Jon Roberts

ABOUT THE BOOK

The city of Austin consistently leads lists of fastest-growing and most-desirable places to live—a simultaneous source of pride and anxiety for residents. In The Cost of Cool: Austin’s Tech Growth and the People Left Behind, author Jon Roberts and his contributors investigate Austin’s evolving identity and tackle a question posed repeatedly by community and business leaders nationally: How did Austin, Texas, become a global tech leader? More broadly, this book focuses on economic development and policy dilemmas faced by growing cities while maintaining both social equity and the elusive qualities of “place” that attract creative and innovative talent.

Echoing themes raised by other urbanist scholars, Roberts and his collaborators do not shy away from the controversial aspects of tax incentives, environmental issues, cultural loss, and economic exclusion. While tackling the problems raised by unbridled growth, they also address concerns of younger workers who are increasingly prioritizing “place” over “job.”

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, The Cost of Cool emphasizes the centrality of vision: for growth (as Austin’s population doubles every twenty years); for openness (often driven by the influence of the South by Southwest conference and Austin’s music scene); and for the future of the tech industry (including the implications of forty years of commitment to semiconductors, software, and social media). The Cost of Cool informs the ongoing debate over how to foster economic growth without degrading the quality-of-life characteristics that help make it possible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Roberts is managing partner of TIP Strategies Inc., an Austin-based economic development and workforce consulting firm. Since joining TIP as a principal and managing partner in 2000, he has helped transform the company from a Texas-focused site selection practice into a nationally recognized strategy firm.

Jon has focused on the role of innovation and technology in economic development since the 1980s. At TIP, he plays a central role in strategic goal setting and has led an extensive portfolio of planning engagements across the country, from New York to California, including major regional initiatives in the Mississippi Delta, Seattle’s Puget Sound, and the Great Lakes region.

Prior to TIP, Jon held senior economic development leadership roles for the State of Washington and the State of Texas. Under Governor Ann Richards, he served as director of business development for Texas. During the transition to Governor George W. Bush’s administration, he helped restructure the state’s economic development organization and co-authored the state’s new strategic plan.

Jon also has deep ties to Oregon’s entrepreneurial and investment communities. He served as vice president of the Oregon Technology Fund, was lead investor in Hood River Brewing Company, known as Full Sail, managed two startup technology companies, Fiberlite Composites and LifePort Inc., and founded Fat Tire Farm, a mountain bike company in Portland.

Born and raised in Germany, Jon earned a BA in philosophy and an MA in political philosophy from the University of Hawaii and completed postgraduate work toward a PhD at the University of Oregon. He resides in Austin and spends his summers in Bend, Oregon.

TALKING POINTS

• The Future of Growth: How AI, Climate, and Equity Are Rewriting the Economic Development Playbook, and What It Means for Austin’s Next Chapter
• From Weird to Wired: How Cities Lose Their Identity, and How to Protect It: Austin’s transformation from quirky college town to global tech hub highlights the identity challenges facing fast-growing cities, and what it takes to preserve culture while scaling innovation.
• Why the “place” matters more than the paycheck for techworkers 
• The Cost of Cool: Prosperity, Displacement, and Closing the Equity Gap: Austin’s rise as a tech powerhouse generated extraordinary economic growth, but also widened inequities. From the accelerated displacement of East Austin’s historic Black and Latino communities beginning in the early 2000s to the long-term impact on generational wealth, this conversation explores practical strategies to bridge those divides, and what the City of Austin is doing today to foster more inclusive growth.
• What Austin Got Right—and What It Got Wrong—About Tech-Driven Growth
• The history of Austin’s evolution into a global innovation center, and the major tech companies that took an early bet on the city, helped shape the ecosystem that defines it today.
• Austin’s Dual Strategy: Building a Self-Sustaining Tech Ecosystem: How Austin combined the recruitment of major technology firms with intentional support for local entrepreneurs to create a self-sustaining innovation economy. Homegrown startups that grew into major corporations, including Dell Technologies, Tivoli Systems, Silicon Labs, Indeed, Trilogy, and National Instruments, played a pivotal role in establishing Austin’s tech dominance.
• What 600 Economic Development Projects Have Taught Us About Sustainable Growth