Lola Savannah

Back in the arena: the beginning of data.world

It has been a long time since I wrote anything on my Lucky7 blog and there is good reason for that.  Back in June, I started to brainstorm my next big idea with long-time friends Jon Loyens and Matt Laessig (both of whom were amazing at Bazaarvoice and had moved on to HomeAway).  Bryon Jacob (a 10-year veteran at HomeAway) soon got involved as an idea he had been thinking about was better than anything we came up with and one thing led to another until we founded data.world.

It may feel curious to my regular readers that I would jump back into the arena as the CEO of a company built from scratch.  After all, our investments in startups and venture capital funds have been performing well, including a recent exit with Deep Eddy Vodka being acquired (and us subsequently investing in Clayton Christopher’s VC fund, CAVU).  There are many factors that led to this calling for me:

What Hurt+Harbach learned at Lola Savannah, and our next three events

What Hurt+Harbach learned at Lola Savannah, and our next three events

August 27th is a day that Jeff and I will never forget. We spent the evening with many of Austin's best entrepreneurs at the perfect communual venue - Lola Savannah. Together, we began mapping out the future of Hurt+Harbach, and the Austin entrepreneurial scene. We intended to keep the event small - at around 50 people - but hummingbirds can't be stopped and around 125 showed with just a few days notice. All throughout Lola Savannah, boards were displayed with provocative questions and answers were gathered via post-it notes. The awesome Stacy Weitzner, Creative Director of Sunni Brown, Ink, created a mural in real-time in the back to visually represent and memorialize it. It was a happening scene, and it was both humbling and energizing to be a part of it all. The beginning of something really great.

Announcing Hurt+Harbach

I'm very proud to announce Hurt+Harbach, a seed-stage venture capital firm focused primarily on Austin investments.

I've enjoyed working at Austin Ventures since November of last year. I've had a long partnership with the good people there, dating back to August of 2005, when the firm invested in our Series A at Bazaarvoice and Chris Pacitti joined our Board of Directors. My last day at Austin Ventures was August 15.

I'm an entrepreneur, after all. I discovered that I really enjoy being a VC. Helping entrepreneurs is the next phase of my career, and this is a natural evolution for me. Co-founding a new venture capital firm is the ideal way to express my passion for building extraordinary companies.

Lola Savannah is the Buck's of Woodside in Austin

Lola Savannah is the Buck's of Woodside in Austin

The most widely shared Lucky7 post that I wrote last month was on the state of the tech entrepreneurship scene in Austin. But I realize now I was missing an important mention.

Back when Debra and I lived in San Francisco, there was a very famous place off the beaten path named Buck's of Woodside. It is a hook-up spot for investors and entrepreneurs. Many large businesses you know today credit Buck's to being one of the conduits to their founding or initial fundraising and Board of Directors formation. I won't give away the tales, but I encourage you to buy the founder's, Jamis MacNiven's, book, Breakfast at Buck's: Tales from the Pancake Guy. It is a fun romp through a slice of insider Silicon Valley history. Jamis is a regular TED attendee andhis blog is fun too. He's seen a lot over the years.