CRACKING THE AUSTIN FORMULA

Second-term Austin mayor Steve Adler offers his advice for other cities looking to discover their juju.

Create an Atmosphere Talent Is Drawn To

“Many of the kinds of people companies want to hire want to live in Austin. It’s pretty nice here. But beyond that, it’s a progressive city that leads on immigration and refugee protection, LGBTQ rights, and climate change mitigation. A lot of people see that it’s a place that matches their values.”

Be Authentic to Your Roots

“Our identity goes back to the ‘Keep Austin Weird’ idea. When Willie Nelson was trying to reinvent country music, he came to Austin for that. The civic heroes here are the people who try something, learn, iterate, try, learn, iterate. And that is also, coincidentally, the formula for startups.”

Make Entrepreneurs Constructive Members of the Community

“I talk to a lot of folks who have come from Silicon Valley, and a year into their being here, I ask them to tell me how it’s going. Three-quarters of the time, I get something like, ‘When I came here, people starting opening up their Rolodexes to help me, and I couldn’t believe that was happening—it was so foreign. I was suspicious of the names they were giving me, and eight months later, I’m now doing it for other people.’ That’s a real phenomenon here.”