Austin Startup Week

Austin Startup Week
Name	Austin Startup Week
Genre	Entrepreneurship festival
Frequency	Annual
Location	Austin, Texas
Established	2011
Attendees	10,000+ (typical)

Austin Startup Week is an annual multi-day festival and conference held in Austin, Texas, celebrating entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation. The event convenes founders, investors, designers, engineers, marketers, accelerators, incubators, universities, and civic leaders for workshops, panels, pitch competitions, and networking across multiple venues. Modeled on city-scale startup festivals, the program integrates industry-specific tracks, civic engagement, and cultural programming to accelerate company formation and regional ecosystem growth.

Overview

Austin Startup Week functions as a city-wide convening bringing together stakeholders from the technology startup ecosystem including founders, venture capitalists, angel investors, accelerators, incubators, universities, and corporate partners. Typical programming spans mentoring sessions, pitch contests, hackathons, and keynote addresses featuring representatives from organizations such as Y Combinator, Techstars, 500 Startups, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Google, Microsoft, and IBM. Venues often include spaces associated with University of Texas at Austin, Capital Factory, WeWork, Galvanize, and local co-working hubs. Sponsors and partners frequently include entities like City of Austin, Austin Chamber of Commerce, SXSW, Dell Technologies, Amazon, Apple Inc., and Oracle Corporation.

History

The festival traces origins to 2011, emerging amid a period of rapid growth in the Austin technology cluster alongside expansion of firms such as National Instruments and Freescale Semiconductor. Early organizers drew on models from TechCrunch Disrupt, South by Southwest, and regional accelerators to fashion a community-driven week. Over successive editions, programming expanded to include partnerships with academic institutions like The University of Texas at Austin and policy organizations such as Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. Notable milestones include hosting panels with leaders from Intel Corporation, AMD, and NVIDIA during eras of local semiconductor investment, and staging pitch competitions judged by representatives from Benchmark Capital and Kleiner Perkins. The event adapted formats during public-health disruptions by coordinating virtual sessions with platforms used by Zoom and Hopin.

Events and Programming

Programming is organized into thematic tracks—product development, fundraising, growth marketing, design, social impact, and deep technology—bringing together speakers from companies like Slack, Stripe, Square, Twilio, Atlassian, and GitHub. Signature events have included founder stories featuring executives from Dropbox, Airbnb, Pinterest, and Spotify, while workshops are often led by accelerator alumni from MassChallenge, Plug and Play Tech Center, and StartX. Pitch competitions have showcased startups later involved with Yelp Inc., Zynga, and Roku, Inc., and often feature judges from SV Angel, Founders Fund, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Community-focused programs have partnered with nonprofits such as Techstars Foundation and National Association for Community Development Finance (NAACDF), and diversity initiatives have drawn collaborators like Black Founders and National Society of Black Engineers.

Organization and Funding

Austin Startup Week is organized by a coalition of civic groups, private sponsors, and volunteer leaders with governance often coordinated through steering committees that include representatives from Capital Factory, Austin Technology Incubator, Austin Chamber of Commerce, and university entrepreneurship centers at The University of Texas at Austin. Financial support historically has come from corporate sponsorships by Dell Technologies, IBM, Google, and regional venture funds such as LiveOak Venture Partners and Silverton Partners. Grants and in-kind contributions from City of Austin economic-development programs and local foundations supplement corporate underwriting. Operational partners—event production firms, media sponsors such as Austin American-Statesman and TechCrunch, and platform providers like Eventbrite—handle logistics, ticketing, and publicity.

Impact and Community

Austin Startup Week has contributed to talent attraction and company formation across the Austin–Round Rock–Georgetown metropolitan area, intersecting with relocation and expansion announcements from Tesla, Inc., Samsung Electronics, and Oracle Corporation in the broader regional economy. Alumni startups have raised rounds from major investors including Tiger Global Management, Accel, and NEA, and have been acquired by firms like Google, Microsoft, and Apple Inc.. The festival has also supported workforce development pipelines linked to The University of Texas at Austin, Austin Community College District, and local bootcamps such as General Assembly. Civic programming has engaged policymakers from offices like the Travis County commissioners and collaborations with City of Austin Economic Development initiatives.

Notable Participants and Partners

Speakers, judges, and partners have included founders, investors, and corporate executives from entities such as Elon Musk-affiliated ventures, executives from Dell Technologies, product leaders from Google, investors from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Foundry Group, and academic representatives from The University of Texas at Austin. Startup alumni who have presented at the festival include teams that later worked with Y Combinator, raised funding from Union Square Ventures, or exited to firms like Cisco and Intel Corporation. Media partners and coverage have involved outlets such as TechCrunch, Wired, The New York Times, and Bloomberg L.P..

Category:Events in Austin, Texas Category:Startup conferences