BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 16, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW // BG Podcast EP. 128: Talking Tech Flight and Austin with Kleiner Perkins Investor Haomiao Huang, PhD.
Today’s episode features Kleiner Perkins Investor Haomiao Huang, PhD. With all the recent and continued media hype around tech flight to Austin (and Miami), we wanted to get on the ground perspective from Sand Hill Road. As a bonus, Haomiao grew up in Austin (he and Bingham Group CEO A.J. attended the same high school - Go Jags!). Haomiao also discusses his path into the venture capital world, and thoughts on being a good investor.
You can listen to this episode and previous ones on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.. Please like, link, comment and subscribe!
CITY OF AUSTIN
The city of Austin has announced the cancellation of meetings and operations today and tomorrow, except for essential public safety services, including those related to winter weather response.
All Travis County offices and facilities will be closed today with the exception of essential emergency staff. The Commissioners Court meeting will be rescheduled for a later date when weather allows, according to a news release from the county.
The Austin City Council’s February 18th meeting is still posted to meet as of this email. Austin City Council Regular Meeting Agenda.
THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (2,161)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Winter weather shuts down the city (Austin Monitor)
The storm that brought Austin to a standstill continues to impact city operations this week. Services are closed across the city due to extreme weather with an expectation that more winter is on the way.
City officials announced Monday that all city operations, save essential services, would be shut down on Tuesday and Wednesday. All city meetings on those days are canceled as is today’s Travis County Commissioners Court meeting.
The state of Texas, Travis County and Austin have all issued disaster declarations due to the extreme winter weather. All flights scheduled for arrival or departure today at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport have been canceled.
“The winter weather conditions we are experiencing are serious and can be deadly if we don’t all take precautions,” Travis County Judge Andy Brown said. “We encourage everyone to seek shelter and stay off the roads unless it is an emergency.”
Throughout the day, city officials reiterated pleas to stay home and urged those who still had power to conserve it. Some 189,000 homes in Austin were without power all of Monday and going into Tuesday after mandatory rolling blackouts cut off power to all circuits in the city that did not support critical infrastructure like fire stations or hospitals. Statewide, more than 2 million Texans were without power Monday.
At a press conference, Austin Energy General Manager Jackie Sargent urged the city to “come together as a community and help each other during this very unprecedented time.”
“We take direction from (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas), and the things that we do are helping to strengthen and maintain the Texas grid,” Sargent said. “Hopefully, we can work together and reduce demand enough so that we can get power back on to our customers.”
The dangerous winter storm that brought icy roads, dumped snow and caused power outages throughout the state also led to an outage at the city’s data center, according to Communications and Technology Management spokeswoman Kate Wilson.
As a result of that outage, which lasted from early morning until about 3 p.m. Monday, the city’s website was down and Austinites were unable to reach anyone at 311.
Wilson explained that the city information hotline and the website are connected, with both using the same VPN, or virtual private network. That network allows city employees to log in safely and access city documents as well as respond to 311 calls.
Wilson said she did not know whether the data center power outage was a result of a request from ERCOT, which has control over the state’s electric grid, or some other reason. But as a result, city officials had to provide a gas-powered generator for the data center. The generator, which is likely running on diesel fuel, will continue to power the data center until the outage is over. That is unlikely to happen before late Tuesday or Wednesday.
Though the city has set up warming centers for those who need shelter, officials repeatedly cautioned residents not to leave their homes unless it was necessary. The city has set up a hotline at 512-305-4233 for those looking for information about the shelters, and advised those in need of food to call 211.
Throughout the week, the city will continue disseminating information directly through Twitter and other social media channels… (LINK TO STORY)
20 nominated for new Austin Economic Development Corporation (Austin Business Journal)
Austin will soon fill its board for the new Austin Economic Development Corporation.
Austin City Council approved the creation of the AEDC in October following years of discussion over forming a new player in the economic development scene. City staff have been leading the AEDC in the interim, and Council will consider nominations for the board at its Feb. 18 meeting.
