On Saturday, our final day in Austin, we had some time to reflect on our travels.  We began the day by having a coffee meeting with Sean Branagan who is the director of the Newhouse Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University.  He is also the creator of Student Startup Madness at SXSW which is a competition for technology startups created by college students.  The winners receive funding to grow their startup and have a real shot at success especially with all of the media attention surrounding SXSW.  Sean also gave us some great advice about what to do before meeting new people, how diversity of talent affects a startup team, and how to judge the value of a startup.

After our meeting we were given the rest of the day to explore town.  I took this opportunity to visit Gourdough’s for lunch- one of many incredible food stops in Austin.  I had the great fortune to eat a doughnut burger, and it was delicious.  I also was able to meet with the founder of the establishment who said that he is constantly trying to expand his business.

We then walked down to the park to see the water before meeting up with the portion of or crew that had gone on a bike tour.

For the perfect finish to our day, we grabbed some tacos and headed over to John’s family property to eat by the lake, chat, feed the cows, and finally reflect on all of our experiences thus far.  John, thank you for an awesome experience.  Thanks for all of your hard work.  I learned more than I could have imagined, not just about startup communities, but about life.