Austinpreneur

With 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, Bjorn Billhardt has learned that leadership means something completely different from one industry to another. Bjorn is the CEO and Founder of Abilitie, a Leadership Development Simulation program trains professionals and university students into the next corporate leaders. Bjorn and his team are working to teach situational leadership and helping people learn to adapt to problems in a way that may not fit their industry.

To a major corporate company, a few thousand dollars from tax savings doesn't seem like much. To a startup, however, it's substantial. Taxes can seem like a grueling amount of work when you're trying to run a company, but don't let it weigh you down. Ari Palmer has developed TaxTaker, a full-service specialty tax credit platform for accounting professionals and startup companies!

On May 9th of 2012, President Barack Obama visited Capital Factory. Go behind-the-scenes with Bill Boebel, Alex Smith, Sarah Cox, Jessica Stewart, and Joshua Baer as they think back to the iconic moment that President Obama stopped by the office, the time and preparation that went into securing the building, and the moment when they got to meet the 44th President of the United States.

The SXSW Startup Crawl is just around the corner! Before that happens, learn about how it all got started with Allyson Weber and John Rodriguez as they explain all the craziness that took place to make one of the best kick-off events to the biggest tech startup event in Austin. Don't forget to sign up for this year's SXSW Startup Crawl on Friday, March 13th! Grab a group of friends and tour the latest and greatest of Austin's startup community.

Teaching your kids a second language can at times seem impossible. You lose your child’s attention fairly quickly when they don’t understand the words you’re saying. Leslie and Mark Begert have seemingly cracked the code on teaching a language and weaving in a compelling story to keep kids hooked. Leslie and Mark are the Co-Founders of FabuLingua, a language learning platform for kids ages 2 - 10 that utilizes a unique method designed to subconsciously develop a child’s comprehension and reading skills.

Owning a dog that has never been trained before can be stressful. Figuring out which trainer is better can be even harder! OneMind Dogs is an online subscription-based training platform created from the dogs' point of view. Simple, quick, and effective, CEO Noora Keskievari wants to help owners help their dogs! OneMind Dogs doesn't just want to sell you a product, they want you to help change the world, one dog at a time.

He was a Research Astrophysicist for NASA, Nuclear Physicist for the Department of Energy, and Director of Data Science for Rosetta Stone. Now, Charlie Burgoyne is the Founder and CEO of Valkyrie, a company dedicated to using their cutting-edge technology to help clients overcome challenges, invest in startups, develop products, and even create a Formula 4 racing team. Sean Duffy sat down with Charlie to chat about the company's philosophy and why a data-science company got involved in racing.

Using a combination of Artificial Intelligence and object and behavior detection, Athena Security is on a mission to stop crime. Lisa Falzone, CEO and Founder of Athena Security, has developed a system that detects over 900 types of weapons. Within 3 seconds, it notifies the user and allows them to contact law enforcement quicker and more efficiently. Lisa mentioned that "the way to think about [Athena Security] is if you look at fire alarms... people really don't die from fires anymore... so the way to think about us is like a gun alarm... and our goal is to be the gun alarm and really stop all this gun violence that has been happening."

When you think of audio-content, you probably think of a few companies: Apple Podcasts, Audible, and Spotify. You’ve probably never heard of Beek.io but they are creating the largest audio site for the Spanish speaking market. Producing over 50 original audio content pieces per month and 2M monthly visits, Beek is building what Pamela Valdes likes to call “the Netflix for Audio.” Beek’s co-founder and CEO, Pamela Valdes chatted with Joshua Baer about her success, Y Combinator, and her journey from book reviews to creating compelling content.

Protecting sensitive user data seems to be a recurring issue in the 21st century. With the rise of the digital age, it can be hard for businesses to build and maintain trust with clients and partners. Karyl Fowler, Founder and CEO of Transmute, is building a scalable decentralized identity tool that allows businesses to manage millions of people’s identities, all while minimizing the risk of processing sensitive data. Transmute is helping businesses protect their data and create "Collaboration without Compromise."