Sesh looks like a consumer brand. 8VC looks like the last fund that would back it. That mismatch is the fastest way to see what Austin is becoming. Sesh founder Max Cunningham and 8VC&#x27;s Jake Medwell start with the logic that makes the deal make sense. Sesh holds a legal moat most competitors can&#x27;t cross for years, and it earns software-like margins on a physical product. From there the conversation opens into a bigger question about where ambitious companies belong, and why more of them are choosing a city that now draws the founders and families betting on that future. Agenda 00:00 What Sesh is 06:05 Why 8VC backed a nicotine company 10:44 Regulatory timing and the six-year door 16:37 Software margins and owning the factory 22:01 Who buys this and why the market is growing 29:27 Why some companies need SF and others do not 34:32 What Austin talent looks like now 42:10 The Elon spillover and the coming IPO wave 48:37 Raising kids in the AI age 55:07 Safety, schools, and what comes next Guest Links Sesh: Max Cunningham, Website, X, Instagram 8VC: Jake Medwell, Website, X ------------------- Austin Next Links: Website, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn Ecosystem Metacognition Substack

What This Unlikely Deal Shows About New Austin | Max Cunningham (Sesh) & Jake Medwell (8VC)

Austin Next

So ended up driving from Vancouver to Austin. I was here for a month and in that month we closed our entire round. We were oversubscribed to that round. Texas right now is like California in the mid 70s, which is that it's booming and everyone's trying to help each other and you know there's all these new frontiers. I believe that we can make the US a smoke-free country, which is below 5% incident rate. The only country that has done that so far is Sweden.

And funny enough in Sweden over 50% of people that use nicotine products are using white pouches. So we kind of have this crystal ball into how to get there. I think the average multiple is you know between 10 and 15 times revenue. There is no other consumer product category in the world that trades like that. Austin will go through kind of a rebirth.

Most advanced technology in the world and if you can't actually build it or ship it then what's the point? You need storytellers who are able to paint the picture of what's happening at the frontiers of technology.

The US needs to get back more to that and less like lawyer-ish and more we're building stuff. The frontier isn't just a place, it's forged in the fire. Welcome to Austin Next. Max, Jake, welcome to Austin Next. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Happy to be here. Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun. All right. I'm going to jump right into it. Okay.

Explain to me what Sesh is and how is it different than tobacco, nicotine things of the past? What's going on? Sesh is a nicotine alternative company. So we sell nicotine products, but we don't sell any traditional tobacco products.

What This Unlikely Deal Shows About New Austin | Max Cunningham (Sesh) & Jake Medwell (8VC)

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

What This Unlikely Deal Shows About New Austin | Max Cunningham (Sesh) & Jake Medwell (8VC)

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.