In Austin, food is one of the major attractions. Much of the city is populated with original restaurants and food trucks, creating an atmosphere of diverse and fun food choices. The food was definitely one of my favorite parts, and I think a lot of others’ too. Restaurants and food trucks are considered to be lifestyle businesses to entrepreneurs. To me, they are a huge part of why Austin is so successful as a startup. Along with other lifestyle businesses, like small local stores and shops, they help create a base for other entrepreneurs to have a full life in the city. All of the different choices in Austin also seemed to help make the city much more diverse in both thought and culture, two key aspects to startup communities.                                       

Along with visiting lots of food places while in Austin, I was also able to talk to a few startups. The first was a company called Anonabox. The company created a product that much like a proxy, masks location and actions on your computer while using the internet. August, a founder and the CTO, told us the device also allows the user to bypass certain restrictions put on internet usage. I thought this was a cool idea because it takes something that can be complicated and harmful to your computer, and simplifies it so that more people can use it. The group also said they have been involved in four other startups previously, showing the range of companies that groups can work on.

Another startup that I was able to talk to was called Bounce. Bounce is an app that basically allows people and small businesses share their promotions and events via an app instead of through talking or handing out flyers. To me, this is a great idea because you don’t have to be right next to a person to receive the information they were sharing and it can potentially cut down on paper use. I also liked that the app was completely location based and the user could look at things as close as 100 feet and up to 100 miles. We spoke to Ryan, a promotor of the app and he told us that the company was based out of northern New Mexico and that SXSW was actually their launch. The group hopes that by launching the app at SXSW, the app will become nationally used very quickly because of all of the people from all over the country in Austin.

Another exciting part of Austin that I noticed was the presence of so much art. The art came in many different forms, sculptures, statues, paintings, and murals. I think that all of the art helps show the vibrancy of Austin as a community. The presence of art gives people appreciation for culture that many other cities do not seem to have. I think this creative outlet is important for entrepreneurs because they have to be so creative (in different ways) themselves. I got the chance to talk to an entrepreneur who was also a henna artist while I was getting a henna done. Shannon, of Henna Shannon, said that as an artist, she failed many times and had to start her business over, just like a  lot of the tech startups we talked to. She felt that often times companies failed not because of bad ideas, but simply because of bad organization. Shannon felt that most companies could succeed as long as they had the right kind of leadership. While I don’t completely agree that any business or product can succeed, I do feel that she hit on a good point. Leadership is very important in companies because that is their core and basically the only thing they are built on to start out.

A final piece of Austin that I explored during flex time was SXSW itself during the Startup Crawl. There were so many people there that night and it was a great experience to see many startups all in once space, Capital Factory. During our time there, we were introduced to several different new apps and technologies, including new software from WordPress and ExpenseBot. Though WordPress is not a new company, the new technology was being presented because of its relevance to the startup community. ExpenseBot is a new program that helps people write expense reports in a much easier way than ever before. Overall, the night was really fun getting to meet new people in the startup world in a relaxed way. To me, SXSW is a major part of Austin’s startup community because it brings entrepreneurs from all over the country to the area so they can know firsthand what Austin is all about.