Texas-Squared Startup Newsletter #292 | by Marc Nathan | Apr, 2021

Texas Startup News, Opinion & Events in the Lone StartUP State
View this email in your browserSUBSCRIBE to Texas-Squared

Share

Tweet

Share

Email to a FriendSign up for reminders about Austin Startup meetups www.bitly.com/txstartupevents
Sign up for the Texas-Boxed CPG Newsletter www.bitly.com/txboxed
Austin Quick Start Guide www.bitly.com/atxquickstart
Download the Texas-Squared Startup Resource Guide PDF
Gregslist of Software Companies — Austin | Dallas Fort Worth
HTX Tech List — https://houstonexponential.org/htxtechlist/ UH Tech Map https://techmap.uh.edu/Texas Squared Partner

Engineered for Entrepreneurs! The XPS Creator Edition products are designed to offer the performance your creativity craves. With professional level graphics and 64GB of memory your imagination can run free!
Register for you exclusive promo here. Check out the XPS here.

– TechCrunch’s Mary Ann Azevedo

What follows is a survey of some of the top VCs in the city and their projections about the growth of Austin’s ecosystem.

Here’s who we spoke to:

• Eric Engineer, S3 Ventures
• Morgan Flager, Silverton Partners
• Joshua Baer, Capital Factory
• Carey Smith, Unorthodox Ventures
• Krishna Srinivasan, LiveOak Venture Partners
• Zaz Floreani, Next Coast Ventures

The 12-week accelerator provides startups access to Rice Alliance’s network of energy corporations, investors, and advisors. With an engaged support network and personalized mentor relationships, startups will also experience curriculum and programming intentionally designed to increase their likelihood of success — bridging the gap between ideas and business success.

Rice Clean Energy Accelerator Applications Due April 14th , 2021 at 11:59 pm CDT — Apply

Doing business in another country is always a challenge and certainly in the US. Every state has its own culture and rules. And even within a state there are many differences.

Fortunately, more than 100 Dutch companies have preceded you in Texas. They have all found their way. At the NBSO we receive questions daily about doing business in Texas. That is why we have developed a series of workshops in collaboration with SCORE and Houston Community College with the theme “The secrets of doing business in Texas”.

The Secrets of Doing Business In Texas
Finding sources of financing and investment
Wednesday April 14, 2021 12 noon — 1pm
REGISTER

Join us for three days of online panels and curated discussions with top investors and innovative founders in industries that have been highly stigmatized. One of the highlights of the Consumer VC Summit is professional networking across the spectrum of emerging startups and focused VCs. We will be announcing the lineup in the coming weeks. Enter EARLYBIRD at checkout for 50% off until March 31st. https://stigma.theconsumervc.com/

