How to Find New Businesses Opening in Austin Before Anyone Else Does

The signal exists — most people just don't know where to look

Every business that will sell taxable goods or services in Texas has to register for a sales-tax

permit before its first sale. That registration is public record, and it typically lands weeks

to months before a storefront opens its doors — which makes it one of the earliest, cleanest

signals available for "what's coming" in a neighborhood.

Step 1: start with the sales-tax feed, filtered

Our openings feed pulls directly from the Texas Comptroller's new-permit data for

Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, and Caldwell counties. The single most important filter:

hide home-based online resellers. Roughly 45% of new filings statewide carry a

"electronic shopping / mail-order" NAICS code — that's an Etsy or Amazon seller registering from

a home address, not a storefront. We flag and hide these by default; see

what a sales-tax permit actually tells you for the

full breakdown.

Step 2: narrow by what you're looking for

• Restaurants specifically → filter to NAICS 7225, or use the restaurants view
• Bars, or anything serving alcohol → the sales-tax feed isn't tight enough on its own; check

new TABC licenses, which land closer to actual opening day

• A specific ZIP or neighborhood → every ZIP has its own live page, e.g. 78704
• A specific suburb → Round Rock, Cedar Park,

Georgetown, and other metro cities each have a dedicated feed

Step 3: cross-reference with construction

If a business needs a physical build-out — a restaurant, a gym, a medical office — a

building permit at the same address usually precedes the sales-tax filing or lands

around the same time. Seeing both together is the strongest "this is really happening" signal

in the data.

See everything opening right now, filtered and sortable →

Get this in your inbox

Free weekly email — the biggest permit, the new openings, and what's changing across the Austin metro.