Austin Next
Jason Scharf
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Top 10 Austin Next Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Austin Next episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Austin Next for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Austin Next episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
A New Era Begins for Austin Next and the Future of Austin's Thriving Innovation Ecosystem
Austin Next
07/06/23 • 72 min
In this culminating episode of Austin Next's first era, Jason engages with AndiBot, the AI-powered chatbot that amalgamates the insights of 19 innovation thinkers. Together, they explore AndiBot’s perspectives on how Austin can ascend to a superstar innovation hub. Later, Michael joins in for a reflective discussion on the AI's capabilities and the insights shared. Plus, don’t miss our special announcement that marks the beginning of a new chapter for Austin Next.
Episode Highlights
- The Austin Next Dynamic Innovation ChatBot, or AndiBot, is an AI-powered chatbot anchored on ChatGPT, and is powered by a “hivemind” that brings together the intellectual prowess of innovation trailblazers such as Clayton Christensen, Everett Rogers, and Mariana Mazzucato.
- Tasked with unraveling insights and forging new pathways, AndiBot endeavors to illuminate the steps necessary for Austin to transition from a thriving ecosystem to a superstar innovation hub.
- Characterizing an innovation superstar hub, AndiBot outlines the quintessential traits: setting global trends, attracting a diverse talent pool, nurturing groundbreaking innovations, fostering a spirited entrepreneurial culture, establishing global collaborations, and achieving brand ubiquity in innovation.
- AndiBot evaluates Austin’s innovation ecosystem at 7.5 with Silicon Valley as the pinnacle scoring a 10. She commends Austin's startup landscape, academic strength, and appeal to tech giants, but signals the imperatives of escalating startup density, talent diversity, capital influx, and global network expansion.
- Jason and Michael reflect on the AndiBot interview and discuss the shift from coding to prompting in AI technology, signaling the emergence of more sophisticated and intuitive user interfaces.
- Exploring Austin's startup landscape, they articulate the connection between productivity and external perception, proposing that a boost in perceived value could stimulate infrastructural improvements.
- Jason spotlights Austin’s ability to “punch above its weight” noting the discrepancies between Austin's startup infrastructure rank (25th in the country) and its high ranking in exit values (6th in the nation, 9th globally) according to a recent Dealroom report.
- This episode marks a transition as Michael is taking a step back from the podcast and will return as the occasional guest.
- What’s next Austin? “I honestly believe only good things are going to happen next. I think we're going to have a recession nationwide within the next six months. But Austin, as we've discussed, is the last in and the first out. We need to keep Austin weird. It has worked so far for this town.”
Episode Links
The Next Generation of Tech Ecosystems Report by Dealroom
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
1 Listener
08/30/22 • 38 min
The growth of our ecosystem and the critical mass of startups coming to Austin leads to unique opportunities to experiment with support infrastructure. One of those experiments is the Draper Startup House, a global entrepreneurship ecosystem including a network of co-living houses and a pre-seed “pop-up” accelerator program. Today we are joined by the co-founders Katie Russel and Daniel Wiegand to talk the mission, the importance of storytelling for startups, and why Austin.
What's next Austin?
Episode Links:
- Draper Startup House Accelerator
- Draper Startup House Co-living
- Draper Startup House LinkedIn
- Draper Startup House Instagram
- Draper Startup House Twitter
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
Welcome to Austin Next
Austin Next
06/27/21 • 6 min
Over the last decade, Austin has exploded into the national consciousness as the next great innovation powerhouse. That has only accelerated over the past 18 months as talent, capital, and companies are making the move. Homegrown companies across the spectrum are becoming unicorns and having significant exits. Austin’s flywheel is gaining momentum.
During this last surge, we moved here as well. A father and son team that has seen some ecosystems grow, some stagnate, and some never take off. To understand what the future holds for Austin’s innovation ecosystem and how to accelerate its growth, we will talk with local players, hear from outside perspectives, and dive into the latest academic research.
In the end, we are driven by the need to answer one basic question...What’s Next Austin?
08/02/22 • 27 min
Often how we live, work and play is determined by where we live, work, and play. The buildings we occupy can range from condos and offices in the central business district, to the wide-open spaces needed to test drones and farm equipment. Today with speak Todd Runkle on how Austin is evolving, how innovation districts play a role, and the growth of Central Living Districts.
Where we are and how we live, work, and play is... What's next Austin?
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
07/19/22 • 28 min
One of Austin’s superpowers is that we live in the future. We are both inventing the future and it’s being deployed here in Central Texas. We’re joined today by Jeff DeCoux founder and CEO of the Autonomy Institute to talk about one of our key challenges to build this future and that's infrastructure.
A 21st century technical foundation is the bridge to What's next Austin?
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
06/28/22 • 40 min
What an amazing year it has been. This week it's just the two of us reflecting back on where the podcast has been, what we have seen in the ecosystem, the insights that our guests have shared, and what comes next for both the podcast and Austin.
What's next Austin Next Podcast?
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
08/09/22 • 24 min
Clearly the Austin entrepreneurial ecosystem has been growing dramatically for the last several years. And, with that growth has come a lot of new investors. Whether it be VCs building larger funds, entrepreneurs reinvesting earnings, incubators and angels willing to help startups, there are a lot of people getting involved. Today we are talking with CS Freeland, co-founder and executive director of the Austin Venture Association (AVA). We cover why do we need an organization AVA, the origin story, and the evolution of the venture environment here in Austin.
Capital that is leveling up raises...What's next Austin.
Episode Links:
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
The world of technology is expanding, and we're seeing a convergence of deep tech with traditional software and computation. Today, we're speaking with Andrew Busey, co-founder of Form Bio and Colossal Biosciences, two companies that sit at this intersection. With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Andrew has been a driving force behind some of the internet's most significant technologies. Andrew’s career has taken him through several pivotal moments in tech history, including the early days of the internet, gaming, AI, and now bio.
