So, the guy who chose and loves Austin has some thoughts about the potential of Houston. I had a chance to sit with Chris Howard during their interview series when in Austin, for Forging the Future through Softeq, where we talked about how culture and distinction draws entrepreneurship, tech, and capital. How Houston is on the cusp of changing everything about startups in Texas.
highlights…
Austin’s Austin and Houston is Houston. The distinctions are attractive and appealing to people these days.
Why did we (MediaTech Ventures) expand so passionately into Houston? We work with burgeoning startup communities to help develop them into much bigger innovative cities and help move venture capital into the entrepreneur’s pockets. When I moved to Austin, it wasn’t the hotspot that it is today — I had no reason to move to Austin other than that I loved it. And now that we’ve developed Austin rather substantially, MediaTech Ventures is looking to the future. We’re looking for the fact that in every state, different cities, play different substantial roles in innovation.
Tune in
I think Houston is the next hotspot as far as Texas is concerned, probably arguably the next hotspot as far as the country is concerned. If, if we simply appreciate the fact that Houston and San Antonio and Austin are all within a couple of hours with each other, this is the region to be in.
What we do is considered venture development. We do a lot of work with economic development offices, with a city, and with interested investors or companies in sectors that align with our focus, to mature that side of the ecosystem.
As a part of that, we drop in an incubator; a program that’s incredibly rigorous by design. Pre-seed. We’re in the teaching business rather than the accelerator business. So, we work with founders to teach them how to develop a startup from idea to incorporation in about 13 weeks.
Why should Cities focus on Media first?
It’s that industry in particular that helps everything else thrive. They’re the informers, they’re the communicators, they’re the branding folks who help ensure everything else has audience.
To do that, we don’t have a selection process. We don’t choose who has a right to learn how startups are more likely to succeed; that’s our important distinction in my use of the word incubator versus accelerator – we’re not picking favorites or selling the idea that some startups are successful thanks to us; we’re teaching everyone so that they have a greater impact, more potential, and if not now, in the future, they change the ecosystem in which they work. If you want to mentor or invest in that sector, we’re here; but we’re probably more discerning than most. If you mentor but don’t directly, immediately, and meaningfully help founders, don’t call. If you’re an investor in name but not putting capital to work, we’re not taking the time to promote you, you have a responsibility to move capital (if you’re saying you do so).
I think that’s the catalyst that fuels the economy. And that’s what gives the entrepreneurs the experience and the connections and perspective to not make mistakes so that they’re far more likely to be successful and have an impact.
In many Startup Development Organizations, you start to dilute the experience because everybody’s working on different things. Our thesis is that specialization matters. Everyone is in the media business in some way so you know that that the network, the mentors, and the investors KNOW and have an interest in what you’re doing.
Media? That’s everything from music to advertising to news. We take it all. but there is a shared affinity in that — if you’re in the advertising business, the MusicTech needs to understand how that works. If you’re in the news business. They’re trying to figure out how to take advantage of things like video games and social media.
At the end of most startup programs, they have demo days, like a studio or accelerator. We don’t We don’t demo in the sense of, “Let’s get you in front of a lot of VCs” because what we focus on is ensuring the founders and community LEARN and KNOW best how this works so that they effectively impact others.
I think Houston could use a lot more in the media space. And yet, one of the reasons that Houston is attracting so much in, in tech and in Texas, is cultural.
That’s what made Austin pop. Culture because entrepreneurs look for completely different experiences from jobs and companies; the arts, where film, where music, where video games are celebrated. Entrepreneurs seek those because it’s evidence that you’re a city that takes risk on CREATORS.
You’re a town that likes risks, likes creativity, likes people who innovate and do new things. Houston’s got a huge music scene as an example of that. That’s what’s drawing a lot of people to Houston – the culture there. That’s incredibly appealing and incredibly attractive.
Believe it or not, we’re actually looking at whether or not Houston is a better hub for music, and tech, and I say that because I live in Austin, which is the live music capital of the world. But Houston might be a better hub for music tech than Austin because there’s so much more of it in Houston, just given the sheer size of the city.
We lean in on that culture, fuel the entrepreneurship, and that fuels innovation.
A significant shift is underway, explored by Kaya Yurieff with The Information, A Reckoning Arrives for Creator Economy Startups, “Two years ago, Dmitry Shapiro and Sean Thielen were so optimistic about the booming creator economy that they pivoted their startup to a new product: a simple tool called Koji that lets influencers more easily link to their online tip jars, merch and other services in their social media bios. Sure, there were already dozens of other startups offering a similar type of product, but that didn’t stop the two men from raising $20 million for their company, GoMeta.”
“Now,” Yurieff adds, “Shapiro and Thielen want out of the creator economy.”
Now, I’ll add, if you’re privy to mediatech as I am, you know that those investors should be questioned, because there were at least 4 “tip” startups based where I live, in Austin, alone, and it was already evident from that that no one was using them, there was no IP to be had, and any other platform in FinTech or payments to creators, could easily add the feature.
Not the best way to start an article praising what I consider the Creator Economy Capital, is it? I share that though, because it highlights the desperate and tremendous opportunities in media innovation, for creators throughout the world, as countless entrepreneurs are trying to make a difference, often the same difference; we must start reflecting on how and where we are likely to make founders more successful.
There is a reckoning for Creator Economy Startups, you’re likely in the wrong place.
As startups and creative talents incessantly seek new opportunities through innovation, I want you to shift the long-held identity of Austin, Texas from a mere Music Capital, while remaining distinct as a hotspot for startups (well beyond being just another Silicon Valley). What is Austin? What is Austin really? What happens when entrepreneurs and artists converge as they have been, here, to thrive? The culture of Austin is what makes it ideal to startups and in particular, the ideal place for Creators. The city is transforming into a beacon, attracting a diverse pool of talents who are seeking opportunities beyond the traditional hubs. This shift denotes a broader movement where barriers are dissolving, and a new wave of creation and collaboration is taking root.
Austin, The Live Music Capital of the World
Austin’s historic legacy as the “Live Music Capital of the World” is rich and vibrant, putting it on the map for music aficionados and artists alike and yet, as long as I’ve been here, it felt lacking in some way. This city, nestled in the heart of Texas, has been a cradle for many celebrated musicians who have left indelible marks in the annals of music history. Icons such as Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan have epitomized the city’s spirit, weaving a tapestry of music that resonates with both passion and heritage.
Early Music Scene (19th and early 20th century): Austin’s musical heritage began with the influx of immigrants who brought their musical traditions to the area in the 19th century. German, Czech, and Mexican influences played a significant role in shaping the city’s music culture. Dance halls and saloons featured live music performances, including polka and conjunto music.
University of Texas and Jazz Era: The University of Texas at Austin, founded in 1883, brought a diverse student population to the city. In the early 20th century, jazz music became popular, and Austin’s venues started hosting jazz bands. The Victory Grill, a historic venue on the East Side, became a prominent hub for African American jazz musicians during this period.
Rise of Country Music: Austin’s country music scene started to gain prominence in the 1930s and 1940s. The city was an essential stop for touring country musicians and became known for its honky-tonk bars and dance halls. Venues like the Broken Spoke, still operational today, became iconic in the country music world.
The Armadillo World Headquarters: In the 1970s, the Armadillo World Headquarters played a pivotal role in shaping Austin’s music culture. This music hall and cultural center hosted a wide range of acts, from country and rock to blues and reggae. It attracted a diverse audience and fostered a sense of community among music enthusiasts.
Willie Nelson and the Outlaw Movement: Willie Nelson, a Texas native, moved to Austin in the early 1970s. His presence and the emergence of the outlaw country movement helped solidify Austin’s reputation as a hub for innovative and progressive music. The Outlaw Movement challenged the Nashville establishment and brought national attention to Austin’s music scene.
Austin City Limits (ACL) Festival: In 2002, the Austin City Limits Festival, inspired by the iconic PBS television show, was launched. This annual event has grown into one of the country’s premier music festivals, attracting top-tier artists and music lovers from around the world.
South by Southwest (SXSW): SXSW, an annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival, began in Austin in 1987. It has become a global platform for emerging artists and music industry professionals. SXSW helped Austin cement its status as a music destination.
And yet, Nashville is known as the Music City, while producers and artists alike still make their way to Los Angeles to be discovered. In fairness, Austin could be the Live Music Capital, an assertion I’m not really challenging; I’m challenging you to explore and appreciate the circumstances such as they are.
Austin’s music scene is a melting pot of genres, where traditions meet innovation, nurturing an environment where musicians, creators, can grow and thrive. This legacy is not just confined to the past; it is a living, breathing entity, continually evolving and inspiring newer generations to tread the path of musical exploration.
But is it enough to be the Creator Capital? Appreciate that it is enough to have the spark of an identity that celebrates the creator, in this case, the musician, and evident in Shapiro and Thielen’s experience, innovation requires problems with which to work. My partner in Chicago, John Zozzaro, grabbed my attention years ago when he pointed out that Austin has hundreds of non-profits in the music sector, and around 60% of musicians living below the poverty line — why so many non-profit efforts to help if there aren’t problems to solve (and intentions to solve them)?
Los Angeles: The Presumed Creative Capital, But Is It?
While Los Angeles has long been hailed as the world’s creative capital, its crown seems to be wobbling. According to Brian Regienczuk via LinkedIn, the city stands as a beacon of creativity, “There are more artists, writers, filmmakers, actors, dancers, and musicians living and working in LA than any other city at any other time in the history of civilization.”
However, a report from ZDNet questions the longevity of its reign, Andrew Nusca, “A lack of recognition, insufficient government planning and support, lacking K?12 school curriculum in the arts and tightening school district budgets are otherwise detracting from the city’s creative talent pool.”
We know what’s going on with the writers’ strike, and we have to appreciate that things like Spotify and Netflix, Pandora, and even Amazon, in streaming, are not there but from elsewhere, as innovation of the entertainment industry understandably is coming from without rather than within – places determined to fix what Los Angeles won’t, or can’t? I’ve even surmised frequently that while Silicon Valley broke and forced a change to New York’s news media and advertising industries, it too has failed to solve the new challenges inherent in those.
