Some observations:<p>First, it&#x27;s odd that the author claims that their ethnicity is not the point or not an issue, and then several times says that VCs and folks are not willing to put money on an ethnic founder. Like, pick one: either they&#x27;re racist shitheads, or it doesn&#x27;t matter. I know at least one local startup CEO here in Houston who is of color, and I&#x27;ve seen nothing but respect and success for him--mostly because he&#x27;s a <i>brilliant</i> businessman.<p>Second, the author is grumpy that consumer plays aren&#x27;t getting funding. This could be <i>because consumer plays are not worth funding</i>, especially in the current wave of (finally) conservatism. It&#x27;s a space filled with stillborn and decaying unicorns.<p>Third, the author&#x27;s project Localeur (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.localeur.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.localeur.com&#x2F;</a>) is  kinda jank. It doesn&#x27;t recognize locations outside of Austin, it seems to rely on Facebook for signing in (which while boneheaded is unfortunately SOP in that space), the location bar doesn&#x27;t even take keyboard focus&#x2F;input, the &quot;How this works&quot; thing pops down a tab that covers half the screen but has no obvious hint on how to close it...it&#x27;s just not super compelling.<p>Fourth, the product seems to be &quot;report on cool stuff nearby and vote on it and get internet points&quot;--this, without an obvious way to pay them money. They&#x27;re in, incidentally, a niche already covered well by such little-known startups as Yelp, Foursquare, and Google Maps. It does not take Marc Andreesen to figure out that the space might be pretty competitive and without great returns.<p>~<p>I&#x27;m from Houston, and we all <i>wish</i> we lived in the magical circlejerk of entrepreneurship and hip tech culture that everyone else seems to believe Austin is. Yet, we still find ways of building good businesses and raising funding if needed.<p>If the author can&#x27;t hack it there, maybe moving to the land of even more farcical business <i>is</i> the answer: that said, they shouldn&#x27;t blame Austin.