The AEDC is coming online as businesses continue to push through nearly a year of obstacles brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, along with longtime issues, such as affordability, that have only been exacerbated.
The group will act as a local government corporation and will take on projects that further any governmental purpose, from real estate development to homelessness-related efforts. According its articles of incorporation, the AEDC could help the city with development, acquisition, ownership and operation of community development and affordable housing projects; promotion of employment and economic development; and promotion and maintenance of both for-profit and nonprofit creative and cultural venues.
Austin Chief Economic Recovery Officer Veronica Briseño, also acting president and CEO of the AEDC, previously told ABJ that Council will have a contracted agreement each year with the AEDC on what efforts should be prioritized.
Here's who's nominated for the board:
Rosie Truelove, director of Austin's Neighborhood Housing and Planning Department (Truelove is also nominated as chair of the AEDC)
Sylnovia Holt-Rabb, acting director of Austin's Economic Development Department
Kellee Coleman, business process consultant at Austin's Equity Office
Ed Van Eenoo, CFO for city of Austin
Jaime Castillo, independent curator and chair of the city's Arts Commission
Emmett Beliveau, COO of concert promoter C3 Presents
Bradford Patterson, director of the Community Heritage Development Division of the Texas Historical Commission
Xavier Peña, executive vice president and general counsel at the St. David's Foundation
Awais Azhar, Ph.D. student and teaching assistant at University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture
Diana Maldonado, president and CEO of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Jeremy Martin, senior vice president of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce
David Steinwedell, president and CEO of Affordable Central Texas
Stephen Levy, president and founder of design firm LEVY
Sharmila Mukherjee, executive vice president of planning and development at Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Tamara Atkinson, CEO of Workforce Solutions Capital Area Workforce Board
Molly Beth Malcolm, executive vice president of campus operations and public affairs at Austin Community College
Suchitra Gururaj, assistant vice president for community engagement at University of Texas at Austin's division of diversity and community engagement
Matias Segura, operations officer at Austin Independent School District
Char Hu, CEO and founder of The Helper Bees
Cathy McHorse, vice president of United Way for Greater Austin
The AEDC is also expected to work in tandem with other economic arms in the community, such as the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce… (LINK TO STORY)
UpEquity raises $25M in equity, debt to facilitate all-cash home offers (AustinInno)
Austin-based real estate mortgage software startup UpEquity has a fresh $25 million in the bank.
The company announced Feb. 11 a $25M series A funding round led by local VC firm Next Coast Ventures, which includes $7.5M million in equity and $17.5 million in venture debt.
The startup is led by co-founders Tim Herman and Louis Wilson, who got the idea while attending Harvard Business School. The startup helps homebuyers make all-cash offers and automates underwriting using computer vision. The company said it originated $100 million in mortgages last year and is active in Texas, Colorado, Florida and California. It went through the Y Combinator accelerator in 2019.
"Our goal is to finally align the mortgage industry with consumer interests,” Herman, who is CEO, said in a statement. “This funding is validation that consumers, real estate agents and venture investors understand the power of removing friction from the homebuying process, not only for personal advancement, but to attain the American Dream.”
UpEquity said it will use the money on business development "with market-leading real estate agents" and on product development. The company said it wants to get its time-to-close down to 10 days. Traditional mortgage approvals can take around 30 to 40 days, depending on the appraisal process.
According to TechCrunch, UpEquity charges 2.5% for the loans it makes to homebuyers in order to make all-cash offers. Homeowners then pay UpEquity directly to pay off the mortgage. The company has done 300 deals so far — only two have failed, TechCrunch reported… (LINK TO STORY)
Emergency crews flooded with medical calls, reports of hundreds of broken water pipes (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin and Travis County area first emergency workers say they are being flooded with calls requesting medical services and reporting broken water pipes amid severe winter weather in the region.
