Hi Mike,

I appreciate your thoughts on AV. From an entrepreneur’s perspective it wasn’t a perfect fit for today’s startup ecosystem. I feel that they may not have been equipped to handle the changing landscape. My meetings over there felt a bit muted. The same business model was received well by firms outside of Austin .

I cannot say why this was, only that it was the case for many companies with whom I have spoken.

There is opportunity for venture firms to come to Austin and dip their toes in. This is already happening. I have spoken with several VC’s outside of Austin and they either have one investment in Austin or are looking for one investment so that they can do more.

Part of me feels that the types of deals that Austin VC’s like are based on where we came from years ago. Enterprise software: yes! Business-to-consumer plays: no! Consumer apps: heck no!

And please don’t mention platform companies to investors here in Austin. Twilio, SendGrid, Stripe, and others would have been shown the door 10 minutes into their first meeting.