SXSW 2026

Starting this newsletter was arguably one of my best decisions ever. It’s made six-figures in revenue (while I keep my day job at beehiiv), and I’ve connected with so many readers who have become investors, friends, and colleagues.

My take: every founder, creator, and media operator should have a newsletter. And any time someone asks me how to get started, I send them to my buddy Nathan @ The Feed Media.

He leveraged his newsletter to go from zero to $1M in revenue in 10 months (🤯). He also runs growth for some of beehiiv's biggest customers (including me).

Nathan’s hosting a free workshop for BDE readers showing how:

It’s 100% free and I couldn’t recommend it enough. You can thank me later.

Can’t make it live? Register and you’ll get a replay of the workshop!

Last week, a handful of us from the beehiiv squad headed down to Austin for SXSW.

It was my first time at SXSW and it didn't disappoint. We hosted an invite-only happy hour, met with hundreds of our users, attended dozens of events, and set up some pretty impactful meetings (which you'll find out more about soon enough).

I also spoke on 3 panels and met some pretty incredible people. As a remote company, we don't do too much IRL — but when we do, we really make it count.

The week was a massive success, and also a whole lot of fun. Here's how it went down…

Started with a 5am wakeup back in Medellín so I could get an early workout in before my flight.

That was pretty much the only thing that went right that day. My second flight was delayed twice, I missed the team dinner, and United lost my luggage.

Fortunately, I decided to wear a pretty dope vintage Rolling Stones t-shirt on my flight. Given it was the only article of clothing I had in my possession, it would have to make do for day 1.

I grabbed a quick breakfast with the team, then headed over to a sweet house in the hills (do people in Austin say that?) to join the Sweat Equity podcast with Alex Garcia and Brian Blum.

Afterwards, I got a call from United that they dropped off my bag at the hotel. I showered, parted ways with my airport outfit, then met my COO and CMO for lunch to do a deep dive into product strategy and positioning. One of those sessions that is just so much better to do in IRL.

After that wrapped, we headed to our invite-only happy hour. We had an amazing room of users, partners, prospects, and really cool people from tech and media.

The best part was meeting users who would rave about people on our team — their account manager, our social lead, our creator lead, etc. I'd take a selfie with them and send it straight to that employee. It led to a camera roll full of selfies and was a great reminder of just how incredible the team we've built really is.

After the happy hour, the beehiiv team grabbed a very dope sushi dinner at Uchibā, then a few of us capped the night at a ReggaetonTV fiesta hosted by one of my homies from Medellín.

Early wakeup for a hotel gym sesh, followed by a quick hotel lobby meeting with Amber Venz Box (founder of LTK).

We headed over to MATCH HOUSE for my first panel, where I shared the stage with Dylan Wells from The Washington Post and Will Allred from Lavender. It was a packed house — likely unrelated to the fact that Bill Gurley had a fireside chat right after ours.

After sticking around for most of Bill's fireside, me and the lads grabbed some tacos and micheladas for lunch.

Then headed over to a rooftop downtown to meet with my controversial internet pal Taylor Lorenz.

Friday night, I got invited to a dinner at Matthew Prince's house (CEO of Cloudflare). I didn't totally know what I was getting myself into, but walked into a room with Mark Cuban, Michael Dell, Scott Galloway, and a handful of other hitters. About 40 people in total, and the food was incredible.

I stuck around pretty late because the vibes were high. The verdict: I'm pretty bullish on dinner parties hosted by billionaires.

Another early wakeup, another hotel gym sesh.

Shoutout to everyone who woke up to come out to a 10am Saturday panel at SXSW — we packed the room for my conversation with Jasmin Enberg from Scalable. Also shoutout to the event organizers: those chairs were super comfortable.

After that, I had to run over to the Inc. Founders House for my second panel of the day. Founders House was packed with a superb lineup of speakers including Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Alexis Ohanian, and Russell Wilson.

Finally relieved of my speaking duties for the week, we headed over to the Spotify House to chill for a hot second and crush some mezcal.

I pivoted from the Spotify House to a vibey Mexican rooftop spot to hang out with my buddy Alex Heath (btw, you should subscribe to his newsletter … and then reply and tell him to move to beehiiv).

I finally got an hour to myself to go back to the hotel, kick my feet up, and FaceTime my mom (she misses me). Then joined an intimate dinner hosted by The Washington Post (no billionaires in attendance).

I met up with the squad afterwards to hit the Calvin Harris concert, followed by a few decent parties before calling it a night.

Just one long travel day that started way too early. The only highlight of the 14-hour door-to-door trip back to Medellín was finding this song (instant add to the BDE playlist).

But that's a wrap. I left out a few meetings because we have some big announcements coming up that I don't want to spoil just yet. You'll have to wait for those 😉.

A few additional notes:

That was exhausting, but worth every second. See you next year, Austin 🤠.

If you enjoyed this post or know someone who may find it useful, please share it with them and encourage them to subscribe: mail.bigdeskenergy.com/p/sxsw-2026

Shoutout Christopher for the reader submission 🫡.

I wonder if zero gravity would impact my stress and cortisol levels. If so, sign me up.

Think you can generate a better office? Reply with your submissions 📨.

Some of my favorite content I found on the internet this week…

Chat with DenkBot — my AI clone. It’s trained on everything I’ve ever published and the entire beehiiv knowledge base 🧠.

Or you can book an hour session with me (real me) directly → here.

Turn on, tune in, drop out. Click on any of the tracks below to get in a groove — each selected from the full Big Desk Energy playlist.

Share this newsletter with your friends, or use it as a pickup line.

👉 Your current referral count: {{ rp_num_referrals }} 👈

Or share your personal link with others: {{rp_refer_url_no_params}}

📥 Want to advertise in Big Desk Energy? Learn More