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Jan 29, 2016 - Apple Inc.'s watch while the user is wear- ing it. The Austin startup has ... tin app developer he starte
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AUSTIN Business JOURNAL

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Millennials on a Zoe Schlag: The conscious capitalist

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At 27, Zoe Schlag has more worldly experience under her belt than most 50-year-olds. So much so, that when the Boulder, Colo., native decided to open a business incubator in Austin about two years ago, she had to learn the ins-and-outs of how Americans do startups. She knew how a fair-trade coffee farm in Guatemala operates because she worked on one alongside ex-guerilla fighters. She learned how micro economies in Chile got by without any government assistance or infrastructure. She helped mothers in Argentina become entrepreneurs with a bit of seed money and guidance. And then there were lifelearning stints in places such as Brazil and Bolivia. But it was her job with UnLtd India in Mumbai that brought her to Austin and forced her into a crash course on American capitalism. While working for the Indian business incubator that only props up socially conscious startups, she was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and was committed to founding the U.S. arm of UnLtd. in 2014 as its executive director. Today, UnLtd USA is mixing men-

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Where do you go to network or for meetups? The Red Room bar at the W Hotel.

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John Arrow took my call while in the Virgin Islands where he was helping a friend move a sailboat. You’ve got to love this guy. Arrow, 28, always appears to be on the move. Whether it’s in a physical sense or in business, the Austin native consistently seems to have something in the works. In addition to launching two startups, he spends some of his free time flying his own airplane, a Cirrus SR22 single-engine four-seater. Arrow has had only two jobs since graduating from the University of Texas in 2009 — and he created both of them. More recently, he co-founded in mid2015 Reserve Strap Inc., a company developing a watch band designed to recharge Apple Inc.’s watch while the user is wearing it. The Austin startup has been taking pre-orders since last year and plans a March or April release. But Arrow is perhaps best known for co-founding Mutual Mobile Inc., the Austin app developer he started with a small group of UT friends in 2009. Although Arrow was the founding CEO, he’s been its chairman since London-based WPP PLC (LON: WPP) acquired a minority stake in Mutual Mobile in 2013. Two of his co-founders, who were college friends, are now Mutual Mobile’s co-CEOs and operate the company that

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John Arrow: The tech wunderkind If you could have a coffee with anyone, who would it be? Elon Musk. What’s the last TV show you bingewatched? “Silicon Valley.” What’s the best way to reach you? [email protected]

employs 240 workers. Arrow said the innovation developed by the two companies complement each other because one is focused on hardware and the other software. The related but different areas of technology fuel his creative juices and feed off each other, he said. The most obvious disadvantage is that an entrepreneur can typically only be excited and laser-focused about one business at a time. As such, Arrow said he needs to be “deliberate” about his daily goals. Arrow was asked if developing multiple technologies is part of his career plan. “It absolutely is,” he said. “Getting to work on different things, that’s something that resonates with me.” — Interview by ChristopherCalnan, @ABJCalnan

Where do you go to network or for meetups? Radio Coffee & Beer on Manchaca Road. If you could have coffee with anyone, who would it be? TV host and comedian John Oliver. What’s the last TV show you bingewatched? “The Wire.” What’s the best way to reach you? [email protected]

tors and money with the minds of noble entrepreneurs and just welcomed its third class of startups. The five new businesses — such as La Flaca Urban Gardens Inc., which grows food for customers in underused urban spaces — won’t give up equity for the guidance. Instead, Schlag and her team asks that they invest in another UnLtd company when they find financial footing for themselves. “I have really gotten hooked on helping entrepreneurs,” she said. “My hope is to replicate this model nationally — especially in cities and states between the coasts.” — Interview by Colin Pope, @ABJEditor

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January 29, 2016 

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These self-starting Austin businessmen and women are still in their 20s, or just hit 30, and are taking Austin by storm. P H OTO S BY ARN O L D W E L L S

