Startup Grind Austin announces its inaugural event at Cospace, Wednesday June 27th. All members of the Austin Startup up community are invited to come listen to Ross Buhrdorf, CTO of Homeaway, former VP of Engineering at Salion and Excite share his experiences at growing a startup to IPO. Join the Austin Startup Grind Community and reserve your tickets for our premier event!
From 1984 when Michael Dell revolutionized how people bought computers to more recent companies like Spiceworks, that revolutionize how small businesses administer their IT, Austin has become a solid contributor to the technology startup ecosystem. In Texas, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio are all larger, but Austin is the startup leader. In fact, it is number two nationally for technology startup jobs. The reason: Austin is cool. And Austin is cool because, for so long, the students, faculty and staff of the University of Texas comprised a significant portion of the population. This created a hip, funky town full of smart people who don’t want to leave when they finish school. Austin embodies “Keep Austin Weird” by looking at the world differently and actively supporting local business.
No discussion of technology startups in Austin is complete without mentioning SXSW, a startup in its own right. Started initially as a way to offset the down week that bars in Austin experienced during UT’s Spring Break, SXSW has grown to a 10-day interactive, music and film conference that brings more than 50,000 people to the city to be inspired, educated, entertained and connected. Twitter debuted at SXSW, Zaarly did their initial launched at SXSW, and this year attendees debated the merits of Highlight versus Glancee. In the last years, the interactive technology section has grown to be the largest piece of SXSW. Despite Austin’s self-professed weirdness, Austin has a long history of building strong businesses, a deep practicality where business is concerned and a desire to contribute meaningful work to society.