Speaker 1:

From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome Inside the ICE House, our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business. For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week, we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism here at the NYSE and ICE's exchanges around the world. Now, let's go inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Lance Glinn.

Lance Glinn:

Welcome in to another episode of the Inside the ICE House Podcast. Today, we are excited to be joined by two guests, Texas House founder and president Will Herrmann and Texas House VP of communications, Alex Kuehler. Texas House is an organization that showcases the modern renaissance unfolding in the state, celebrating the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity that defines the region. Will, Alex, thanks so much for joining me inside the ICE House.

Will Herrmann:

Thank you for having us.

Alex Kuehler:

Absolutely. Good to be here.

Lance Glinn:

So, Will, let's start at the beginning, the origins of Texas House and where the idea first came to you. I know you've mentioned an inspiration from South by Southwest and seeing all the different regional houses that have a presence there. When did you realize just a gap existed and the need for a Texas House was necessary?

Will Herrmann:

Well, candidly, I was sitting in one of the houses and to spare them any disparagement, I was sitting in one of the houses and I was listening to somebody up on stage talk about how ... Oh, I'll just say Tulsa. It was Tulsa House. And I was sitting in Tulsa House and there was somebody up on stage talking about how Tulsa has the best innovation. We have the best cuisine, we have the best creative economy. And I'm sitting there and I'm listening to them and I'm looking out over Austin's brand new skyline and I'm just like, "I got to get out of here." And I was like, "I got to go to Texas House. I need to see what's going on over there."

I looked at the schedule and there wasn't a Texas House. And after realizing that, I was just like, "Oh my God, this is just such a shame because so much is happening in Texas right now." Whether it be business, technology, culture, film, music, there's just so much going on. And the way that these houses work is like Tulsa House, these things exist to be a platform to be able to tell the story about what's going on there. And I just realized that nobody's telling our story. There's just so much happening in Texas right now and somebody's got to be talking about it. And so I decided it was time for somebody to do it and now I'm doing it.

Alex Kuehler:

Here we are.

Lance Glinn:

Here we are. Exactly. And we actually recently had NYSE Texas President Brian Daniel on the podcast and he pretty much echoes everything you're saying. There's so much happening in Texas. One of the reasons why the NYC is now setting up a location in Dallas is to really take advantage of obviously all the entrepreneurship and all the innovation and everything happening, all the companies that are really making Texas their home. And once you decided to go forward, Will, to take this from an idea into something tangible, what were those first few months like? What were some of the moments that really defined the early hustle that you and your team went through to make this real?

Will Herrmann:

Oh my God. Well, it's-

Lance Glinn:

Besides, I'm sure the long days and long nights.

Will Herrmann:

Sure.

Alex Kuehler:

How long do you have?

Will Herrmann:

The team, we just knew this had to happen. And it was one of those light bulb moments I think for everybody when we started talking about it and we were like, "There's no Texas House." And the ecosystem and everyone we talked about was like, "You're right. There is no Texas House. How did we all miss this?" And I think that just the market fit and just realizing that there wasn't one and there was a need for it gave us the drive to go after those long hours. It's not easy fundraising for these things and putting on one of these things at South by Southwest, it's expensive. And so that gamut of fundraising for it. And then at the same time, also putting together the creative vision, the production, being able to ... I mean, it's truly an operation that requires a tremendous amount of focus and organization.

And it was brutal to answer the question, but it was work that was worth doing and we were committed to doing it and it's been a blast ever since. And we're catching our stride right now.

Lance Glinn:

And so Alex, I want to bring you into the conversation. And Will brought up finding that vision, finding what Texas House actually will be and what it will look like. What was the challenge of making sure that, sure, the idea on paper or in your mind seems great, but to actually make it tangible, to make it attractive to people, right? How do you go about creating that and making sure that visually it looks the part and that you're really putting the message forward you want to?

Alex Kuehler:

Absolutely. That's a great question. So I mean, Will is fantastic when it comes to graphic design and designing an event. We also have Jimmy Heritage, who's our executive producer. He does a fantastic job. He does rock concerts and all this stuff all across the country. So he has a really good background in that. And so he came into this with our vision and really brought it to life with our events. And so the real part that we started to zero in on was culture.

