What You Need to Know About Austin Startup Week 2019
Austin Startup Week, established in 2011, is five days full of inspiring events that celebrate Austin startups, the organizations that support them, and the spectacular people who make it all happen. Since the beginning, the week’s programming has been lovingly organized by Jacqueline Hughes, Events Manager at Kauffman Fellows, Joshua Baer, Founder and CEO of Capital Factory, and the Capital Factory Dream Team. Throughout the week you’ll find panels, keynotes, specialized meetups, happy hours, workshops and our famous Austin Startup Crawl.
From September 22nd-26th, tech companies throughout Austin will welcome local and visiting entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts who are interested in learning more about the startup scene in Austin. Austin has become an impressive entrepreneurial hub, and the world is taking notice. Last year, Austin Startup Week was packed with 125+ events and sessions and attracted 7,500+ attendees. To make things even better, Austin Startup Week is always free and open to the public.
Don’t Wait, Register Today!
In order to guarantee your spot during Austin Startup Week, you have to register and RSVP to events. Registration is quick and easy so you can spend your time planning your unique schedule. We suggest you start claiming your spots soon because, as we’ve seen year after year, events fill up FAST.
Venue Locations & Event Tracks
Currently there are 15+ locations announced to host Austin Startup Week events including: Austin Public Library Gallery, The Riveter, The University of Texas Student Activity Center (SAC), Galvanize and MELD Coworking (check out their FREE coworking happening all week!).
With 20 tracks, there’s a topic for everyone to get excited about. Some of these tracks include fields such as Blockchain, Cybersecurity, FinTech, International, Social Impact, XR and Fundraising.
Why don’t we let you hear a little from the track leads themselves?
Key Sessions That Should Be On Your Radar:
Women in Tech Summit
Time: Monday, September 23rd, 9:00am-6:00pm
Location/Track: Capital Factory, Women in Tech Summit Track
Capital Factory welcomes you to our annual Women in Tech Summit, which will kick off Austin Startup Week! We’re dedicated to increasing diversity in the tech community and making our coworking space an inclusive and welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds and identities. The summit is a full day of programming to help inspire, engage and elevate female entrepreneurs and tech professionals.
Opening Night Happy Hour and Keynote with Scott Kupor
Time: Monday, September 23rd, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location/Track: Capital Factory, Fundraising Track
Austin Startup Week’s first keynote is with Scott Kupor, managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz— where he is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He has been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth from three employees to 150+, and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $10 billion.
Kendra Scott and The University of Texas at Austin: The Future of Female Leadership
Time: Tuesday, September 24th, 4:00pm-6:30pm
Location/Track: Bass Concert Hall, Evening Events
Join Designer and CEO Kendra Scott with remarks by UT President Gregory L. Fenves for an exciting event celebrating women leaders. There will be a Female Power Panel followed by a concert with a surprise country music singer, and additional programming in store for guests to enjoy.
Building a New Network: Fireside Chat with Frank Mong, COO at Helium
Time: Tuesday, September 24th, 3:45pm-4:15pm
Location/Track: Capital Factory, Developer Track
This Fireside Chat will feature Frank Mong, COO at Helium, and Kelsi Kamin, Investor at Silverton Partners. Frank is responsible for sales, marketing and business development and has over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, networking and software. Kelsi is on the investment team and also serves as an Advisor to Abacus (YC S18)— a blockchain startup that has built an administration platform for company, fund and real estate securities.
Fireside Chat & Happy Hour: Value of Strategic Partners for Startups
Time: Tuesday, September 24th, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location/Track: Capital Factory, Evening Events
Join this Fireside Chat with SAP.iO SVP & Managing Director, Dr. Ram Jambunathan and Natasha Franck, Founder and CEO of NYC-based EON, and Joshua Baer, Founder and CEO of Capital Factory. They will discuss the startup journey “from startup to scaleup in enterprise software”, lessons learned, the challenges of scaling and why the right strategic investors or partners can be beneficial even at early stages.