The escalating costs of living and global competition, as the world goes through the digital transformation that Silicon Valley experienced decades ago, are sparking creators everywhere to thrive while many, as we well know, are leaving California for other horizons; Austin stands as a prominent choice and not just in Music but, perhaps, with that Live Music identity revealing the potential to everything else.
Austin, A Melting Pot of Creativity
Upon relocating to Austin, I was greeted with more than just melodic strains. A rich WordPress community burgeoned here (careful that link, I wrote it 12 years ago so it’s out of date) here, with bloggers and writers crafting narratives that resonate globally while the infrastructure to do so was being improved upon here. This vibrant convergence of music with tech might be best illuminated in how Warner Music and Maya Arguelles intentionally chose to develop their site on Austin-basedWP Engine – not only choosing it but then turning to video to promote the fact.
The creative canvas of Austin is colored with yet more than just words and melodies.
The city is a living gallery, adorned with intricate murals that tell stories more vivid than a thousand words, with the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department, Austin Parks Foundation, and the Downtown Austin Alliance, frequently working together to paint the town far more than red. “Most murals appear suddenly, in places you wouldn’t expect: on a downtown high-rise, against the back side of a coffee shop, in an abandoned alleyway behind a dumpster,” Jackson Prince with The Austinot. “It’s part of Austin’s murals’ mystique and glory. No descriptions, no special lighting, no rules against touching. Which makes me wonder…How did you get up there, frog? Who made you? What are you trying to tell me with those big, kind eyes?”
A haven for the gaming industry, major video game companies have also planted roots in Austin, merging technology with artistry, crafting experiences that transcend boundaries. I couldn’t be sufficiently grateful to people like Frank Coppersmith, Michael Lubker, and Adam Creighton, for guiding our early days from the perspective of their work in the gaming industry. More important to the premise here, it’s hardly well known that Austin is home to… hang on, I’m going to need another list:
Bioware: A subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA), has a studio in Austin. They have been involved in the development of various online games, including “Star Wars: The Old Republic.”
EA: Not headquarters but yeah, EA employs a lot here.
Riot Games: Known for the immensely popular game “League of Legends,” has an office in Austin. While the company’s headquarters are in Los Angeles, they have multiple regional offices, including one in Austin.
Certain Affinity: Specialized in multiplayer experiences has worked on titles like “Halo: The Master Chief Collection” and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.”
Aspyr Media: Aspyr specializes in porting and publishing video games on various platforms, including macOS and Linux. They have worked on bringing popular titles like “Civilization VI” to different platforms.
Portalarium: Known for the development of “Shroud of the Avatar,” a fantasy role-playing game, has a studio in Austin.
LightBox Interactive: A game development studio that has worked on titles like “Starhawk.” While their main office is in Austin, they also have a presence in California.
Bethesda Game Studios: A subsidiary of Microsoft with a studio in Austin. They have been involved in the development of various games, including “Fallout 76.”
Enduring Games: Doing a lot of the work for Nintendo Switch and PS5
In less than a month, Dennis Quaid, native Texan, joins Matthew McConaughey, Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, and other Texas actors in the #goodfortexas promotion, joining Debiac at the “Why Texas” Summit in (alas, not Austin), Arlington, Texas. There, increasing the pressure to increase and celebrate Texas film production.
Here’s the thing, the loosely concerted effort is working…
Austin, Comedy Capital of the World
Austin has experienced a remarkable surge in its comedy scene, reshaping its creative landscape once again. Esteemed figures in the comedy sphere such as Raza Jafri and Andre Ricks have taken the initiative to open spaces that offer diverse lineups catering to different groups including the LGBTQ+ community. The East Austin Comedy Club, comes to mind in evidence; a splendid venue housed in a rugged building, epitomizes this new wave, resonating a vintage lounge vibe that embraces everyone with open arms.
“Embracing everyone with open arms,” hopefully you noticed my highlight above of immigrants, in recognition of all the musicians who moved to Austin in the early 20th century. Again, reflected in what *made* California thrive, what makes Austin next should be assessed through the immigration – change makers who bring culture, ideas, and communities from their experiences elsewhere in the United States or beyond.
“Joe Rogan began singing the praises of Austin and discussing creating a comedy scene like New York and Los Angeles,” shared Lorena Reyna and Chris Orozco, owners of Austin’s newest Rozco’s Comedy Club, “One of the hallmarks of those scenes is being able to do several spots per night and really test out your material in front of different audiences. We felt that there was space for a smaller venue that offered an elevated experience that was completely focused on comedy. That way comedians aren’t having to get stage time at a brewery.”
Lorena and Chris, natives of Austin, embraced that immigration just as those who made a difference have before, “For years, Austin was known as the Live Music Capital of the World. Many of those venues closed during the pandemic but they left behind an audience hungry for live entertainment. Comedy fills that gap. There’s also a natural partnership with comedy and music that our venue and others are incorporating.”
“While most comics found themselves in a purgatory of Zoom shows during the pandemic, L.A. stand-ups, including Rogan, began dipping their toes into Austin. Although Texas had looser restrictions on live events, many native Austin comedians stayed home to prevent the spread of COVID. The caution of locals opened up a lane for those in L.A. and New York. Stand-ups began flying to perform at old-school Austin venues such as Cap City Comedy Club (which opened as the Laff Stop in 1986 before changing its name a decade later), the Velveeta Room (opened in 1988) and historically music-only venues like Antone’s (opened in 1975) and Vulcan Gas Company (opened in 1967).”
– Nate Jackson with LA Times
An impressive feature of this blooming scene is the inclusivity and participation it encourages. Comedy clubs are fostering an environment where comics have a say in their work environment and can work fluidly across different platforms, crafting a cohesive and cooperative community.
In the latest prospect of revitalizing what’s become known in downtown Austin as “dirty sixth,” glowing neon lights now light the marquee of the Comedy Mothership, where Rogan’s praises became intentions, and add to the immigration of creator culture to Austin. Bringing a taste of LA whether we like it or not, the sign shines on the city like a nightclub in the heart of the city where UT students collide with SXSW crowds.
As you stroll down the lively streets of Austin, you might stumble upon the vibrant and more accessible Sunset Strip Comedy Club, a venue that attempts to revive the magnetic spirit of the ’80s Hollywood, where comedians and rock stars rose to fame in harmony. This establishment, which found a home in the former music venue the Parish, pays homage to a golden era while embracing the new wave of comedy, becoming a testament to Austin’s resilient spirit and aptitude to change – critical aspects of a culture wherein entrepreneurs thrive, and startups emerge.
The inception of Sunset Strip is a testament to Austin’s burgeoning potential as the new epicenter for comedy. Co-founded by Anthony Hashem and the late Adam Hartle, the club navigated through tragedy and transformation, emerging as a beacon of hope and laughter in the Austin comedy scene. The collaboration with Brian Redban, a figure intricately connected with the Joe Rogan Experience, propelled the club to new heights, embodying the spirit of collaboration and community that Austin now represents.
Let me pause here to highlight something… controversial people? Yes, that’s in large part my point in recognizing Austin as I am. Creativity thrives in controversy and entrepreneurship requires risk tolerance and disruption – none of which is possible if that controversy and disruption isn’t embraced whether for inspiration, provocation, or yeah, laughter.
“Comedy is what connects society together. The ability to poke fun at the issues of the day is the common ground. No matter how controversial the topic may be, a good joke opens your eyes to a different point of view,” remarked my friends at Rozco’s. “Comedians taking the risk to find the funny out of those controversial subjects is a risk worth taking. The right joke at the right time brings people together whether they want it to or not. Laughter is involuntary.”
And it is among that immigration, that controversy, the fun, the risks, and the different points of view, that our economy fuels change by inspiring entrepreneurs to do the same. Ironic perhaps, that we solve problems and find unity by embracing our differences and disagreements rather than alienating or dividing ourselves over what makes the world so rich.
“Comedy is all about grit and determination,” continue Lorena and Chris (sound familiar startup founders?). “You have to stay consistent and be very focused. You have to pivot when things are not working out. Comedians are tiny companies doing it all to make it and to be in position to take advantage of opportunities. You have to show up every day and not get discouraged. The comedy scene in Austin in particular feels very supportive and encouraging. Comedians are cooperating and putting each other on shows they produce.”
Comedians being tiny companies sounds exactly like what John Zozzaro says about musicians, “you’re either running a business or it’s just a hobby.” And his observation is what drove us to start MediaTech Ventures, through Austin, to change a Live Music Capital full of non-profits trying to help, into a hub of innovation for media, recognizing that entrepreneurs and artists alike need to learn how to start ventures. And the experience of creators in media is exactly parallel to what it takes to be a successful startup. It’s the creator culture of Austin, the history and the risks taken, that have evolved Austin from a tech capable city to an entrepreneurial startup hub.
South Austin Comedy Club, another significant addition to the Austin comedy circuit, has become a vibrant hub, harboring the artistry of seasoned and budding comedians alike. Arielle Isaac Norman, a prominent comedian, encapsulates the sentiments of many when she expresses the bittersweet evolution of Austin, a place witnessing an amalgamation of new talents mingling with the locals, shared with LA Times editor Nate Jackson, “I know people are complaining about a lot of California people coming here, but our city is becoming hotter — so you win some, you lose some. What are you gonna do?” Again, exactly paralleling the shift of attention and people from Silicon Valley. Amidst the boom, many local comedians have felt that same sense of estrangement, like Taylor Dowdy, who has been a part of the Austin comedy scene for nearly a decade. “I pushed back against it a little bit,” share Dowdy, who is also general manager at the 6th street club, Velveeta Room, with the Times, “I’d been doing comedy in this town for eight years, and for a while, I felt like a stranger in my own town. At the same time, what else could you ask for really?” While to the south is new, we can look north for that sense of Austin’s history in comedy, the city’s 30+ year epicenter took their shows to the Domain; Cap City Comedy Club simultaneously reminding us of Austin’s history and the fact that a vibrant city means things change and grow.
