Today we’d like to introduce you to CS Freeland.
CS, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I first had the idea for a startup investors club backed when I launched and operated a concept called Founder House. As a response to onset of the pandemic, I had the idea to partner with my mentor, Ying McGuire, who owns a boutique hotel we used to organize a luxury short-term co-living place for startup founders and business professionals. In the beginning, the majority of residents were locals, but by the time the concept grew and moved into other locations also around downtown, I started noticing the sheer influx of new startup investors who had an interest in Founder House and also wanted to get connected into the local startup and venture scene.
I quickly realized summer of last year that we could have an entire organization dedicated to supporting VCs and other professionals in the greater venture community when we’ve never really had a need like this before. In 2020 Austin had less than 20 venture firms that considered Austin as their headquarters– we’re now seeing that number is over 70 just two years later. Then just in time for SXSW 2022, I started to put together the Austin Venture Association’s Venture Directory, when I realized that within a time span of about a year, now the majority of VCs here are actually new and the minority are folks who have been here before the pandemic. Another wild number I realized was that we have now over 160 “greater venture” organizations including: venture capital firms, accelerators, university incubator programs, angel groups, venture studios, growth & private equity, etc. Basically, the full spectrum of firms are represented and there are likely more that we don’t know about and/or we just haven’t had a chance to update on the directory.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
No real struggles though it’s only something built up within the last 6 months. It was hard to plan for SXSW I would say. So many people were just waiting to see what others would do, and then everyone bought tickets right before and decided to visit. We got inundated last minute at our Investor Reception event hosted during the first Saturday of SXSW. It was well-received though, and actually overcrowded at times since it got very popular.
We’re starting to see what I believe is a right-sizing and contraction in the startup/venture scene, in addition to and partly because of larger shifts in the market at play. I believe this will be a more challenging time, but really anything would be more challenging than the last couple of months/year of easy growth. We’ll see how things shake out.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I’m known for being a young(ish now!) serial entrepreneur. I’ve spent the majority of my career in the last decade at a venture studio supporting a small team of lifetime tech entrepreneurs/executives and the portfolio of early-stage companies. Some I’ve helped with GTM plans, and I’ve also launched a few concepts of my own. Whether it was restaurant coworking, direct-to-consumer local CPG, startup founder house, or now the Austin Venture Association, a common thread through everything I’ve done is supporting entrepreneurs. I’m very familiar– actually have only worked in my career building something new and different. I love, deeply respect, and thrive in work that requires ingenuity, creativity, velocity, and hustle to bring something to life.
What does success mean to you?
I define success as working hard on something that matters to me while learning a lot and using my strengths to create something that helps people and/or brings people joy. On a deeper level, I like to bring to life solutions that people never have never thought of, or quickly solve a problem that people haven’t even been aware of or properly identified. This is my personal forte.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.csfreeland.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cs_freeland/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christa.freeland/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/christafreeland
Image Credits
Photo by Stanley Steril (the last one in front of the red backdrop)
