Native enterprise and tech leaders have spent greater than a decade making an attempt to jumpstart new, greater firms in San Antonio. On the tenth San Antonio Startup Week, just a few of these leaders mirrored on what’s been achieved and what nonetheless must be completed.
The downtown occasion, organized by native enterprise incubator Geekdom, contains workshops, panels, funding alternatives and expos that give native entrepreneurs an opportunity to share their work and find out about enterprise.
On Wednesday, Geekdom CEO Charles Woodin spoke a couple of decade-plus of enterprise and civic leaders constructing a sturdy tech and startup ecosystem — a group of collaborating entrepreneurs that draws capital and creates enterprise and jobs on a bigger scale.
His message? Progress has been made, however after 10 years, San Antonio is midway there.
“I might take a look at it because the adolescent stage,” Woodin stated. “We’ve obtained all of the sources we have to survive.”
Now, he stated, it’s a matter of bringing that collectively and getting these sources and investments to repay.
Woodin isn’t the one one. On a current episode of the bigcitysmalltown podcast, Juan “Sebastian” Garzon, a managing companion for a neighborhood funding agency, outlined an analogous timeline for making a group of worthwhile and proliferate startups and firms which might be current in locations like Silicon Valley, Boston and even close by Austin.
“It takes 15-20 years for these ecosystems to completely develop and flourish and get to see the outcomes that they’ve now,” Garzon stated. “What that tells me is we’re nonetheless on that journey.”
The “there” San Antonio is attending to has additionally shifted. Leaders like Woodin are taking part in to San Antonio’s strengths.
Geekdom has broadened its focus from tech startups to different new companies, like store-bought packaged items, to incorporate extra San Antonio entrepreneurs and industries.
Enterprise incubators, nonprofits that create workspace and studying sources for enterprise house owners, have sprung up for San Antonio-specific sectors, like VelocityTX within the bioscience and medical area. Even teams like TechBloc, which advocates for know-how enterprises, are targeted on established native industries, like cybersecurity and manufacturing.
These efforts are channeled towards a standard objective, create companies and jobs by supporting entrepreneurs. Geekdom was based by native businessmen Graham Weston and Nick Longo in 2013. It’s grown, Weston stated, however that objective stays.
“The size’s greater, however the mission’s the identical — connecting individuals with the sources and inspiration to construct their desires,” Weston stated by e-mail this week when reflecting on Geekdom’s mission.
Constructing an ecosystem
Luis Martínez had been round Geekdom since 2013. A former director for Trinity College’s Middle for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, he’s been a mentor at Geekdom and now works at Capital Manufacturing unit, a enterprise capital agency.
He’s seen Geekdom develop and, at instances, stumble. Between 2013 and 2019, he stated, the group based startup week, different incubators began and buyers started to take discover.
In its first decade, Geekdom startups created greater than 2,000 jobs and raised $422 million from buyers, based on a 2022 report.
Martínez stated the COVID-19 pandemic was a stumbling block. Geekdom misplaced members because the financial system slowed down.
“[One] part ended when COVID occurred,” Martine stated. “From 2022 onward, the final three years, it’s actually been about constructing.”
In 2024, Geekdom stated it was bouncing again and it helped launch 160 new companies that yr. It entered right into a $1.7 million contract to handle Launch SA, town’s enterprise useful resource middle, in 2023.
“Success reveals up within the numbers: firms launched, capital raised, jobs created & lasting affect,” Weston stated, citing native firms like Parlevel, Floatme, Large Solar Photo voltaic and Porchpass which have discovered sustainability within the housing, short-term mortgage and photo voltaic industries.
The place to subsequent?
“Compared to locations like Austin, Dallas-Fort Price and Houston, we nonetheless have an extended method to go,” Martínez stated.
Woodin additionally sees room for progress. Success can imply a whole lot of issues for brand new companies, he stated. Some need to keep small and native, he added, and that’s high-quality. Small companies create jobs and wealth and Geekdom values each.
“There’s little distinction [to us] between a mom-and-pop, brick-and-mortar location,” he stated. “And an organization that breaks by way of the nationwide noise.”
