Let's get this party started... |
Brent: Happy humpday, y'all. The vast majority of us who have seen autonomous cars on the streets have seen them with a human inside to make sure everything's going OK. But that will change soon. One sign of the future, Waymo is putting its autonomous cars on the streets of San Francisco, with no safety driver. GM subsidary Cruise also has its computer cars rolling in the Bay Area. Argo AI and Lyft have said they plan to offer autonomous car service in Austin sometime this year.
Alright, while we wait for our transportation future to arrive, let's kick a Beat... |
A breakdown of the day's biggest Inno story. |
Molecula and Boardline Academy advance to Inno Madness championship
Brent: The votes are in, and Inno readers have advanced two startups to the Inno Madness championship. With more than 1K votes cast, both semi-final matchups were about as tight as they can get. Boardline Academy, which provides training courses for HOA board members, just barely edged Rocket Dollar, a local startup that has an alternative investments platform. Meanwhile, Molecula, which has developed a database platform for real-time analytics, edged out Austin startup At Ease Rentals, which has a home rental platform for military families.
That sets us up for one final, championship round between Molecula and Boardline Academy. Inno readers can start voting at 8 a.m. Thursday. Voting closes at midnight next Tuesday, April 5. |
The people, companies and organizations making moves in Austin. |
Building on Austin's VC community
Austin's venture capital ecosystem keeps expanding, and today an organization launched to help members of the VC community stay in touch and support professional development activities. The Austin Venture Association is led by Executive Director CS Freeland, who previously founded ATX Kit and Founder House Austin. Other co-founders include ATX Venture Partners co-founder Chris Shonk; Carl Grant, executive VP of global business development at Cooley LLP; and Ari Salafia, founder and CEO of TaxTaker. The nonprofit plans to provide job postings, mentorship and events.
New CFO at Vista Equity
Austin's biggest private equity firm is about to get a new chief financial officer. Vista Equity Partners Management LLC announced today that it has appointed Lauren Dillard as CFO.
She will replace John Warnken-Brill, who is retiring after 15 years at the firm. The change occurs April 11. Dillard was most recently executive vice president of investment intelligence for New York-based Nasdaq, the financial services company that runs one of the nation's premier stock exchanges and generated more than $1 billion in revenue in 2021. Before that, starting in 2002, she was at The Carlyle Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based investment firm, where her last role was partner and head of investment solutions. Read more.
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The tech stories you need to read today. |
Stories from around the Inno network we think you'll dig. Sign up for Inno+ to access the entire Inno network. |
The events and happenings to know in the ecosystem
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Keeping Austin Weird & Wired |
A birthday flyover I think it's fair to say anyone who makes it to age 100 should be able to expect a big and meaningful birthday party. But one Texas veteran got a little more than cake and balloons.
Fox 7 reports that Camp Mabry conducted a flyover of World War II-era planes to help celebrate the 100th birthday of local veteran Stan Brooks. After his time in the service, he came back to Austin, went to UT and became a teacher. |
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