As Austin stands on the cusp of a new era, I have hope that this influx of fresh perspectives and talents will cement Austin’s position not just as the Live Music Capital nor merely a hot spot for comedy enthusiasts but that Austinites see all of this for what it is – that our emergence as the tech hub or startup hotspot that cause angst for many, is merely a positive aspect of the fact that we’re leading the way for the Creator Economy; of which, among writers, artists, actors, musicians, and comedians, we find the entrepreneurs and technology professionals determined to improve the economy for and because of those very people.
In this vibrant and evolving milieu, artists from varied backgrounds are converging to create a space of mutual respect and creativity. Caitlin Benson, a new entrant in the city, highlights the reciprocity that the city offers, a place where creators are not just takers but contributors to a culture that is warm, welcoming, and ever evolving. She too shared with Nate Jackson a sentiment that sounds like what I’ve said on behalf of our startup community, “I think a lot of people who moved to Austin are those people from L.A. who were giving and giving without any reciprocation. We didn’t come to this town to be takers. We came to this town to give people a taste of what we do well, and the reception has been overwhelming.”
From ACL Live on Willie Nelson Blvd, where I’ve seen Blondie, Kenny Chesney (and Matthew McConaughey), and New Order, I now catch Tony Hinchcliffe and Brian Redban, Joe Rogan when he drops in to say hello, William Montgomery, David Lucas, Michael Lehrer, and Hans Kim. Kill Tony has too found a home in Austin; and it’s from those ACL seats that the parallels I mentioned really occurred to me… music, thanks to the Kill Tony Band, livestreaming a podcast, because America wants to laugh and Austin loves the weird, where everyone has a chance to get on stage for 1 minute – exactly what we teach startup founders to limit the pitch of their venture to, when seeking to effectively reach people and change the world.
An amusing discovery tying even more together? Tony Hinchcliffe’s website is also built on WordPress, hosted by Pressable; again alas, not based in Austin, but right down the road in San Antonio.
Before I wrap, one more observation that is critical to appreciating all of this; how media technology makes this article possible, makes your engagement possible, and serves as a catalyst for this awakening of comedy. I did mention that involved are some controversial characters and it’s notable that Hinchcliffe was canceled in 2021, ironically, given Hans Kim being a regular, for choice words at Austin’s Vulcan Gas Company. Still, Tony is arguably the one who started the migration from LA, getting Redban (Sunset Strip and co-host/producer of Kill Tony and initial Joe Rogan producer) and then Rogan to Austin. Through what medium? podcasting; and here in Austin…
Lex Fridman artificial intelligence researcher with an amazing show, moved to Austin recently
Tom Segura and Christina Pazsitzky host Your Mom’s House with a new house in Austin
Adam Curry (the godfather of podcasts), who I’ve mentioned many times before as an early pioneer of Austin’s creative class
Sam Parr bought a house in 2020 bringing My First Million to Austin and launching The Hustle
Rogan, with his extensive experience in broadcast (MMA), podcasting, and comedy, is helping the comedy industry rethink the economics of comedy and the venues that serve them; something the music industry desperately needs to do. And precisely how we work and think as entrepreneurs and in startups.
Austin, Texas, Creator Capital of the World
Instead of, or rather, in addition to our incubators teaching founders how to start companies in media, and convincingly pitch in a minute, perhaps we should launch the Kill Tony Incubator working with comedians, as well as the musicians and other artists, to learn what Rozcos’ Lorena and Chris shared, that you have to build a business, or it’s just a hobby.
Amongst this growth and change, the Austin scene hasn’t lost sight of the significance and importance of its roots in music, doing just that. Huston-Tillotson, this week, launched a music business education program, the first of its kind in Austin, “Music Business Foundations,” led by Philip Payne, a local musician-turned-music manager. Meanwhile, UT Austin, as though our minds were all wired to move us in the same direction, announced that Texas-based musician and artist Darden Smith has been named the first recipient of the new songwriter in residence program as the University looks to become an “incubator of new music.” Even beyond but nearby, Texas State, in San Marcos, has shifted from mere Innovation, with our media aptly named, Future Maker Studios program, while in College Station, near Texas A&M, the incubator/accelerator for entrepreneurs isn’t a tech hub, but the new “DesignSpark.”
All this because Texas, despite what the news media or partisan politics often portrays, is incredibly diverse, immensely accepting, incredibly creative, and embracing the critical role of creators in the future of our economy. As such, it’s Austin, the Creator Capital of the World, inspiring everyone to take a chance.
I made the Portage, Michigan, local news not long ago, where I grew up, because of how I grew up. What struck me was the photo they shared, from High School; reminding me of why I moved to Austin, that it’s the weird, the misfits, the artists, creators, and the performers who are drawn to Texas now, just as it was the misfits, artists, and creators drawn to California in the 20th century. We know what that creative immigration to California did for the entertainment and startup communities of the west coast; expect the same now in Texas.
With so much, you might ask when we’re running our next startup incubator cohort for founders in Austin, and that, my friends, depends on you. With the demand upon what we do for other cities, to help them develop startup ecosystems, and how much we do around SXSW, Austin is rather more our inspiration and home to much of the team, than where we’re able to even work as much as we’d like. If you want to capitalize on or support the future of Austin’s creative economy, let me know! I need you to help me keep up with how incredible Austin continues to be.
I have a confession to get off my chest. In my work through Austin, I’ve long celebrated and promoted the maturing of Austin’s startup ecosystem by illuminating that we’re starting to specialize and move beyond downtown; that, as the most effective startup ecosystems do, the city of Austin isn’t generically “tech” and shouldn’t be considered or compared as a “best place for startups” – what makes Austin exceptional is that it is ideal for SOME sectors, and that entrepreneurs and investors thrive efficiently when they focus on where those strengths converge and collaborate.
Austin is CPG, food and beverage, shipping and logistics, smart city, video games, social media and data, 3D printing, and advanced manufacturing, to name a few.
Founders, investors, journalists, the best of use of your time is in identifying the PART of a city where that industry is found and focusing your time and attention there.
This is evident in WHY cities like New York are known for their Districts and is hopefully more appreciating in recognizing that various cities aren’t “best for tech,” “the next Silicon Valley,” nor “ideal for startups,” because macroeconomically, cities have strengths and weaknesses – Atlanta and television, Houston and space or energy, Raleigh Durham’s Research Triangle for biotech and healthcare.
In a world where we’re considering how remote and global workforces can actually work together reasonably well, the fact remains that proximity, face time, and even living close to work, enables entrepreneurship and innovation.
All that said, I’ve not yet shared my confession…
In my talks celebrating Austin’s strengths and rallying people to focus on our specialties, I’ve often pointing out that Austin isn’t, for example, ideal for FinTech.
I’d like to reconcile that and beg your forgiveness by sharing how MediaTech Ventures‘ work in and model of venture development (establishing startup ecosystems in cities), uncovers how wrong I was.
Uncovering FinTech
May 15-18, 2023. CONNECT 23 returns to Austin, TX with insights from industry thought leaders and new innovations to help financial institutions transform their digital banking experience, thanks to Q2.
Now, as a measure of clarifying my own apology, let me point out that I know Q2 well; everyone in Austin does, thanks more publicly and culturally to their support of Austin FC, who plays at Q2 Stadium.
That too said, let me stress that a company does not an ecosystem make, but it’s in that quick glance at the work Q2 is doing, that we can better realize and appreciate the present and future of the ecosystem here, and the fact that I was wrong.
A big part of the reason Silicon Valley was so substantial in innovation is because the companies play an active and collaborative role in supporting their sector. Companies sitting on the sidelines are a sign that that region of the world isn’t actually creative, innovative, and supportive of entrepreneurship; they’re happy doing what they do behind closed doors. And there is nothing at all wrong with a company operating that way, but when the companies in your city aren’t involved, it’s valid to ask WHY they aren’t hosting meetups, underwriting innovation programs, producing conferences, and sponsoring the culture.
A better part of how and why Austin has become the hub of innovation and entrepreneurship that it is SXSW, a conference, and the opportunity for everyone here to connect, learn, and collaborate, in that case, with a hint of Film and Music driving the innovation. Q2’s CONNECT 23 is an investment in FinTech Austin.
Let me take a step back though, and clarify Venture Development.
When we work with cities, VCs, and companies to help a region of the world develop a startup ecosystem, we’re looking holistically at sectors of the economy there to discern and strengthen that which already exists.
From companies we look to incubators and where geographically (in coworking or offices) an industry can be found. We look further into related startup studios, accelerators, and of course, the venture capital ecosystem in support of the sector in question. We do this with a city, to then help put in place whatever might be LACKING so that the entrepreneurs in that region flourish; we organization those gaps in 5 ways: the network of people, education specific to that sector, promotion of the industry itself, the tools and platforms (industry norms) and how well those are established, and the places where people can connect and collaborate.
With these two maps of an ecosystem overlaid, entrepreneurship thrives WHEN the region works with others to close the gaps so that founders aren’t struggling through missing pieces.
While I used to point out that Austin isn’t the banking or financial hub of a place like New York City (hence, it wouldn’t be ideal for FinTech), starting with Q2, Austin’s FinTech ecosystem is much more vibrant than might be obvious.
On June 15, 2021, cryptocurrency-specific legislation was passed under the laws of Texas when Governor Abbott into law amendments to the state’s Business & Commerce Code to address virtual currency. This was the first of its kind in the country. Overall, the law specifically addresses cryptocurrency by recognizing the legal status of virtual currency, ensuring that cryptocurrencies are subject to commercial laws under Texas regulations, and supplying legal rights to cryptocurrency holders. The Act legitimized the legal status of cryptocurrency by providing it a legal definition “a digital representation of value that is used as a medium of exchange, unit of account, or store of value” that is not legal tender. There is quite a bit more to appreciate herein, and my article is not about cryptocurrency so take a peek at Freeman Law’s great summary here if you’re interested. My point is in highlighting how Texas led the way in standardizing recognition of what’s next in FinTech; it wouldn’t have done that without local domain expertise and demand from industry to establish norms.
