Austin: a magnet for talent and resources
I led the seed round not long ago for an Austin-based SaaS company that had all of the qualities I look for in a software investment — a founding team with deep domain expertise, novel technology, and rabid early adopters.
The startup founder had a notable coastal VC firm that they really wanted in the round. While they had not previously invested in Austin, this firm was excited about the opportunity and had spent weeks performing diligence on the company. Ultimately, the firm passed with the stated reason being that they weren’t sure if a company based in Austin could recruit the right talent. Crazy!
The Austin ecosystem today is large and diverse — we have big tech (AAPL, AMZN, FB, GOOG ,TSLA), big early stage bets (Restream’s $50M Series A), big late stage bets (RigUp’s $300M Series D), consumer tech, fintech, insuretech, healthtech, CPG, DTC… the list goes on.
In a post-COVID environment more than ever, talent and resources are rapidly flowing into Austin from California, New York, and everywhere else. Plenty of articles have been written on this phenomenon so far so I won’t belabor the point. But Joe Lonsdale’s WSJ piece does a great job summing up policy reasons for why businesses should move here. And VC firms have been racing to move to Austin which is as good a sign as any that startup talent will continue to migrate in.
Later today, I’m on a panel run by Capital Factory with 75 investors from around the country eager to tap into the Austin ecosystem. Tomorrow, I’m on a panel called “Thinking of moving to Austin?” that is hosted by Xoogler.co, an ex-Google community with thousands of members around the world, to answer questions from an audience of top talent. I meet with entrepreneurs and investors daily who are new to town and are eager to put down roots.
Something special is happening in the Austin ecosystem. For those making plans to move or are new to town, welcome to Austin! For those still doubting, I think you’re missing out on one of the most exciting economic trends of the 2020s.