There's all sorts of EDCs and economic development corporations and all that, right? And they all do a great job. But the one thing that we found was missing was the culture aspect of it. And Texas has such a strong culture. It has this ethos, this mythos that goes all the way back to the frontier days. And there's a through line from the frontier all the way up to today in the way that Texans approach business, approach entrepreneurship, and also just approach day-to-day life, friendly people, right, open business climate. So we wanted to tell that story with the culture aspect of it and bring that into our events and bring that to life because, I mean, who doesn't like wearing a cowboy hat? I saw a bunch of nice Texas people who came to get a cowboy hat because they love the cowboy hat, right?

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely.

Alex Kuehler:

So the Texas culture is strong and we wanted to make that a really a focal point of our events.

Will Herrmann:

The real art of it has just been figuring out the means to externalize the spirit of what is happening in Texas right now. And I think that when we really hit our mark, it is a very true conceptual externalization of the spirit of what we imagine it to be. And I think that we're getting it.

Alex Kuehler:

Yeah, we're dialing it in. Every event, we get a little bit better.

Lance Glinn:

So Alex, let's talk about the heart of Texas House and its mission. On your website it's written, it's about Texans leading global conversations. What kinds of conversations do you hope to spark and why is Texas House uniquely positioned to lead them?

Alex Kuehler:

Certainly. So the first thing I would say about this is that we want people to come away from our events with two things. The first thing is a smile on their face and that they had a lot of fun.

Lance Glinn:

Sure.

Alex Kuehler:

And then the second thing is we want them to come away with connections. So business connections, and they come back to us, and we've heard this from many of our partners where they say, "Hey, we had a great time at this event. That was so much fun. We can't wait to come to the next one. Oh, by the way, we also had three business connections that we made that are likely going to lead to something down the road that we can do business with."

In fact, one of them, we had a client that, a partner of ours at our last event for F1 who came to us afterwards and said, "Not only did we have business connections, we signed, signed, three clients at this event because of how much fun everybody was having. And we got to know each other as people." That's one thing we really want to have at these events is that dinners are great and going to an EDC event and learning with a panel and everything, we do some of that too. But at the end of the day, we really want people to sit down across from each other or to just have a conversation over a drink. And that's where business really gets done because you get to know each other as people first and then it can lead to business.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely.

Will Herrmann:

And as far as why we're the best and more poised to have this conversation, I think it really boils down to the fact that we're young.This is kind of, I guess you'd say it's an experienced person's game. And for us, with so much that's changing in Texas right now, we're right in the middle of it. We aren't remembering a Texas the way it used to be. We're right in the middle of the Texas that is going to be. And because of that, we see everything as it pertains to what's relevant in culture and contemporary and business, and we're able to keep our finger on the pulse and be nimble in ways that a lot of other organizations just aren't.

Alex Kuehler:

The other thing I would say about that too is it's authenticity. Authenticity matters these days and we are all Texans, for the most part, and we go back generations. My family goes back five or six generations in Texas. In West Texas, his goes back, I think, seven, eight generations in Texas. Marisa Vickers, our VP of partnerships, does a fantastic job. She's third, fourth generation Texan.

Will Herrmann:

Seventh.

Alex Kuehler:

Seventh. There you go.

Will Herrmann:

Seventh. Yeah.

Alex Kuehler:

Thank you for correcting me. So we go back a long way in Texas. We all still live in Texas. Jimmy Heritage, he's in Nashville now, does a great job, as I said, but he also is from Texas as well. Grew up in Brenham with Will. And then we've got a gentleman, Upi Espers, our friend, he does a great job internationally because as you said, the Texans leading global conversations, that's where this started. And now where it's going is we're trying to bring Texas to the world and the world to Texas. We're trying to build pipelines to different areas of the world who want to do business in Texas. And our message is come and make it. This is the best place in the world to do business for our business climate, for our people, for all those things.

