Austinpreneur

Think about the starving artist — they’ve been around for centuries.
Artists today truly want to be out there.
But a lot of times they don't think of themselves as entrepreneurs.
They don't have a lot of confidence in their abilities as business people.
But they've got some amazing ideas to contribute to the world.
That's why Jan Ryan is helping to build a design program at UT Austin that’s based on the core principles of entrepreneurship.
I sat down with Jan to talk about how and why she’s building this new program. Jan also talked about her own journey from artist to entrepreneur, why failure is so critical, and how we can keep making strides to support women in entrepreneurship.

Founders and entrepreneurs are typically in control. They’re motivated, logical, and driven. But there’s one area that often escapes us: our own health.
But if we aren't sleeping, or exercising, and if we’re constantly eating fast food, and stress has overtaken our lives … are we really the leaders?
That’s the question Shayna Dunitz asked on this episode.
She’s the COO of Central Athlete, an Austin-based fitness center. Before she started at Central Athlete, she worked for 3 Day Startup, where she helped entrepreneurs reach their dreams. Far too often, she observed amazing leaders who were taking charge of everything … but their own health.
On this episode, she gave some practical advice to entrepreneurs to get the most ROI from their sleep and health habits.

Like a lot of entrepreneurs, Ross Baird, Founder at Blueprint Local, has been creating businesses from the very beginning.
But what sets Ross apart is his passion for social entrepreneurship.
Most people separate the world into two pockets: Making money and doing good.
But Ross knows that a business can actually be a great, financially sustainable way to do something that you care about.
So, on this episode of the Austinpreneur podcast, Ross joined us to talk about lifting up your community through social entrepreneurship, partnering with others in your region, and leveraging the new opportunity zone legislation.

Some companies have a more difficult time getting funding that others. Maybe you’re a founder of a CPG company. Or maybe you’re a founder who lacks a technical background or a technical team. If that’s you, you know that it can be a little trickier to get the funding your business needs to keep growing.

We’ve been talking a lot about this lately. So, today, we’re focusing on another type of company that can also struggle to get funding: consumer hardware products.

Brandon Austin, Co-Founder at GoFish Cam, came on the latest episode of the Austinpreneur podcast to talk about his company, how they used Kickstarter to prove demand — and eventually secure the funding they needed, and how they’re fitting into the Austin ecosystem. His story demonstrates that even when it’s tricky, you can still rise above the challenges to secure the funding you need.

John Entwistle and Kyle Carberry have a really unique investor story.
It starts with graduating high school.

When the end of their Senior year rolled around, John and Kyle had a decision to make: Go to college or pursue their vision to launch a cloud based coding system. They chose their vision.

But that meant they needed funding.

And unlike most entrepreneurs, as recent high school grads, they didn’t have a network to reach out to. They built a top class investor network from scratch. How’d they do it? John and Kyle came on this episode of the Austinpreneur podcast to talk about their company, Coder, and their story.

Last year, in 2018-2019, the Anti-Defamation League saw a 572% increase in white supremacists propaganda across the country. Chris Magyarics, senior researcher at the ADL is helping fight that hate.

Chris is responsible for the ongoing monitoring of various white supremacists organizations and sub movements throughout the United States. He also serves as an expert consultant to law enforcement agencies. Because online hate, even in the tech industry, is growing.
“Unfortunately, it’s like a game of whack-a-mole. You take one extremists off of your forum and then they pop up somewhere else in one of the more obscure platforms,” says Chris. A series of trends he sees emerging include white supremacists trying to gain political office and increasing their propaganda efforts.

And don’t be fooled, it’s not just swastikas anymore… white supremacists are rebranding. It’s hard to pinpoint these days because the propaganda doesn’t bluntly scream white supremacy. Thankfully, ADL is working with tech companies like Bumble to figure out how to use AI to spot and weed out extremists from their platforms.

But tech companies aren’t the only ones responsible for spotting and reporting hate. Tune in to this episode to learn what YOU can do to combat hate online.

Yao Huang was on track to become a doctor.
She became Founder of The Hatchery in NYC instead.
As she journeyed from a labcoat to founding one of New York’s most notable incubators, Yao learned a lot about life and business.
So, I wanted to invite her to be a guest on this episode of the Austinpreneur podcast. In this show, Yao talks about her experiences and shares some of the key principles she’s learned along the way.

Our country is divided. And technology is how we're going to solve problems and help people
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), the new US representative for the Texas 21st district, believes that problems are best solved “out here more than in DC, and my job is trying to figure out how to get more [innovation] back there.”
Government does what it often does, which is force some of the tough questions to be dealt with. So Roy remains optimistic that we'll be able to do that.
But, he told me, Washington needs a kick in the pants. And that's not an ideological statement. It needs to address the problems that need addressing.
The thing that Roy likes about technology is the entrepreneurial spirit and the innovation that is going to solve the problems. That is happening in places like Austin and throughout the rest of the country, though usually not in Washington.

Startups looking for funding need to figure out their customer’s pain points and get something sold.

“If you can show that customers are throwing money at you to get out of pain, that is the most impressive thing to an investor, there’s proof that you're creating value,” said Chris Sklarin, managing director of Castor Ventures— a venture fund enabling Massachusetts Institute of Technology alums to invest in high-growth companies connected to fellow alums.

The world is full of fake news.

Don’t let your brand fall victim to it.

Corporations can be inspired to change their policies or products based on public backlash, but you don't want to change your corporate policies if that backlash is manufactured.

Jonathan Morgan, CEO of New Knowledge, the world's first platform for disinformation defense, is an expert at spotting and stopping fake news. He visited Austinpreneur and shared some insights on how companies can defend themselves.