Founder Shield’s SXSWi 2015 Recap

Now that the dust has settled from this year’s SXSW Interactive weekend in Austin and we’re back in the big Apple, we wanted to share some of the highlights of our weekend with you.  Founder Shield’s VP of Sales, Jeff Samuels, recaps what went down:

SXSW Interactive was an absolute blast for the Founder Shield & Interplay team! AirBnB-ing a sweet ranch-style local family house on east 3rd street made for a mix of Spring Break meets innovation with top notch entrepreneurs letting loose. AirBnB was definitely the move, giving us out-of-towners a feel of the often bizarre and eclectic local lifestyle.

Founder Shield hosted 2 RECHARGE events Friday and Saturday along with co-sponsors Priori Legal, FastPay, and Nomad Financial.  The Founder Shield team got to hang with some of our favorite clients, new faces and awesome companies with no shortage of solid conversation and cold beer. Big thanks to everyone who came through and we look forward to hosting you next year!

Some of our favorite events at SXSWi included: 

TechSet with PayPal & Mondelez – beautiful rooftop party with some live local rock bands & djs, C-level ad execs, and Austin brews made this party the perfect start to the week.

Austin Chamber of Commerce @ Julio’s – solid mix of local business and young startups discussing ways to innovate within Banking, Insurance, PEO’s, Retail, and more! Awesome photo both and topnotch margaritas compliments of Don Julio.

Splash & General Assembly Lunar Party – WOAH. Celebrating a fresh $6M raise and the start of a big weekend the Splash party was definitely a wild one Friday night. Good music, cool art installations outside, patron, and some serious dance offs.

Olapic & MeUndies party @ Brixton – great day party with awesome eCommerce-focused companies letting loose and handing out some party essentials ….Undies!

Of course we attended some panels too and we enjoyed watching the Capital Factory pitch competition.

Food was another obvious highlight:

Las Trancas – local Tex-Mex joint right down the street from our house.. we probably ate this at least twice a day.

Cenote & JuJu Juice Bar – what become our favorite place to relax with a coffee, delicious salads, and fresh juice. Good for a bit of Austin people-watching.

The Beef Cake Shop – late night sliders of Rainey street, dangerous & delicious!

Porter Ale House and Gastropub – probably our favorite of the weekend. Oxtail croquets, truffle popcorn, krispy kale & beet salads, world famous perogies, and to die for porter-house burgers. Hard to move after that one!

Iron Works – the Founder Shield team capped the week off with “brunch” at IronWorks. A bit heavy to eat before 12 but holy cow that was good!

That’s our quick recap of some of the awesome stuff we had a chance to be a part of this past weekend.  Thanks to everyone that made the weekend great and we’re looking forward to SXSWi 2016!