Austin,Tx Don't believe the hype!
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8/2/2012
My wife and I moved to Austin, TX in 2010 from Houston, TX to start a new life, launch a business and checkout the music scene. Our experience started out very promising, we loved the laid back vibe and friendly atmosphere. Everything seemed great and our optimism was in full swing. We started our business in late January of 2011 hosting a launch party at a trendy south Austin warehouse. Soon after, we were invited to take part in a SXSW event in March by two gentlemen from Brooklyn, New York. Tons of free exposure, you couldn't ask for more as a new company. During the summer of 2011 we did the free beer and the hard punch thing, giving away so much to promote our business and sell our loyalty food cards. The card sold for $25, good for 1yr and 25% off of food purchases of $10 or more, 365 days a year, the best consistent discount in the country bar none at the time, born and bred in Austin, TX. In return for the businesses accepting the discount, my company shot free promotional commercials, photographs and posted radio ads on a local community radio station, which we also supported through underwriting. All of the marketing was cross promotional and offered free of charge for the businesses so that we could do our part as new transplants to Austin to support local and stimulate the local economy. Our only profit was on the sales of these loyalty cards. Austin brags about supporting local which is what my company was doing from day one by offering these free marketing services to local businesses. The support for my company and its mission was few and far between. I ended up giving away 95% of the cards to stimulate sales among the businesses. My wife and I even volunteered on behalf of some of these struggling trailers by helping them out at festivals, various events, also sponsoring beer, hard punch, t-shirts, energy drinks, etc. Sometimes even hands on by helping operate their trailers or run to the restaurant suppliers for them for ingredients, using our gas, our time and our own money. All of this on top of the free marketing. If that isn't supporting your local community, I don't know what is. Heads up people, most of the trendy businesses you support here in Austin are launched by out of state owners and not local at all, so your money could be going elsewhere. Check the facts before you spend that dollar in the pursuit of going local. Did I mention that my film production crew would travel 300 hundred plus miles round trip from Houston to Austin to film the free videos for these businesses. Unfortunately, on more than one occasion actually on many, the businesses would cancel, postpone and even no show after my crew had already arrived in Austin to film. All of this good will was totally ignored by the local community and especially the twenty something set who had been informed by myself and others of my humanitarianism and the social consciousness of my company during countless free kegers that I sponsored at local food trailer parks. Most of our clients were food trailers that have gone out of business and/or left town. If that wasn't bad enough, we also had one of our copy written photographs infringed upon and used without my permission, going as far as removing the watermark, this done by a local well known Austinite who used it for personal gain posting it on their blog, all over the Internet, Pinterest and even submitted it to a popular local and national online digital magazine without giving my company any credit for shooting the photo. After calling this person out and catching them in the act, they libeled me by sending out slanderous emails to my clients, existing and potential. Did I mention that I was laying in the hospital with pancreatitis while all of this ensued. All this done to a small business man from out of town, not state, because after all, I am a native Texan who was just trying to support local and make an honest buck. This town is hyped by locals and ignorant hipsters that have no idea what struggles small businesses actually deal with. It's all about hipster driven trends in this town, not actual content. I have personally dealt with so many disillusioned people who relocated to Austin from hundreds even thousands of miles away in pursuit of entrepreneurial dreams only to be disenchanted by the city's lack of support and soon after found themselves broke and out of business, wishing they had never moved here. You wouldn't know this to be the case if you were lured by Austin's huge marketing and propaganda machine, leading so many to believe this is the greatest small town on the planet. Food trailers and trucks have to jump through hoops in this town just to stay in business. The local city government is no friend to them, unless they have deep pockets, are backed by restaurants or run by trust fund kids, who have plenty of cash to throw away. And they are constantly being displaced by developers who own the property that these trailers rent lots from causing them to constantly relocate. Don't get me started about the food in this town! It's way overpriced and overrated. You constantly hear about the same chefs and restaurants time and time again. All this is driven by twenty somethings that think they are all food critics because they photograph food on their Iphones and love yelping. When you are drunk at 2am in the morning everything taste awesome. If they taste BBQ for the first time and rave about it as being the very best they have tasted, all of their cronies follow suit and overnight they become aficionados. Who else would wait in line for two hours for overpriced brisket that is nontraditionally rubbed in coffee when they could easily drive to Lockhart, TX, which is considered the BBQ capital of Texas by real BBQ experts, not twenty somethings and pay $6 to $8 less per pound for brisket cooked by BBQ joints that have been doing it for 75 years plus in those same two hours. The problem is that nobody will call out Austin because they don't want to stray from the pack. After all, Austin is the jewel of Texas, right? All that free, cheap beer keeps those hipsters in their duped induced state of mind. If you believe the hype, you spread the hype. Even when it ends up on the cover of national magazines, guess the age of the contributors writing those articles? You guessed it, those twenty something hipsters who dictate to all of us what's relevant to only themselves, but lack true knowledge or the life experience to be the judge of anything. So, its OK if you're just looking for a place to party and occasionally jump in the water or you love bat watching, then this capital of propaganda and hype is right up your alley. Let's not forget kid's haircuts 17 bucks a pop or a $25 men's cut with complimentary beer included. If wasting money is in your future, you couldn't have picked a greater city. If you're serious about starting a meaningful business or becoming a successful musician and getting local backing and support, you landed in the wrong town my friend. Their is no music industry here, just a lot of promoters making tons of money off selling tickets for out of town acts that roll through Austin, because it's a live music hub. Do the research, nobody famous is born and bred in Austin, they might spend some time hanging out here for a stint, but this is not where they blow up. You have to leave this town to become famous, If you've got the talent. Austin has a habit of taking credit for the success of anyone who just drops in, but becomes famous out of the state then returns here for a gig. Ask yourself why Austin bands never get signed to big labels or are discovered here. Because it's all about attracting big acts, making money on concerts, but never supporting and cultivating local talent. Everyone you thought was from Austin, just hung out here, played a few shows and went elsewhere to gain fame and fortune. So many of the homeless and others working menial jobs in this town were aspiring musicians that got spet out and forgotten about. My best friend here is a homeless musician. The day we met he told me to take my savings, my dreams and get the hell out of this town, as fast as I could. I wish I would have listened about 40k ago. By the way, the people that call the shots, make the rules and control all the legislation that gets passed, are out-of-towners with only self interest and $$$$ in mind. There is a sucker born everyday, I know, I was one. These guys even copyright their own slogans so that nobody can claim the term "Keep Austin weird". It wouldn't surprise me if this town held the distinction of being the highest revenue earning small city per capita in the nation, regarding local city governments. You wouldn't know it by the lack of funding for it's schools or the fact that 40% of Austinites live under the poverty level. I guess investing the revenues from music festivals, tourism and under served tax payer's money on a race track in a nearby town, that will someday be annexed by Austin, is a greater priority. As the revenues from tourism continue to rise for the city of Austin, the quality of life for its locals lowers everyday with the influx of more suckers, hipsters and high rollers moving here and driving up the cost of living. This was my personal experience living in the so called coolest small town in the country. I realize that hipsters, rich out of town yuppies or locals who don't know any other place as home, will probably beg to differ. My suggestion is that if Austin beckons you, keep in mind that it's a place you could possibly hangout, but please think twice about hanging around.
Chris | Austin, TX