And it even, to kind of put a point on it, we were just in Columbia last week in Bogota. We were talking to companies in Columbia who were interested in Texas, and we had a lot of interest in Texas from these companies, especially technology, SaaS companies, things like that. And one of the things we were telling them is, again, we're trying to build these pipelines. And one thing that Texas can be, especially for those in Central and South America, is Texas is a launching pad.

You want to come up to Texas, we have the best business climate, we've got plenty of people who can help you get set up here. And then you can find all the business you ever want in Texas, but if you want to expand outside, you're four hours from Los Angeles and you're four hours from New York by fight.

Lance Glinn:

Right in the middle.

Alex Kuehler:

You're right in the middle of everything. So it's a great place to set up operations and start your business.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. And like I said, we had Brian Daniel of NYSE Texas on the podcast recently, and he said a lot of the same things about just how great of an environment Texas is for capital markets, for financial markets. Again, one of the reasons why NYSE Texas is now in existence and has made its home Dallas. And to that NYSE Texas point, I know there's a collaboration between NYSE Texas and Texas House.

So Will, can you sort of just get into that collaboration, how it started and what made partnering with NYSE Texas so attractive to you guys?

Will Herrmann:

Well, we had y'all out at South by Southwest London. And to my surprise, I didn't realize that we were a part of the campaign to announce NYSE Texas. And that took place. I'm like, "Oh, okay, that's a big deal." And it was very well received in London. And we noticed that it was one of those things where it really added to the story that we're trying to tell as well. Everybody is coming to Texas. There's this curiosity about what's going on, not just state to state, but also internationally. And London is the perfect venue to have that conversation being as international as it is.

And the race weekend, which in Austin, it's the largest Grand Prix in all of North America. Everybody comes in from all over the world. It's actually the biggest event that takes place in Austin. We thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to really strike something up with NYSE Texas because you have all of these business coming in, being able to tell the story about Texas being the number one state for publicly traded companies in the nation, there's this growing narrative. I mean, obviously there's all these other exchanges, but NYSE is the exchange. And Texas being what it is right now and it being the, I guess you'd say, somewhat of a bit of a battleground for all of these publicly traded companies, we thought, "Hell, we need to partner with the best here." And so this was the best opportunity to do that. And we threw a hell of a party with you guys.

Alex Kuehler:

I think also you guys saw what we saw. It was a natural fit and a natural partnership. We started this and we've been going like a rocket ship now for, what are we, 11 months.

Will Herrmann:

Yep.

Alex Kuehler:

And so we had a connection to you guys. And as we started talking, it was like, this makes all the sense in the world. You guys see what's happening in Texas, all these things that we've been talking about. And so it makes sense to have a partnership, to have a fun event, and to make these business connections, especially to start it out at this event for race weekend, where we've got companies and people from all across the world coming into Texas, as well as many Texans to have that conversation.

Lance Glinn:

And you mentioned Texas as such a battleground for publicly traded companies. I know Texas houses the most NYSE listed companies among all the 50 states. So again, just points to the entrepreneurship, the innovation and just how much of a hub Texas has really become. And now partnerships as a whole, Alex, they seem to be a big part of Texas House's DNA. How important has just collaboration, not just with NYSE Texas, but overall been so far to your growth, to these last 11 months to allowing Texas House to have the success it has and then putting it on a platform to have greater success in the future?

Alex Kuehler:

That's a great question. So to start with, really, at first we had to prove ourselves a little bit, right? What is Texas House? What does this mean? What is this? And so to start with, you got to get over that hurdle. And once you sell the vision to people and they understand what we're doing, which is the cultural aspect of Texas along with business and business development and just telling the story of Texas, Texans leading global conversations.

And so once people bought into the vision and they saw what we did, and we started out with a bang. At South by Southwest in Austin, we had over 3,000 people at our first event over two days. We had multiple big panels. We had Rice University was a big sponsor of ours. I mean, we had people from all over the spectrum on some of these big panels. And so from our first iteration, that kind of proved it a little bit. Then we got to go to South by Southwest London and prove it again. And all of that has stacked up and now we're here and now we're being ... People know who we are, people know the vision, they understand it, and they're coming to us to partner, which is great. We're happy to have that.

