We are now publishing a series of stories from local people about their “Austin Story”. (check out volume one in the blog series) Recently there have been articles in the national press that have tried to portray Austin’s tech scene as fading. That is not the case, so the Austin Technology Council is asking people in the extended Austin tech ecosystem to share short stories about their “Austin Tech Story” and why Austin is a great place to live and do business.
These essays are not just the million-dollar success tales (although we would welcome submissions from our most successful local founders)- but stories from anyone working in and around our tech ecosystem. This installment comes from two people who work for the same company. One who lives here, and one who used to live here but will now be visiting for business more often since his employer is working on doing more in Central Texas.
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From Shannon Bryant – Territory Manager at Svitla
I came to town from New York with an ex, whom I never married, and ended up meeting my husband at the iconic Joe’s Crab Shack (Dell’s happy hour porch in the roaring ’90s).
What makes my journey unique is how I’ve shown up when it mattered most. When COVID hit and my field sales job shifted to Zoom meetings and cold-calling cell phones, I felt called to step into teaching. I watched my 22-year-old son and his peers struggle as teachers quit in droves, leaving students to learn from abandoned lesson boxes. I knew I needed to help.
I was hired to teach middle school tech applications, and it was one of the hardest experiences of my life. The kids were used to doing whatever they wanted on computers, and now they had to re-engage in structured learning, inside a lab of 30 computers. Grit has always defined me, and I brought that into the classroom. I tried to give them the confidence to dive into any software by teaching them that most programs have similar graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
Now I’m back in the field, covering Austin and Dallas for Svitla. I recently scrubbed every account to book last-minute meetings and saw how few companies are hiring. That’s why I’m proud to support the next generation of startups, many founded by the same students impacted during the pandemic.
I’ve learned to look for companies with at least seed or A-funding that are ready for development, but others (like Cherie Werner of Fiesta and Mark Nathan) exist to help startups at an even earlier stage. Getting referred into Hall Martin’s CapTen startup network has also been invaluable. Bryan Chambers and Nick Spiller at Capital Factory kept me going with sponsored Chai Lattes during SXSW (when I caught COVID in the very room of UT startups I mentioned earlier).
Startups need more than capital. They need community. Here in Austin, we have one built on heart and genuine care. We need our startups to thrive/be the next that are hiring and our Austin tech community is coming together to help.
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