{"podcast":{"title":"Austin Next","slug":"austin-next","podcast_index_feed_id":4121279,"rss_url":"https://feeds.transistor.fm/austin-next","website_url":"https://www.austinnextpodcast.com/","image_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/6a6CJqr4c87rzQlg0YYc1WBwLhYqnZdviZ4MJbmQmzc/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8wODE0/YzJjMTNjM2YzZTM3/MzZmNmVhOTRkNjNl/MTQ5OC5wbmc.jpg","author":"Jason Scharf","episode_count":178,"summary":"Austin is building the new tech, cultural, and intellectual stack. The region is a living laboratory to answer a single question: How do you build a global innovation superpower? Host Jason Scharf dissects innovation from the individual to the ecosystem. From the soundstage to the data center to the fab, we decode the mechanics of Austin's innovation ecosystem. As Atoms, Bits, and Intelligence converge, we explore how Hard Tech scale, digital velocity, and creative density collide. This is an audit of the future. We map the physics of the flywheel so builders and investors can navigate the chaos.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/austin-next"},"episode":{"title":"Breaking Down the State of Austin's Pre-Seed & Seed Funding with Katelyn Donnelly and Rajiv Bala","slug":"breaking-down-the-state-of-austin-s-pre-seed-seed-funding-with-katelyn-donnelly-and-rajiv-bala","published_at":"2023-12-19T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/austin-next/breaking-down-the-state-of-austin-s-pre-seed-seed-funding-with-katelyn-donnelly-and-rajiv-bala","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/austin-next","url":"https://share.transistor.fm/s/c6a9b358","audio_url":"https://media.transistor.fm/c6a9b358/074348c4.mp3","summary":"The impetus for this episode was a recent viral tweet stating that \"Austin desperately needs another real pre-seed fund.\" This sparked fierce debate around the health and scalability of Austin's earliest-stage investing landscape. Looking to settle the controversy, I interviewed two Austin-based VCs laser-focused on pre-seed and seed - Avalanche VC's Katelyn Donnelly and Clutch VC's Rajiv Bala. We discuss how we define the stages, the evolution of the Austin market, and what trends they saw this year and heading into next. Episode Highlights Avalanche VC invests in the first institutional round of companies transforming how people learn, earn, and own. Their focus areas include edtech, future of work, SaaS for small businesses, and companies related to home ownership or data ownership. Clutch VC is a pre-seed and seed stage fund focused on Texas B2B software businesses. They aim to be the first institutional money in, participating in angel rounds up to $2 million pre-seed rounds. The pre-seed round definition is usually less than $2 million raised, no revenue or early revenue/pilots. Seed rounds are around $3-5 million raised with $500k-$1.5 million ARR. There is a lack of dedicated, local pre-seed funds in Austin compared to ecosystems like Seattle. More diverse early-stage managers are needed in Austin to cover the variety of companies starting up. Katelyn observes a variety of small firms and solo GPs in Austin with vertical focuses, contrasting this with more generalist early-stage funds in other regions. Rajiv provides a historical perspective on venture capital in Texas, highlighting the evolution from telecom and semiconductor to software and the shift of VC focus to Austin post-dot-com crash. What’s next Austin? Rajiv: “I am just so excited about the opportuni…","meta_description":"The impetus for this episode was a recent viral tweet stating that \"Austin desperately needs another real pre-seed fund.\" This sparked fierce debate aroun…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3063,"processing_state":"failed","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/austin-next/episodes/breaking-down-the-state-of-austin-s-pre-seed-seed-funding-with-katelyn-donnelly-and-rajiv-bala/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/austin-next/breaking-down-the-state-of-austin-s-pre-seed-seed-funding-with-katelyn-donnelly-and-rajiv-bala.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}