Brent: Good afternoon, y'all. We're halfway through a busy week, which will lead into a holiday week. So good lucky grinding, y'all. Some R&R will be coming soon... Until then, let's kick a Beat... |
A breakdown of the day's biggest local story. |
From D2C to the biggest box of them all
Brent: After an appearance on Shark Tank, an Austin CPG startup's products are hitting some of the most well-known shelves in the world. Let's kick it to ABJ's Sahar Chmais for the story...
Sahar: Proper Good Inc. is doing things a bit differently as a consumer packaged goods company, but the formula is working. The two-year-old, Austin-based company just launched its products in 2K locations of Walmart and received $3.5M in seed funding.
The round was led by Yeti Capital and The Artisan Group. Yeti Capital was founded by Roy Seiders and Ryan Seiders but is not affiliated with the other company started by the brothers, Yeti Coolers. Doug Bouton, founder and CEO of ice cream maker Halo Top and Gatsby Chocolate, also invested.
Proper Good sells shelf-stable prepared meals, from soups to oatmeal, that are made with clean ingredients and can be heated in their pouch in less than two minutes. The idea has taken off with many types of customers in many places, according to co-founder and CEO Christopher Jane. "We have such a broad spectrum of customers," he said. "We have so many nurses using it for a quick, 90-second meal in the break room. We have so many teachers and students using it for a quick meal at work or the library. We have just as many stay at home moms using it for an easy meal." Instead of slowly building a retail presence and starting with small, regional chains, Jane and his sibling co-founder, Jennifer Jane, went directly for Walmart. Their meals appeared last week on the shelves of the country's largest retailer. Previously, Proper Good had been strictly direct to consumer. Proper Good in February began preparing for its Walmart debut. A presence in 2K stores is an enormous lift for such a young company, Christopher Jane said.
A Walmart rollout means Proper Good will have to grow its production by 20 times, Jane said. The company will put 10 of its top-selling products in stores: six soups and four oatmeals. Even with the increased production, Proper Good will continue working with the same co-packer. Keep reading...
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The people, companies and organizations making moves in Austin. |
Stealthy startup emerges to give equity to service providers
Newly announced Austin startup Lynx emerged from stealth today with a new form of payment between startups and service providers. Its SWEAT Note lets service providers, such as PR firms and fractional CFOs, work for startups at a discounted rate in exchange for a note that will become equity in the future. That helps startup balance sheets, and, if things go well with the startup, gives service providers the chance at a larger paycheck.
The startup was co-founded by Jameson Pitts and David Stockton. Pitts is also founder of marketing agency Sangfroid!. Stockton was most recently director of accounting at Unknown Ventures.
Lynx provided the following example of how it works: "If a service provider and startup agreed to a SWEAT Note’s terms, and the service provider did $500K worth of work — half of the startup’s burn — at a 20% discount and a $10M valuation, the conversion would be 6.25% of equity. Without the discount, the equity shrinks to 5% of equity. In this example, the provider nets $625K. That’s $125K beyond what it would have been if it charged cash for its services, all while allowing the startup to double its runway."
FAVE Award winners
The Austin Young Chamber recently named its FAVE Award winners. FAVE, which stands for favorite Austin venture or enterprise, honored 52 organizations and people across 13 categories. Here's a look at a few of the winners: FAVE Innovative Company ICON
FAVE ChangeMaker Courtney Bailey FAVE Legendary Austin Brand Tito's Handmade Vodka FAVE Community-Minded Company NI FAVE Company Culture Scribe Media FAVE YP (Young Professional)-Led Business The Acacia Company FileCloud expands exec team
Austin file-sharing and collaboration software maker FileCloud said Nov. 15 it has appointed Leigh Bradford as SVP of global sales. He was previously global head of commercial sales at ITRS Group. Before that he was VP of international sales at Kemp Technologies. FileCloud is led by CEO Ray Downes, who also previously worked at Kemp. The startup in late 2021 raised a $30M series A funding round, as well as a $10M growth capital agreement with Avidbank.
Local companies on the Deloitte Fast 500
Deloitte's 2022 Technology Fast 500 awards include 13 Austin companies. The list is largely driven by year-over-year revenue growth among North American companies. Here's a look at the Austin companies and their ranking. -
OJO Labs, No. 93
- L7 Informatics, Inc., No. 101
- Measured, No. 120
- SpyCloud, No. 203
- Overhaul, No. 236
- CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc., No. 242
- ActivTrak, No. 299
- AlertMedia, No. 303
- Molecular Templates, Inc., No. 327
- Enboarder, No. 356
- CrowdStreet, No. 385
- NinjaOne, No. 397
- Digital Turbine, Inc., No. 404
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Keeping Austin Weird & Wired |
Incentivizing electric
Thinking about buying an electric bike, moped or scooter? You might get a boost next year now that the city is working on a new program to double the rebates given to individuals, as well as owners of fleets of bikes, Austin Monitor reported. The new program, through Austin Energy, will provide $300 rebates for low price models and go up to $1,300.
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