Austinpreneur

It’s like Reddit… but for kids. Sound dangerous? It’s everything but that.

Joe Troyen, Founder and CEO of Penpal Schools, is building a community of teachers and students from all around the world who desire to learn together. But don’t let the name fool you. They’re not just writing letters to each other.

They’re accelerating a new shift called project-based learning. It’s happening all over the world as more schools realize that asking students to memorize facts for tests is pointless…Isn’t that why we have the internet after all?

Joe joins us today to discuss how he built Penpal Schools, how he’s been successful in finding investors and how he’s now taking it into schools around the country.

“Somebody asked me this the other day, ‘What did you learn the most from bootstrapping?’ It was very specifically that we had to do every job before we hired.” That's the mindset of David Hauser. 

On today's episode, we sit down with David Hauser, Founder of Grasshopper. We're diving deep into the bootstrappers attitude and how YOU can put this practice to action.

When young women graduate college, it’s estimated that 50% of them say they believe they can ascend to executive leadership.

But after a couple of years, that number drops to around 16%.

We are certainly miles down the road from where we used to be.

You don’t have to go back very far to a time when there were no entrepreneur accelerators for women. There were no women lead venture funds investing in women entrepreneurs.

Now we live in a world where we have programs supporting women. Incubators and entire programs built around helping women rise to the highest levels.

In the 1960s, US defense related R&D was one third of global R&D. Today, it’s 3%.

Mike Brown and Zach Walker with the Defense Innovation Unit in Austin, Texas, are building bridges between enterprise tech and the Department of Defense.

Most of what the DOD needs is happening commercially: AI, autonomy, and cyber are all necessary to ensure our military is competitive, and they're happening outside the Pentagon.

DIU is keeping tabs on everything that's happening in our economy beyond traditional defense contractors. Universities, national labs, and startup companies are all fair game for the DOD to tap into that innovation so our military can remain competitive.

“A really good sign is if you see someone roll up their sleeves and you feel like that investor is an employee.”
That’s how Orlando Mendoza, General Partner at Arsenal Growth, recommends you find the right investor.

Orlando and his team at Arsenal bring their expertise to entrepreneurs on a regular basis, not just criticizing from afar in the occasional boardroom meeting.

What do you know about Africa? If you’re like most American’s, probably not a lot.
But what if I told you that some of the most revolutionary entrepreneurship on the planet was coming out of the continent of Africa?

This is where Teddy Warria and his team at Ideas Come to Life are changing the game. 

In the country of Kenya along, there are over 30 million mobile phones. 

In a country of 45 million people.

But why so many?

The best part about being a venture capitalist? The people.

Matt Blomstedt says it’s actually ALL about the people. He’s a managing partner at SpringTime Ventures based in Boulder, CO. From the founders and entrepreneurs to his investor base, Matt believes the venture capital industry is driven by relationships. 

We loved hearing about Matt’s passion behind building these strong relationships with the startup ecosystem. Over the years, he’s learned that building these relationships take time, and that’s okay because he wants SpringTime Ventures to be about so much more than just seed funding. If they’re not able to help your startup with more than just a check, you’re probably not the right fit.
Tune to hear more of Matt’s advice to entrepreneurs.

When Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) visited South by Southwest, their name tags bore the slogan, “Never stop exploring.” Their technological explorations might be a key to saving our planet.

Rickard Gustafson, the CEO of SAS and Didrik A. Fjeldstad, its Vice President of brand marketing, visited our podcast recently when they were in town for SXSW.

Gustafson hopes to “spark some discussions with my US colleagues about sustainability. “For us it's about pollution, emissions, and greenhouse gasses. For them it's primarily a discussion about noise.” Let that sink in for a minute.

We all know that person. The people that, no matter the ups and downs, are just simply the nicest person in the room.
Blake Garrett is that person.

As the founder and CEO of Aceable, Blake is genuinely the nicest person in any room. But how? How do you get to that level of success and maintain your title of “Mr. Nice Guy?”

In a lot of ways, Austin & Toronto couldn’t be more different. 

We’ve got breakfast tacos & brisket. Toronto has poutine.

We’ve got a very moderate climate. Toronto had nearly 3 feet of snow in 2018.

But what if Toronto and Austin had more in common than we think?