Last week, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell announced that Capital Factory and Austin have been selected as the next Google Tech Hub in North America. Other cities include Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Durham, Minneapolis, London, Nashville, Tel Aviv and Waterloo.

Google for Entrepreneurs is an umbrella organization within Google that manages all of the ways they interact with startups and entrepreneurs. It’s rare to see this kind of coordination at such a big company. This gives Google for Entrepreneurs the reach and resources to have a big impact on a global scale. As a Google Tech Hub, we receive the support of Google’s talent and relationships. We’ll continue to host Google related meetups and events, use Google products like Google Apps and Hangouts, and share on Google+. Google engineers and executives will be at Capital Factory for Office Hours, and Google Ventures too. This is bigger than just Austin – connecting our members to the 9 other Google Tech Hubs around the world.

This is significant for Capital Factory and for Austin for three reasons:

1. This is another major investment in Austin by Google. Google already has a strong presence in Austin – they have an office here, we’re the second city to get Google Fiber, and just last week Google acquired Austin-based Adometry. Establishing a Google Tech Hub in Austin is one more sign that Google believes in Austin and is here to stay.
2. The Google Tech Hub Network connects Austin to other startup communities around the world. When our members travels to another Tech Hub city, they will have a place to work and connect with the local startup community. Next week I’m flying out to Chicago to meet with the leaders of other Google Tech Hubs at 1871. We’re all on an email list where we post questions and compare notes.
3. This announcement formalizes an already great informal relationship between Google and Capital Factory. In the past year, we worked together to host a Google Fiber party with the Austin Startup Community, a welcome reception for Austin’s Chief Innovation Officer Kerry O’Connor, and the Longhorn Startup Demo Day. Google also purchased Google Glass and Android phones for our Device Lab. Any time I have some crazy idea designed to bring people together and foster innovation in our community, Google (and especially Gerardo Interiano) is the first one to step up and offer their support. This formal announcement ensures that we will do more and more together in the years to come.

The other Tech Hubs got together with Google and put together this fantastic video welcome. It put a smile on everyone’s face. Take a look!