What my exploration of Q2 should help you see is that what we have is not just a company but a company investing in the ecosystem – providing the Promotion, Network, and Education elements in CONNECT, and driving the creative class and culture by sponsoring the football club’s stadium.
Not yet mentioned, Q2 Innovation Studio, addressing our Incubator and Startup Studio needs and it’s from within Q2’s Innovation Studio that we start to see a flywheel of innovation spin through collaboration in Austin, Tailwind Business Ventures, one of the country’s leaders in banking and finance software development from right here in Central Texas, joined Q2 as their first certified SDK partner.
Pieces of a puzzle come together
Clients have high demands, especially after the pandemic, in terms of what the experience should be and what they want it to feel like. Q2 and Tailwind have been fabulous partners, working with us to customize that experience by segment.”
– Katie Heim, Johnson Financial Group’s senior vice president and director of bank product solutions
Supporting and promoting the ecosystem at large, Tailwind goes well beyond being a company on the sidelines as well, hosting a wonderful series of interviews through FinTech and other industries, called Humanizing Software. Subscribe (via LinkedIn), because it’s only in FOCUSING your work on the participants in the ecosystem that you start to see the patterns that I overlooked and find what is more meaningful to your work and to help you thrive. For example, one of Andrew Tull’s earlier interviews was with Gartner’s Teri Kelly, who’s career in data science previously had her working with Austin based Valkyrie, where founder Charlie Burgoyne and then Principal Scientist Dr. Meredith Butterfield penned, Why Banks Need to Radically Rethink Data.
Now is the time for banks to pivot quickly with the customer at the center of their strategy and with new tools to understand their behavior and new solutions to serve their needs. This is the moment to experiment, to take risks and test the waters as we chart a plan and put a stronger foundation in place to sustain our growth. New technologies, new products and new relationships to data aggregation are going to be the fuel for the future.”
That thought epitomizes the culture and spirit of Austin itself and so it certainly reflects that we’re here a hub of FinTech and innovation in banking and finance.
Chief Innovation and Technology Officer Allan Rayson was been named the 2022 Digital Banker of the Year by American Banker. His innovative digital strategy for Encore Bank, through Austin, played unprecedented growth for a bank, which surpassed $2 billion in assets in May 2022, just three years after being founded in 2019.
In the spring of this year, PayPal announced consolidation of their offices in the region into the Domain in North Austin. PayPal’s buildout of the 60,000-square-feet office — about 20 percent of the building’s leasable space – signals the strength and focus of WHERE to be, and my point that a mature ecosystem of innovation identifies in what part of town to concentrate. Tailwind is in Cedar Park, NW of Austin, Q2 is in NW Austin, and PayPal is consolidating there as well… VISA has offices off 183 in NW Austin… and I could go on.
What it’s well time to explore and energize is that Austin is FinTech and with more concentration of events, meetups, investors, journalists, and companies, in financial innovation in the NW region of this city, we’ll see innovation and entrepreneurship thrive through collaboration, connection, and concentration of the future of Finance here. We can do more, let’s develop a FinTech incubator on our platform, let’s support the meetups, and let’s help the media tell the stories such as this, so that everyone knows why Austin.
Q2’s CONNECT 23 is here in a matter of weeks. As we do in Austin with SXSW, take advantage of it, whatever your role in FinTech – get together, meet, and work together; the ideal way to start is by connecting with everyone and every company I’ve mentioned here so that your work as a FinTech founder flourishes (I love ending on alliteration!)
Regional culture, history, and infrastructure are the qualities of a region of the world that drives innovation, jobs, and economic development because technology is ultimately about people and their potential.
A really a wonderful article about Austin in The New Yorker sparked a series of wonderful discussions of the past and present of the Austin ecosystem and in one case, as I proposed, how the brand of “Austin” has exceeded the realities on the ground. Austin is where TV shows want their cast to be featured. Austin is the city that companies are using when they want to threaten their home state that they’ll pick up and leave. When HR is looking to hire, they add “Austin” to target remote-work locations. And heard in the halls of Economic Development offices throughout the world, “… something like what Austin has figured out.”
“No city in America has changed more than Austin has in the last two decades,” noted Ricardo Ainslie of The University of Texas at Austin as Louis Black with SXSW (coming up in March) added, “There was a significant community here that had a vision about what a city should be.” Austin would be creative, cooperative, noncompetitive, green, and politically plugged in. “We succeeded.”
I frequently point out, in celebrating Austin’s ecosystem, how America achieved its success: Immigration – people coming here to the United States from various cultures, ethnicities, religions, and histories, catalyzing change.
What’s causing Austin to change so frequently and to draw the attention of the world is immigration to Austin.
As Black put it, “Suddenly, everybody began saying, ‘We’ll meet you in Austin.’”
Known as the Live Music Capitol of the World, Austin has also become globally recognized as one of the hubs of innovation, entrepreneurship, and startups. In my work in venture development, I’d like to explore better how that works – not why it’s so nor the history that brought us here (which is well covered in those New Yorker discussions) but what today makes Austin not only ideal for entrepreneurs but sustainable opportunity for investors.
While companies and universities develop and commercialize inventions and IP, startups play a very unique role in our economy, rewarding passionate and driven entrepreneurs and risk-tolerant investors as these temporary ventures uncover new business models while turning ideas and solutions into jobs. Hundreds of thousands of startups throughout the world generate solutions, new products, innovative services, and disruptions that change the world because so many are motivated and capable of shouldering the losses involved in endeavoring to improve the world – absorbing all of the missteps, misunderstandings, and missed signals that result in countless failures.
Begging an apropos question of cities and regional economic stakeholders such as property developers, banks, law firms, and major employers what can be done to reduce those likelihoods of failure? Austinites shun the comparison to Silicon Valley, but we’d be remiss in the world today if we didn’t recognize that a sustainable ecosystem of innovation emerged in both Northern California and Central Texas – how? It’s not tech, venture capital, nor mentors alone that start or maintain an ecosystem for entrepreneurs. It’s everyone working together to reduce the risks and fuel the resources that enable founders.
How to sustain a startup scene that works
With increasing regularity, that’s the question asked of many of us in Austin, particularly, those of us from New York, Boston, or San Francisco, such as myself, who more accurately ask, what can be learned from a place like Silicon Valley AND Austin so that we might accomplish the locally meaningful impact the community is seeking?
The US has three times more startups than anywhere else. Whether by geographic size, population, or economy, we can’t possibly account for such disparities when it’s simple enough to see that a much more vast population such as India has a relatively small fraction of startups, while a far smaller population (the UK) is party to a greater relative share.
Something is unusual in in being unusual, we can identify, study, support, and even replicate the characteristics of distinction. What creates entrepreneurial people is society and culture.
“Regional culture, history, and infrastructure are the qualities of a region of the world that drives innovation, jobs, and economic development because technology is ultimately about people and their potential.”
Successful startup founders are driven, tenacious, and passionate, and since startups aren’t “tech,” and they’re distinct from new businesses in that they’re innovative and often disruptive, we can start to look to our region of the world and ask what’s being done to help foster entrepreneurial people. We can’t teach someone to be an entrepreneur; we can teach them how to start and run a business. We can’t guide someone to the “correct” way to create a company; we can only mentor and advise from experience what will likely work, and what will assuredly not. It’s impossible to manifest an invention and just be innovative; the very nature of this work relies on experiments, research, risks, and trials.
Startups are a series of lessons from failures, pivoted into new opportunities while avoiding mistakes.
While we can’t teach that tendency, that culture, we can develop a culture and society that inspires people to be entrepreneurial and enables entrepreneurs to take the risks involved in being founders.
Startup Development Organizations inspire entrepreneurship and enable entrepreneurs to take the risks involved in being founders. Are they the key?
A hub, such as 2112 in Fort Knox Studios in Chicago, connects large parts of a startup ecosystem and makes it easier for everyone to connect and get involved – all under one roof: office space, shared common areas, entrepreneurs, advisors, capital, and mentors. I find myself in Houston as we speak, at The Ion, easily one of the most innovative uses of space in the country; the region’s hub from which spokes reach to other programs and places.
Entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs benefit from Innovation Labs, such as (outside the box I suspect since you might be focused on R&D, wet labs in biotech, or corporate innovation programs), AFWERX or Army Futures Command, the innovation arm of the United States Air Force. Innovation labs, and organizations by other names, help develop and commercialize Intellectual Property (IP and patented works) through collaboration with companies and incubators aligned with industry objectives.
Incubators which teach entrepreneurs and work with product or business ideas to develop solutions and start companies more likely to succeed, thanks to resources, networks, curriculum, and programming. Greentown Labs a Houston incubator focusing on climate technology is a wonderful example in a sector beyond our own programs for MediaTech
Accelerators increase sustainability and impact, drive growth, and evolve startups into competitive, scalable companies. Assuredly, the best known among accelerators is Techstars; typically, Accelerators are defined by extensive communities of partners and investors, media relations as startups are ready for the world stage, and their own financial investment (ranging from $10,000 to $100,000).
Venture studios, or as I prefer to call them, Startup Studios, establish replicable models for the early phases of startup development, reducing the risks for founders and investors, by participating themselves as one of the partners in the new ventures – Startup Studios serve as a technical co-founder, at least and if not more so, with ownership in exchange for the work.
Startup Development Organizations are critical to the future of our economy precisely because the way we work requires that we’re more innovative, more creative, and more comfortable with risks. It’s herein where people can vet ideas, test possibilities, hone their pitch, determine product-market fit, expand their network, and create solutions that might become companies.
