Austin is proving to be one of the decade’s biggest economic success stories. Experts participating at a recent Austin Chamber of Commerce event cited the city’s diverse and growing employer base, highly qualified workforce, and desirable quality of life as three factors driving its current and future prosperity.
Austin is a fantastic location for any tech company, from start-up through to hypergrowth. Without finance, a business can’t thrive, and the Texas state capital is luring venture investors in record numbers. In 2021, funding more than doubled, with $5.5 billion invested into 412 deals. And, as the number of completed transactions rises, so does the average transaction size, with the top ten deals each exceeding $100 million.
There has been a clear shift of investors away from major tech hubs such as the Bay Area and New York towards Austin, cementing Austin’s status as the country’s hottest innovation metropolis, with investment opportunities to match. Breyer Capital, 8VC, and Bedrock Capital are among the major firms establishing offices in Austin. Meanwhile, Austin-based venture capital firms like S3 Ventures are expanding their operations.
Set up in Austin and you’ll have access to a significant amount of talent due to the rise of a highly trained workforce, primarily from California, lured to the city by its economic prospects and attractive lifestyle. Unfortunately, your competitors will as well!
Let’s talk about money. Pre-seed money (also known as launch investment) is often self-funded by entrepreneurs, but this is rarely a long-term sustainable strategy. Consequently, seed funding is sought to expedite product development. Typically, venture investors supply this, when they believe in your concept, see potential, and are prepared to take calculated risks.
Founders should be gathering expertise around them at this early stage; selecting and engaging with experienced advisors to assist in laying the groundwork for rapid and sustainable growth. Because of the influx of venture capital firms into Austin, initial investment may be simpler to come by right now, so long as your pitch and operating strategy are convincing!
When pitching VC’s, you’ll have a greater chance of securing funding if you can demonstrate a properly designed growth strategy, replete with strong role profiles and hiring timetables, fit for purpose assessment processes, and an equity-backed staff retention scheme.
As you begin to scale, your workforce requirements will evolve. Whilst gradual expansion may have been manageable in the past and something the Founders could look after alongside their day jobs, once you acquire funding and shift into growth overdrive, your investors will expect you to move swiftly, bringing in the best talent at short notice. You’re going to require a hiring strategy. In fact, demonstrating that strategy will frequently be a requirement for obtaining funding in the first place.
We’ve put together a handy infographic which outlines the timeline to hire for Hypergrowth – check it out below or download here.
Let’s talk about money. Pre-seed money (also known as launch investment) is often self-funded by entrepreneurs, but this is rarely a long-term sustainable strategy. Consequently, seed funding is sought to expedite product development. Typically, venture investors supply this, when they believe in your concept, see potential, and are prepared to take calculated risks.
Founders should be gathering expertise around them at this early stage; selecting and engaging with experienced advisors to assist in laying the groundwork for rapid and sustainable growth. Because of the influx of venture capital firms into Austin, initial investment may be simpler to come by right now, so long as your pitch and operating strategy are convincing!
When pitching VC’s, you’ll have a greater chance of securing funding if you can demonstrate a properly designed growth strategy, replete with strong role profiles and hiring timetables, fit for purpose assessment processes, and an equity-backed staff retention scheme.
It’s generally accepted that the most significant causes of failure in start up’s is lack of sufficient seed capital and timely access to the right talent. Our goal at Morpheus is to assist Austin Tech Founders in overcoming these early hurdles, by ensuring you have clear plans in place to help you acquire funding. Then, once your idea is funded, our team will work with you every step of the way to ensure you execute your plan with speed and precision, assisting you in attracting, securing, and retaining the critical talent your company will require at each stage of growth.
In our experience, partnering with a human capital advisor who understands the essential growth levers for scale up’s during the pre-funding stage, improves your chances of receiving seed investment and gives your company a competitive advantage.
The right partner will enable you to pipeline, attract, and onboard the top software engineers and sales professionals in the domestic US market and beyond, putting you on the front foot when it comes to winning the war for talent.
Whatever stage of funding your business has reached, it’s critical not to lose sight of the most vital factor in every start-up’s success: timely access to talent. From product design to answering the phone, you and a small group of co-workers were in charge at first. Now, while it’s critical to have access to the right skills at every growth phase, it cannot primarily remain the responsibility of the founders, or else you risk becoming your own growth bottleneck.
In a city where talent abounds but competition for that talent is intense, partnering with an experienced talent solutions provider is a sure-fire way to ensure on demand access to the right skills. For Founders who are too preoccupied with running a rapidly expanding company to think about hiring, Morpheus provides the human capital platform you are going to need.
Whether you’re just getting started and looking for your first round of investment, or you’re ready to scale quickly, our team can help. To help obtain the finance and land the crucial talent you’ll need to make your firm a success in Austin’s vibrant economy, contact Morpheus today to schedule a discovery session on the human capital considerations you should be thinking about right now.
“Finding, selecting, and onboarding great talent is critical to a company’s success, especially for an early-stage start-up like ours, where the limits of time and money are acutely felt.
As we expanded from nine to fifty in 12-months, Morpheus has been a critical growth partner, sourcing and introducing candidates to our vision, values, and brand, whilst also providing essential onboarding to allow new team members to be productive on their first day. Their involvement has allowed us to focus our efforts on culture and nurturing the team”
Chaz Perera, Co-Founder & CEO, Roots Automation, Feb 2022