And so we're thankful for all our partners. NYSE Texas was fantastic to partner with and many others, Allens Boots. We loved having Allens Boots out there. They had a trailer they brought out, people could buy boots, buy a cowboy hat. Just that's the culture piece of it, right? And then the final thing I'll say on our events is people love Texas barbecue. So at every event, we try to bring out some Texas barbecue.

Will Herrmann:

Of course. Kind of a cheat code.

Lance Glinn:

Once you get food involved, I think anywhere-

Alex Kuehler:

Exactly.

Will Herrmann:

They're willing to hear what you got to say.

Lance Glinn:

Yeah. Same thing with New York and I'm a Jersey guy. You bring Jersey pizza, bagels, New Jersey delis, diners. Anytime you bring food out, it just naturally attracts people to it.

Alex Kuehler:

"Oh, let's see what they have to say."

Lance Glinn:

Yeah, exactly. But you mentioned it to that culture piece, and I think that's so important. And I think that even goes back to the authenticity piece that you guys were speaking to earlier with so many of those who are involved in Texas House are Texans through and through. The people that you're partnering with, these brands that you're partnering with, they know that you're not transplants from somewhere else. You are Texas. And I think that really matters. I think you would agree that that really matters when it comes to collaboration, when it comes to partnerships, and when it comes to just being successful in any state, you want to work with people that are from said state, whatever that be, Texas, New Jersey, New York, wherever.

Will Herrmann:

And these partnerships help us tell the story because they're leading in these different industries, whether it be innovation. I mean, you mentioned Allens Boots. I mean, they've been around on South Congress since 1971. You won't find a more authentic brand as it pertains to cowboy boots, hats, anything. If you want to look, dressed, feel, be a Texan, you got to go to Allens Boots. And that's a part of the story that we're trying to tell here to be able, as I mentioned, to properly externalize these things. And as these partnerships have grown and we've nurtured them, it's people have been able to see the vision and they say, "Well, I fit into that. I need to be on that stage."

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. So in my conversation with Brian Daniel, he mentioned the Texas miracle and the boom the region saw when it comes to business growth and entrepreneurship. So Will, what do you just think as a whole for the state of Texas? And you talked about, Alex, you mentioned obviously it being right in the middle. We obviously talked about now all these exchanges coming too, led by NYSE Texas as the first one to really put its footing down in the state. What do you think just makes the state so uniquely attractive to business owners and companies really of all sizes, to small businesses, to large businesses right now?

Will Herrmann:

Where do I start? Well, there's a variety of factors. I mean, we have a state government that's friendly to business, and I think they do a heck of a job leading the state, especially as it pertains to business. It's a very accommodating regulatory environment that gives businesses a lot of ease in being able to move in, operate.

And the second thing is the ecosystem. Across the state, it's extremely strong, but specifically in Texas, I mean, excuse me, specifically in Austin, it's really collaborative, which again goes back to the spirit of the culture here. I mean, the collaboration and the friendly people is a large part of the culture. And so I mean, whether it be in the governor's office, Adriana Cruz, somebody, I mean, a few people have done more for Texas business than her. She does an amazing job bringing businesses in. Aaron Demerson at the Texas Economic Development Corporation has shown tremendous leadership. We have an accelerator called Capital Factory, which I'm sure you guys are familiar with. Josh Baer is an amazing cornerstone of Austin.

And then there's various networks like Why Texas that if you're in a business leader, an entrepreneur, and you need to network and you need to drop into Texas and find friends quick, you get into Why Texas. And even if you're not from the United States, we have organizations like International Accelerator, they've been around for a really long time, and they do a tremendous job of helping businesses come into Texas from out of the country and find a home and integrate into the ecosystem really quick. That specific combination of factors makes it really easy to drop in, get set up, get started, and get to work real quick.

