Austin Inno’s Brent Wistrom Covers the City’s Most Exciting Entrepreneurs
The Forrest Files: August 6, 2020
Brent Wistrom is a senior editor at American Inno, overseeing half of Inno’s 14 markets. He covers Austin’s tech and startup scene through daily news stories and the Beat newsletter.
In late July, the Austin edition of this Beat newsletter celebrated its five-year anniversary. Over that time period, this newsletter has emerged as a must read for the city’s startup community because of its aggressive coverage of investments, IPOs, launches, Central Texas re-locations, mergers, founder-related events and (more recently) COVID-related layoffs. In fact, the Beat now counts more than 10,000 subscribers.
As for Wistrom’s background, he grew up in Minnesota, got a journalism degree at UT and worked as a crime, political and investigative reporter for several daily newspapers before joining Inno.
When not listening to his favorite bands (“can’t pick just one — but Mr. Bungle and Mastodon would be top picks”), he loves thrashing on his guitar.
To the question of what makes Austin special, Wistrom is unequivocal in his response: “It’s always been about the people to me — we have the most inviting and collaborative community I’ve known.”
Have you changed the kinds of stories you report on since the start of the pandemic?
I used to write about layoffs every month or two. In April, there were two weeks where that’s almost all I did — it was pretty crushing to see so many people lose their jobs so quickly. We’ve also focused on crisis innovators who have pivoted or put in the OT to help the community. We have a big feature on that coming later in August. We’ve also renewed our focus on diversity in the tech industry, and we’ve begun requesting D&I reports from all mid- to large-size companies to improve transparency.
Are you finding more reader engagement / interaction since the start of the pandemic?
I’ve gotten quite a few more anonymous tips about layoffs and leadership decisions. We’ve also had more engagement from sponsors or community partners who want to team up on events or awareness. There’s a real vibe in the community right now of people wanting to help each other through this thing.
Are most of your readers based in Central Texas? Has that geographic distribution changed at all since the start of the pandemic?
Our readership is largely local — though perhaps 20% or so are from Silicon Valley, New York and other hubs. The geography hasn’t changed significantly. Day-to-day readership often shifts when we happen to write about Tesla or other non-local companies moving in. Nationally, Inno launched 10 new markets since we started in Austin — and 2020 could be the first year since in which we don’t introduce a new market. Here’s to 2021!
What is your best day for readership? Has that changed since the start of the pandemic?
On the newsletter side, Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be pretty strong — I guess folks tend to get busier later in the week. But page-views and email opens mostly depend on the newsiness and quality of stories and subject lines.
Has the process of reporting / news gathering changed for you during COVID with so little face-to-face interactions?
It’s changed a lot. The nonverbal cues I get as a reporter by meeting in person — whether at an office or coffee shop — help me a lot. Those conversations also flow more naturally, which leads to better stories. I’ve been using Zoom a lot, but it’s not the same — and there’s definitely a fatigue factor when you get too many screen convos in a day. I also used to take a lot of photos of cool offices — and that’s pretty much off limits now.
Have you come across any Austin startups that are working on innovative COVID solutions?
Everlywell’s at-home COVID tests are promising, even though they had to jump a few hurdles along the way. Armbrust American is likewise really innovative in their high-tech mask production in Pflugerville. Tarun Nimmagadda and ReturnSafe are also doing interesting work on contact tracing. Finally, Will Wilder’s startup (Wilder Systems) is working with ARM to rapidly develop robots capable of conducting COVID tests.
What Austin startups (or startup sectors) are you currently most excited about at present?
Right now, with COVID and social justice presenting huge challenges and opportunities, I’m most excited about ideas that directly improve our community in the near-term. Austin wouldn’t be the same without the on-demand companies like Favor and Good Apple. We wouldn’t be as connected without inclusive online events by the folks at DivInc, Capital Factory, SXSW, MassChallenge and the like. Our economy wouldn’t be the same without startups grinding it to the bone every day to survive and thrive. I can’t wait to see what emerges next.
Which Austin move are you more excited about: Joe Rogan or the Tesla manufacturing plant?
Tesla — but I’ll be a lot more excited if the company starts playing a bigger role in the local community through partnerships, investments and acquisitions.
What do you think the Austin startup ecosystem will look like in five years?
I think the local startup scene will continue to mature, with more big wins along the way. That’ll include new VC firms, several IPOs and continued growth of the early-stage startup scene — not to mention more companies like Tesla and Apple making big plays in the 512 that benefit startups. While the economy is taking heavy hits, Austin is packed with creatives and innovators who chase wildly after opportunities. And that energy is what keeps me highly optimistic about the future.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also posts frequent interviews on Medium with innovators and thought-leaders from Austin, across the United States and around the world.
