Intro to the Austin Startup Scene (Brief)

by Damon Clinkscales

Intro to the !Austin !

Startup Scene

(condensed)

Austin Open Coffee Club!(2010-present)

Austin on Rails!(Co-Founder / Leader,!

Technology User Group!2005-present)!

Cafe Bedouins (Weekly Hack Night, !

2008-present)

InvestorSheets!(Side project, 2015)

Techstars(Mentor,!

2013-present)

@damon

Longhorn Startup (Mentor,!

2011-present)

https://linkedin.com/in/damonc

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http://bit.ly/austinscene

Annual Calendar• Austin Startup Games (January)!• SXSW / Startup Village / Accelerator (March)!• Capital Factory Demo Day / Startup Crawl (March)!• Dreamit Ventures Demo Day (March)!• Longhorn Startup Demo Day (April)!• PeopleFund Innovation Week (May)!• Techstars Demo Day (June/varies)!• Innotech Beta Summit (Oct)!• Capital Factory Demo Day / Startup Crawl (Oct)!• Austin Startup Week (Oct)

Offices in Austin

“Unicorns”

Entrepreneur Meetup Organizers

Kevin Koym

Damon!Clinkscales

Josh Baer

Jacqueline Hughes

Bijoy Goswami

Tech Ranch!

(Various)Austin Open Coffee Club

Capital Factory!

(Various)

Austin!Startup!Week

Bootstrap Austin (3.0)

Entrepreneur Meetup Organizers

Kimberly Patrick

Ash Maurya

Johan Borge

Monika Ostrowski

Val Luessenhop

Startup!Grind

Austin!Lean!

Startup!Circle

ATX !Entre-!

preneursTeXchange Rice

Alliance

Ways to “Plug In”

• Sign up for newsletters and follow interesting folks/orgs on Twitter!

• Attend community meetups, coffees, and happy hours!

• Go to hackathons, Startup Weekends, and Demo Days!

• Invite interesting people you meet for a cup of coffee. A little randomness is O-K.!

!

• Be helpful to others —make introductions, give feedback, be open to the possibilities!

• Share your experiences as you go on a blog and social networks!

• Interact with / be helpful to others on social media!

• Hold Office hours

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Mentorship Opportunities

• CTAN Office Hours!

• Capital Factory!• Techstars!• Tech Ranch!• Dreamit Ventures!• AVINDE

• Longhorn Startup Lab (Spring)!

• ATI SEAL!• International Accelerator!

• SKU!• Unltd USA

Startup Focused Orgs• 3 Day Startup!• Austin Technology Council (ATC)!• Bootstrap Austin (3.0)!• Entrepreneurs Foundation!• Entrepreneurs’ Organization!• Rice Alliance Austin!• TiE Austin

Happy Hours• Austin Tech Happy Hour (ATHH)!• Big Ass Social Happy Hour (BASHH)!• Tech Ranch Campfire!• Techstars Community Meetups!• Capital Factory Happy Hours (various)!

• (NEW) Intro to the Austin Startup Scene Happy Hour

Entrepreneur Coffees

• Austin Open Coffee Club!

• Austin TechBreakfast

Coworking Spaces

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• Capital Factory!• Link!• Perch!• Opportunity Space!

• WeWork

• Tech Ranch!• Vuka Co-op!• Chicon Collective!• Owen’s Garage!• Orange Coworking

Investor/Founder Meetups• Co-Founders Austin (Tech Map)!• Austin Lean Startup Circle!• Intro to Angel Investing in Austin (CF)!• Intro to Fundraising in Austin (CF)!• Intro to the Austin Startup Scene (CF)!• Intro to Austin Accelerators (CF)!• Startup Grind Austin!• TeXchange

Hacker/Dev Meetups• ATX Hardware Startups!• Product Austin!• Women Who Code!• Refresh Austin!• Austin Python!• Austin on Rails!• Austin JavaScript!• … (100+ on meetup.com)

Incubators / Accelerators

• Tech Ranch Austin !• Dreamit Ventures!• Capital Factory!• Longhorn Startup!• Techstars!• UnLtd USA!• The Bunker!

• Austin Technology Incubator!

• Medical Innovation Labs!

• Texas Venture Labs!• SKU!• International

Accelerator

Incubator/Accelerator Directors

Kevin Koym

Steve Welch

Josh Baer

Jason Seats

ZoeSchlag

Tech!Ranch

DreamIt!Ventures

Capital!Factory Techstars Unltd USA

Incubator/Accelerator Directors

Isaac!Barchas

Michael Patton

Rob!Adams

Shari Wynne Ressler!

Phil!Pompa

Austin!Technology!Incubator

!Medical !

Innovation!Labs

Texas!Venture!

LabsSKU International!

Accelerator

http://startupdigest.com/austin

Facebook Groups

Austin Startups

Capital Factory News

https://www.facebook.com/groups/austinstartups/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cfstartupnews/

Austin Angel Investorshttps://www.facebook.com/groups/ATXAngelInvestors/

Austin Startup Press• Austin American-Statesman

Lori Hawkins, Omar Gallaga, Kirk Ladendorf!• Austin Business Journal

Christopher Calnan!• The Austin Phoenix

Kelly Holt!• AustinInno

(various)!• Fortune

Stacy Higginbotham!• Silicon Hills News

Laura Lorek, Susan Lahey!• Xconomy Texas

Angelah Shah

Funding Options

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Investment Firms/Groups

• Austin Ventures!• Corsa Ventures!• CTAN (Angels)!• G-51 Capital!• Live Oak Ventures

Partners!• S3 Ventures!• Silverton Partners!• Access Venture Partners!• Alara Capital

Inside Austin

• ARCH Venture Partners!• ATX Seed Ventures!• Covera Ventures!• Murphree Ventures!• Next Step Capital Partners!• Sante Ventures!• Sevin Rosen Funds!• TEXO Ventures!• Trellis Partners

Alliance of Texas Angel Networks

Investment Firms/Groups

!

• Floodgate Fund (SF)!• Disruption Corporation (DC)!• ATAN (Texas angel groups)!• Golden Seeds (Dallas)!• McCombs Partners (SA)!• Trailblazer Capital (Dallas)!• Sutter Hill Ventures (SF)

Outside Austin

• Foundry Group (Boulder)!• Mark Cuban Companies (Dallas)!• Mercury Fund (Houston)!• First Round Capital (NYC)!• ff Ventures (NYC)!• 500 Startups (SV/SF)!• Mohr Davidow Ventures (SF)!

Thank You

Onward to the future!

• The Startup Slingshot: How to Raise Money http://x.thestartupslingshot.com/how-to-raise-money/ (by @william_griggs)!

• The Startup Slingshot: Austin’s Startup Brain Trust http://x.thestartupslingshot.com/austin-startup-brain-trust/ (by @william_griggs)!

• A Smart Bear http://blog.asmartbear.com/ (by @asmartbear)!

• We are Austin Techhttp://www.weareaustintech.com/ (by @weareaustintech)!

• Shockwave Innovations http://shockwaveinnovations.com/blog/ (by @gordondaugherty)!

• Built in Austin: Top 100 Tech Companies in Austin http://www.builtinaustin.com/2015/05/12/top-100-tech-companies-austin (by @BuiltInAustin)!

• Lucky 7 http://lucky7.io/ (by @bazaarbrett)

Further Resources