However Woodin additionally hopes to see extra funding, acquisitions and bigger public firms develop out of Geekdom. He hopes to see San Antonio firms get preliminary public choices and promote inventory, like Rackspace did for the primary time in 2008.
“That’s nonetheless a metric I’d like to see. What number of public firms can we launch?” he stated.
Getting there isn’t simple. There’s a purpose it takes time, Woodin stated. A big a part of Geekdom’s work is connecting new enterprise house owners with buyers, and there’s at all times a necessity for extra capital, he stated.
“We do want individuals which might be somewhat extra open to threat,” he stated.
It’s a problem many cities in center America face, he stated. Traders are inclined to give attention to coastal metropolises and never what’s in between. Geekdom helps enterprise house owners get off the bottom, but it surely’s additionally making an attempt to get San Antonio on the radar of the funds and companies that rove the world, in search of the ground-floor alternatives and the subsequent large factor.
What do buyers need?
San Antonio Startup Week is a chance for a few of these buyers to sit down in the identical room as small companies.
Doug Parker works for a small firm that makes investments for $100,000 to early stage companies. He attended a Girls’s Founders Community pitch competitors to search for alternatives. Parker isn’t fascinated about the businesses, although, he’s fascinated about the individuals working them.
“That’s what we’re in search of,” he stated. “People who find themselves inventive in fixing an issue.”
Traders say they’re startups and funding alternatives below a microscope.
Cat Dizon is Geekdom’s board chair and a co-founder of Energetic Capital. Energetic Capital makes investments between $100,000 and $1 million and encounters bigger companies than Parker does. The individuals nonetheless matter, Dizon stated.
“An enormous portion of how profitable the corporate goes to be is how properly they work collectively,” she stated.
The place a brand new enterprise can be doesn’t assure success, stated Daniel Lubetzky, the billionaire founding father of KIND Snacks who now runs Camino Companions, an funding firm. Lubetzky, who went to highschool and school in San Antonio, spoke at startup week.
“I take into consideration a particular sector and product and if the entrepreneur’s superb and in the event that they’re in San Antonio in Timbuktu or someplace in the US, then I’m extra prone to [invest],” Lubetzky stated.
San Antonio does have strengths that had been price emphasizing, although, Lubetzky added, like decrease labor prices, extra reasonably priced dwelling and a deep cultural historical past.
“I simply would actually lean into understanding what are the aggressive benefits of San Antonio and, for the services or products, is it searching for to domesticate the correct match for that metropolis?” he stated.
The following 10 years
A part of San Antonio Startup Week is offering instructional workshops and sources to individuals beginning companies. Geekdom and different native incubators present new companies with key sources and data, Martínez stated.
“That degree of entrepreneurial schooling, monetary literacy and enterprise literacy is extremely vital,” he stated.
Native universities and nonprofits can present that, he stated, and improve the workforce and experience in a group. That’s a part of constructing a startup ecosystem, Woodin stated, the place there are sufficient individuals with sufficient concepts that new, worthwhile ventures turn into extra frequent.
“We haven’t had one other Rackspace-scaled final result,” he stated. “And that’s okay. it takes time.”
Native enterprise leaders are attempting to solid a wider web and unfold sources and help. Geekdom, for instance, has expanded its programming past tech companies.
It accomplishes a few of what Lubetzky laid out — taking part in to native strengths.
“Over the past 4 years, we’ve actually opened up,” stated Dizon, Geekdom’s board chair. “We’re capable of develop our group by welcoming different areas.”
Geekdom has elevated help for shopper packaged items firms and nonprofits, Dizon stated.
The following Google may not come out of San Antonio, however there are different sectors the place town is rising, like medical know-how and aerospace. Development can really feel gradual, Martínez stated, however constructing a actuality the place San Antonio is thought for brand new companies and startups just isn’t a fast course of.
“This work takes a very long time,” he stated. “The largest shock is right here we’re, 10 years later. It looks like we must be additional alongside than we’re, however this stuff take time.”
