How the Austin Chamber's A-List supports innovation

Posted on 05/17/2019 by Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce

Austin is home to a creative and innovative ecosystem that has many different layers. We have entrepreneurs, startups, growing companies, and tech giants. We are home to the Army Futures Command, cybersecurity firms, transportation technology, life sciences and health tech, and companies innovating in film, gaming, music, food, and consumer packaged goods.

Our diverse companies, and the people who make them successful, is what makes our economy and start-up ecosystem durable. There is also a common thread across Austin’s start-up community that cannot be fully understood or known until you experience it yourself.

This is an environment where people are looking to enhance and augment ideas. If you do business in Austin, you are going to find people who want to help you find success no matter what sector your company is in or how many people are working to achieve their dreams.

At the Austin Chamber, we strive to nurture our collaborative community through our highly-focused global technology and innovation program that aims to attract capital investment into the Austin region.

Growing local access to capital will help ensure a healthy capital supply base, which will help grow more startup and mid-stage companies into large company headquarters. We support these companies by working to provide job opportunities and paths to prosperity for people in the region.

As part of our innovation efforts, we honor our region’s most groundbreaking homegrown companies at our annual A-List Awards put on in partnership with SXSW. This year, 35 active funders and leaders in the Austin region evaluated 165 nominees on leadership, innovation, achievability, sustainability and growth.

Though the task of selecting our 2019 winners was difficult, we are proud of our track record of helping bring recognition to innovative companies like Cece’s Veggie Co.

Cece’s Veggie Co., a local food manufacturing company carrying a full line of reinvented veggie products, was named a 2018 Austin A-List winner. Cece’s commented that being named an Austin A-List winner provided a morale and confidence boost to its entire team, while also affording an opportunity to celebrate Austin's booming startup scene with other similarly sized start-ups like fellow winners, Rhythm Superfoods and Austin Eastciders.

Over the past year, Cece’s has continued to innovate and grow. It debuted a new product line that is the first of its kind, Organic Butternut Shells & Cheese, and as of November 2018, it expanded to national distribution with fellow Austin-based company Whole Foods Market. Cece’s also welcomed former Whole Foods Co-CEO Walter Robb as an investor and advisor to the company. The company continues to dream up new ways to reinvent vegetables, with several new product lines set to hit retail shelves in 2019.

Cece’s success story is both uniquely Austin and representative of the success achievable within our city’s start-up community.

Our May 23rd A-List Awards, an evening celebration at ACL Live at Moody Theater, will kick off a year-round campaign to increase visibility for some of the stand-out companies that make Austin’s culture unique, open, diverse, and collaborative. This event honoring the homegrown companies leading Austin’s business community is open to the public. Tickets are available online.


Related Categories: Innovate Austin