Brent: Dan Graham, one of Austin’s most active entrepreneurs, is stepping down from his long-time role as CEO of BuildASign.com.

Graham (pictured above on the far right) wrote about the move on Facebook: “Handed over the CEO reins to my good friend and fantastic leader, Bryan Kranik at BuildASign. I’m so excited to watch him lead the company during the next stages of growth and discovery. I’ll be joining my wife Lisa focusing on community work through the organization we founded, Notley and will still be engaged as Executive Chairman at BuildASign moving forward.”

Kranik is a former Dell executive who Graham brought over to BuildASign as CMO in August last year. And he takes over a proven business that generated $85.5M in 2015. Graham, meanwhile, will work closely with Notley Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses with social good ethos.

The news at BuildASign is among dozens of big hires during the month of February, a month that also included news of layoffs at Spredfast and Rackspace, as well as a headcount reduction through attrition at National Instruments.

Other big moves included: BigCommerce named Alexandra Shapiro as its new CMO; SubVRsive hired former Hulu executive Johannes Larcher as its CEO; and uShip announced former Accruent executive Mike Williams will become its new CEO. See the full list here.

Brent: This might be the first of several moves. Austin-based Banker’s Toolbox, Inc., an anti-money laundering software company, is acquiring Georgia-based Integra Systems. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Banker’s Toolbox was founded in 2000 by Daniel Cho. In 2015, the company got a capital infusion (amount undisclosed) from private equity firm Accel–KKR. Cho stepped down as CEO in August 2016 and was replaced by Wayne Roberts. Integra Systems, founded in 1994, provides regulatory scanning solutions for banks and other financial institutions, insurance companies, auto dealers, brokerage firms, healthcare providers and other organizations.

Banker’s Toolbox says it’s on the lookout for additional acquisitions.

“Integra’s capabilities will add value to our customers and our strengths. And this is just the beginning,” Roberts said in a news release.

Brent: Tonight’s Inno Approved event is part of UT Entrepreneurship Week, which runs Monday-Friday. At 4:30 today, you can get an exclusive screening of a documentary about women entreprenuers called “She Started It.” There’s also a panel discussion with Jordan Jones (Packed Party), Chantal Pittman (Unique Influence) and Amy Porter (AffiniPay). That’s followed by a keynote by Tressie Lieberman, CMO of Snap Kitchen. 

• From Venture Beat: HTC unveils Viveport Arcade software to power virtual reality arcades
• From Sara Brand: Are Women the Most Underutilized Resource in the World?
• From the ABJ: Could Apple’s diversity issues cost executives part of their paycheck?

Brent: HomeAway‘s new promotion will reward some lucky group of travelers a week’s stay in a 14th Century Scottish castle.

That’s definitely a dream for a ton of people, and it’s tied to the new “Beauty and Beast” film. But, I could also see this as the start of a pretty cool horror flick.

Synopsis: A group of millennial travelers gets an exciting dream stay at a castle from a killer Austin-based startup. There’s a little bit of romance and tension between the friendly travelers.

From there, it’s a choose your own adventure: A.) Ghosts from the castle’s past start haunting the place leading to a blame game among friends and murder mystery. B.) A psycho killer from deep in a nearby forest decides to drop by for a visit. C.) The host forgot to provide clean towels or extra TP — and you’re 20 kilometers from the nearest store. Things get truly medieval.

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