But I’ve come to consider that it’s no more entrepreneurs, mentors, or investors, it’s not tech companies, and it’s not startup development organizations that are the trick – each of those has strengths and weaknesses wherein risk is only sustainably overcome when more is in place to help the ecosystem thrive. While we can simply put such things in our cities, such a thing alone does not an ecosystem nor healthy economy make. We know full well from our experiences thus far, our cities don’t become “tech hubs” or startup epicenters (or, God forbid, “the next Silicon Valley”) thanks to Venture Capital, attracting tech companies, nor the government funding an innovation space – at least not such things alone.
How might we fuel that ecosystem in Austin?
Developing Startup Ecosystems
Venture Development
“Startup ecosystems include the startups themselves and their founders, employees and contractors, the angel investors and venture capitalists who fund them, and the incubators, co-working spaces and accelerators that house them, along with business plan competitions, universities, educational classes, bloggers, community groups, tech meetups and other support organizations that help them,” David S. Rose, CEO of Gust. “It additionally includes the professional service providers they engage (law firms, accountants, investment bankers, et al) and the larger corporations who serve as their customers, partners and eventual acquirers.”
Think that can be done through your city’s public policy? Perhaps an ecosystem so vast is as simple as a model for the Chamber of Commerce to execute? Maybe. This is like economic development, but it’s not.
Economic development is usually the focus of federal, state, and local governments to improve our standard of living through the creation of jobs, the support of innovation and new ideas, the creation of higher wealth, and the creation of an overall better quality of life. Economic development is often defined by others based on what it is trying to accomplish. Many times, these objectives include building or improving infrastructure such as roads, bridges, etc.; improving our education system through new schools; enhancing our public safety through fire and police service; or incentivizing new businesses to open a location in a community.
How much of that sounds meaningfully and directly beneficial to startups? “In support of innovation and news ideas,” “the creation of higher wealth,” and “overall better quality of life” are shared values with most entrepreneurs, but the creation of jobs, schools, and even public safety aren’t the initiatives that REDUCE risk and inspire ideas so that a community might fuel more startups. Notably, our definition distinguishes too, “incentivizing new businesses to open” – startups are temporary ventures seeking new business models, distinct from new businesses.
Venture Development focuses on the distinct risks and resources of Angel Investors and Venture Capital, the programs and Startup Development Organizations that capably and effectively foster founders, and the strengths of the regional economy and sectors of industry, to develop the venture economy.
While not formally nor consistently defined, it’s time we start doing so, so let’s draw from Economic Development to distinguish Venture Development, “Usually the focus of the private sector, in support of the public sector, to improve the outcomes of the efforts of entrepreneurs and early stage investors, through the direction, promotion, and development of the startup stage of an economy, driving innovation and new ideas, creating opportunities, and enabling a distinct, diverse, and accessible culture and ecosystem in which startups thrive. Venture development could be simply defined as increasing the rate of startup development and investor return. Many times these objectives include building or attracting Startup Development Organizations; improving economic policy in support of innovation spaces and coworking; ensuring sector-specific education to foster a workforce ready to work on behalf of startups in the region; enhancing community and communications to remove barriers to entry and create greater awareness; and incentivizing established companies to open a location in the region as those companies bring resources to bear on behalf of the entrepreneurs.”
Developing a Flourishing Startup Ecosystem
Startups exist not thanks to venture capital nor tech, and not thanks to a single innovation hub or entrepreneur program at the university, but thanks to the interaction of incubators, coworking spaces, startup studios, accelerators, venture capital, and innovative companies, serving one another as an ecosystem wherein the founders can afford the risks taken.
Yes, I said flourishing startup ecosystems depend on companies. Let’s start there.
Companies
Companies provide sector stability in that they offer the jobs, job training, and even some capital investment (sponsorship) of the industry itself. A region with only one company in a sector isn’t likely well developed so we can look at Austin’s established employers to appreciate better what we do well here as founders. How?? Company executives and directors are ideal mentors and angel investors while the companies themselves are the initial partners founders seek in what they’re working to manifest.
Dell
National Instruments
Adobe
Electronic Arts
Google
Amazon
HEB
Tesla
Tito’s
Apple
Q2
Indeed
Tell me you don’t see patterns in there, patterns that reflect what Austin does well as a startup ecosystem, and to where we can turn for partnerships, mentors, and sponsorship of the ecosystem so that founders are supported and sustained in good times and bad.
Incubators
Incubators teach founders while providing the resources and a network of peers and mentors, familiar with this stage or those sectors in particular.
Notice now in MediaTech Ventures’ visual of Venture Development, how Companies overlap with Incubators; and likewise, how each element of a startup ecosystem overlaps with another, all supporting the venture development work. Dell operates Dell for Startups while Q2 and Indeed have innovation studios, and if we look to the incubators (not yet the accelerators), we can see some alignments with the companies (and industries) ideal in Austin’s ecosystem:
Evident in the quarantine of COVID-19, the Great Resignation, remote work, and working from home, we’ve discovered that founders need not work from anywhere and yet, they do benefit from shared space. The challenge for a startup ecosystem is affordability, not only in the cost of housing to entrepreneurs but in the sense that founders need to collide, meet, and collaborate, without the burden of the untenable cost of office space. The last thing a startup should be spending money on is a room in which to work. Coworking lowers the cost of workspace while also serving as event space and providing what’s considered “coincidental collisions” – running into like-minded people (and potential team members).
Note a consistency in Silicon Valley and Austin… that both cities are actually what we consider unaffordable. Many throughout the world argue that a low cost of living is advantage of a city for entrepreneurs, but the data implies otherwise – that a relatively high cost of living causes founders (and more importantly investors) to appreciate the VALUE of people and the cost of competing globally. Startups in expensive ecosystems tend to raise more capital, arguably for no reason other than the cost making everyone consider that it takes more capital than it might if they found themselves in Des Moines – enabling sufficient resources to compete with entrepreneurs in other cities raising as much or more.
Expensive and yet affordable, how does the ecosystem thrive while being pulled in both directions?
Our visual shows how Austin thrives, in that Incubators leverage space for operations, enabling our collisions between people. When shared workspaces are underwritten (paid for) by companies (sponsors), we enable founders and incubators to impact the ecosystem in even greater ways – raising the capital for what they really need rather than spending it on space. And with the diversity of work spaces in Austin, we have evidence that people can and want to get together throughout the city:
Impact Hub
Duo Works
WeWork
Capital Factory
Industrious
FUSE
Createscape
VESSEL
Common Desk
Startup Studios
We’d do well bundle our Innovation Labs and other forms of R&D among our Startup Development Organizations in with Startup Studios because similarities exist (though operations and models might differ). It’s here where Intellectual Property is more meaningfully researched, developed, and commercialized. Distinct from Incubators, which teach founders and help develop the ventures, think of these more in the context of the product development and the value of that asset as an opportunity. Startup Studios tend to align with specific industries as resources applicable to what’s being done, are paramount in success herein – wet labs, robotics spaces, film studios, and creative design hubs, would all be considered similar.
Like the use of shared workspace, coworking, by incubators, our overlap between Startup Studios and Coworking is in the shared use of such spaces and the collaborative way in which a lab or venture studio could also be or be part of coworking.
Providing seed capital to accepted startups, Accelerators play a later stage role than Incubators and we’d do well for our economy by correcting people who use “Incubators and Accelerators” as a phrase as though these two are interchangeable.
Accelerators accelerate.
Startup or Venture Studios build with you
Incubators ideate, research, and teach
Expect Accelerators to do the work that accelerates your venture, providing things like Media Relations and other means of scalable growth, access to relevant partners since you’re ready for them, and more direct access to capital than mere introductions and office hours.
Drawing from Startup Studios, our overlap manifests in that we have ventures at a stage well beyond Incubators. Founders should know what they’re doing (perhaps from an Incubator earlier), have developed solutions (IP and products – such as what emerge from Startup Studios), and we’re ready to go. Where? Here are some:
Venture Capital is a critical facet of Venture Development because it serves as both the aggregator of capital resources (referred to as Capital Formation) and exists as a signal of a healthy startup ecosystem. Too often neglected, is that Venture Capital (and Angel Investment) gets involved with startups seeking a Return on Investment; that manifests as a result of an “Exit” – either a venture going public and becoming a publicly traded company or getting acquired.
Thus, Venture Capital, helps drive founders to exit; cycling capital back into funds, through successful founders, and moving Intellectual Property and innovative team back into Companies.
We overlap Venture Capital with Accelerators conceptually because startups before this stage are usually premature for Venture Capital Funds, though Angel Investors get involved. Venture Capital provides capital at the scale necessary for founders the result of (directly or indirectly) what we’ve covered thus far.
S3 Ventures
LiveOak Ventures
Mithril Ventures
Breyer Capital
Next Coast Ventures
True Wealth Ventures
Sante Ventures
CAVU
Moonshots Capital
Notley Ventures
Bringing us full circle, back to Companies. Companies overlapping with Venture Capital in Corporate Venture Funds and the role Companies play in acquiring startups (delivering exists) that return investments to Venture Capital.
Author’s note. I have NOT included everything, I can’t possibly do so. I want you to think about the way in which everything works together rather than this being an exhaustive list or nod to everything that led to today. Also note, and let me explain, I have characterized some of these things differently than they characterize themselves – there is reason for this; a maturing ecosystem will look to the components for what they are more than the words they use.
The facets both overlap and appear opposite one another:
Incubators are not Accelerators, as I already alluded
Companies are private entities developing IP whereas Startup Studios are doing similar work but more publicly – as labs or partners
And Venture Capital sits across from Coworking because the benefits of reduced costs and coincidental collisions in person means that founders are more wisely allocating capital resources to the work they should be doing.
A well “Venture Developed” startup ecosystem (i.e. a healthy startup ecosystem) is one in which these entities not only serve one another but that opposite entities work closely: Accelerators support Incubators to draw from them, Venture Capital sponsors or underwrites workspace so the ecosystem can afford what matters, Companies and Studios work in conjunction with one another in research, IP, and product development; all of that though, only possible, when each facet of the ecosystem also meaningfully overlaps with the counterparts that enable it to play the role it’s best suited to play.
