It’s no secret that Austin, Texas, is a hotbed of technology, startups, and innovation. There are so many tech corporations that Austin has been nicknamed “Silicon Hills. “Apple recently announced the creation of a billion-dollar campus with capacity for 15,000 employees. , which would make it Austin’s largest personal employer. A flurry of hiring by Facebook makes Austin the third-largest center in the U. S. outside of the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. And in recent years, Google and Oracle have opened offices downtown.
Why Austin? For one: “Everything is bigger in Texas,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a press conference in December. Austin has also long been the tech hub of Texas, with 6,500 tech startups and corporations founded here, in addition to Dell, which was founded in 1984 through Michael Dell while he was at the University of Texas and helped unleash the city’s tech boom. It’s also the home of South Through Southwest (SXSW), which has grown from an independent music collector to one of the world’s top avant-garde tech festivals.
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A huge part of the appeal: Austin is one of the most significant cities in the country for entrepreneurship and a recognized hub for startups. “Austin attracts annually about a billion dollars in venture capital investment and another billion dollars in corporate entity investments,” says Angelos G. Angelou, who used to be the vice president for economic development for the Austin Chamber of Commerce, as well as its chief economist. He’s now CEO of AngelouEconomics, a technology consulting firm that advises cities trying to attract investment, as well as companies looking for new locations.
Laura Lorek is the publisher and cofounder of Silicon Hills News, which covers technology in the area. When she launched the site in 2011, she says she covered just about every startup in town. “The growth in startups and startups culture has been incredible,” says Lorek. “Now, there are so many, I don’t know them all.”
William Hurley, also known as “Whurley,” is a highly identified Austin-based entrepreneur who is now at his third startup, Strangeworks, which is quantum physics to reinvent computing. His former company, Honest Dollar, a retirement platform, was acquired through Goldman Sachs. in 2016; before that, he sold Chaotic Moon, an art studio, to Accenture. Hurley has lived in Austin for about 25 years. ” Austin is a wonderful city for entrepreneurs,” says Hurley. “There are tons of founders and a network of startups to lean on when you’re just starting out. “
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Another attraction, says Lorek: “Austin is a special place with a horny culture. There are lots of wonderful parks, right down to the river, hiking and biking trails, wonderful food, wonderful music, and a collaborative tech culture that is warm and accepting. ” . people who are not from here. “
Austin also has a highly professional workforce, thanks in part to the University of Texas and other local universities. “We have a skill set here from various universities, and a lot of those academics are likely to look for jobs here,” Angelou says. .
Austin’s low standard of living adds to its appeal. There is no private source of income tax, and the city has more affordable housing than on the coasts, where it receives a large portion of its transplants. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, which takes into account expenses such as housing, food, transportation, and physical care, it costs about $3,197 per month for a single adult living in Austin, while in San Francisco, the most expensive city. in the United States. – Prices $5,756 per month.
“Housing features can cost [thousands] more per month in California than a comparable option in Austin, so moving workers here can give them a pay raise without expanding their paycheck,” Hurley says.
Ben Rubenstein, who co-founded online marketing company Yodle when he was in school and sold it to Web. com for $342 million in 2016, is another successful founder founded in Austin. It was founded in New York City until approximately 2011. when Yodle acquired an Austin-founded search engine optimization company called Profit Fuel. After some back and forth, he moved to Austin full-time. “Not only did I fall in love with the city, but I also knew it was a wonderful position. “To grow a business,” Rubenstein says. When I introduced [Opcity] in 2015, I knew there wasn’t a better position to start a tech company. “
After promoting real estate generation platform Opcity to News Corp. For $210 million, Rubenstein remains CEO and plans to remain in Austin. “It’s a cool urban environment. It’s also an active community. The weather is much better,” Rubenstein says.
Another Austin-based tech brand that has made it big is Bumble, the dating app that has grown to over 55 million users in just four years. “Austin is where it all started for us, and being surrounded by such a supportive community as our brand has grown has meant the world to us,” says Bumble’s Chief Brand Officer Alexandra Williamson. “It’s been exciting to watch the tech industry in Austin grow and flourish, and I think we will only continue to see more opportunities for tech workers in the city of Austin and the surrounding areas in the future — from more entry-level opportunities for recent graduates to more high-profile executive positions in the area, as well.”
Experts expect all this expansion and progress to have a major impact on the developing metropolitan area, which already has more than 2. 1 million residents. “I don’t forget that when I first moved to Austin in 198, there were only four around 560,000 more people,” Angelou says. “We expect to exceed four million people by 2040.
“Job expansion equals home sales,” Hope Teel, a real estate agent with Re/Max Austin Skyline, told a local television station. “We deserve to hope that costs will come down with this, but we’re going through a lot of things. ” more new developments, new construction and some redevelopment in some existing neighborhoods to increase housing density. ”
Hospitality industry executives say it will also have a positive effect on tourism. “Every time a giant company establishes a new presence or expands its existing presence in Austin, we see an increase in business travel,” says Rich McGonnigal, director of sales and marketing at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin. Located on the shores of Lady Bird Lake, the hotel is an icon of the new Austin and offers witty Austin insiders, such as summer “champong” service (think champagne and ping pong), ceviche classes, and an on-demand Margarita. Cart that can be delivered to you for cocktails in the room.
Joe Pagone, general manager of the three-year-old Van Zandt Hotel, says his music-themed boutique has seen an expansion in occupancy in line with Austin’s rise. “People are more interested in Austin than ever before, and those businesses are helping put the city on the map,” Pagone says. “People see that it is a wonderful position to live, but also a wonderful position to organize. This increases occupancy, income and the market.
And more hotels will come to meet the developing demand, adding the new East Austin Hotel, a modernist asset that features collaborations with artisans and makers. Lufthansa also recently announced new nonstop service between Austin and the airline’s hub in Frankfurt.
But everyone is satisfied with all this development. ” The Austin network has a love-hate relationship with expansion and change,” says Silicon Hills News’ Lorek. “Everyone loves Austin, where they moved or where they grew up. “Over the past ten years and the costs of emerging assets in the downtown area have driven many long-standing companies into bankruptcy. “
Optown’s Rubenstein points out that traffic is also an issue: Austin ranks 14th among the most congested cities in the country. “Austin doesn’t have smart public transportation, and the roads weren’t designed for that many people,” he says.
Lorek says that Austin city leaders are grappling with affordability and traffic problems to accommodate the influx of people. “The creative community of writers, musicians, artists and all of the weird funky stuff that made Austin great must remain for Austin to continue to be a highly desirable place to live,” she says.
Nevertheless, the future looks bright. “It’s viral marketing that takes place in Austin. People are so enthusiastic about the quality of life and what the city offers,” says Angelou. “I don’t foresee a downside.”
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