Alex Kuehler:

I think it's also about how big the state is and how much it's growing. People can see the statistics. 3.1 trillion in GDP. It's the eighth largest economy in the world if it was its own country. And sometimes we like to say we were once our own country. Texas ethos, Texas myth. But yeah, there's all those factors that are going on. And you also have the second largest state in the country in terms of population and growing. 15.9 million people have come to Texas in the last 10 years. That's going to continue. At some point, Texas will become the most populous state in the nation. And so you've got people moving from California, you got people moving from New York, you've got people moving from all over the country to Texas. And that's because of all these factors that Will just mentioned in terms of you have opportunity, you have low taxes, you have friendly people, and the ecosystem is there to get set up to do business. So all those factors lead to Texas being what people have called the Texas miracle, and that's still ongoing and it's going to continue.

Lance Glinn:

And I think so much of what makes any region ripe for business is obviously the talent that inhibits it. And Texas is home to universities like UT Austin, obviously you're Texas A&M, Texas State, TCU, SMU, the list goes on and on. How important is that academic ecosystem, Will, to the state's entrepreneurial energy and being able to have these companies come in, but then allow the companies to hire within and hire local Texas people to help them succeed?

Will Herrmann:

I mean, the university's extremely competitive with themselves as well as with others. And we have this tremendous pipeline of talent that comes to the state because there's a lot of places to go to school, whether it be a trade school or a community college or get a four-year degree or get a graduate degree or anything like that. And we're at the cutting edge of everything that's contemporary.

Rice University, you mentioned them as a partner. I mean, they're a leading research institution here in the United States and the University of Texas and Texas A&M and my own Texas State, I'm not sure what I really need to say. I mean, it's just they're progressing in leaps and bounds. And I mean, you could tell by their corporate partnerships. I mean, the corporate partnership ... I mean, just to use Texas State as an example, the corporate partnership that they have with Aston Martin that they talked about during race weekend and they announced this.

I mean, these are all things ... I mean, that didn't exist when I was there and they're constantly evolving, constantly elevating these partnerships. And I think it largely boils down to the competition that exists there in the state. And it has resulted in a tremendous pipeline of talent that these corporate innovators, they're getting to take free reign and pick from.

Lance Glinn:

And now, Alex, you both have mentioned Race Weekend quite a few times over the course of our podcast. After launching Texas House originally, what made race weekend the right sort of next step and the right sort of opportunity for Texas House to continue its growth, obviously continue to get its name out there and build on all the success you had previously?

Alex Kuehler:

Well, all the credit in the world to Marisa Vickers, our VP of partnerships, she did a fantastic job. This was all her idea. And then she sold us. She said, "We have to do this. This is what we needed. This is our best next step. It's the big next step." And she was right. And really it was because what I talked about earlier, that nexus of all these people coming in from all across the world, which matches with what we're trying to do. Texans leading global conversations, we want to bring Texas to the world and the world to Texas. Well, the world was coming to Texas.

And so we had, on our home turf, we can do something in Austin and we can figure out a wonderful event that people can get to understand Texas culture. We can have some great concerts. Everybody can have a drink, enjoy themselves. And then at the same time, get to have business connections and really get to do business as well and get to know each other as people. So it just seemed like a natural next step. And because it's such a big event in Austin and we do big events, that's how we started. Will started this thing and the first idea was to go to, we're launching this at South by Southwest because that's where all the houses are. South by Southwest is huge. 400,000 people come to Austin for that.

Well, even more people come for race weekend, over 400,000, I think it's over 430,000. It's one of Texas's largest events, period.

Will Herrmann:

That's a conservative number.

Alex Kuehler:

Yeah. I think it's hit 500,000 is what they say. And so there is a ton of people who are coming into Austin for this event. We do big events. We're about talking Texas. We're about the Texas culture. It just was a natural fit.

Will Herrmann:

It boils down to community. The local community there is there standing ready to receive everybody that comes in for South by Southwest, as well as race weekend. October's a busy month in Austin. We've got ACL, we have Austin, the film festival, we have Austin Tech Week, we have all of these things. And so it's just like the community is set and ready for everybody that's passing through. And there's an infrastructure there that's able to support all this innovation and culture and art and creativity. And it all seems to mesh and merge together well. And it's a great place to be able to interface with the community and the local ecosystem.

