As Richard Branson roamed floor to floor on a tour of startup accelerator Capital Factory in downtown Austin Thursday morning, a small gaggle of local founders trailed along, snapping pictures and hoping for a few minutes with the iconic founder of Virgin Group.
A select few got a little face time, including Jason Ballard, CEO of Austin-based 3D home printing startup Icon Technology Inc.
"Richard is one of the world's great living entrepreneurs and a generous person," he said, describing his 10-minute sit down chat with Branson.
"No surprise, he was especially excited about the work we're doing with the homeless and the very poor and addressing the global housing crisis," he said. "We chatted about the moon base and other work for a minute. But he was most interested in [homelessness], which is wonderful because that's the reason our company exists. We exchanged information, and we'll kind of see where it leads. But it's lovely just to have him give us a few thoughts and insights on our business, and remind us of the most important work we have going on."
Fresh off of announcing a nonstop Virgin Atlantic flight from Austin to London, Branson dove into Austin's startup scene on Thursday morning.
And he apparently liked what he saw.
"After Covid, to be coming to Austin, which is this city of entrepreneurs, here we are in the palace of entrepreneurism, you don't know how great it makes us feel," he told a roomful of local business leaders and emerging entrepreneurs.
Branson, flanked by a team wearing Virgin's flight attendant uniforms, also discussed why Virgin chose Austin for flights to London.
"I suspect that 75% of our business will actually be ... Austinites actually going to London and to Europe," he said. "Austin is also an undiscovered city for people from Europe. I was up at 5 this morning and did an hour and a half down the river, and it's beautiful. I haven't explored Austin completely, but it has a hell of a lot to offer and I think it will surprise people, whether it's the music, or the art or business. There seems to be an awful lot that Austin has to offer."
Capital Factory founder Josh Baer said Branson's visit to Capital Factory came up organically, with Virgin's team reaching out to the accelerator for the London flight announcement, which grew into a tour of the accelerator's four floors — a tour similar to ones that have been taken by luminaries, including Apple's Tim Cook, Microsoft's Satya Nadella and then-President Barack Obama.
"The whole reason we do this really is just to create opportunities for the startups," Baer said.
That included setting up the sit-down chat with Icon, as well as an elevator pitch, which was actually in an elevator, for Will Edwards, co-founder and CEO of local 3D-printed rocket engine company Firehawk Aerospace.
Meanwhile, by coincidence, renowned researcher and thought leader Brené Brown was touring Capital Factory with a group of high school and college students, and she also connected with Branson for a brief conversation.
During a panel discussion later in the morning, Branson recounted a story where he was sitting around a campfire in Africa when a woman wearing a dazzling garment told him that she needed a $100 loan to buy a sewing machine and that she could pay him back once she began selling them.
Branson joked that, like the Queen of England, he rarely carries money with him. But he happened to have $100 and gave it to her. He quickly forgot about it. Then, a few months later, he was back in Africa and reconnected with her and got his money back, plus a beautiful robe. It was an anecdote to highlight his belief in providing micro loans or funding to emerging entrepreneurs.
"So $100 had created four jobs," he said. "This was before microloans got going, and it taught me how important microloans are and what a difference they can make – and how incredibly small amounts of money can make an enormously big difference in some countries."
Branson noted his own journey began when his mom found a necklace, turned it into police and later got 100 pounds, which she gave to her son. Branson used that money to start making sales calls to launch his magazine at age 16.
That has led to Virgin Startup Loans, and Branson noted that one of those tiny loans, about 500 pounds, went to Matt Doyle, the founder of Array, which makes a no-code solution to help people build apps and software. After its start in London, Array has moved to Austin, raised additional funding and joined Capital Factory.
"He's built his business and managed to come to Austin and raised money here," Branson said. "...From little acorns, oak trees can grow."
