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Launching Austin! - PnR Monthly
Dorothy Chau & Kat O’Brien
February 02, 2024
Pitch and Run catches up with Austin Byrd.
News On the Pitch Front
Product News
🥣 Our very own Sophie, Art of Broth Chief Executive, was featured in LA Times. You can preorder here! Can we break her Shopify site with Pitch n Run traffic?
🎙️Niki was featured on the Women In Tech California podcast. As an integral part of PnR and now leading PnR LA, her journey continues to grow in unimaginable ways.
💫 Spencer breaks down whether joining an accelerator is the move for your startup in an interview with Pitch Hackerz!
🎤John Gannon & Nihal were featured on the first ever V5 Summit pannel.
Other News
🚨 PnR crossed seas to Barcelona with Kat & Eve!
5 language speakers, 1 run!
🚨 Matt Plourde is running the Austin Marathon on Feb 18th! He has 2 weeks to raise $1,700 to make it $7,000 in total. Please share and contribute what you can!
🚨 Sid’s gym PnR exclusive code PITCHIT for your first class! Join us every Wednesday morning 9am 🌝
🚀 PnR IN A CITY NEAR YOU
[ASAP] Just launched an Austin, TX chapter
[FEB 27] Greenville, SC - meet @ 5:30pm in front of Spill the Beans
[FEB 28] Columbia, SC - meet @ 6:45am in front of the Boyd Innovation Center(BIC)
[FEB 29] Atlanta, GA - meet @ 6:30am in front of Atlanta Tech Village
NYC Racers - join the whatsapp
[Mar 17] NYC United half
[May 18] BK half
Highlight: Pitch n Runner Austin Byrd
How did you learn about/get involved with Pitch and Run?
I started in November of 2020 after seeing Nihal retweet the newly created Pitch and Run twitter account! I pretty much became a regular (in NYC) until I moved to Chicago.
Tell us about your NYC ties/life/connections.
I moved to NYC in 2017 to work in banking (AKA I had no idea what I wanted to do). I got an interest in tech around 2019 and got a job in venture capital in 2020, right before I joined pitch and run. Through Pitch and Run I have made many many close friends and also got connected to my current job at Squire!
What are some favorite memories from Pitch and Run or favorite things you’ve gained from PnR?
I have so many. Early on in Pitch and Run we would do some long runs (10+ miles), those were always so much fun. Once the crew started to grow it was insane seeing our first 100+ person day before the ‘22 NYC marathon, which I did with 10+ people from PnR!
Really the best part of the group is being with a bunch of ambitious people and seeing their accomplishments and getting to support them as well. If someone had a big event you can count on a crew from PnR to show up to support!
What do you do for work? Tell us about your company/role?
I work at a series D fintech company called Squire doing strategic finance. Squire is a platform for barbershops, we make all the software a barbershop will need and process their payments as well. More specifically my role is finance, operations, and data. We’re a fintech company so a lot of our data is through financial transactions which allows for quite a bit of data (and financial) analysis.
What took you from NYC? 😢 Things you miss about NYC? Things you especially like in Chicago?
It was hard leaving NYC, you don’t realize how beautiful it is until you are leaving. The month before I left I would walk around and marvel at everything, if you are in NYC take a second to really enjoy it! My fiance is from Chicago, I am from Wisconsin, and we are getting married in Chicago (editor’s note, you don’t have to be engaged - Austin, Niki trend - to be featured 😅), so we moved to be closer to family and assist with wedding planning. We also wanted to lay some roots before we have a family. I’ll be back in NYC as much as possible!
For months I tried my best to compare NYC and Chicago but it’s impossible, they're so different. I love the area I live in and the community I have found here. The tech scene here reminds me of the tech scene in NYC in the early 2010’s, so many passionate people that are so willing to help each other.
Physical things Chicago has that I love:
Lake Michigan
Boating in the summer
Much better golf
The River Walk
Tavern Style Pizza
Better hot dogs
Better Mexican food
ITALIAN BEEF
More affordable living, I tripled my square footage and have a gym + coworking area in my building now
Come and visit me and I can show you why this is an incredible city!
What led you to launch PnR Chicago? How’s it going? Any learnings?
Two reasons: I love running and PnR had such a huge impact on my life I would love to do the same for others in Chicago. We have a solid crew going! Wasn’t the best idea starting in November, but we already have our regulars and will undoubtedly expand when it gets warmer. People love to have a sense of community here!
Are you training for any races? What’s on deck for you in 2024?
Yes! I am training for the Chicago land marathon on May 5th, a knee injury is preventing much progress but I'm rehabbing and I'm sure it’ll get better.
This picture is too good not to be included!
🎂PnR Birthdays
☃️Dec/Jan
Dec 4 Austin
Dec 7 Jess
Dec 23 Elena
Jan 1 Yasmeen, Caleb, Wandile
Jan 2 Vinay
Jan 5 William
Jan 19 Sophie
Jan 20 Kyle
Jan 25 Ethan
💘Feb
Feb 10 Anne Marie
Feb 12 Parag
Feb 13 Micah, JB
Feb 24 Sherjan
🗞️ FOLLOW US EVERYWHERE
The ultimate directory (if you haven’t joined yet, here’s your chance!)
Chicago POC: Austin Byrd
Los Angeles POC: Niki Agrawal
San Francisco POC: Viviana Hurtado
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