What's the startup scene like in Austin?

I've been in Austin for a number of years.

Austin has the whole "supply chain" of startups - from accelerators to large & mid-size technology companies. The network is close-knit but easy to access and people are very friendly here. Combine all of the aforementioned with the cost of living (albeit, it's increasing) and you have a great city to live in.

Highly recommend.

If you end up coming out here, please let me know and I'll buy you a coffee and am happy to introduce you to others/local events.

I’ll start with that I am not from Austin. Having said that...

I think you will be fine if you go in with the right expectations. It’s no Silicon Valley. so if you are expecting that kind of diversity and density startups you prolly will fall short of your expectations. Also, Having said that at the end of the day you need one company to work at a time. Also with COVID and wfh on the rise you might find a broader range of startups eventually but you shouldn’t move based on that. If you think In terms of skills development I think there are more than enough startups to cover your basis.

Austin is full of startups. It is no more a "startup desert" than Seattle or Boston.

The culture, size, and types of companies are different, as you'd expect when comparing completely different cities, but you certainly wouldn't feel like there's nothing going on. In fact, I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised coming from Davis.

It's definitely not like the Bay Area, but I'm not sure anywhere else (in the US) is yet.

Just buy a plane ticket and talk to random people in capitol factory which is host to a ton of startups. There's no replacement for visiting.

I think there's a decent number of startups here. Not sure about how much innovation you'll find though. Most of the ones I've seen are doing boring stuff like real-state or selling bs with their ML/AI products.

Also checkout https://www.builtinaustin.com

Awesome! I’ve been here for 8 years and love it. There are plenty of startups, a large public research university with tons of CS kids coming out, and lots of offices for typical tech companies.

Email or tweet me and I can point you in the right direction. I’m part of a Clojure meetup here that has some startup people that come often.

If you are looking to work in startups, not sure Austin is the right choice. Look at the top cities by VC dollar raised, and Austin has lagged quite a bit over the last 10 yrs. Of course, SF and SV are top 2, followed by NYC which is a distant second. Boston is 3rd, Seattle 4th, and LA area 5th. If you think about unicorns and decacorns over the last decade, I know there are 1 or 2 Austin startups, but it is a far cry from Bay Area or NYC, which has household name startups.