SpiritCape, an idea conceived in Austin, TX

This guest blog article is by Daja Gegen.

For Thomas Marriott and Will Kelleher, co-founders of SpiritCape, there are two rules: always be caping and always be hustling. For a couple guys who just smashed their Kickstarter goal by 55%, took a crew of ambassadors to the Winter X-Games where their capes were rocked around Aspen, and have a ton of product options in the pipeline (not to mention almost 300 new orders to fill), these two rules could be one in the same. But “caping,” a term trademarked by the guys, is more of a lifestyle than a verb. It’s about positive energy, living life fully and “just good vibes.”

“More often than not, it’s the simplest concepts that become the best ideas,” said Marriott, SpiritCape’s CEO. It happened by accident, but he’s now in the business of creating wearable flags that allow “capers” to showcase their allegiance to their school, state (the Texas flag cape is coming soon), or most popularly, The United States of America. “I think Jobs had it right. Creativity is just connecting things.” [Read more…]

Lizzy Newsome and Trevor Yopp, Toy Joy owners

We’ve been the owners of Toy Joy for the past 5 years, and the management team for the past 7. A lot has happened, and we’ve been asked to share our story. No names, just an account of our
experiences.

There is a TL;DR at the bottom for you lazy lurkers. I know this is a long read.

My husband and I started working at Toy Joy in 2006. My first holiday season, I worked 55 hours a week. We LOVED it. The colors, the excited customers, the smell of plastic. We started at $7.50 an hour, but we didn’t care. And we were good at it. Within 1 year, we had both been promoted up to store managers, and learned a lot of amazing things about my favorite store. I was selecting the toys to put in the store, and building displays, and making the signs. Some things were odd – the owners only showed up every month or so – but it was our first experience working at a small business right out of college. We were happy being a part of Toy Joy.

Becoming Owners

Toy Joy on 29th Street – interior

In 2007, the owners approached us with the suggestion that we purchase the store. We were shocked, and concerned. We couldn’t imagine our beloved store going away. We wanted it to be there forever, an icon to wonderfully weird Austin. My husband talked me into considering it. That was all it took. Once you start putting work into getting an SBA loan, you don’t want to give up. Our families saw that we were good at our jobs and supported us. We had no idea what we were getting them into. [Read more…]

David Taylor, founder of Modern Muck

Think Austin is weird enough? If I had to write it from scratch, I’m not sure I could come up with a story that encapsulated Austin’s weirdness as well as this real life tale: a portable acupuncture business genius shares an East Austin space with a mermaid tail maker and a lollipop maker.

Their locale is painted in purple and green, resembling a quaint cottage. And Modern Muck, the acupuncture business in question, is a perfect distraction for someone like me to escape the day-to-day chaos and knots that bind each of us into our own modern day muckity-muck.

David Taylor is the crafty mastermind behind the bike-powered method of delivering Chinese medicine directly to you at your home, office or in the comfort of his East Austin location. David took a non-traditional route. His studies in science and pre-med eventually led him to his recent graduation from AOMA. With a tranquil bedside manner, David invites his patients to “relax, refocus, revitalize” by way of his innovative, mobile medicine practice. [Read more…]