It was Startup Week here in Austin a couple weeks ago, and it was an excellent opportunity for our local team to get a better sense of the businesses that call Austin home. Our favorite events during Austin’s Startup Week were:
A Startup in Government: The First Year of the City of Austin’s Design, Technology, and Innovation Fellows Program
Ben Guhin and Marni Wilhite presented how they are approaching problems with our city government’s services and technology by using research and design thinking methodology. We very much loved hearing about the process and seeing how much research and thought goes into the services that the Fellows are providing. We loved seeing people in our government use research to frame problems and educate our representatives on the people that they are representing. Thank you, Ben and Marni, for presenting your work over the last year.
Open Coffee: Austin Startup Week Edition
I mean who doesn’t like coffee at Houndstooth?
Un.Expressed: Get Real With Founders in Social Impact Tech
Listening to the panel of founders talk about their mission-driven organizations was inspiring. The panel talked about how they use their statement to make hard business decisions. It was great hearing about the different risks that each of the founders took while starting their business and how they managed to grow past them. Native Hostel was an awesome venue for the panel too. It made the conversation feel more intimate.
We want to thank Sara Inés Calderón of Women Who Code Austin, Liz Deering of The Un.Incubator, Preston James of DivInc, and Danny Pernik of OpenCurrents with a representitive from the hostelfor being open and transparent about each of your organizations journeys.
The Design Thinking Social
During The Design Thinking Social, we ran through the design thinking process to discuss ways to improve diversity. The conversation was engaging and productive; we’re happy to have been a part of it. We also loved seeing how other people have started to use Design Thinking to solve important problems in our community. Doing design excercises, like Five Whys, with new faces was both fun and thought provoking.
Thank you!
We loved participating in this year’s Startup Week. Kudos to the organizers of Startup Week for making our community stronger and more vibrant.
