The luckiest 2,000 square feet in Austin.

March Greetings, Fridge Raiders.

What a difference a month makes. In the last newsletter, I shared pictures of family ice sledding, and two weeks later, we had our Magnate Valentine’s dinner under the stars. Doesn’t bode well for July, but come enjoy our porch and yards while it’s still a good idea!

Dining al Fresco al Fridge

In this issue: Being Chill, Founder Funny, Longevity Cocktails, Coffee Extra Hot and Cold, SX-RFS, Don’t Wait(list), and a Call for Talent.

We’ve had quite the start to the year. We added 20 Fridge Magnates and have just about hit the perfect vibe for our 24/7 coworking memberships: there's always someone to share a coffee or a cocktail, but you can still snag a desk or conference room.

But the real value of the Society isn’t constrained by the number of fancy monitors; it’s our accomplished Founder community in each other’s corners. With the desks spoken for, I’m shifting my focus to building out the social side of our membership, which faces a different constraint—trust.

The Fridge community runs on trust and accountability, and that ethos underpins our "Be Chill" value: We share victories, defeats, and an old house. Respect confidentiality, fellow Magnates, and the Fridge.

I’m creating a shared space with maximum value and minimal structure. A house you can let yourself and your guests into anytime (and enjoy EVERY beverage). And the best part of arriving is seeing who beat you there. We’re not staffed 24/7, so it only works if Magnates feel ownership of the space and are accountable to each other (and yes, put their glasses in the dishwasher).

So, how far does trust scale? Dunbar’s number suggests humans can maintain roughly 150 stable social relationships (the size of Neolithic villages and Roman army units). Above that threshold, communities and organizations need more rules and hierarchy to function.

“Rules and hierarchy” sounds exhausting. So we’re only opening up 30 Chill membership spots to stay well south of Dunbar’s 150. These spots are for a specific kind of Founder–one who values community over status and growth over ego.

That’s the design of Red Fridge Society: most exclusive by necessity, but least pretentious by choice.

Top of the Fridge

Is this thing on? This Wednesday is our Founder Standup Night. We’ve got 7 Founders on stage and 40+ Founders in the audience. I’m opening up a few more audience seats to pack the house, and one more 5-minute set for the bravest among you.
Drink More, Live Longer. RFS is co-hosting the Longevity Global ATX kickoff happy hour this Thursday to bring together longevity researchers, investors, and entrepreneurs for research-forward conversations and high-signal connections.
Fully Stocked. Most days we’ve hit the coworking vibe I’m going for, so I’ll be pausing the 24/7 memberships April 1. Our Chill Membership (after 4:00 on weekdays + weekends + events) will be our waitlist. Secure one of our last few Fully Stocked spots or lock in current pricing by grabbing a Chill membership before the end of March (and you get to don our hats and name tags!)
Yes, I am obsessed with our brand and got a laser engraver just to etch name tags.
Invest in Lunch: Our March 10th State of VC and PE Lunch featuring Fridge members Jim Curry, Jani Tuomi, and Ben Freeberg is sold out (3x more people than spots!), but our next lunch on April 15th is a LinkedIn Ads Masterclass with Moby Hayat.
SX-RFS. I don’t do SXSW programming (only Austin Founders for me), but a few of our members are using the space for their events. You can join Datasent’s SXSW Happy Hour on March 15th, or if you’re an alum of Trilogy or Harvard Business School, reach out.
Coffee Extra Hot and Cold. We have two coffee events on March 26th. A Coffee and Sauna event in the morning, and a happy hour with the Cold Cycle Coffee founders, with coffee cocktails including a coffee-infused vodka.
Spring Forward. We have a couple of amazing events toward the beginning of April worth RSVPing now for: April 2nd Sauna Happy Hour and Discussion facilitated by Dr. Jess, and April 8th is our open Spring Happy Hour.
Fridge Got Talent. The Standup Night was a blast to put together, so I’m working on both a Moth-Style Founder Storytelling night, as well as a Founder Talent Show. Let me know if you’d like to be on “stage” for either.

The Monthly Magnate

What types of entrepreneurs are part of the Fridge community? Behold!

The March Magnate is Jim Curry.

Jim Curry is a long-time Austin resident, having lived here 30 out of the last 37 years. Most recently, he is the co-founder of BuildGroup, a $330m growth-stage firm focused on B2B workflow SaaS.