Appreciate that the intent of my lists was not to be exhaustive nor precise with what *they* call themselves but rather to make you think differently about how what is in Austin works in concert to remove the risks for entrepreneurs while fueling innovation and startups.
Hopefully though, something still feels missing though, yes? Perhaps?
What of the Media? Does an ecosystem not need the story tellers, journalists, reporters, and networks that connect everyone through information and social media? What role might that play?
In fact, without DIGG, Techcrunch, and Venture Beat in Silicon Valley, it would not exist as it does today and with that in mind, Austin would not even be possible without the media communicating where, why, and how to connect and engage with the Austin startup scene.
This is the work we do in MediaTech Ventures, cultivating the connections, supporting growth, illuminating tools to help founders, gathering in places, and nurturing and developing the talent. To us, all of the elements of a flourishing ecosystem depend on this flywheel being meaningfully in place so that everything above works well.
The Austin startup scene flourishes because of the community of communicators and networks that ensure mentors, founders, and investors have easy, efficient, and affordable access to all that’s available.
That’s the secret – embrace change, celebrate growth, and be a creative and cooperative community the likes of what’s fueled when so many people want to be there.
Speaking of SXSW, we’ll be all over the 2 weeks this March 2023, particularly with Funded House and connections, panels, interviews, and podcasts throughout.
Regional culture, history, and infrastructure are the qualities of a region of the world that drives innovation, jobs, and economic development because technology is ultimately about people and their potential. Our work in MediaTech Ventures has touched upon that fact a few times, whether in John Zozzaro’s look at Culture and Buildings or our exploration of The Innovation Hub of Houston, the work paramount in being a founder, startup investor, or thriving professional, is appreciating and knowing WHERE to be, regionally in a city, such that your work can best collaborate with what matters to what you’re doing.
Years ago, getting to know the Austin startup scene, the notion plagued me that we had to concert our efforts to fuel Austin by focusing people where they could be most meaningful; I put pen to paper, then, to share how Austin’s ecosystem of great impact is in NW Austin.
NW Austin… where we find Telsa, IBM, Apple, Samsung, and other innovative companies beyond
Coined as Austin’s ‘second downtown,’ there is a $3 billion dollar development in N. Austin recognizing the demand for substantial property in the direction that Austin is shifting. Uptown ATX will feature nearly 7 million square feet of offices, apartments, stores, and hotel space, as well as a new MetroRail station – the site already is home to IBM.
Now, if you’re like me, you read that headline and thought, “wait a minute, it’s very certainly already the case that The Domain in North Austin is Austin’s second downtown.” Home to many of Austin’s newest skyscrapers as well as WeWork, Amazon, VRBO, Facebook, and more, maybe this is the second second downtown?
Indeed, Katie Canales and Business Insider, just a few years ago shared, “Northwest Austin has historically been the Texas city’s ‘Silicon Valley,’ and tech’s biggest players are still pouring in. Here’s what it’s like in Austin’s ‘second downtown.'”
In the 1970s, a handful of tech companies, like IBM and Texas Instruments, set up shop north of Downtown, helping to cement the northern region’s status as a center of economic development.
– Katie Canales and Business Insider
This second, or third, major real estate development in fact isn’t the only moving the center of gravity north of 4th and Congress in Austin, TX. By my last count, it’s the 5th city center planned for the side of Austin where freeway infrastructure, good schools, and room to grow, enable more affordable commercial and residential development near Austin. As I think about it, it isn’t shifting from Austin, it’s developing up around where Texas technology, venture capital, and opportunity was already once well established.
Periodically over the course of the recent few years, Lego kits started arriving from Dell sales reps and orders associated with their PowerEdge servers. In a clever and creative way rethinking Dell, the kits made us kids again, entrepreneurs familiar with how we can build anything conceivable in our imaginations. I smiled at the tremendously simple way in which Dell found some attention through social media and inspired problem solving through the piecing together of existing technologies, they really reminded us that Dell is a startup-oriented brand and business.
Initially running the business from a dormitory room, Dell started out providing customized upgrades for PCs. The venture founded in 1984 by American Michael Dell, who was then a student at the University of Texas in Austin, proved profitable, and Dell dropped out of college that same year to begin building PCs.
Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, for those of you who don’t know, is about 35 minutes north of downtown Austin, at what I’ve called the crossroads of technology and an epicenter of Texas; most convenient to entrepreneurship. Literally, it sits where an outer freeway loop of Austin carves north, while the 45 freeway cuts from the region’s venture capital residents, past Apple’s amazing campus, and up to Samsung’s new incredible semiconductor plant, it rides the I-35 freeway, bringing everything closer to Waco, Dallas, and Fort Worth, and it’s a stone throw from here to College Station and Texas A&M. While Austin finds itself appealing for being on the water, it’s Round Rock and the surrounding area that is the epicenter of Texas technology.
This pinpoint on the map has one of Central Texas’ few urban rail lines running through it, it’s close to The Domain (the existing second city center), Austin FC (the region’s first pro sports team and arena) is nearby, Kalahari Resort’s massive convention center is here, and if you’re familiar with the notion of the Texas Triangle, you can see how it’s Round Rock that sits slightly more convenient to the aspects of the triangle.
Technology is Ultimately About People and their Potential
Unlocking the potential of people, so that you might fuel a regional economy that is entrepreneurial and innovative, starts first with recognizing that “tech” is not a focus specific enough. Round Rock, TX is not just “tech” – nor is Austin “tech” any more than you might consider a predecessor region from which people are leaving, “tech.” Its people with passion distinct to what matters there and fueling the future of technology in Texas are a few inspired people who have shifted from work previous into what they do now, in Round Rock.
“There is so much growth and opportunity ahead for Central Texas and Round Rock, and the Chamber has been an important catalyst for that growth.” Jordan Robinson, President of the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce.
As of recently, Jordan Robinson helms the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce, before which she served as the Senior Director of Regional Economic Development for the Greater Houston Partnership, managing projects representing more than 11,000 jobs and $8.2 billion in capital investment. Two years were spent before, working with the Greater Houston Partnership, working for the Office of Governor as the Strategic Business Development Manager for the state of Texas. Brad Napp finds himself too recently in Round Rock and that caught my attention notably because it was a conversation with Brad, many years ago, through the state of Texas offices, that helped inspire the role MediaTech Ventures now plays in developing early startups throughout the world. Brad is now responsible for leading the Round Rock Chamber’s Investor Engagement team to elevate investor experiences in the region.
People with great potential.
What we draw from Venture Development (the focus of Economic Development on entrepreneurship and innovation), is that we must better clarify the network of people accessible in the region and meaningful to the work we hope to inspire. This is why a region must identify better the industries of specialization, than mere “tech,” so that it might align the employers, mentors, and potential investors, to mitigate the risks taken by entrepreneurs. When I look to Round Rock and the region, I see these distinct sectors of strength with which to focus regional innovation:
What we look to accomplish, in further developing an ecosystem to deliver meaningful returns from innovation, is a Venture Development model that focuses the attention of what we have from that flywheel above, in the specific sectors of strength in a region, to put the right pieces in place to foster entrepreneurs.
Fueling The Region Further with Venture Development
Companies
Companies provide sector stability in that they offer the jobs, job training, and even some capital investment (sponsorship) of the respective industries. Company executives and directors are ideal mentors and angel investors, while the companies themselves are the initial partners founders seek in what they’re working to manifest. Clearly, North Central Texas, around Round Rock, distinguishes Texas technology with strengths not found elsewhere.
Incubators
Incubators teach founders while providing the resources and a network of peers and mentors familiar with this stage or those sectors in particular.
Notice now in our visual, how Companies overlap with Incubators; and likewise, how each element of a startup ecosystem overlaps with another, all supporting the Venture Development work.
Incubator CTX and Tech Ranch operate nearby but where Round Rock and the surrounding region can accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship most is with a renewed focus on developing incubators here where investors and technology companies like those above, serve them.
Coworking
With Innovation Workspaces, Regus, Wilco, Coworking Pflugerville, Expansive North Austin, WeWork at The Domain, and T-Werx, as well as the developing Round Rock Library, the region has shared workspace but since coworking lowers the cost of office space, while also serving as event space and providing what’s considered “coincidental collisions,” a focus of spaces on the industries identified would further fuel Texas innovation.
Incubators look to Coworking spaces as places to operate; and in as much as a founder shouldn’t pay for office space, from a Venture Development perspective, it’s silly to make our Incubators pay for property just to exist – we want them thriving on behalf of the founders.
Startup Studios
It’s here where Intellectual Property is more meaningfully researched, developed, and commercialized. Distinct from Incubators, which teach founders and help develop the ventures, look to what’s found in the region for product development, R&D, and Production. Startup Studios tend to align with specific industries as resources applicable to what’s being done – wet labs, robotics spaces, film studios, and creative design hub: to best serve the regions’ strengths, work together to establish Startup Studios.
Accelerators
Providing seed capital to accepted startups, Accelerators play a later stage role than Incubators, providing things like Media Relations and other means of scalable growth, access to relevant partners since you’re ready for them, and more direct access to capital than mere introductions and office hours.
Beyond Startup Studios, founders look to Accelerators when they know what they’re doing (perhaps from an Incubator earlier), have developed solutions (IP and products – such as what emerges from Startup Studios), and are ready to *go*
We’d do well for our economy by correcting people who use “Incubators and Accelerators” as a phrase as though these two are interchangeable. Accelerators accelerate. I’d be hard-pressed to put it more bluntly; it’s inappropriate to characterize Accelerators as for ideas just as it would be unwise for founders starting out to focus on Acceleration. Expect Accelerators to do the work that accelerates ventures.
Venture Capital
Venture Capital is a critical facet of Venture Development as it serves as both the aggregator of capital resources (referred to as Capital Formation) and exists as a signal of a healthy startup ecosystem. VCs and Angel Investors get involved with startups seeking a Return on Investment; that manifests from “Exits” – either a venture going public and becoming a publicly traded company or getting acquired.
