Sarah Catherine Baker are building a referral network for women in business. This is their new co-working event at Sarah’s studio, Aurora House.

🗓️ Oct. 16: Failing Forward In Entrepreneurship: Okay, this is wild. Jennifer Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway, is speaking at Robert Rowling Hall, then moderating a panel of other founders for Q&A

🗓️ Oct. 17: Open Coffee (NORTH): Since 2009, Damon Clinkscales has been hosting this laid back bi-weekly coffee chat for founders and investors

🗓️ Oct. 17: AI Native & Aston Martin Racing: This sounds rad for very technical people. A leader from the Aston Martin F1 team is talking about how they integrated AI into *something-something-network-something… Did I mention it’s Formula One?

*Honestly, I read the description like six times… It’s beyond me.

🗓️ Oct 17: Raceweek Wellness Lounge: Speaking of F1, a creator-focused AI company called Ingenious is hosting an informal networking thing over at Pershing

🗓️ Oct. 17: Funding Your Vision: Austin Women in Tech is hosting this Lunch & Learn on debt vs equity financing and navigating the fundraising process.

🗓️ Oct. 17: TXI Explorer In Residence: Did you know UT has an entire institute focused on immersive storytelling? Craig Allen and Rachel Joy Victor will be joining to showcase how AI is changing the field (their companies look awesome).

Side Note: TXI also does “Sandbox Fridays” every week where you can drop in to see demos, research and more. No RSVP needed, just swing by from 12-5PM

🗓️ Oct. 18: Coffee Connectors Meetup: At last! Devin Ambron and Paris Bland have returned to us from their summer travels, and are back to hosting their coffee meetup. Tehy specifically curate intro’s so please be sure to RSVP ahead of time

🗓️ Oct. 18: All-In Episode 200 Meetup: Fresh back from All-In Summit, Alice Huang is gathering fans of the show for another one of her wonderful meetups

🗓️ Oct. 18: Female Founders & Friends: Hosted the third Friday of every month by Juliette Richert of the Artemis Fund

🗓️ Oct. 19: Nerd Nite: This is like a mini-TED event, hosted by Mickey Delp and Amy Cavender “for nerds by nerds.”

Two Final Things… I don’t usually share events this far out, but both of these are probably gonna fill up fast, and I want you to hear about ‘em early:

• First, my buddies Abhi and Justin are running a charity poker game on October 30th. Forty seats, $200 buy-in, top three positions donate to partner charities of your choice. There’ll be food, drinks, and a few dozen founders. Should be a blast.

• Second, on October 30th, Angela Parker is hosting a one-day Finish Strong Intensive, focused on helping you end ‘24 well, and clarify your company’s goals ahead of 2025.

Angela and I worked together back when I was helping launch Hampton. She’s one of the expert facilitators trusted to lead their groups and is flying all the way in from Italy to run several weeks of Hampton retreats going on around the same time. So if you’re looking for some solid accountability as we close out the year, check her out.

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.

• Oct. 10-13: MJ The Musical

• Oct. 11: Branford Marsalis with the UT Jazz Orchestra

• Oct. 11: EXCAVATION: Free Tunnel Rave (where do we have tunnels?)

• Oct. 11-13: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: 50th Anniversary Screening

• Oct. 12: Saturday Volunteer Tending Austin’s Food Forest

• Oct. 12: Volver 2: Expert Tango Showcase

• Oct. 13: Pilates in the Park

• Oct. 13: Cigar Rolling 101 at Bobalu (my go-to ATX cigar shop)

• Oct. 13: Roosevelt Room Masterclass - Cocktail Creation 201

• Oct. 13: Omakase Vinyl Listening & Cocktail Experience

• Oct. 14: Yoga at the LBJ Wildflower Center

• Oct. 15: Make Your Own Mosaic Table Lamp Workshop

• Oct. 15: Growing Gourmet Mushrooms in Texas

• Oct. 15: Dhamaka x Nixta Celebrity Chef Dinner Pop-Up

• Oct. 15-16: Artists in the Atrium: 6-Course Art-Inspired Dinner

• Oct. 16: Zilker Botanical: Succulent Collection Tour

• Oct. 16: Road to the Race - Hyper Car Festival

• Oct. 17: Behind The Frame: Art History at Riches Art (very rad spot)