BuildGroup has had several notable exits to date, including the sale of Casetext to Thomson Reuters, Amelia to SoundHound (SOUN), Flowspace to a PE buyer, Anaconda to a private buyer, and Fiix to Rockwell Automation.

Prior to BuildGroup, Jim was an early executive at Rackspace, overseeing the transition from client-server (hope some of you remember what that was!) to cloud computing. In the process, he founded and ran the OpenStack project and foundation, which remains the standard architecture for private cloud deployments.

Jim is now launching several new efforts focused on AI-enabling both SaaS and tech-enabled services companies — all under the current working title of "Topwater"— just because he loves to fish.

Jim is a native Texan who attended UT and got his MBA at Harvard. He is very actively involved at UT and in various community activities. For fun, he runs, cycles, and enjoys most things involving any level of competition, followed by beer drinking. He has 3 teenage kids and a wife who is a mahjong expert.

Fridge Factoids

Jim was one of the first five founding Fridge Magnates (say that 5 times fast!)
Jim is on our investor panel for our March Lunch Society on VC and PE in 2026.

Come #Be Chill with Us

Join Austin’s Luckiest Entrepreneur Community.
Although the ridiculous amenities, meeting rooms, coworking, and guaranteed access to events are all great reasons to join, the community is the Society’s primary value driver. We promise that you’ll have a conversation at the Fridge in the first few months that is worth more than the cost of a few years.
Our 24×7 Fully Stocked Coworking Membership is currently $1350/mo, but jumping dramatically on April 1 when we move to a waitlist.
Social memberships start at $850/month and lock in the current pricing for the 24×7 membership.
You can apply for both here.
New to Austin? Apply for our Austin Fresh program for a free Fridge membership.
Want to come check out the Fridge but can’t make it to an event? You can grab an hour on Chris’s calendar to get the tour.

What’s Fresh in the Fridge?

You can check out our full, always-free-for-founders calendar, but here are some featured events open to non-members. Note that “founder” events are limited to founders and start on a waitlist.

March 4th: Founder Stand Up Night (founders) You're not going to survive this founder journey if you can't laugh at yourself, or at least other founders! Join us for our inaugural standup night, where Founders take the mic to entertain other founders.
March 5th: Inaugural Longevity Global ATX (invite-only). RFS is co-hosting the Longevity Global ATX kickoff to bring together longevity researchers, investors, and entrepreneurs for research-forward conversations and high-signal connections. Join our first ATX gathering for social networking and collaborative planning for future events.
March 10th: Lunch Society: State of VC and Growth Equity (Founder/Investor Only) Join a discussion of the trends in VC and Growth Equity markets in 2026. led by Fridge members, including Jim Curry, co-founder of BuildGroup, Ben Freeberg, Founder of Oncology Ventures, and Healthtech investor Jani Tuomi. Note this one is very sold out.
March 15th: Datasent SXSW Happy Hour (invite only). Join RFS member Greg Allen for his annual SXSW Happy Hour.
March 25th @5:30: Poker Society (members) Our monthly member $1-$2 friendly cash game. Occasionally, we’ll have an extra seat for non-members if you’d like to jump on the waitlist.
March 26 @9am: Fridge Fire! Sauna & Coffee (founders) We're continuing to break in our new Sauna with Mark Hellweg, founder of Vim Saunas and Ratio Coffee. We'll be serving Ratio Coffee around our fire pits as we heat up our new sauna and bucket shower.
March 26th @5:00 Happy Hour with Cold Cycle Coffee (investors) The Cold Cycle Founders are talking about their production buildout and sharing some Coffee Infused Vodka!

We take our coffee very, very seriously

April 2nd: Fridge Fire! Benefits of Sauna and Cold Plunge with Dr. Jess (founders) Join us for a happy hour, sauna, cold plunge, and discussion led by Jessica Tranchina, DPT, the Co-Founder of Generator Athlete Lab.
April 8th: Raid the Fridge! Spring Happy Hour (open) Raid the Fridge and join our spring community happy hour. We’ll have our usual vast alcoholic and non-alcoholic bars available with a few special spring-themed surprises. More the merrier... bring the bunnies.
April 15th: Lunch Society-LinkedIn Ads Masterclass (founders) Have lunch with Moby Hayat, founder and writer of Hunting Leads, as he breaks down the exact LinkedIn ads playbook that works in 2026 to scale B2B SaaS and Service businesses.
May 14th: Founder Invitational Poker Tournament (founders) Manifest some Serendipity at our 30-founder, $200 buy-in Poker Tourney. Members and new players get seats first —sign up now!