Visit to the Austin start-up ecosystem

The arc between San Antonio, Austin and Dallas is considered the fastest growing region in the USA and is expected to remain so for the next 10 years. The reasons for this are generally business-friendly legislation in the state of Texas, few restrictions on trying out new technologies such as autonomous driving, low energy prices and favorable land prices for industrial companies. The cost of living is also significantly lower than in New York and Silicon Valley, which attracts many young people.

These conditions have led to the region, and the city of Austin in particular, developing into a hub for technology start-ups in recent years and attracting a large number of US and international start-ups. Most recently, Tesla made headlines by relocating its headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin.

The program continued on Monday with a visit to the Texas State Capitol, where we also met the other participants in the group for the first time.Later, we visited the WeWork location, which offers shared offices where young companies like to rent space in the beginning. There we met Doug Heady from BuilderBinder, Anthony Lamot from DESelect and Andy Keil from QuotaPath for a relaxed panel discussion. The three shared their experiences with finding investors and employees in Austin, work culture, and general recommendations from their business models. Of note was the background of Anthony Lamot, who started in Belgium and then came to Austin to conquer the American market.

In addition to the practical elements, Prof. Bernhard Kölmel gave presentations on topics from the field of entrepreneurship on all three days and showed which findings from research should be taken into account when establishing new business models. He was joined by guest speakers such as Sean Bauld, Shree Moorthy and Brandi Beasley, who enriched the lectures from a practical perspective.

At the McCoy Business School, where the presentations were held, the European start-ups also had the opportunity to pitch and challenge their business model in front of the students from the Executive MBA program. This led to interesting discussions, as all of the MBA students already had professional experience and gave suggestions for the development or further development of the business models presented from their perspective.

On Tuesday, the group visited the corporate headquarters of Dell Technologies Inc. in Round Rock, a small town north of Austin. In addition to a tour of the modern working environment, there was also the opportunity to talk to Yj Lin and John Howard; in addition to the services that Dell offers for modern data centers and AI computing clusters, we also discussed the general economic situation in the USA and what impact the upcoming presidential election will have on European-American relations.

On Wednesday, the investor and manager of the International Accelerator, Jack Whelan, came to McCoy Business School to present his concept of start-up support - especially for out-of-town start-ups. In addition to office space, the International Accelerator even provides housing for up to a year for founders coming from outside Texas to make it easier for them to arrive in the city and focus on business development.

For Semanux, participating in the program was a great opportunity to take a look at the American market and assess the steps needed to enter the American market. In addition, the exchange with the other participants, all of whom are also active in the AI or blockchain sector, was a good opportunity for valuable discussions.

Funded by the AIBC EUROCLUSTERS project which has received funding from the European Union (Grant agreement no. 101074645). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, Fondazione Piemonte Innova or the AIBC Consortium. Neither the European Union nor Fondazione Piemonte Innova or the AIBC Consortium can be held responsible for them.