AustinStartup

Everyone in town wonders where the Superstar is: the tech company that starts in Austin, is funded by Austin, and whose successful exit brings the cache that will solidify Austin as the Silicon Valley of the 21st century. (And make no mistake, that is in our grasp.)

Doesn’t it seem like we’re perpetually *almost* there, standing on a precipice with our toes hanging off? Are we waiting on some nebulous event to occur? Or can we propel ourselves into that elite status on our own terms? My hope is the latter but my fear is the former.

If you’ve been to SXSW before, you’re well aware of the glut of panels and parties. There is simply too much to do and too many places to be at once. The conference tries to alleviate the hectic nature with some pre-planning, offering the ability to build your own schedule on their website. But the technology is clunky and laborious; I know my eyes started to glaze over pretty quickly. So in the interest of preserving your sight and sanity, I thought I’d share some panels that jumped out at me.

A few weeks ago, I participated in a panel at Semantic Web Austin that discussed open data initiatives and how the City of Austin might benefit from incorporating such a philosophy around its data. (If you want to know more about this idea, check out Juan Sequeda’s recent post on this blog.) It was an excellent discussion and I was fortunate to connect with some of the Austin tech scene’s most innovative minds.

One of the more interesting facets of the evening for me, however, was the make-up of the room. The new Texas Coworking space was packed – and not a fellow female in the bunch. The immediate effect was so striking that my first words upon arrival were a Tourettes-like exclamation of, “Holy crap, I’m the only woman here.”

Foursquare and Gowalla are at the forefront of the emerging location-based market, but which service will win the space? Carla Thompson puts them both to the test.

I don’t like Twitter. I’ve never been coy about that. When it first launched, I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” When it exploded in use, I thought, “This too shall pass.” When Ashton Kutcher sent a picture of his wife’s ass to the world, I thought, “We have reached the point of no return.” And yet, here we still are.

One of our primary missions here at Austin Startup is to showcase the vibrant tech community and culture here in town, and in the process fulfill our motto of convincing tech entrepreneurs and influencers to “Ditch the Valley, Run for the Hills.” With that in mind, we are proud to welcome new Austinite Carla Thompson of the Guidewire Group to town, and to the Austin Startup team! In her inaugural post for the site, she sends an open letter to the tech community and local startups to reach out and help her get initiated to the city.