Sarah Austin (Internet celebrity)

Sarah Maria Austin^[1] (born c. 1986 in Rogers, Arkansas; formerly known by the stage name Sarah Meyers) is an American Internet personality and entrepreneur. She is the CEO and founder of Broad Listening, an artificial emotional intelligence agent, and the chairperson of the board of directors at Coding FTW, a nonprofit organization that promotes diversity and equal rights in the technology sector through education.^[2][3]

Austin produced the web series Party Crashers, where she crashed tech parties,^[4][5][6] before being selected to lifecast for the Justin.tv test runs. She later went to produce Pop17, a web series documenting Internet culture.^[7] She was also a cast member of the Bravo! reality series, Start-Ups: Silicon Valley.^[8][9]

Early life and education

As a young child, Austin moved with parents from Rogers, Arkansas to Tiburon, California.^[10] In the ninth grade, Austin joined a leadership development and mentorship program called Summer Search.^[11] While in Summer Search, she studied New Media at Stanford University and also attended Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.^[10] In 2004, she graduated from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California.^[12][13]

Upon returning to California, Austin attended film and broadcast classes at San Francisco State University.^[14] later to relocate to Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.^[15] In 2010, she was a Dominican University of California business management student.^[10][13]

Career

Early career

Austin began her career as a tech news producer and DJ for three years at UC Berkeley’s radio station, KALX.^[16][17] She moved into video with news segments for D7TV's Story Today and created her own D7TV series, Party Crashers, in which she crashed Silicon Valley parties.^[18]

During the spring of 2007, she was chosen as a participant in the closed beta test of Justin.tv and lifecasted for them.^[16][19]

Pop17

After extensive tests through the winter of 2007-08 under the name PopSnap,^[4] Austin launched a web series and blog called Pop17 in March 2008.^[7] Pop17 features interviews with tech-oriented business owners and Internet personalities at tech-related events and parties.^[20] It also includes commentary and news on technology and business topics; Rocketboom and Mekanism contributed to the production of the show in 2008 and 2010.^[7][21][22] Contributors to Pop17 include Jesse Draper and Caitlin Hill.^[23][24]

Ignite Social Media included her in their ranking of five women covering New Media on the Internet, stating, "Sarah's entertaining posts are both thought-provoking and relevant while still being charming. Think the girl you sat next to in art class meets a successful online presence".^[25][26] In 2008, she was named one of the 50 most influential female bloggers by North X East,^[27] and that same month she was selected by Playboy as one of the five "Hottest Female Bloggers".^[28] Also in 2008, she appeared on Donny Deutsch's The Big Idea.^[29] Austin has been a correspondent for Better,^[2][30] where she explained topics and trends regarding social media. Since late 2010, Austin contributes articles and Pop17 episodes to Forbes magazine.^[31]

In the first edition of Dan Schawbel's' book Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, Austin and Pop17 were profiled in a chapter of "success stories".^[26] She was featured on the front cover of the May 2009 issue of Personal Branding magazine.^[32] In 2010, she was selected as one of Vanity Fair's "America's Tweethearts".^[33]

Start-Ups: Silicon Valley

Austin was featured as one of the main cast members on Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, a reality TV show that aired on Bravo, that followed the lives of six people who worked for startup companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. On the show, Austin lives at the Four Seasons Silicon Valley as entrepreneur in residence, producing marketing videos for them on Pop17. She is engaged in a number of rivalries with fellow cast-members, including one with Hermione Way, involving a botched South by Southwest event and a relationship with Way's brother, Ben Way.^[34] Because of how Austin is portrayed on the show, she has been met with critical disdain and referred to by press media as the show's villain.^[35][36][37]

Other media

In late 2011, Austin became a correspondent for TV networks such as Fox and Logo. She worked as an online personality for The X Factor and The X Factor Pepsi Live Preshow, as well as casting their unscripted home-viewing parties via Skype.^[38] She hosted and co-produced the San Francisco edition of VidBlogger Nation; a Comcast OnDemand TV network with each host sharing stories of people, places and events in their city.^[39] She also produces tech reports for Logo's NewNowNext.^[40]

References