Episode Highlights
- Andrew’s career spanned key tech products such as Mosaic (the first web browser), iChat (the first web-based chat system), and Zynga (one the most popular gaming companies of the social media era)
- Software entrepreneurs are increasingly applying techniques, business models, and more to the bio, quantum, and AI fields
- His approach is to make Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups “...software is either the chocolate or the peanut butter and then I'm finding some other thing to combine with it to make something that tastes great and is novel”
- Form Bio, the first spinout from Colossal Biosciences, aims to solve the badly managed data issue in the biotech industry
- AI's impact on business and society is shifting toward distributed vertical intelligence
- The availability of remote work technology may lead to a more distributed talent pool and impact the future of Austin as a tech hub
- What’s next Austin? “I think the big thing we're gonna see is fabs and Musk-related companies evolving here and how that affects the mix of things will be very interesting.”
Episode links
Andrew Busey: Twitter, LinkedIn
Form Bio: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn
Colossal Biosciences: Website, Twitter, LinkedIn
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
The Tech Tipping Point: A Thoughtful Exchange with Brett Hurt and William "whurley" Hurley
Austin Next
05/23/23 • 66 min
We welcome back tech pioneers Brett Hurt and William “whurley” Hurley for a deep dive into the transformative influence of technological convergence. Drawing from their vast experiences, Brett and Whurley shed light on the intersection of advanced techs, such as generative AI and quantum computing, that are rapidly redefining our world. In our engaging discussion, we uncover the profound implications these emergent technologies have on industries, their role in supercharging productivity, and how they could catalyze an unprecedented surge in startup creation.
Episode Highlights
- The conversation highlights a pivotal tech convergence, where AI intersects with quantum computing, Big Data, data privacy, and every other fundamental platform that has come before.
- Generative AI's rapid rise has been met with excitement and unease, calls for political regulation, all amidst highly divergent dystopian and utopian views.
- Echoing similar themes, Brett envisions AI as potentially the "biggest startup and job creation engine we've ever seen," while whurley posits it leading to a "rise of the non-creative creative class," amplifying the transformative potential of the technology.
- Brett highlights the importance of creativity for engineers in the AI era, suggesting that those who can combine their technical skills with imagination will thrive, while those who can't may face commoditization.
- Whurley’s recent dialogues with DC leaders underscores Austin's growing influence in shaping national technology policy and wider industry trends.
- What’s next Austin?
- Brett Hurt: “I think that we're going to have an absolute explosion in the number of startups created. And as an effect of that, a derivative explosion in the number of jobs...I really want Austin to be the leader of that.”
- William “whurley” Hurley: “Everybody's talented, everybody plays an instrument, everybody paints or does art or they sculpt or whatever. It is a very creative city. So when you take those kinds of people and you give them this kind of power...like absolutely, Austin is next. If we're lucky.”
Episode links
William “whurley” Hurley: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Strangeworks
Brett Hurt: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter, data.world
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
09/13/22 • 34 min
A lot of things have changed since we last had Thom Singer on the podcast. We talk about Thom's new role, what the networking environment looks like now, and how that impacts the creative collisions between the foundations of Austin.
What's next Austin?
Episode Links
- Our first conversation with Thom Singer
- Austin Technology Council
- Austin Technology Twitter
- Thom Singer
- Thom Singer Twitter
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Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
Ecosystem Metacognition Substack
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Podcast Q&A
Why did you start this show?
We started the podcast as a way to meet interesting people when we moved in Austin in 2021. We noticed a gap in the podcast space where discussions often centered around the "cool company of the week," but seldom touched on the wider narrative of regional innovation. We sought to fill this void by creating a platform that goes beyond spotlighting individual companies, instead focusing on how the Austin region is evolving into the next innovation powerhouse.
What do you hope listeners gain from listening to your show?
We aim to provide three key insights through our podcast. First, we delve into Austin's transformation into the next superstar innovation hub, offering an inside look at the region's evolution. Second, we provide perspectives on the mechanics of building robust ecosystems, using Austin as a real-world case study. Lastly, we discuss broader trends and technologies, positioning Austin as a window into the wider innovative world.
Which episode should someone start with?
Begin with our first episode with Professor John Butler for a comprehensive history of Austin's innovation ecosystem. This lays the groundwork to understand Austin's transformative journey. Then, listen to "The Tech Tipping Point" with Brett Hurt and William "whurley" Hurley. This episode delves into the pivotal convergence of technologies like AI and quantum computing, and highlights Austin's role in shaping these global trends.
Which have been your favourite episodes so far?
Can you pick a favorite child?
What is your vision for your show?
Help drive Austin's transformation into the next innovation powerhouse, while meeting amazing people along the way.
How did you come up with the name for your podcast?
Austin Next came to us in less of a eureka moment and more of a that makes sense moment. It reflects our fundamental question: "What's Next?". It's all about what's next for this vibrant city, from technological advancements to the macro innovation trends and down to the evolving startup ecosystem. Plus, it's catchy, don't you think? 😁
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FAQ
How many episodes does Austin Next have?
Austin Next currently has 154 episodes available.
What topics does Austin Next cover?
The podcast is about Austin, Venture Capital, Texas, Startups, Podcasts, Technology, Business and Innovation.
What is the most popular episode on Austin Next?
The episode title 'A New Era Begins for Austin Next and the Future of Austin's Thriving Innovation Ecosystem' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Austin Next?
The average episode length on Austin Next is 42 minutes.
How often are episodes of Austin Next released?
Episodes of Austin Next are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Austin Next?
The first episode of Austin Next was released on Jun 27, 2021.
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