Thus, Venture Capital helps drive founders to exit, cycling capital back into funds, through successful founders, and moving Intellectual Property and innovative teams back into Companies.
One of the great benefits of the Round Rock and North Austin region is that much of Central Texas’ venture capital community is found up and down the MoPac and 620 freeways, just around the corner and a quick drive from where it resides, to here. VC is much more accessible in this region than it might be considered elsewhere in the area.
Providing capital at the scale necessary for founders the result of (directly or indirectly) what we’ve covered thus far, VC brings us full circle in Venture Development, back to Companies through Corporate Venture Funds and the role Companies play in acquiring startups (delivering exits) that return investments to Venture Capital.
“Play Nice But Win is exactly right. Exceptional entrepreneurs like Michael Dell have changed the world under great pressure, but with great success. Michael tells you how to be successful and true to your values in this awe-inspiring narrative of what it takes.”
— Eric Schmidt, cofounder of Schmidt Futures and former CEO and chairman of Google
I’m immediately drawn to the book in as much as I’ve recently been drawn to Dhar Mann who is tirelessly inspiring kindness, “Please don’t ever get tired of being a good person with a good heart. People like you are what give this world hope, so always be as good as you are.” This is the responsibility of entrepreneurs; this is the epicenter of the future of technology: giving the world hope by doing good.
Michael Dell wrote about it, revealing the highs and lows of the company’s evolution amidst a rapidly changing industry, recalling the mentors who showed him how to turn his passion into a business, revealing the competitors who became friends, foes, or both, and highlighting the sharks that circled, looking for weakness.
“This is Dell Direct. With insightful frankness and humor, Michael Dell tells his story, that of his iconic company and the grit required to compete in the ever-growing technology industry. This is a book for entrepreneurs, leaders, and dreamers.”
– Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
What emerges from Dell’s story is the story that reveals the future of technology in Texas in the long-term vision underpinning his success: that technology is ultimately about people and their potential. As you look to Texas, increasingly look to the impact so many entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, and mentors, have had through the region in and around Round Rock, TX.
You know that licking of your lips and grasping at air that one does when trying to put in to words a dream. How you think through, as you’re talking with someone, something you just can’t quite simplify. What I’m thinking about is not a dream but a vision. Something magical is happening by way of Austin, Texas and to see it, it seems, requires dreaming; having your head in the clouds so as to look down on everything from 30,000 feet.
This photo, taken by Ralph Arvesen, characterizes Austin more than the famous skyline photos we frequently see. This photo, with the convergence of music, video, people, and graphic design, in a photograph, behind which the thriving downtown is seen overshadowing cranes erecting future, while Samsung GALAXY, the smartphone, adorns the banner, and trees backdrop the concert, this photo is a multilayered glimpse of Austin.
What if we could grasp WHY that’s the case? While we wrestle with the growth, spread, affordability, traffic issues, and frustrations that emerge because of the appeal and demand for Austin, what if we could embrace that it’s happening to Austin because of something incredible?
Austin is Metropolitan
The Domain, the downtown with which we’re not familiar
The Starbucks in West Austin is my perception of Austin and dare I say, to the chagrin of the old Keep Austin Weird culture, I love our Austin. I love my experience with Austin just as much as I love the distinction of 6th street (both sides), The Domain, SoCo, East Austin, the University of Texas campus, Zilker Park, and more. That’s Austin. I don’t care for the fact that we’re doing little to deal with traffic infrastructure as a result of our growth but I will go on record and say that I love that we’re developing Dripping Springs, connected to Georgetown, partners with Cedar Park, looking to San Marcos and Texas State, and beyond.
R.C. Hobbs Professor of Urban Studies at Chapman University in California, Joel Kotkin noted in Forbes our future to an even greater extent: Austin is merely a book end to the fastest growing metropolitan region in the country.
Notes Kotkin, “there is no regional economy that has more momentum than the one that straddles the 74 miles between San Antonio and Austin. Between these two fast-growing urban centers lie a series of rapidly expanding counties and several smaller cities, notably San Marcos, that are attracting residents and creating jobs at remarkable rates.”
OPPORUTNITY
I sat in my Starbucks, on the west side of Austin, lake country, a good 40 minutes from the core of the city, and two students across from me sat soldering a portable Sony speaker to a Raspberry Pi while coding it to play a concerto they wrote. Yes, sitting in Starbucks (I know I just disappointed half of Austin ?). The young man next to me playing a Massively Online Multiplayer war game with a Corsair Gaming headset on, chatting with his teammates; while his friend wrote a book on his tablet. End of the table was a young woman editing a video on her laptop. At Starbucks.
One of the students saw the Galvanize, DivInc, Bunker Labs Austin, General Assembly, The DEC, The Iron Yard, Pitch-a-Kid, Austin Coding Academy, and MediaTech Ventures stickers on my laptop, and asked what I do for a living.
“Create jobs for what you do,” I replied.
Why Austin
People are coming to this region of the country as though fleeing the old world for a new.
That’s precisely what we should be celebrating. As families and professionals leave the coasts as they are, and have been for years, the consistency is that for more than a decade, they’ve been moving to Central Texas.
Since 2001, Kotkin mentioned again in Forbes, Austin’s STEM workforce has expanded 35%, compared to 10% for the country as a whole, 26% in San Francisco, a mere 2% in New York and zero in Los Angeles.
STEM. Is it because of Tech? Is technology what draws folks or is it merely what helps distinguish an economy?
NO. Let me say that more clearly and loudly: TECH is NOT the catalyst of Austin. Tech is not the draw, the disruption, nor the solution – it fills a gap. Technology evolves, and it is indeed a reason why Austin is experiencing growing pains, but people aren’t leaving Silicon Valley to create it anew, here. What we’re experiencing is the way in which technology plays a role in addressing conflict, inefficiency, and demand. Austin plays a unique role in the global economy and the demand for what we’re doing isn’t because of tech but because of who we really are and how we work.
Consider, when the market needed radio back the last century, Guglielmo Marconi alone didn’t invent and disrupt the status quo. André-Marie Ampère, Joseph Henry, Michael Faraday, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, and others innovated upon one another to change the world and enable music, news, and discourse as it had never before been possible. The tech didn’t do, the media drove the demand for innovation and the technology responded by way of competition and collaboration to change things for the better.
Austin on the World Stage
And it’s well beyond 30,000 feet that we need to travel to really see what’s exciting about Austin. People from all walks of life, different industries, various origins, and disparate experiences are all coming to Austin to live, visit, or meet, looking to how the world is changing.
The Irish Consulate opened the 2nd (or only 3rd?) office in the United States just off Congress, The Global Chamber, Greater Austin Asian Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber, the Greater Austin Black Chamber, and The Austin Gay & Lesbian Chamber, Austin Young Chamber, and the West Austin Chamber of Commerce are all growing to support the interests and needs our diverse ecosystem. I had the pleasure of recently hosting the Colombian Ambassador to the United States.
And it’s in seeing and thinking about ALL of that, from Austin to San Antonio, that I started to see a pattern.
The reason we’re all drawn to Austin isn’t the startup scene nor headlines that it’s the best place to start a business, it’s that unique in the world is how the arts are colliding with entrepreneurship.
That creates opportunity: innovation, invention, and jobs.
Austin is STEAM not STEM
What do Austin’s live music community, our incredible video game developers, the film producers, directors, and editors, the extensive community of authors, and, even, advertising professionals have in common? Besides the fact that they’re all in Austin… the arts. Media.
And they are all in Austin.
When the last time you saw a film written, directed, and produced from Silicon Valley? How distinguished is Hollywood in advertising? Do you really think of New York when you think about music?
I’m going to throw a curve ball at you and I don’t want you to take it personally if your heart is set on this narrative: Austin is not the live music capital of the world. Austin is the hub of innovation in media. All of it.
Because it’s the misplaced and misunderstood enthusiasm for “tech” WITH what is characteristically Austin, that is drawing people here. To take those risks that make the world a more enjoyable place.
That’s who we are. That’s our future. That creative, culture, and experience, that people have with Austin is WHY everyone wants to be here and too, because of technology therein that we’re creating opportunity, jobs, and resources that drive not just the future of Austin but the world.
Don’t believe me? I call that MediaTech and if you’re familiar with the naming convention (e.g. EdTech, MedTech, BioTech, AdTech) traditional industries all are looking to the role technology plays IN WHAT WE DO – FoodTech, PoliticalTech, FinTech, and more are all the convergences economic development professionals, venture capitalists, and marketers are looking to in finding what careers, companies, and lifestyles look like. And in spite of my (our) use of the word “tech” to distinguish the industry, it’s not really what matters: technology is as ubiquitous as the telephone now in your pocket. It’s the media that is drawing the attention to, opportunity in, and distinction of Austin.
Some time ago, at a great civic event in which I met SaulPaul shortly after the Mayor spoke of Austin’s future, Mayor Adler noted (and in all honesty, I’m recalling his words from memory so if I’m off a bit on your message Mayor, let me know): What is Austin’s Brand?
I’ve been thinking about that for years as telling stories about economies might be the closest thing I have to a hobby (yep, I’m a economy nerd).
I pondered if Austin isn’t where technology is coming to life… eh, sure there is something distinct about the tech but tech alone is not Austin… It’s hard to say that we’re the Live Music Capital of the World when we prevent musicians from entertaining us from the streets while we entertain noise complaints lodged against Austin’s most treasured cultural venues… I considered if it’s that industry’s convergence with tech that is our future, in MusicTech, but then again, most of us aren’t working in music.
We are that though. Music, and Tech, and more through our diversity, and what it strikes me that Austin is struggling with is not our growth and evolution (thanks to tech or not) but rather keeping things as they were.
