making the virtual real

Great observation(s) Brad and Sean. I am in Austin too and I can vouch that the entrepreneurial spirit here is alive and well -- venture folks are certainly not leading it, let alone visible.

Given what we all saw at SXSW (e.g. BarCamp, as an example), the tools and people are in creative communities like Austin. It is now much more about whether you can attract/serve/retain customers. (This just in: it has ALWAYS been about the customer!)

As long as the community is open to collaboration/partnering, VCs/Investment $$$ aren't necessarily needed. In fact, in my case, the ROI for pursuing them doesn't warrant taking my eye off of serving the customers I have queued up. Now, we all could use more seed/Angel investors and if anyone knows a great Ruby/Flex/PHP developer...

Good luck to everyone and I hope you had a great time in Austin.

James