Don’t Californicate Texas

Maybe too many Californians have moved to Austin, Texas? There is a popular bumper sticker in Texas that reads, “Don’t Californicate Texas”. Most of Texas has been great for business, jobs and families. Austin, as to be expected is a Democrat city, with Clinton/Sanders values. It was to be expected that at some time businesses would notice and react—before a city, region or the State turned into California. The good news is that the people of Austin now have a choice—act like San Fran or be free.

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“In a previous tweet, Maples expressed dismay about recent changes to municipal regulations for transportation network companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. and for vacation rental websites such as HomeAway Inc. and Airbnb Inc. — as well as for Texas’ continued efforts to keep Tesla Motors Inc. from opening dealerships in the Lone Star State.

“The Austin City Government is blowing it,” Maples wrote to Austin Inno, an affiliated publication of Austin Business Journal, in an email. “It’s such a tragedy, especially in light of the efforts of so many well-meaning people in the City who do everything they can to advance the cause of startups. Investors HATE uncertainty that is created by capricious government actions and it absolutely harms the ecosystem for new ideas and investment without a doubt.”

Will the people of Austin, sensing economic problems, demand city government act responsibility or act like Los Angeles—the future will be determined by the voters.

Austin’s ‘hostile’ regulations scare off California VC firm

Will Anderson, Austin Business Journal, 2/26/16

Floodgate Fund LP, a Palo Alto, California-based venture capital firm, said it will no longer invest in Austin companies that operate “on-demand” services after recent decisions by City Council.

Mike Maples, a partner at Floodgate and former Austinite, said on Twitter this week that the company has a new policy not to invest in such companies in Austin: “Local government too hostile,” he explained.

In a previous tweet, Maples expressed dismay about recent changes to municipal regulations for transportation network companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. and for vacation rental websites such as HomeAway Inc. and Airbnb Inc. — as well as for Texas’ continued efforts to keep Tesla Motors Inc. from opening dealerships in the Lone Star State.

“The Austin City Government is blowing it,” Maples wrote to Austin Inno, an affiliated publication of Austin Business Journal, in an email. “It’s such a tragedy, especially in light of the efforts of so many well-meaning people in the City who do everything they can to advance the cause of startups. Investors HATE uncertainty that is created by capricious government actions and it absolutely harms the ecosystem for new ideas and investment without a doubt.”

“At least from an external perspective, like Mike was pointing out, it just starts to look like Austin’s hostile toward the sharing economy and general innovation. And that’s just a bad rap to have,” Joshua Baer, executive director of downtown Austin startup incubator Capital Factory, told Austin Inno. “If we’re turning away one of our biggest supporters and making people feel from outside of Austin that this is not a place where you can innovate and not a place where unique businesses are welcome and not a place where we’re going to see that type of growth in the future, that’s really bad for us.”