Austin blends eclectic, geek to attract high-tech: Plus, videos of Austin mobile startups

Austin, Texas, is home to an eclectic assortment of musicians, an unofficial city slogan that challenges people to “Keep Austin Weird,” a local celebrity transvestite and one of the premier wireless research institutes in the world. This mix of laid back and highly educated – with a twist of geek thrown in for good measure – lends itself to a wireless community that makes for some pretty interesting harmonies.
The tech community in the five-county MSA counts about 100,000 employees, or 12% of the workforce, but contributes 25% of the region’s payroll, about $8 billion annually, said Susan Davenport, senior VP of Global Technology Strategy at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. (The fact that the Austin Chamber has someone whose title has the words “global technology strategy” speaks to the seriousness the region is putting behind its technology efforts.)
The area’s tech origins date back to the 1960s when technology companies manufactured products in Austin. Dell, Freescale Semiconductor, National Instruments, Silicon Laboratories and Texas Instruments all have offices in the city. From that backdrop, the region has grown to other areas of the wireless ecosystem. AT&T houses an innovation lab in Austin, high-tech investors Sevin Rosen has a presence in the area; the Wi-Fi Alliance calls Austin home, as do a bunch of startup companies focusing on the mobile apps space.
The University of Texas At Austin is home to the Wireless Networking Communications Group, one of the premiere wireless research centers operating in the world today. With 17 faculty overseeing 140 Ph.D. research students, the campus oversees a variety of wireless research, overseeing a $5 million to $6 million annual budget, said Jeff Andrews, an associate professor at the university and director of the WNCG. While the organization does academic research, it also partners with businesses to push research forward. “We work with industry, not just inside the ivory tower.”
The highly educated workforce contributes to Austin’s ability to attract technology companies, Davenport said. “The area has 122,000 college students – 50,000 are Longhorns, but there are others as well. We see college grads from UT driving cabs while they are waiting for the right position,” she joked. Along with education, Austin’s workforce is young. About 70% of the population is under the age of 45.
The Austin Technology Incubator Since it was founded in 1989, ATI has worked with more than 150 teams of entrepreneurs, who collectively have raised over $725 million dollars in investor capital. “The Austin Technology Incubator is one of the top 10 and they have a wireless vertical that’s been extremely successful,” Davenport noted.
The Greater Austin Technology Partnership combines business, academic and elected leaders to put in place and execute on a vision that plans for Austin to be a technology hub in the next 15 to 20 years. The city also is part of a collaborative effort called the Pecan Street project, which aims to reinvent energy delivery, including smart grids.
Meanwhile, Capital Factory is an early-stage accelerator for tech startups based in Austin, investing up to $20,000, as well as offering business and operational support and weekly mentoring sessions throughout a 10-week program in return for a 5% equity stake in companies.
The city is also home to South By Southwest Conference and Festivals, a venue that started out as a way to showcase new music but which now also showcases new technologies. The technology portion of the conference grows each year, said Eve Richter, with the City of Austin’s emerging technologies industry development division.
Dubbed the live-music capital of the world, the high-tech industry gravitates toward the musical aspect of the city, Davenport said. “We like the mix. A creative community leads to productivity.”
Below are videos of some of the startups interviewed by RCR Wireless News during the Texas Wireless Summit last month in Austin.
Click here to watch a video on Ricochet Labs.
Click here to watch a video on SocialSmack.
Click here to watch a video on Get Ya Learn On.
Click here to watch a video on Mavenir Systems.
Click here to watch a video on TabbedOut.