Local Businesses We Love
Our team shares their local love
Locally-owned businesses are a critical piece of every vibrant community, driving economic growth and connecting people. By supporting small businesses as a team, we’re all doing our small part to sustain the neighborhoods and local communities we love.
At the office, we work every day to help small businesses elevate their online presence to get new customers and drive new business, and supporting local is also a big part of who we are outside of work.
Don’t miss these other great local businesses in Part I of “Local Businesses We Love,” here.
We asked some of our team members across departments about their favorite local spots, why they love helping local businesses, and what local means to them:
Will Harrington, Account Manager
“Local business owners have a passion for their community instilled in their hearts, and they want to create something and share their passions with the members of their community. By spending money with local businesses, we’re enabling those communities to grow and foster a stronger sense of love and understanding by everyone sharing their products and their passions.”
Favorite local business: Mad Dog Jake’s
“My favorite local business is this small ice-cream shop up in the north woods of Wisconsin called Mad Dog Jake’s. I feel that they go beyond what ice cream should be, and also, whenever we went there on vacation, even if we hadn’t been back for years, they always recognized my family and welcomed us back. They are really invested in making people feel like they are a part of their community.”
Joe Lewis, Customer Service Specialist
“Local businesses really bring character to a city. Whenever you talk to someone who just visited a new place, they’ll always talk about the local businesses they visited — the little restaurants and shops that made their visit special.”
Favorite local business: Mozart’s Coffee Roasters
“My favorite local business is Mozart’s off Lake Austin Blvd. My daughter loves going there to watch the turtles and fish while I drink coffee. It’s just an awesome ambiance.”
Annika Nynas, Account Manager
“Everyone should care about supporting their local businesses because it’s supporting your local economies, cultures, and communities — it’s helping your friends and your neighbors thrive in the area that they live in.
“It’s a beautiful opportunity that we have every single day to get to choose how and where we spend our money, and I get to spend that on jewelry from local artisans that I know. I get to talk to them and see that impact throughout our community — it just brings me so much joy and gratification to be able to support local.”
Favorite local business: Alamo Drafthouse
“I love the Alamo Drafthouse because it’s so creative, thoughtful, and fun. Going there truly got me to love movies, appreciate film, and be more curious about how films are made. I love that they infuse their curiosity and thoughtfulness into everything that they do.”
Morgan Nielsen, Senior Manager, Content
“When you go to a local business, there’s something that is unique about where you are at the that time, in that space, and in that community. You’re able to see what’s on the walls, talk to the people there, and experience that product or service. You take a piece of that with you throughout your day, and it motivates you to be uniquely yourself.
“If you care about supporting local businesses in your own community, you’re going to see that come back to you in some way.”
Favorite local business: Ballet Austin
“My favorite local business is a dance studio called Ballet Austin. They offer a wide variety of dance classes from Bollywood to Hula to jazz to hip hop. It’s very approachable — you don’t have to have years of experience to take a class, and you always feel extremely welcome. I love that sense of community that they provide.”
Kate Hrdina, Associate Product Manager
“I think that local businesses are a beautiful kind of quilt of any community of lots of different people with lots of different interests.”
Favorite local business: Tallulah’s
“My favorite local business is a store called Tallulah’s back home in Columbia, Missouri. It’s where I worked for a few years throughout college. It’s a small home goods store — kitchen specialty gadgets and all that fun stuff. I love all the ladies that own it. They became like my mothers in college, and I just loved seeing people come there to not only support that local business, but also to socialize with their neighbors in the community.”
Cory Terre, Senior Sales Training Project Specialist
“Local means unique experiences that you can’t get anywhere else.”
Favorite local business: Polvo’s
“At Polvo’s on South 1st, the food is amazing, and it has real, local vibes. I asked the owner once what they marinate their steak in, and he said, ‘It’s marinated with love.’”
Tina Dreher, Sales Manager
“Supporting local is about supporting someone’s dream.”
Favorite local business: Black Swan Yoga
“My favorite local business is Black Swan Yoga. It’s a very welcoming, neighborhood studio — all ages and experience are welcome. It’s a great community, and it just feels good to be there.”
Anyssa Villegas, Sales Representative
“Local to me means community and home. I come from a small town where I knew every local business owner and every local business owner knew me and my family, and when I moved to Austin eight years ago, it was really hard to find that sense of warmth and welcoming at first. It wasn’t until I built connections with all the great, unique local businesses that were around me that I felt a sense of home. To me, that’s what local is.”
Favorite local business: Crepe Crazy
“My favorite local business is Crepe Crazy. It’s owned by deaf business owners and several members of the deaf community also work there. I love going in there because, not only do I love crepes, but also because I took ASL in college and am pretty fluent — so I am able to communicate with them and order for my friends and me. But, you don’t have to know sign to be able to come in! There’s a board where you can write down your order. It’s a really neat place, they carry all different kinds of crepes — from savory to sweet to adventurous — and the business owners are lovely.”
Duri Greene, Sales Manager
“Local is the character and the identity that makes your neighborhood and your community really special and unique. It’s what you think of when you think of home.”
“I love helping local businesses because I come from a family of local business owners, so I understand the daily struggles that they go through, and I know the impact that we can make through everything that we do for our customers.”
Favorite local business: Taco Joint
“My favorite local business is Taco Joint. Back in New York, I always used to get breakfast sandwiches, and I couldn’t find that here in Austin. But now, Taco Joint’s potato, egg, and cheese taco is my go-to almost every morning.”
Jordan Arroyo, Floor Support Manager
“What local means to me is any father, mother, son, or daughter having a dream or passion, following that passion, and sharing their stories with people in their neighborhood.”
Favorite local business: Tamale House
“My favorite local business is Tamale House. I’ve been going there for 10 years now, and I’ve been able to see it grow. When I first stepped in the door, it was a little hole in the wall, and now it has this huge patio outside, they created a full bar, it has live music inside, and the food is phenomenal. It’s just this little hidden gem on the East Side of 6th Street.”
Want to learn more about how Main Street Hub and GoDaddy are joining forces to help more small businesses around the world? Watch:
Our Leadership Team told us about their favorite local businesses. Don’t miss their picks!
