Startup City! Austin A-List Event Recap

The Forrest Four-Cast: May 26, 2017

Last night’s Austin A-List Awards at ACL Live proved to be a big success! If you weren’t able to attend the celebration, then click here to browse the list of the 17 startups that were recognized for their excellence.

Four quick observations from Thursday evening are as follows:

1. One of the biggest assets of the Austin startup ecosystem is its diversity, depth and breadth. These strengths were fully on display last night as winners ranged from chocolate-focused Maggie Louise Confections to the sports live-streaming company FloSports to the environmentally-friendly Banyan Water.
2. Speaking of diversity, one of the night’s most compelling speakers was Ingrid Vanderveldt. In her six-minute presentation, she made a strong case for why female founders will lead the future. Watch this 60-minute video of her talk from SXSW 2017 to learn more.
3. Also very compelling was Rooster Teeth Chief Creative Officer Burnie Burns, who gave a quick overview of his company’s growth from dorm room to online media juggernaut. In addition to their flagship event in Austin in July, Rooster Teeth is now exporting our unique Texas brand of innovation to the UK for an October 2017 event in London.
4. Reminding attendees that in Austin “we don’t predict the future, we create it,” Roy Spence of GSD&M and the Purpose Institute ended the evening on an appropriately high note. Get even more inspired by Roy from this video from the 2013 Austin Gives Awards.

Last but certainly not least, if your Central Texas based startup wants to be involved in next year’s Austin A-List event, stay tuned to this space next spring for more information on the 2018 application process.

Hugh Forrest tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often (but not always) cover technology-related trends. When not attempting to wordsmith or meditating, he serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW in Austin.