Native startup leaders optimistic about San Antonio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem are saying enterprise is again.
With 2024 marking the relaunch of Launch SA, Geekdom’s inaugural Ladies Founders Community quick pitch competitors, and the creation of a brand new fund to help startups throughout South Texas, San Antonio’s startup scene is firmly again on observe, Geekdom CEO Charles Woodin stated on the second annual State of Geekdom luncheon Thursday.
Based in 2011 by Graham Weston and Nick Longo, Geekdom is one among San Antonio’s most established entrepreneurial incubators, serving to native innovators flip their enterprise concepts into thriving firms.
Like many organizations, Geekdom felt the results of the COVID-19 pandemic, with membership dropping from round 1,800 to 1,500 in 2020. Nationwide, new enterprise purposes additionally declined, in keeping with the U.S. Division of the Treasury.
However since then, there’s been a transparent rebound. The Treasury studies over 19 million new enterprise purposes have been filed since 2020, reflecting a broader pattern in entrepreneurial exercise.
Geekdom’s 2024 success mirrors this nationwide uptick.
“In 2024, our flagship programming supported over 640 distinctive entrepreneurs, and people entrepreneurs launched 164 new startups in our metropolis,” Woodin stated. “These startups from Geekdom raised over a staggering $30 million in capital simply this final 12 months.”
That development additionally consists of 109 new jobs in San Antonio, $155,000 invested instantly into native startups by way of Geekdom packages and 4 patents filed by Geekdom firms, he added.
Final 12 months additionally ushered in Geekdom’s official partnership with Launch SA. In September 2023, the Metropolis of San Antonio permitted a $1.7 million, three-year settlement with Geekdom to handle the operations of Launch SA, town’s incubator program began in 2014 to assist join small enterprise house owners and entrepreneurs to native packages and assets.
A 12 months later, the partnership was celebrated with the “Relaunch of Launch SA,” in its newly redesigned house contained in the San Antonio Central Library.
Throughout Thursday’s luncheon occasion Matthew Espinoza, director of Launch SA, stated the partnership has allowed Launch SA to make a much bigger impression locally.
“That included a number of various things,” he stated. “For one, persevering with and relaunching the providers Launch SA supplied; new initiatives and new programming; bringing a complete new workforce; and in addition renovating our house.”
In 2025, Geekdom goals to proceed development in San Antonio by serving to firms make it by way of the “development hole,” Woodin stated. Many startups wrestle to safe sufficient funding to scale, which Geekdom is hoping to assist with, he defined.
“We are going to proceed to ship the foundational packages that we are able to whereas including new assets that assist entrepreneurs bridge that development hole and obtain long-term success,” Woodin stated.