Alex Kuehler:

And it's not just that F1 brings people in from all across the world who are race fans, right? It's a lot of business leaders. It's a lot of very big brands who are coming in, who are entertaining clients. And so F1 for business just made a ton of sense with NYSE Texas, we had Hunton, the law firm who was interested in talking with potential clients from Texas, but also all around the world. And so everybody coming to Austin just made sense for us to do this event.

Lance Glinn:

So will Texas House recently launched its Come and Make It campaign at South by Southwest London. What inspired it and how does it connect to what Texas is all about and the state's frontier mindset?

Will Herrmann:

Well, anyone that's driving around Texas that is behind an F-150 has seen the come and take it, the flag and the Gonzalez flag. And that's a tremendous part of our heritage and where we come from. And the spirit of that really embodies just the ... Yeah, I guess you'd say just our ability to stand up to the world and grab the bull by the horns. And we thought that a contemporary adaptation of that was come and make it. Everybody moving into the state and all of the eyeballs that are on us from around the world right now, we thought that this was a fabulous adaptation to say, whatever it is, whether it is business, technology, art, film, shoot, a family or a home, come and make it in Texas. This is the place to do it right now. And the best place to launch that we thought was in the international community that is London and South by Southwest London. And so that was us planting our flag.

Lance Glinn:

Alex, I know you both were recently in Bogota for Columbia 4.0. Now Texas, of course, is primarily located in between both coasts, four hours to New York, four hours to LA. And with the Come and Make It campaign, and just overall all Texas House is doing, what kind of interest are you seeing from international markets both in Columbia as well as all over?

Alex Kuehler:

It runs the gamut. So we saw many company ... I mean, we saw defense companies, tech companies, all sorts of different things in London. And then when we went to Columbia, it was a bunch of tech companies, SaaS. They have many companies who are solving problems like for hospital systems, for instance, billing and all sorts of things. We do a great job of that here in the United States, but in fact, when I was having these meetings, I was impressed with a lot of the technology that they had. And I think that they can help us move the ball forward and help us get even better at what we do. And so we saw companies just all across the spectrum who are interested in Texas and interested, especially in the American market.

We're still the best economy in the world. We're still the largest economy in the world. And so what better way to get involved in the United States than to come to the second largest state in the country who was between both of the coasts? Yeah, it just kind of makes sense. And so really what they were looking for is, like Will said earlier, there's a great ecosystem in Texas that can help you get set up. Somebody just needs a connection in order to do that.

And so that was us going out there to talk to them and say, "We're coming to you, talk to us about what you want to do in Texas and we'll do what we can to help you. And come to one of our events, come to South by Southwest, check it out, see what you think of Austin, see what you think of our events, and while you're at our events, you can also make connections and leave there with a smile on your face and leave there with business connections that could potentially lead to something and starting your business in Texas."

Lance Glinn:

So Will, throughout the course of our conversation, I've been thinking, and Texas House just makes so much sense. And it's sort of surprising to me that before you guys started this, what was it, 11, 12 months ago, whatever it was.

Alex Kuehler:

January.

Lance Glinn:

Before you guys started this, one didn't exist.That's still to me, I know we touched on it earlier in our conversation, but that really is shocking. I guess if you can reflect back, I know we talked about earlier what was the origins of Texas House, how did it get started, so on and so forth. But when you were first thinking of the idea, if you can really reflect back on it, just how shocking was it to you that something like this didn't already exist? Because as we're talking, I'm shocked that before this year, something like this didn't exist.

Alex Kuehler:

Sure.

Will Herrmann:

And at a festival that takes place in our home state, I'll add, and I mean, I guess it was ... I'm still quite speechless about it. The thing that I'm still trying to understand is just like, why? And I think that it boils down to, I don't know whether if it's just that Southern hospitality, we want to make a place for everybody to have a good time and tell their story, or if we're just humble and that being a factor in it. And I think that just like, I mean, it was a sense of amazement.