Austin Does Zero Waste
Time: Tuesday, September 24th, 1:30pm-2:45pm
Location/Track: Impact Hub Austin, Social Impact Track
Every piece of plastic you’ve ever thrown away is still laying around somewhere. Join this panel as guest speakers discuss practical implementable solutions to our landfill and climate change issue. These are change makers in packaging, reusability and sustainable business. Learn how you can hold your favorite businesses to a higher environmental standard.
Don’t Fail Your Startup (Lessons from the Front Line)
Time: Wednesday, September 25th, 10:00am-12:00pm
Location/Track: Capital Factory, Defense Innovation Track
In this interactive, two-hour session, attendees will learn to apply critical principles from the front lines to guide dynamic, effective teams through constant change and uncertainty. By working in diverse groups to consider and respond to real-world startup scenarios, with the help of former U.S. Special Forces operators turned entrepreneurs, participants will walk away knowing more about how to make the right call in the most dire situations.
The xView 2 Challenge: Improving Disaster Response with Computer Vision and Future Vertical Lift (FVL), Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) and Business Opportunities
Time: Wednesday, September 25th, 2:30pm-3:00pm
Location/Track: Capital Factory, Defense Innovation Track
Disasters can strike anywhere, disrupting local communication and transportation infrastructure, making the process of assessing specific local damage difficult, dangerous and slow. Recognizing an opportunity to solve a key analytical bottleneck, the Defense Innovation Unit, working together with other Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Recovery (HADR) organizations, is releasing a new densely labeled, high-resolution satellite dataset and a challenge to the computer vision community.
Creating Music with Body Movement: 3D Spatial Interaction for Music Software
Time: Wednesday, September 25th, 2:30pm-3:00pm
Location/Track: Capital Factory, XR Track
This session will be an informative talk on the topic of body movement interaction for creating/performing with digital music software. The talk surveys past academic and non-academic work in the area, including speaker Tim Arterbury’s own graduate research. The talk is followed by a demonstration of his company’s product in development: MoveMIDI, a software that converts body movements from 3D tracking systems (like VR/AR systems) into musical triggers to be interpreted by 3rd party music software.
State of Womxn of Color: Advancing Community, Culture & Careers in Austin
Time: Wednesday, September 25th, 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location/Track: The Riveter, HR and Culture Track
Join The Riveter and Future for Us for The State of Womxn of Color Roadshow, an evening to tell audacious stories of womxn of color at work, accompanied by an overview of the data, insights and solutions. This collaboration provides a platform for rising and established womxn of color professionals to share their experiences and next step strategies as they build powerful communities to create a future where womxn of color lead at the highest levels across all sectors.
Nature Already Has the Startup Ideas
Time: Thursday, September 26th, 4:00pm-5:00pm
Location/Track: Austin Central Library Gallery, Sustainable Communities Track
There are a lot of problems in building sustainable cities and sustainable communities, and even more when we realize the interdependencies of the built environment with the people living there. Several Austin entrepreneurs have captured insights and inspiration from how nature solves complex systems, and are building innovative solutions to some of our most challenging problems.
To finish off our list, we can’t forget the most iconic party during Austin Startup Week…
Austin Startup Crawl
Time: Thursday, September 26th, 5:00pm-9:00pm
Location/Track: Various Locations, Downtown Austin
Austin startups are unique to the core, and we’re gathering all the hottest companies for you and your friends to enjoy. Get ready to tour the latest and greatest of Austin’s startup community. Take the shuttle from stop to stop to grab a free beverage, drop off a resume, dance in the silent disco and deep dive into Austin’s startup scene!
The fun doesn’t stop there. Keep the energy going at Nightcrawlers: The Official Austin Startup Crawl AFTER PARTY! Reminisce over your favorite moments from Crawl with some live music and an open bar over at Speakeasy.
Check out more details on Austin Startup Week’s venues and events here.
Stay in the Loop
We’ll be on the move and covering all of Austin Startup Week— keep up with us on Twitter @ATXStartupWeek and look out for emails on important updates!
