Overachieving Austinites

Meet the 6 Austinites honored on Forbes' prestigious 30 Under 30 list

Six young Austinites are making waves across the world, including Sascha Guttfreund of ScoreMore Shows.

Photo by Grant Waring

Forbes' annual 30 Under 30 list honors the hardest-working young minds in the world. Among the 600 innovators in 20 categories, six Austinites were recognized for their achievements on the 2016 list.

From concert promoters to real estate investors to bug farmers, here are the local movers and shakers whose work has gained global attention.

Sascha Guttfreund: Music
Guttfreundis the president of ScoreMore Shows, an event promotion company that puts together hip-hop concerts and other events for college students.The mantra of "for the students and by the students" is embedded in the company's roots — ScoreMore launched when Guttfreund and partner Claire Bogle were only sophomores at the University of Texas.

Nate Paul: Finance
Paul is the founder and CEO of World Class Capital Group, a real estate investment firm based in Austin with a varied business portfolio that reaches across the nation. Paul is also a graduate of the McCombs School of Business at UT.

Cassandra Tognoni: Education
An investment-banker-turned-math-teacher, Tognoni is the driving force behind BookReport, a software program that helps school districts easily visualize and allocate their financial resources. The idea for this useful application came from her time as the founder and director of a Montessori charter school in Austin.

Mohammed Ashour and Shobhita Soor: Social entrepreneurship
The co-founders of Aspire Food Group, which aims to alleviate world hunger by teaching people how to farm edible bugs for food. In addition to operations in Mexico and Ghana, the group's Austin-based branch promotes insect farming in the United States through Cricket Powder, a buggy nutritional supplement.

Ashley Ruhl: Games
As video games become more immersive, at the forefront of this shift towards interactive storytelling are designers like Ruhl, cinematic and gameplay designer for Telltale Games. Essentially, her touch makes video games feel more like movies. Ruhl has contributed to games in The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Borderlands franchises.

Texans had a proud showing on this year's 30 Under 30 list. Other big names from the Lone Star State include acclaimed musician Leon Bridges of Fort Worth, former UT athlete and professional golfer Jordan Spieth, and Dallas Stars hockey players Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.

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Self-driving Roller Coaster

More self-driving cars expected to roll out in Austin for 2025

Photo courtesy of Waymo via KVUE

Various brands offering self-driving cars are on-and-off in Austin.

Expect to see more self-driving rideshare vehicles, also known as robotaxis, on Austin roads next year.

Robotaxi company Waymo, which you may have already seen on Austin's roads, is partnering with Uber. At some point next year, customers will be able to use the Uber app to call a self-driving ride.

Austin-based company Avride is in the testing phase and plans to roll out its robotaxis next year.

Currently, Volkswagen ADMT and Amazon's Zoox are in the testing phase in Austin, while Hyundai's Motional is in the mapping phase.

Last year, robotaxi company Cruise paused operations in Austin after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the company's permits to operate driverless vehicles in the state. And last week, General Motors said it would no longer fund the company because of the time and resources needed.

This way of getting around has come with its safety concerns and issues. The city is tracking those concerns. According to the Transportation Department, the problems span from blocking the roads and parking in front of people's homes for weeks with lights beaming through their windows, to actual wrecks.

Since July 2023, robotaxis have been involved in 75 incidents. Only 21 of those incidents happened in 2024. It's important to note that Cruise has not been operating in Austin this year.

Since July 2023, driverless rideshare vehicles have been involved in 22 near collisions, eight collisions and seven instances where driverless taxis ignored directions from the Austin Police Department (APD).

According to the data, at least four of those Austin police incidents happened in recent months. The issues varied from driving through police checkpoints, to malfunctioning and getting stuck at an APD road closure near pedestrians, causing safety concerns.

A Waymo spokesperson said their vehicles have gesture recognition capabilities, which they've been training APD officers on using.

As the report shows, sometimes it does not work and Waymo said it is working to improve that. The spokesperson said that as of just last week, Waymo's First Responder Program has been independently verified by TÜV SÜD, making Waymo the first autonomous vehicle (AV) company to receive third-party validation for our emergency response protocols. They also said the data to date indicates the Waymo Driver is already reducing traffic injuries and fatalities in the places where the company currently operates.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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