Austin’s Texas Venture Crawl, 10/6/23

Photo Courtesy of Aileen Passariello Mcaleer

The Texas Venture Crawl in Austin had 1,000+ attendees, and four venues connected by a shuttle route, that used a longhorn Cadillac art car and an eCab. During the daytime, the Q-Branch location hosted programming all day leading up to the event consisting of Venture Podcast Panels (view information about this via quote summaries below).

Several people from the government communities, on the federal, state, and city level attended the Texas Venture Crawls, and Austin’s had Congressman Lloyd Doggett as pictured below.

Texas Venture Crawl in Austin included: LiveOak Venture Partners at Star Bar; S3 Ventures at Red Fridge Society; Mercury Fund, Next Coast Ventures, Texas Venture Crawl’s statewide sponsors Pacific Western Bank and Akerman, and other startups at Parlor and Yard; and National Security Innovation Council and Bunker Labs at Q-Branch.

Trae Nickelson, Solutions Advisor for Startups and Early-Stage Markets at EisnerAmper, and Texas Venture Alliance Advisory Board Member:

Super excited to attend the 2023 Texas Venture Crawl tonight! Especially proud that EisnerAmper is a sponsor and supporter/member of the Texas Venture Alliance, a young organization with a strong and energetic leadership team working hard to grow and accelerate the venture/startup ecosystem in Texas. (Even ideas are bigger in Texas!) Congrats to CS Freeland and the whole TVA team on pulling together what is sure to be a memorable and important night in 10 cities across the Lone Star State.

Jason Schraf, podcast host of Austin Next featuring this podcast episode recorded live in front of the Texas Venture Crawl audience:

On Austin Next: Catalyzing Innovation in Austin with Next Coast Ventures partner and Head of Platform, Kaitlyn DeBernardo and S3 Ventures partner Aaron Perman. Recorded live at the Texas Venture Crawl, we explore the vibrant entrepreneurial landscape in Austin. Venture capital is doing more than just providing funding—it's actively shaping Austin's innovative future.

Highlights:
Growing VC: Next Coast Ventures & S3 Ventures have $500M and $900M AUM, respectively; focusing on multiple sectors & stages.
AI Boost: Speeding up company growth with tools like Co-Pilots and ChatGPT.
VC Platform Roles: VCs provide comprehensive support in talent and operations.
VCs as Catalysts: Enriching the ecosystem with mentorship, advice, and connections.
What's Next Austin: Aaron sees sustained growth, Kaitlyn anticipates a digital health surge.

Dive into the mechanics of Austin's rapidly evolving innovation landscape in this week's episode. From venture capital shifts to the next big opportunities in digital health, there's something for everyone who cares about where Austin is headed.

View more from Jason’s post here.

CS Freeland, Texas Venture Alliance: I love that our first photo on Austin’s Texas Venture Crawl blog post is of very first two people who hopped into our longhorn Cadillac art car with me, as we “Crawled” to the LiveOak Venture Partners’ location at Star Bar West 6th Street. Thank you to the Lisa Huron from Founders Pitch Live and the rest of the Q-Branch team for hosting the really special daytime programming to kick off the Texas Venture Crawl early. Gina Budd from S3 Ventures who also worked with Chris Taylor to host at The Red Fridge Society coworking members club, Julianna Giraldo from Live Oak Venture Partners for hosting at Star Bar, Mercury Fund, Next Coast Ventures, Founder Institute, and more for promoting at Parlor & Yard. And thank you to Seena Vajed for the drone footage!

Put the next statewide, simultaneous venture networking experience, hosted in Austin on your calendar for next year here.

About the Texas Venture Crawl

The Texas Venture Crawl is a simultaneous statewide startup and investor networking experience founded in 2022 and is a partnership between Texas Venture Alliance and leading cohosts all across Texas. It started in downtown Austin, hosted in 5 venues, used 3 venture shuttle stops, and attracted more than 1,300 attendees.

This year it grew to 10 cities, 15 venues, 22 committee members, 10 volunteers, 40+ venture panelists, and 2,500+ Texans. The following cities participated: Austin, Dallas, Round Rock, Houston, Kerrville, Brownsville, El Paso, Buda, Boerne, and San Antonio.

Thank you to the “Texas-sized” statewide sponsors: Pacific Western Bank, Akerman, the Texas State Chamber of Commerce (Texas Association of Business), In Good Taste Wines, Liquid Death Water, and returning supporter from the first founding sponsorship of the Venture Crawl, Eisner Amper.