Connor Greissing: The strident networker

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At age 26, Connor Greissing has made a fast impression in Austin’s business scene. An associate director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Austin office since 2013, he handles tenant representation for law firms, nonprofits and technology companies, and recruits corporate headquarters to the Central Business District. Greissing, a native of the small northeast Ohio town of Hudson, previously worked in Washington, D.C., for a commercial real estate firm. Before that, he attended Johns Hopkins University where he was a defenseman on the school’s powerhouse lacrosse team. He moved to Austin two years ago after he said he was ready for a change. After a week visiting Austin, he decided that it was the place to be. For other young people looking to make a splash in Austin, Greissing strongly suggests that they get out and meet people. It’s his experience that the movers and shakers in the Austin area are much more open to meeting new contacts compared to the nation’s capital. “Meet everybody. Meet everybody you can,” said Greissing. “As a young person, it’s elevated my own personal game or intelligence. When you meet with someone you should have something of value to say. You could grab coffee, but if you

Where do you go to network or for meetups? I’m a huge fan of Houndstooth Coffee. I am a bit of a coffee fanatic. I’m a four-to-five cup guy in the morning. Houndstooth used to do an open mic, open coffee event for technology and other industries on Thursday morning. It’s No. 1 for us when we meet to discuss business over lunch, but it’s rather sporadic. If you could have coffee with anyone, who would it be? Steve Jobs. Part of that is the entire “think differently” motto. That’s kind of the approach we are taking as we are building our office and our brand. I’m also an Apple junkie and he just is enigmatic in everything that he does and I enjoy reading stories about him. What’s the last show you bingewatched? “The Affair.” It was recommended by my partner Jesse. They do two sides to each story. There are four to five main characters and each episode is split between how each sees the situation. “House of Cards” also takes the cake as my favorite streaming show. What’s the best way to reach you? [email protected]

do, you can’t just sit there and have nothing to say.” — Interview by Michael Theis, @ABJGovernment

Alec Manfre knows the best way to find out if a startup’s founders have staying power: Spend six months doing product development with two other co-founders in downtown Santiago, Chile, squeezed into a 500-square-foot apartment. “That’s one way to definitely make sure you’re on the right team,” Manfre said, during an interview in his more spacious digs these days off South Congress Avenue, where his startup, Bractlet Inc., has been headquartered since August 2013. Manfre, 26, is the CEO of a company that designs sophisticated systems used in large commercial buildings to improve energy efficiency. His co-founders, both 27, are Matthew Lynch, the chief product officer, and Brian Smith, the chief technology officer. They met in 2007 during their freshman year at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, and formed Bractlet just as they were graduating in late 2011, when they scored the gig in South America through a program called Startup Chile, which gave them $40,000 in seed funding. From there, the company moved back to Atlanta until early 2013, then had a

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Alec Manfre: The well-traveled energy czar Where do you go to network or for meetups? Downtown, it’s The Gingerman and close to us it’s Dominican Joe. We keep that place in business. If you could have a coffee with anyone, who would it be? Elon Musk. He started with software and moved into big industrial hardware plays. It’s fascinating he’s had that vision to solve really big problems. What’s the last TV show you bingewatched? “Making a Murderer.” What’s the best way to reach you? [email protected]

brief stop in Houston at the Surge Ventures accelerator, before deciding Austin was the place to be. The company has raised $1.6 million since its inception, most recently with backing from Austin-based ATX Seed Ventures and Energy Foundry of Chicago. “In a typical installation in a 50,000-square-foot building, the energy savings are like taking 90 or 100 homes off the grid,” he said. “That’s very impactful.” — Interview by Greg Barr, @ABJBarr

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AUSTIN Business JOURNAL

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Bailey Harrington: The engineer