• Oct. 17: Better Than Takeout: Pad Thai Cooking Class

• Oct. 17: Full Moon Women’s Circle - Releasing People Pleasing

• Oct. 17: ACL Turns 50: Willie Nelson Retakes The Stage

• Oct. 18: Candlelight: A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics

One Last Thing… A friend of mine is helping organize this year’s Dancing with the Stars gala event here in town in December.

If you haven’t heard of this before, it’s this great charity event, where a bunch of local celebrities compete in a format just like the show. There’s dinner, and drinks, and all the money goes to support the Center for Child Protection (the only nonprofit in Travis County involved in investigating and prosecuting crimes against kids).

This is a huge deal for the center. It funds much of their work for the year, and allows them to offer help for free to kids.

So if you’re looking for a fun reason to get dressed up for a good cause, tickets went on sale recently, along with sponsor options that include tickets for your group, complimentary drinks, brand visibility and more. You can find all the info here.

Word On The Street

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

• Here’s Your Regular Reminder: If your company is located in ATX (or relocating here), the City of Austin offers thousands back on wages, hiring, and property taxes.

• Need An Intern? Texas Venture Labs Practicum places UT grad students with local startups. There’s an info session for the fall cohort coming up Oct. 15

• Fundraising soon? Central Texas Angel Network has one more funding round this year and you can apply to pitch. There’s an info session on Oct. 14, and applications close on Oct. 21

• Got a CPG Brand? Submit your product for the holiday gift guide that Marc Nathan, Bill Murphy, and I are conspiring collaborating on. This one’s just for the community (so… It’s free to play). A fun way to hype some cool local brands ahead of the holidays. Submit your info here.

Insights

Thought-provoking ideas and stories published by founders in ATX

1. If you touch email marketing in any way… then you must listen to the new Send It podcast that local founder Jimmy Kim launched with Chase Diamond. Give ‘em five minutes to settle in. Once this thing gets going, it’s just hit after hit of killer email insights. Instant addition to my regular rotation.

2. If you care about Food-as-medicine… I think you’ll enjoy this interview with local founder, Jason Karp. He spoke to the senate recently about the health of American food, and you may have seen his fruitloop clip go viral.

Jason is a very interesting person to lead this conversation. Not only was he CEO of a $4B hedge fund with a deep understanding of the financials of food & bev companies, but he and his wife also built Hu into the No. 1 luxury chocolate brand and sold it for $321m. He now runs HumanCo., which owns brands like True Food Kitchen.

When he talks about the business of food, he brings receipts.

3. If you’re just a little bit nosy… Nat Eliason started publishing a quarterly author update, and it’s great. He breaks down his advance, book sales, challenges, etc. Plus updates on current projects. I love it when people share stuff like this.

Lastly… I loved this insight from Codie Sanchez. Adding this to my repertoire for future story interviews here at ABR👇

Local Artist of the Week

Last week, I told you about award-winning chef, Jesse Griffiths, who transformed $230 and an obsession with local food into the renowned restaurant, Dai Due.

Well, this week, I want to tell you about one of his business partners – long-time photographer, Jody Horton.

Jody shoots the world the way I wish it always looked – good food, great friends, and a stunning connection to nature’s wonder.

His portfolio is an A-to-Z of lifestyle and outdoor brands (literally, Academy to Zebco), and his work has won a stack of awards, appearing everywhere from Bon Appetit to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, and many, many more.

He’s also the owner of St. John’s Studios here in town – an event & media production space (with a wood-fired pizza oven, I might add) – and he owns the St. John’s Press, which makes beautiful books from scratch, including both of Jesse’s most recent.

Follow him on Instagram for a steady supply of the Call to Adventure.

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