My very best Austin day with Kim Rutledge
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Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Courtesy of Q2.
Q2 Holdings, the Austin-based publicly traded digital banking software company, most famous for sponsoring Austin FC's stadium, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Why it matters: When you bank online, there's a good chance the interface is powered by Q2.
Background: The company has rocketed in growth. At the end of 2016, it had 750 domestic employees and $150 million in revenue; in 2023, it earned $600 million in revenue and had about 2,300 employees in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom and India.
- To celebrate the company's 20th anniversary, employees have pledged to log a total of 20,000 volunteer hours this year.
Helping oversee that effort, and the company's growth generally, is Kim Rutledge, the company's chief people officer, who started at the firm in January 2017. We asked her about her very best day in Austin.
Rutledge, 55 and an eighth-generation Texan, moved to Austin in 2006 and lives in a downtown high-rise.
- She works in the office daily: "If you worked at home with my husband and my dogs you'd be in the office every day, too."
Tell me how you're kicking off your day.
"We go do a walk with Nicky" — a mini goldendoodle, less than a year old — "on the hike and bike trail. Fanny" — a 10-year-old terrier mix — "prefers to be at home by herself."
What are you doing for breakfast?
"It's a Saturday, so we head to the farmers market at Republic Square. We'll grab a tamale at Tamale Addiction. I'll eat everything, but I like their traditional ones, especially if I've been to Bangalore" — in India, where Q2 now has personnel — "and have been away a while and I need a little bite of Texas."
What's an afternoon activity?
"A perfect day would probably be in the spring, and we'd do an early afternoon Austin FC match — we've got season tickets."
How did Q2 decide to sponsor the stadium?
"We felt like a soccer ball runs through every neighborhood, and it's a great way to connect people of all backgrounds."
How does your night go?
"We'll hit Garage — a speakeasy for cocktails, and I like something really boozy — I'm an old fashioned type. I like ordering the special on the menu — I like the bartender making the decisions about the most fun drinks."
And dinner?
"Otoko, the omakase at the South Congress Hotel."
Isn't that the sort of place where the chef decides all the dishes? And at Garage you also like to defer to the bartender?
"I like going places where they're the experts, they know their products and know their business. I make a lot of decisions the rest of the time."
And then you head home?
"We usually put on an album or two and have another drink at home. We're lucky enough to get to look at the Capitol from our living room. Nothing to complain about, for sure."
What sort of albums are you listening to? On vinyl?
"Yep, on vinyl. Sturgill Simpson has got a new album out, and we like listening to Shelby Lynne on heavy rotation."