Three decades of building on the web, written in Texas vernacular. A small studio that has shipped 120 websites since 1996 — and is still here, still typing, still in Austin.
We have been making things on the internet since before the internet had a face. Not as employees of a tower — as a one-person shop, from Texas, building patiently.
WholeTech started in Austin in 1996 as spring.com, one of the city's first online communities. A BBS, then a portal, then a portfolio of literary and cultural sites: austen.com, colinfirth.com, adultstory.com. The web grew up. We stayed small.
In 2007 the studio's proprietor became Twitter's first celebrity at SXSW — profiled in BuzzFeed, Slate, the New York Times. Then came the coworking era. Then the great quiet middle years of building, registering domains, and waiting for the right tools to arrive.
They arrived in 2026. With modern AI as a co-builder, the studio rebuilt 120 sites in 48 hours — a network spanning sports, real estate, literature, AI explainers, sustainability, and the long history of Austin's web culture. This is the Texas chapter.
Jane Austen literary archive. One of the original literary sites on the web.
Colin Firth fansite — one of the longest-running fan sites still online.
Austin's plain-English guide to AI — models, tools, prompts, news, local meetups.
Burnt orange & cream — Austin sports, UT athletics, neighborhood gyms & venues.
Cedar Creek & Bastrop rental properties, tenant portal, FreshBooks-linked admin.
Bayless High alumni archive — the studio proprietor's St. Louis hometown school.
Paul Walhus — the proprietor's own page. 30 years of links, projects, and breadcrumbs.
Personal directory service — 4,800 friends, 9,800 contacts, sortable and searchable.
A second cut at Austin sports — different design, same passion, cross-linked to the network.
Texas television & film production trade resource — locations, crew, soundstages.
The daily map of the whole network — every page, every site, every change.
A plain-English Claude & Anthropic guide — products, design, integrations, getting started.
The internet got loud. We kept building.
House style · Whole Tech Texas
One of Austin's first online communities. A bulletin board that became a portfolio that became a network. The seed of everything that followed.
Austin · Originausten.com, colinfirth.com, adultstory.com — early entrants in a web that hadn't yet decided what it would be. Many of them are still here, twenty-five years later.
Literature · Fan culturePaul Walhus becomes Twitter's first celebrity at South by Southwest. Profiled by BuzzFeed, Slate, and the New York Times. @springnet, now @PaulTerryWalhus.
SXSW · Presstexascoworking.com, americancoworking.com, coworkingcongress.com — five years of speaking, writing, and helping the coworking industry find its language.
Industry · SpeakingSixty more domains acquired across tech, sustainability, entertainment, and community. Most quiet. All waiting for the right moment to be built out.
Domains · PatienceWith Claude as a co-builder, the studio rebuilds 120 sites in 48 hours, and starts shipping at a pace it could not have reached alone. wholetx.com is the Texas chapter — the one that says where we are.
AI · Rebuild · TodayAn occasional dispatch from the studio — new sites launching, guides going live, a domain finally finding its purpose. Mailed plain, written by a person, sent only when there is something worth sending.
Volume 30 · Issue 01 · One reader at a time, since 1996.