Amos Schwartzfarb could still be out in California teaching people how to climb mountains. Or he could still be out East helping companies manage sales. But he's not. Instead, he's at the epicenter of Austin's startup scene as the new managing director of Techstars Austin, helping entrepreneurs take their ideas to the next level.
Flashback to 1997. Schwartzfarb was a young mountain climbing instructor who loved scrabbling up giant rock walls and taking on new physical challenges. He had no concept of what a startup is when a friend introduced him to a fellow rock climber who was running a climbing gear business out of his garage in the Bay Area. And Schwartzfarb, who isn't even sure he had an email address at the time, had a friend who was into building websites.
"I wasn't on a quest to be an entrepreneur," he said. "I was really just a kid who liked to rock climb."
Schwartzfarb packed boxes and helped manage the garage-based startup, Shoreline Mountain Products. It later sold to Mountain Gear, a well-established company with international reach. At the time, Schwartzfarb didn't know how an exit like that worked, and he didn't have equity in the company to benefit from the acquisition.
But it wouldn't be Schwartzfarb's last startup. He started working with a New York-based ad agency. After the agency wrapped up a TV commercial, he and the team went out to have a few drinks to celebrate.
"I think I aspire for adventure and for exciting things," he said. "I looked for it in rock climbing, and I look for it in the business world, too."
"There was this guy sitting at the bar by himself," Schwartzfarb said. "He seemed like a friendly guy, so I said 'hey, why don't you come over and have a drink with us.'"
Sometimes those little connections pay off in big ways.
That guy drinking at the bar by himself was the co-founder of a company called Hot Jobs, an early web-based job site that has been acquired a couple times over. The two stayed in touch and the co-founder convinced Schwartzfarb to work with him in a sales role. Shortly after, the company went public and Schwartzfarb found himself opening an office in Los Angeles.
Then, boom, the company got acquired by Yahoo.
"I had some equity in that," he said. "Not enough to change my life." But the larger lesson he learned about himself was that he didn't want to be part of a giant company. He wanted to have a meaningful role in building something -- he wanted to see his impact and build something.
While in L.A., Schwartzfarb joined a morning cycling group. The riders didn't really talk much. But one day he struck up a conversation with a guy who happened to be the founder of Business.com. A few chats later, Schwartzfarb joined the team and launched Work.com as part of Business.com. The company had a big exit in 2007.
Finally, he and his wife found their way to Austin to work on other ventures. In 2012, he met Rob Taylor, who was building a new company called BlackLocus, which grew quickly and was acquired by Home Depot. That put Schwartzfarb on track to join Joust Inc., which created a platform for social competitions.
Schwartzfarb, now 42 years old, says a lot of what got his career going -- and what kept it growing -- was luck and being in the right places at the right times. But he said he's always had a drive to take on challenges and doesn't hesitate about chasing the things he wants.
"I think I aspire for adventure and for exciting things," he said. "I looked for it in rock climbing, and I look for it in the business world, too."
