It’s hard to believe it’s the eighth annual Austin Startup Week.
Why? Because it’s our eighth time covering the event and last month marked the seventh anniversary of Silicon Hills News.
Austin Startup Week was one of the first events Silicon Hills News covered when the site launched in September of 2011.
Austin was a much different place just seven years and Austin Startup Week, in its infancy, had far fewer events and attractions. For one thing, there was just one track on entrepreneurship. Now, there are multiple tracks from health tech, smart cities, blockchain, fundraising, FinTech, defense innovation, social impact, university track and more.
But while a lot has changed in that time, a lot still remains. Jacqueline Hughes and Joshua Bear are still running Austin Startup week and they’ve attracted a whole lot of sponsors for the week-long list of activities. The title sponsor is the U.S. Army Futures Command Center which set up shop here earlier this year.
Kicking off the week, Monday, Capital Factory is hosting its second annual Capital Factory Women in Tech summit with panels, workshops, a pitch competition, and a $100,000 challenge prize being awarded to a female-led startup. Silicon Hills News covered the first Capital Factory Women in Tech summit last year.
What’s different this year, is for the first time ever the Austin Technology Council is not hosting its battle of the tech bands and opening night kick-off party at Mohawk Austin. Instead, Capital Factory is hosting a kick off party starting at 5 p.m.
On Tuesday, Health Tech Austin is hosting a 7:45 a.m. showcase featuring eight healthcare startups giving their pitches. It’s one of several health tech related events throughout the day.
Also on Tuesday morning, there’s a social impact event at 9:30 at the Center for Social Innovation on “How Austin Becomes the Nation’s Capital for Diverse, Homegrown Tech Talent.” The speakers include Ruben Cantu, Director of Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The University of Texas at Austin, Preston L. James II, CEO and Co-Founder, DivInc, Ada-Renee Johnson, staffing manager at Google, Jan Ryan, Director, Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation, at UT Austin and Matt Stephenson, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Code2College.
And also on the Social Impact track, Dan Graham, founder of Notley Ventures and Zoe Schlag, managing director of Techstars, will discuss “The Future of Austin’s Social Impact Ecosystem at 5 p.m. at the Center for Social Innovation. And this is where the Fear of Missing Out hits. Because there’s also the gShowdown going on at Galvanize on “Will Artificial Intelligence Take Over the World.” It features Charlie Burgoyne, Founder and CEO, Valkyrie Intelligence, and Byron Reece, Entrepreneur for GigaOM.
It looks like Wednesday is a great day to check out the university track with coffee and donuts at Dorm Rooms to Startups Showcase at the University of Texas at Austin. The event features student let startups including ElecTrip, Elite Sweets, Flo Recruit, Forestrike, Hexis, Hitch, Loop, Rev Energy Gum, and Shop Swayy.
And following that event, check out “The University’s role in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems” featuring a panel discussion moderated by Ashley Jennings, program manager, Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship, Growth, and Renewal at UT Austin. The panelists include David Altounian, interim dean, the Bill Munday School of Business and MBA Program Director at St. Edward’s University, Hector Gomez Macfarland, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Huston-Tillotson University, Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Austin, Kristin C. Spindler, director of IncubatorCTX and business faculty at Concordia University Texas and Melissa Taylor, assistant dean for strategy and planning at UT Austin.
And the famous Austin Startup Crawl starts at 5 p.m. on Thursday. Registration is required and attendees can pick up their wristbands at Capital Factory.
See the full schedule here. Events are free but registration is required.