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Nearly a dozen people suggested that ABJ profile Bailey Harrington for this story — first and foremost his boss, Big Red Dog Engineering founder and CEO Will Schnier. Harrington, now a principal at the fastgrowing firm, made quite an impact on Schnier during an impromptu meeting in early 2013 when he was on leave from the army and seeking an internship. “What stood out was his maturity and self-confidence,” Schnier said. “Right away we could tell that Bailey was a leader.” After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2008 with a civil engineering degree, Harrington — who turned 30 the last week of December — became a military platoon leader in charge of major construction projects at Fort Hood. He eventually served as lead engineer for the battlefield surveillance brigade of more than 1,200 solders, overseeing an area of roughly 4,000 square miles in wartorn Afghanistan. It was a heavy load, which Harrington didn’t shy away from. But after four years in the service, he was ready to do something new. His girlfriend Sarah — who was employed at the Texas Capitol — played a pivotal role in what the future held. Bailey knew her from middle school in San Antonio but it was a chance meeting with her parents that led to a first date — a Bruce Springsteen concert in Austin. “I just knew Austin was it,” said Har-

Where do you go to network or for meetups? I don’t think networking just for the sake of networking is a good thing. You put that effort into building your business, and you’ll get what you want out of that. That being said, Techstars is the single best place to go [to meet people].

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Training his body to sleep in three-hour increments and teaching himself to code were small obstacles for LawnStarter Inc. CEO Steve Corcoran. Corcoran, 23, spent a month straight preparing his company’s application for the 2014 class of Techstars LLC, a prestigious startup accelerator, along with fellow co-founder Ryan Farley, 25. They slept from 8 a.m.-11 a.m. and from 8 p.m.-11 p.m. daily and spent the rest of their time working on business development and learning computer languages. The dedication paid off as LawnStarter, a marketplace where customers can hire lawncare companies, was accepted into the 13-week program, one of the factors Corcoran to which attributes its rapid ascent. It now has 35 employees, brought in $6 million last year and has expanded into two dozen cities. Corcoran’s business education started in earnest while he was studying engineering at Virginia Tech and applied as a freshman for a special program to manage part of the school’s $800 millionplus endowment. A week before he interviewed for the gig, Corcoran had surgery to remove a cyst on his single kidney (the other kidney was removed at birth). Dealing with the pain of recovery, Corcoran said he still spent 100 hours pre-

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Steve Corcoran: The startup grinder

If you could have coffee with anyone, who would it be? Tom Brady, because he has consistently inspired a level of passion in his teammates that I’ve never seen anyone else be able to do. What’s the last TV show you bingewatched? “Making a Murderer.” What’s the best way to reach you? Email is best: [email protected].

paring for the test and was one of the few underclassmen admitted. “It made me realize nobody out there is really that impressive,” he said. “If you work hard enough, you can get anywhere.” Corcoran dropped out of Virginia Tech and began working with startups. He and Farley officially launched LawnStarter in 2014 in the D.C. area and moved the company to Austin later that year. “If you can show you’re not going to let anything stop you … people buy into your story,” Corcoran said. — Interview by Will Anderson, @MyABJ

Where do you go to network or for meetups? I love drinking a spicy michelada on the patio of the Hotel San Jose on South Congress or having some cheese and wine on the rooftop deck of Whole Foods. If you could have a coffee with anyone, who would it be? I would love to have met Teddy Roosevelt. His willingness to serve the country, as well as represent the common man, is one of the most impressive examples of a leader of and for the people in American history. Stephen Colbert would be great too, just because of his comedic genius. What’s the last TV show you binge-watched? I think I spent all of Christmas, just like almost everyone else in America, binge-watching “Making a Murderer.” What’s the best way to reach you? [email protected]

rington, who then went job hunting, leading him to Big Red Dog. “I said I’d work for free.” Schnier had no doubts. “He’s ascended from intern to construction manager to project manager to client manager and principal in three short years,” Schnier said. “He set the standard for each position every step of the way.” — Interview by Jan Buchholz, @ABJBuchholz