Now don't get me wrong, there are a lot of other Texas-based organizations that they do their own thing, but nobody had gone after the model that existed to take advantage of this platform to be able to do these things. And the way that these houses work is they're just these cultural embassies and they bring in the best of technology and art and culture and all of those things. And I think that a lot of these other organizations, perhaps they focus really on one thing primarily. Maybe it's just business, maybe it's just art, maybe it's just film, and that's fine. It's good to be focused on those things, but people need more.

They want to be able to explore the full palette and be able to go through the full spectrum of what's happening because that's really what it takes to be able to bring somebody into the state and convince them to start a life or a business or launch their whatever there. People want to be able to experience the full externalized version of what Texas is to be able to inform the decision and to start their life there.

And so for us, it just made perfect sense to be able to show everybody everything that we love about Texas. Here's the most authentic flavors of Texas as given by authentic Texans. And so this is our workshop to be able to bring it all in and do it in one place.

Alex Kuehler:

To put a bow on that from what Will said is if you can think of Texas House in any way, the one way you should think about it is that it's a cultural embassy. That's the point. It wraps all of that that we've been talking about into one. Texans leading global conversations, Texas to the world, the world to Texas. We're a Texas cultural embassy. So come learn about Texas, come learn about our culture, our history, but also come learn about business and what makes the state great for business.

Lance Glinn:

And so to that point, Alex, as a cultural embassy, as we begin to up of our conversation and you sort of look forward and that scaling happens and you grow in size and you grow in influence, how do you keep that cultural embassy sort of ethos as you get bigger? Because that's I think the hard part of it is staying true to your roots, staying true to those core principles while you grow in, again, both size, scale and influence.

Alex Kuehler:

I would say it's all about authenticity. We just have to keep that root there of authenticity. And if we keep the root of authenticity, which is, again, if somebody comes to us, it's like the core team from the beginning is all Texans, many generations back. And so you're talking to authentic Texans and if we always keep the mission of Texas House authentic to what we love about Texas, the culture of Texas, the wonderful business climate of Texas, we hire Texans. We'll hire others too. If you want to come from New York, we're happy to hire you. If you got good talent, we love talent. That's what we're trying to do. Bring great talent into Texas as well. But it's just really about keeping Texas House authentic. And I think if we do that, sky's the limit for us.

Lance Glinn:

So Will, as we wrap up our conversation, obviously this seems like it's really just the beginning for Texas House. About to get through your first year in January. And then as we just talked about with Alex, scaling up and influence and size, so on and so forth, you're still in the early chapters of this story. What do the next chapters look like for you and your team?

Will Herrmann:

Texas House is where you're going to meet your business partner. The people that you're going to be doing business with for the next 10 years, that's what we're building. For our artists that we bring in, the record labels that they're going to be working with, that's where they're going to find them.

What we are building is an institution and we have a lot of plans and some I can get into, some that I can't get into, but it's all about connecting at the end of the day. We launched a super connector dinner in London that was amazing. It was a great opportunity to be able to connect a lot of high level business operatives with folks like the Mayor of Austin, as well as the Deputy Mayor of London, Howard Dawber, they came in bigger, better, faster, more authentic, and closer to the vision. I can't quite say exactly what the complete vision is going to look like because we're still discovering those things. We're getting closer. And like you said, it's a labor of love that takes a good amount of time. And we learn something new every single event and our ability to be nimble and innovate, learn from what we just did and turn that into whatever the next version is, that's going to inform it.

And I think we're a long way away from being able to see what the complete vision is. But like Alex said, as long as we stay true to what we know to be authentic about Texas, sky's the limit.

Lance Glinn:

Well, gentlemen, I appreciate you both coming to New York for this. I wish you the best of luck in everything Texas House moving forward. And thank you so much for joining us Inside The ICE House.

Will Herrmann:

Thank you.

Alex Kuehler:

Thanks for having us-

Will Herrmann:

[inaudible 00:33:49] Texas House.

Speaker 1:

That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X at ICEHousePodcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week inside the ICE House.

Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties express or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information and do not sponsor, approve, or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the proceeding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.