• How Austin’s Start-up Sector Won the Pandemic — Link
• The Off-grid Business Has Never Been Better — Link
  – Texas Monthly
• Another tech startup trades West Coast for booming Austin scene — Link
  – Culture Map Austin
• Tyler Norwood — Funding Dreams at Antler Global — Link
  – Friends in Austin Podcast
• Disco Raises $5 Million Seed Funding Led by Midnight Venture Partners — Link
  – WWD’s Obi Anyanwu
• ‘Huge amount of demand’: Fashion and beauty brands are flocking to Austin — Link
  – Glossy
• Blue Sage Capital Invests In Cobra Legal Solutions — Link
• ‘Zoom Boom’ Leads to Uptick in Austin Eyelid Lift Surgeries — Link
• An Austinite’s Guide to the City’s Shining Stars — Link
  – Austin Monthly Magazine
• OpenWork Agency Launches Operator Solution for Asset Owners- Coworking Kit of Parts — Link
  – EIN News
• City, live music advocates decry legislation that would limit noise regulations — Link
• Panel weighs future potential of city’s health care innovation district — Link
  – Austin Monitor
• Joe Rogan ditches first Austin podcast cave for new well-lit studio — Link
• Austin’s tintype revival: How one local photographer is making heirloom-quality portraits in the digital age — Link
• Auction: Spirit of Daniel Johnston honored in new ‘Hi, How Are You’ NFT — Link
• Austinites are still bending over backward for a vaccine appointment, here’s why — Link
• Tesla ‘master of coin’ follows Elon Musk to Austin with new lakeside home — Link
• Willie Nelson to hold cannabis convention for 88th birthday — Link
• UFOs? SpaceX’s launch gives Austinites a scare — Link
• A year into Zoom learning and the effects on students are soon to reveal themselves — Link
• We’re celebrating Austonia’s 1st birthday. Celebrate with us. Become a member. — Link
• The 10 best places to work in
  Austin since the pandemic began — Link
• Abbott bans government-mandated ‘vaccine passports’ to mixed reviews — Link
• Elon Musk may not be №1 on Forbes’ 2021 billionaires list but he easily takes first for richest Texan — Link
• Three Austinites explain why they would rather risk COVID than get the vaccine — Link
• Allegiant will establish a $75M base at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport — Link
• St. Edward’s is 1 of 5 universities that will require students to get a COVID vaccine so far — Link
• Elon Musk joins rallying cry for more Austin housing — Link
• New state bill could deregulate noise levels in ‘Live Music Capital of the World’ — Link
• Gone from Texas: how many people leave Austin and where do they go? — Link
  – Austonia
• From Virtual Events to Communities — Link
• Supporting Community — Driven Change at WFF — Link
• Innovation, Diversity Empowering the Global Energy Transition — Link
  – SXSW
• Student-Run Arts Festival Showcases Student Talent in 33 New Experimental Works — Link
• Congress Needs to Enact Budgets That Hold Lawmakers Accountable — Link
• 6 Tips for Building Experience in the Age of COVID-19 — Link
• Human Trials Begin for a Low-Cost COVID-19 Vaccine to Extend Global Access — Link
  – University of Texas
• India bans cryptocurrency prior to releasing their own — Link
• Woman fired for premarital sex, raises questions of company culture — Link
• An industry first: IBM launches quantum developer certification program — Link
• Zoom Escape offers goofy ‘exit strategies’ for the Zoom-weary — Link
  – The American Genius
• Tesla’s CFO is the latest tech executive to buy a home in Texas — see his $3.29 million lake-front Austin home — Link
• Graphic Design Startup Canva Raises $71M at $15B Valuation, Is Hiring in ATX — Link
• OnlineMedEd Raises $20M in Funding, Looking to Hire 50 in Next 6 Months — Link
• Living Security Raised $14M, Upswing Got $5M, and More Austin Tech News — Link
  – Built in Austin
• M&A dealmaking has reached a fever pitch in ’21 despite pandemic — Link
• Coinbase early investor expects many of crypto’s future big successes will likely be in Austin, Miami — Link
• Businesses tapped for $137M worth of contracts with city of Austin — Link
• Building on a 172-year legacy: Comerica CEO details balance between innovation, preserving history — Link
• Tesla CFO has bought a lakeside Austin home, Bloomberg reports — Link
• Dozens of hires planned after tech company Markaaz moves to Austin from LA — Link
• Leander ranked one of best U.S. suburbs — Link
• Former HomeAway exec joins Restore Hyper Wellness as first CFO — Link
• Snippet of data highlights how LA, Bay Area are pushing Austin’s population into overdrive — Link
• How OnlineMedEd’s CEO plans to spend fresh $20M — Link
• If market volatility keeps you up at night, you may need to change your perspective — or your investments — Link
• 5 steps can help business owners protect their future, their family and their legacy — Link
• With foresight and planning, values on everything from family history to the meaning of money can endure for generations — Link
• The new Forbes list of Austin billionaires includes Elon Musk, Whitney Wolfe Herd, other notable additions — Link
• Live music is returning to Austin. What does that look like? — Link
• Shares of lidar maker Innoviz jump nearly 11% after merger with Austin SPAC — Link
• The top Austin tech and startup executive hires, promotions (March 2021) — Link
• Allegiant Air to invest $75M to create operations base at Austin airport — Link
• The workday grew almost 80 minutes longer in 2020 — but workers were 200% more productive — Link
• New Braunfels businesses struggle to find workers while hopeful for coming boom — Link
• In the money April 5: Wide array of companies report more than $74M in deals — Link
• Tech job openings surged in Austin, nationwide last month — Link
• Virginia data center operator eyes Texas deals — Link
• H-E-B has methodically approached expansion in Texas’ largest metro — Link
  – Austin Business Journal & Austin Inno’s Brent Wistrom
• Health care company cuts 121 jobs in Austin — Link
• Austin gas prices dip, but increases may be coming — Link
• Allegiant plans $75M operations center at Austin airport — Link
• Meet the Texas jam company with the sweetest story — Link
• As it speeds ahead with Austin factory, Tesla hits new production high — Link
• After year of COVID, Austin showing signs of a retail rebound — Link
• Three Austin startups combine to raise $24M for growth — Link
• Two Austin companies combine to raise $17.5 million for growth — Link
• Tech company Markaaz moves HQ from California to Austin — Link
• Two Austin businesses combining to lay off 120 workers — Link
• Report: Freeze caused most power plant failures — Link
  – Austin American-Statesman