Case Study
From Tumbleweeds to Tech Hub
Austin, Texas
The Challenge
Investors outside of the market stipulated that the deal flow wasn’t strong enough nor the entrepreneurs seasoned enough to warrant a deeper investment. Thankfully, the city possessed a positive business culture. Still, there remained a significant disconnect between tech leaders who lamented about the lack of technically-skilled talent, and the city’s institutional leaders who claimed that the tech sector couldn’t possibly have trouble recruiting — Austin was a university town after all.
It was clear that to lay the foundation for the next big boom, city leaders had a lot to do: connect the technical talent gaps and position the city to external audiences as a market ripe with investment and entrepreneurial activity.
Oct 12, 2018
Austin is a tech hot spot. It wasn’t always this way.
The Ask
The Austin Technology Council, an industry organization created in 1992 to accelerate tech growth, needed to evolve quickly and prove to the market that there was an existing technology ecosystem. In 2009, Julie Huls conducted the first economic impact study for technology and found the sector contributed $21 billion annually—a game-changer for a town that had been characterized by outsiders as “tumbleweeds in the streets.” With new bragging rights in hand, city stakeholders set out to dig deeper and invest more in positioning the City around this sector’s growth and success. No one in 2009 imagined that Austin was on its way in the coming decade to becoming recognized as one of the nation’s most competitive technology hubs.
The Approach
1. Assess market strengths.
Quantifying the economic impact of Austin’s existing technology and innovation occupations repositioned the market’s understanding of its worth. While it was historically accurate to only count the “IT Sector” for impact, in Austin, we used a cross-sector approach to give us a more comprehensive understanding.
2. Seek critical insight.
By gathering innovation and technology leaders we created the necessary industry connectivity that helped us validate how we were defining tech for Austin. The definition of tech varies from city to city and is dependent upon which and how many digital skills are required in those industries and occupations.
3. Develop a bold plan.
Julie’s strategic plan included measures to strengthen specific tech talent attraction efforts, forge partnerships with regional educational institutions and support local entrepreneurs through leadership events. With an aggressive external media strategy and greater industry engagement in regional economic development initiatives, Austin leveraged the creative industries to strengthen the Austin tech brand with external candidates.
4. Prioritize strategic partnerships.
Julie forged a first-ever partnership with the City of Austin that resulted in a deeper understanding of the industry’s accelerated demand for digital talent and expanded access to diverse, locally-trained talent. As companies came to understand timing challenges with pipeline development, their hiring prerequisites were relaxed, bolstering diversity and inclusion and helping to meet rigorous demand.
5. Reposition for talent.
South By Southwest, Austin City Limits and Formula One all played an integral role in branding Austin as an innovative city. Partnering with SXSW allowed local tech companies exposure to sought-after east and west Coast investors, and positioned Austin as a tech-centric market to global attendees.
The Impact
Far from the cries of tumbleweed, Austin has leveraged its forty-year head start, elbow grease and vision from dozens of regional leaders, and $50M (a little known fact) to solidify its place on the technology and innovation map. The question for the market now is: where to next?
Austin population, 2008
Austin population, 2018
From 2011-2016, the Austin Metro area saw an increase in GDP of 34.7 percent, the second largest in the nation and outpacing the national average by a multitude of 3x.
•••••
In 2013, technology was driving $21B into the Austin economy and supporting one-third of local jobs. By 2017, economic impact neared $30B.
Dec. 4, 2019
Report: Austin No. 1 “Tech Town” — up from No. 3
Nov. 22, 2019
Austin’s unstoppable tech sector explodes with 10,000 new jobs in just 2 years.
July 6, 2019
Silicon Valley tech talent is flocking to Austin, Texas, trading sky-high rent costs for live music and a newer tech scene.
May 31, 2019
Is Austin, Texas, The Best City In America?
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