I love Austin as a town and people have that southern hospitality charm. The university and talent pool is great too. However, Austin suffers from the big fish, small pond syndrome. Things are changing slowly but surely, hopefully Capital Factory does well and empowers young entrepreneurs. Josh Baer's OtherInbox is a kick ass product too. But idk, ycom is difficult to reproduce if your intentions are fiscal bound.
In other big cities, finding mentors is a dime a dozen. In Austin, it's a lot more difficult to find that type of leadership which is why so many talented people leave and gravitate toward the coasts I think. The new Mayor seems to be a lot more progressive, he's got a twitter account even. yay!
I'd also say that with the economic squeeze taken into account, TX is still relatively shielded. It's a great place to be doing business, and a relaxed low cost lifestyle. I've been seeing a lot of out-of-town plates lately, but we don't spit on you. ;)
Agreed 100%. I've been here for 9 years and while I love this place, I'm considering to move. "Small pond" indeed: 3 out of 4 recruiters who called me within last half year were all looking for RoR coders for Baer's startup (1st mentor in their list), the other Rails shop in town being FiveRuns. This applies pretty much to everything software: the city's tech scene is divided between about 4 well-known "gangs" of execs and entrepreneurs with essentially the same people running the show.
It's true about there being a ton of talent in Austin. The problem is that most of it works for the really big hitters like Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, AMD, Dell, etc. Most of the entrepreneurial focus seems to be centered around well-paid consulting work.
When Google opened their soon to be closed downtown office, they had a mixer and invited alot the Austin tech community. I went expecting to find a serious startup crowd, but it was largely the same big names you see everywhere in Austin. It was rather disappointing.
I hope that Capital Factory is successful if for no other reason than to give some of us the opportunity to escape our corporate jobs and do something really interesting for a change.
Our intentions are not financial (see the philosophy page). All of the mentors in Capital Factory are doing it because we love working with young entrepreneurs. We've all built and sold companies and even getting a 100x return on $5k won't change our lives.
Putting up some money and getting some equity is analogous to playing poker with dollar bills instead of chips. It increases our emotional attachment and shows that every mentor is really committed.
Huh? How so? I think the poker analogy is healthy because it's a refreshing way for angels to look at deals. An angel telling you that 25k or whatever is risky, but then turns around and drops that much on a Vegas weekend is bullshit and represents a much more lucky than smart investor.
In other big cities, finding mentors is a dime a dozen. In Austin, it's a lot more difficult to find that type of leadership which is why so many talented people leave and gravitate toward the coasts I think. The new Mayor seems to be a lot more progressive, he's got a twitter account even. yay!
http://twitter.com/bmccracken
I'd also say that with the economic squeeze taken into account, TX is still relatively shielded. It's a great place to be doing business, and a relaxed low cost lifestyle. I've been seeing a lot of out-of-town plates lately, but we don't spit on you. ;)