SAN ANTONIO – It seems like every year the technology industry is getting more and more prevalent in San Antonio.
The city has seen substantial growth over the last 10 years and Geekdom’s CEO is optimistic for the future in the Alamo City.
“It’s been pretty exponential, to be honest with you. We’ve seen some amazing companies and ideas pop up within the space and even outside of the space, some that have grown very significantly over the past five years that I’ve been involved,” Geekdom CEO Charles Woodin said.
Woodin started in business development for Geekdom and is now the CEO -- and a big part of the company creating thousands of jobs.
“2,489 jobs have been created by companies within Geekdom. And the thing that I love about that number so much is that these are jobs that never existed before. They didn’t move here. They were created out of somebody’s mind and it led to those people ending up getting hired and effecting the economic growth here in San Antonio,” Woodin said.
A large part of Geekdom is helping young innovators grow their business. And they need to raise money to do that.
“We’ve seen over $422 million raised by companies. And when you think about that number, it’s just a very large number and I think it’s going to continue to grow over the next few years,” Woodin said.
Geekdom is set to release their 2021 Impact Report on Wednesday, which illustrates the economic effects of the company. A big concentration of the report is on diversity.
“Of the 80 companies that are currently a part of our programs, 59 of them are led by a minority in some way shape or form, and it’s amazing to see. So that’s nearly three quarters of the companies,” Woodin said.
So the question is: Can Geekdom and the Alamo City sustain the growth?
“I really do think so, and the reason why I think so is because it’s not just Geekdom anymore. There’s a lot of other players that have popped up. San Antonio is doing some amazing things. The innovation centers about to open up, Velocity Texas over on the East Side are doing some amazing things. The West Side is about to step up and do some things over there with one of the startups, Iris, that came from Geekdom moving over there,” Woodin said.
All in all, Woodin said it is an exciting time for San Antonio and is a great week for Geekdom, which includes the Thursday Innovation Forum -- which is going to be focusing on careers for women in tech.