KUT and Andrew Flanagan recently noted that Austin’s music struggles are a reflection of what’s going on in the rest of the world but it struck me that here we have a difference. Let’s invent the future. To do that we have to teach it and while our schools excel and are embracing technology in K-12, are they distinct in media? What can we do to reinforce our music, art, film, writing, and even video game excellence in elementary school? Formally and institutionally – the high school to which my kids will go has one of the most recognized marching bands in the state – why not also garage bands, youth produced films, and mobile games?
Media, in the U.S. alone, is nearly a TRILLION dollar industry. Compare that to the darling Texas industry brand (Oil & Gas) which is a $1.7 trillion global market – which at the U.S. share of Oil (somewhere around 15% depending on who you ask) is a $255 billion market. With 3 of the 10 largest cities in the country in Texas and the Austin/San Antonio corridor the fastest growing metropolitan region, our future isn’t in oil, it’s becoming very apparent in all the growth than to technology in every other industry, and one of Austin’s leading industries, media / music.
Austin in Entertainment
Not many realize this but everyone’s favorite Shark, Mark Cuban, helped develop the early days of streaming media by way of a little company called Yahoo. Granted, call that 3 hours up the road, I share that to help note that many of us miss the amazing work that has been done in and around where we are. If we can overcome our penchant to “Keep Austin…” we might see the diversity and innovation that stems from here, around here, and distinguish Austin not as what was but as the ideal to which we strive. From the early days of Rock and Roll to the move of Certain Affinity (creator of a couple of small games you might know) to Austin, the distinction of where we are is the innovation of the media that enriches our lives. That’s what we’re about.
I won’t go into the list of companies innovating in music as I’ve done that before, so adding to the C3 Productions, Solstices, and JamFeeds, of Austin, the fact is that EA is here, as is Gary Hoover’s (yes, that Hoover) BigWig Games. KingsIsle Entertainment and Crowfall are Austin game brands and many of us recall the history of Challenge Games and Zynga. On October 12, 2008, Richard Garriott flew aboard Soyuz TMA-13 to the International Space Station as a private astronaut, he created Ultima.
Of course, we’re producing video entertainment as well, and not just producing but celebrating innovation, Austin is actually no more visual media by way of our film studios than it is live music. Film producers, editors, animators, and engineers are looking to Austin to innovate and the broader community is looking to keep every form of media supported and thriving.
Can I burden you with more? Keep in mind, we’re looking at the 30,000 foot view. This is the brief of what’s going on. More than music, Austin is at the epicenter of radio innovation and podcasting. Yes yes Ferris and Rogen, etc. but did you know the Podfather (for essentially having invesnted podcasting), perhaps familiar to some of you as once MTV VJ, Adam Curry, streams No Agenda and The Big Book Show from Austin?
Austin is at the epicenter of innovation in music, video, video games, and radio and that work being done is even more evident in the shift this way of well known, corporate media entities such as Comcast moving their R&D to Austin, Samsung investing in VR and 360 here, Apple AND Google AND Facebook AND Amazon ever expanding their teams and offices…
This is Austin too! I know, right!?
But let’s not even look to entertainment or companies in such media. What of the great many jobs and work being done to serve that economy.
Austin in Writing
My work in MediaTech Ventures hosted nearly a couple hundred of Austin’s written word thought leaders and technology professionals at WP Engine – WP Engine, the online media company that made it simple for would be website producers and authors to get started.
Scribe Media is based here, for authors, and in Social Media, forget the hype about social networks, Austin is where many of the successful social data companies were built Spredfast, Sprinklr, People Pattern, and Polygraph Media among many looking to what the social graph will do for our future.
SXSW helped me see then when Hugh Forrest mentioned shortly before the world turned upside down, that Music, Film, and Interative would further converge, not as so-distinct events but in reflection of the fact that music and film are intrinsically interactive, engaging, and innovative forms of media.
I’m not going to proclaim the Valley is dead nor even dying. I don’t believe that in spite of many, many, many, many others suggesting so. When I refer to the Valley as the past, what I’m referring to is that Valley built technology and the internet as we know it today. The Valley, largely alone, is responsible for the infrastructure of our economy. And therein is the implication.
When you consider what built the Valley’s tech ecosystem, we have to appreciate that Silicon Valley was engineered. Built by beloved geeks, programmers, data architects, scientists, and engineers, the Valley is the code, platform, and infrastructure on which everything else we’re doing is possible.
Think about it… from Cisco to Netflix, how we use technology today is the result of what the Valley built. We have our social network, our search engine, our analytics platforms, our internet, our commerce engines, our operating systems, our hardware, etc. largely because of Silicon Valley. No, certainly not entirely, but philosophically, the Valley built our past and present by fostering the tech on which we live and work.
Smartphones, search engines, shopping sites, and laptops are merely tools, they are the infrastructure through which we live and work more efficiently, productively, and scalably, but it’s not as though we wake up every morning and depend on Google.
Looking to the future and wherein to get excited is that it’s time to make technology an integral part of lives. We’re starting to see the result of artists, creatives, and other industries embracing that foundation in such a way that technology is becoming part of our lives and it is in Austin where technology is coming to life.
Tech Finding Life in Austin
One of the things you hear about when you visit or move to Austin is that life matters. Austin is an incredibly diverse and supportive ecosystem given the fact that we are equal parts Democrat and Republican, religious and not, liberal and conservative. Those characteristics combined with the Texan sense of independence and Wildcatter attitude fosters a community in which we’re all in it together not just because we’re building companies but because we live here. Together. In spite of differences of opinion, because those differences are our greatest strength. Life matters and your personal opinions comprise who you are more than the technology or company that you’re building and here it matters that you have kids, like to wakeboard, want to spend a week in Port A…
More than that though, Austin’s other brand, other than “Keeping it Weird,” is as the Live Music Capital of the World. Austin is home to artists, musicians, designers, movie producers and directors, writers, and story tellers. Our vibe is the counter culture to Hollywood wherein the Arts are embraced, challenged, and moved forward. Heck, because of our conservative fiscal policies, Elementary schools still have the Arts embedded as a critical component of public education whereas far too many other cities have relegated such experiences to an after school special. While the world chase STEM, to ensure we have more programmers, Austin puts the A in STEAM: Science Technology, Engineering, Austin, and Mathmatics. er… Arts.
The future of our economy lies therein. With the infrastructure engineered, we’re witnessing the new era of technology in Smart Homes, Clean Tech, Internet of Things, Driverless Cars, Wearables, and Personalization – technology that is part of our lives. We’re turning our attention to the complete disruption of archaic industries that matter to our daily lives: Education, Politics, Health, Insurance, Medicine, Transportation, and Energy. We’re dawning an era past algorithms, bandwidth, storage, and big data and entering the era that is dependent upon the very thing that Austin does best: Create Opportunities
New Businesses Create (almost) All New Jobs
In the previous recession, 50 of our internet era’s Unicorns of today were founded and incredible companies such as Disney, EA, Microsoft, and Whatsapp, were all born of such tough times.
And we’ve just gone through some tough times have we now? Moreover, Austin has been a hotbed for startups for the better part of a decade. All of the above, in Education, Technology, Entrepreneurs, and Infrastructure, converged with culture, the arts, and celebrated in Media, creates opportunities.
Opportunities in jobs.
That concerted effort on those 4 things drives economic growth through new industries, new ventures, new jobs, and new founders. Our vision for the better way forward in media, applies to every industry and every sector of our economy.
And to accomplish that, together, challenges us to truly do this together. In Austin.
I want to invite you to join me in such discussions live and together.
It all, always, comes down to the culture of community.
Why does Silicon Valley produce startups differently than elsewhere?
Why does Hollywood have a style and way about their films that really isn’t replicated elsewhere?
Why is Arizona State University a “party school” that produces highly social people?
As entrepreneurs, we like to THINK and BELIEVE that we can all be that next venture the likes of what Gates, Dell, or Musk have spawned.
As founders, many of us are led to believe that if we just follow the “book” (pick your favorite startup book or methodology), we’ll end up just like the author.
Ever wonder why Venture Capital so rarely actually invests beyond where it’s found?? VCs like startups to be close to them? Or some alignment between HOW startups develop and what VC seeks?
Isn’t a startup, a startup, a startup?? Why are European or Chinese startups just a bit different from startups in the U.S.?
Culture dictates HOW ventures develop where you are.
I’ve lived in Austin, TX and Silicon Valley. You know what’s readily obvious when you spend time in both ecosystems?
What mentors, investors, and fellow founders tell one another what matters.
Austin?[ Largely: bootstrap, lean, customer focus, revenue is better.
Silicon Valley?[ Largely: market share, get funding, exit, innovation, and disruption.
Neither is “right” while the other is wrong but it unquestionably reflects that startups differ for a fundamental reason a result of WHERE they develop: Culture.[
What’s drastically different between Arizona State University, Harvard, Oxford, UT Austin, and Stanford?
Culture.
So I’ve been around Stanford and I’ve been around UT Austin.
Stanford never really celebrated nor promoted their incubators, startup programs, and entrepreneurship classes. They may be there, don’t misunderstand that as criticism; it’s an observation that they aren’t overtly promoted as a value of students being there… because the education itself is entrepreneurial?
Stanford never talked about IP and Commercialization.
Stanford seemingly spins students OUT of school to start amazing things.
I lectured at Stanford, in my late 20s, because I was working in startups.
UT Austin has a massive IP and Commerialization office. I’ve known 4 people now who’ve burned out on trying to make that office work and spin out IP. You know why it doesn’t work? Because our economy isn’t built on University IP anymore… but they keep trying. Austin has more Patent Lawyers in the startup scene than anywhere I’ve ever experienced.
UT Students don’t graduate and start something. Sure, they can (and do) start things during school, but do you know who owns that IP? (diluting the potential and value in the risk the young entrepreneurs are taking…)
I’ve offered to lecture at UT… I’m not an Alum. They favor their employees. Heck, who knows; I’m more experienced now and have more success under my belt… seems they don’t have as many “executive” roles (i.e. CMO, CTO, etc.) come lecture as they favor former founders.
