During the pandemic, the government has put renter protections in place to make sure you don’t get evicted if you can’t pay your rent. But it can be confusing to keep track of your rights and all the various deadlines, given that city, county, state and federal governments are all passing different laws.
Click here to receive a free quick-reference guide for Austin renters, including a form letter you can use to contest an unlawful eviction notice from your landlord.
Pocket Punch is a hand-held multifunctional self-defense device. The company was created by five female UT students. The mission of Pocket Punch is to empower individuals to take charge of their own safety. Pocket Punch is patent-pending.
Who are you, and what’s your role at the company?
My name is Ashley Raymond and I am Co-Founder and the CEO of Pocket Punch.
What motivated the creation of Pocket Punch?
Pocket Punch began as a group project my Sophomore year at the University of Texas. We were assigned into a random group and had to invent a product. Recently, unfortunately an on campus stabbing had occurred. We were all shaken up, so we sought out to create a product to help students feel safer both on and off campus. The class loved the product, and we decided we wanted to make it a reality. Now, graduation is a few weeks away and myself and another team member have given up full-time jobs to pursue Pocket Punch.
What’s your favorite KPI and why?
Performance is my favorite KPI because you can clearly see how the effort you’re putting in is paying off. These past few months, that has been the waitlist for Pocket Punch. This past month the waitlist grew over 60%!
What’s a fond memory you have of overcoming an obstacle as an entrepreneur?
Crowdfunding – as a team we were SO excited to launch a crowdfunding campaign. We quickly realized that many platforms unfortunately considered the Pocket Punch a weapon replica. KickStarted and Indiegogo won’t allow us on their sites so we took an untraditional route and went with GoFundMe. Our campaign was approved, we were up on their site for a week, we were trending and we were gaining features with local media stations. Then, without warning everyone was refunded and our campaign was shut down. Apparently, GoFundMe’s payment processor didn’t approve of our campaign. We were disappointed to say the least. To counteract this, we are now launching pre-orders on our own site!
Which local businesses or individuals inspire you?
If I had to choose one, it would be Capital Factory. It’s amazing to be in an environment with so many other entrepreneurs who are serious about making their dreams a reality. Sara Blakely is my favorite female entrepreneur, I’m obsessed!
How are you getting networking done during the quarantine?
I’ve been attending Women@Austin’s weekly meetup via Zoom on Wednesdays. Additionally, the Longhorn Startup Lab class has provided additional networking!
How have you been keeping yourself busy during quarantine?
I’ve really been focusing in on our marketing strategy. I walk town lake and message individuals about Pocket Punch!
How can people get in touch with you?
They can visit www.thepocketpunch.com or follow us on their favorite platform @thepocketpunch
Welcome to the Austin Business Spotlight! We’ll learn about local businesses, how they got their start, and how they measure their success.
Rocket Dollar was founded in 2018 with the belief that retirement is changing. We believe that people should not be limited in their investment options as they work towards the retirement they envision for themselves. We’re here to make it safe, simple, and fast for people to take control of their retirement savings.
The Rocket Dollar team.
Rocket Dollar helps people create and manage Self-Directed IRA and 401(k) Investment Accounts. You can then use Rocket Dollar to manage investments using those accounts into any asset class permitted by the IRS. I’ve been told that Rocket Dollar even enables you to use these accounts to invest in local businesses.
I spoke with EVP Dan Kryzanowski to get a quick look at what makes Rocket Dollar tick.
What motivated the creation of Rocket Dollar?
I believe the usefulness of a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio for the individual investor has not been sufficient to achieve long term wealth since Sarbanes Oxley in the early 2000’s. For decades, institutions have used efficient tax structures to invest in private and alternative investments and Rocket Dollar’s mission is to give this same ability to the average individual investor.
– Henry Yoshida, CEO
What indicators do you use to identify client/customer success?
Referrals are king and queen. We also look at basic KPIs such as registrations, conversion, and CAC.
What’s a fond memory of overcoming an obstacle for Rocket Dollar?
Ha! Everyday is an obstacle – actually dozens of obstacles – at a startup.
Do any local businesses or individuals inspire you?
Brett Hurt, Austin Young Chamber (Alyssia Palacios-Woods, Mel Martin, and Kat Wheeler)
Where do you go for local networking?
Russell’s for a morning coffee, Trace at the W Hotel for lunches, and the Brentwood Social Club for just about everything else!
Promise Legal is part of the Texas Opportunity and Justice Incubator’s Fourth Cohort. The Texas Opportunity and Justice Incubator (TOJI) is an initiative by the State Bar of Texas to provide attorneys dedicated to bridging the justice gap with the resources necessary to succeed. TOJI also helps attorneys bake pro bono services into their practices – each member performs 10 hours of pro bono service per month. The program is 18 months long, and encourages outside-the-box thinking in terms of services, pricing, and structure.
The latest cohort has attorneys in a variety of practice areas, including business, criminal, family, and immigration law. The members rely on weekly trainings given by State Bar employees, as well as the experiences of the fellow cohort members to support their practices. From keeping websites up-to-date, to learning new areas of law, being able to ask your neighbor for help keeps the attorneys flexible in providing legal services.
The future is not predetermined. The last 75 years do not guarantee the next 75 in terms of military or diplomatic dominance.
Conflict in the “gray zones” has expanded – that mean’s undeclared conflict such as the conflict in Crimea or a cyber-conflict. And the rate at which information spreads has lent itself to the creation of a high-velocity environment.
The US Army has come to Austin and brought with it a new 4-star command: Army Futures. Army Futures Command controls a nearly $50 billion dollar budget dedicated to R&D and materials development, and that’s why they’ve come to Austin.
Deputy General Eric J Wesley said the one thing the US military is not good at is changing, and things that don’t change, die. So they wanted to come to a place where weirdness is embraced, and entrepreneurship flourishes, and hopefully have some of that spirit spread into the Army’s R&D culture. They are hoping that the Austin economy can help update the Army’s approach to technology. The days where military technology outpaces civilian technology are no more. According to Wesley, the private sector outspends the military 3-to-1 on tech.
Ironically, Army Futures Command’s arrival in Austin has brought several of the large defense contractors to town, but the traditional partners of the military are exactly the group that the Army is trying to avoid. While having more large companies come to town may be good for startups looking for partnerships, the real benefit is AFC’s commitment to the startup ecosystem.
Companies looking to get involved in the AFC ecosystem should visit the Army Applications Lab sitting at the Capital Factory. That’s the best place to determine how prepared your solution is for AFC, and what steps you need to take to make a deal happen.
I serve as the Vice President of EFF-Austin, a Texas nonprofit. EFFA has a storied history closely tied to the genesis of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Both organizations launched at roughly the same time, and out of the same event – a government entity misunderstood technology and the people behind the technology, and the following legal battle almost bankrupted the company that was targeted. A group of technology nerds came together in Austin to defend Steve Jackson games, and the movement was born. You can read more about the beginning and go down the Wikipedia rabbit hole here.
On Monday of this week (12/10/2018), I presented our legislative agenda at one of our monthly meetups. You can watch the video here to learn how you can get involved. Slides below the player.