Captain Darren Noak, a spokesman for Austin-Travis County EMS, said the emergency crews have received more than 1,200 calls for service as of 9:30 p.m.
"I've been here 25 years and this is the busiest," Noak said. "I've never seen calls over 1,200. On a busy day with a special event, 500 or 600, maybe. We're keeping busy, that's for sure."
While medics continue to respond to medical emergencies, the Austin Fire Department said they were getting an overwhelming number of calls about broken water pipes.
Austin Fire Department Division Chief Thayer Smith said officials have received more than 580 reports of broken water pipes since midnight, adding that many of the calls are from apartment complexes.
"We're trying to assist as fast as we can on the broken water pipes," he said.
Austin fire officials also said they have responded to three fires that started around a fireplace. One of the fires at an apartment building on 6607 Brodie Lane displaced the residents of 20 units… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin airport traffic fell nearly 63% in 2020, breaking decade-long streak of record travel (Austin Business Journal)
Travel in and out of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport remained low through the end of 2020 because of the pandemic, depressing traffic to levels not seen since the airport opened in 1999.
Traffic was down 62.7% last year with 6,472,579 total passengers, compared with 2019's record-setting 17,343,729 passengers, according to airport data released Feb. 11. The low figures also broke a 10-year streak of traffic increasing at ABIA — a sobering indication of how business and leisure travel cratered during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But, there seems to be some optimism that travel may soon pick up in Austin. Earlier this month, Allegiant Air announced it was adding nonstop flights to Bozeman, Montana — about 90 miles from Yellowstone National Park — and Bentonville, Arkansas, starting this summer. And nonstop flights to Hawaii will take off in April, marking Hawaiian Airlines Inc.'s first connection to Texas.
Air cargo numbers actually grew by 20% last year, largely from cargo operations by Amazon Air that began early last year, according to an announcement. The airport recorded more than 220 million pounds of air cargo in 2020.
“Growth in AUS air cargo operations reflects demand for e-commerce goods and pandemic response necessities,” Gina Fiandaca, assistant city manager over mobility, said in a statement. “These cargo numbers also reflect Austin’s strong economy, the resiliency of our community, and the airport’s ability to support continued growth in this area.”… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas power outages: How the largest energy-producing state in the US failed in freezing temperatures (WFAA)
Many Texans are rightfully asking why the largest energy producing state in the country cannot produce enough energy to get through a week of below-freezing temperatures.
So, what happened? Equipment failure turned out to be a big part of the problem.
"Beginning around 11:00 p.m. [Sunday night], multiple generating units began tripping off-line in rapid progression due to the severe cold weather," said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at ERCOT, the organization that manages the state’s electric grid.
What does that mean? Equipment literally froze in the single digit temperatures and stopped working.
Then, as reserves diminished, ERCOT asked transmission providers to turn off large industrial users that had previously agreed to be shut down. But the situation deteriorated quickly, requiring rotating outages that have lasted hours for many Texans.
Electric generating plants did not properly winterize their equipment, said Dr. David Tuttle in the latest episode of the Y’all-itics political podcast. Tuttle is a research associate with the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
"There are things that can be done, but it will cost some money," he added. "About every decade we have these long-sustained periods. And then, you know weatherization is supposed to happen, and then, it doesn't because it costs money."
ERCOT said almost 34,000 megawatts of electricity has been forced off the system. On average, a single megawatt can power about 500 homes.
This isn’t the first time that weatherization has been an issue with equipment failure and rotating outages in Texas.
In August 2011, six months after an ice storm crippled much of the state and resulted in rotating outages, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation issued a report with recommendations.
"Generators and natural gas producers suffered severe losses of capacity despite having received accurate forecasts of the storm," the report states. "Entities in both categories report having winterization procedures in place. However, the poor performance of many of these generating units and wells suggests that these procedures were either inadequate or were not adequately followed."… (LINK TO STORY)