SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Startup Week (SASW) begins Sunday, and on top of the extensive agenda, it is a way to show off the Alamo City and inspire entrepreneurs.
Phillip Hernandez, COO of Geekdom, joined Leading SA to talk about SASW and the local tech industry.
“San Antonio Startup Week is a seven-day conference we’ve put together. It’s a celebration of all the startup ecosystems that we have in San Antonio in these seven days, you’ll be able to learn about all the startups that are growing, all the resources that are available. If this has been a collaborative effort to show off our community, I’m super excited,” Hernandez said.
The tech sector across San Antonio has grown exponentially over the last decade.
“The growth that I’ve seen in tech is that a lot of folks have been embracing it. And I’ve seen folks reimagining how they do things. Everything from one of our founders, Ashley Bird with blooming with birdie kind of re-imagining how we incorporate screen time in education with the young ones and how we make how we make the connection between screen time in real life,” Hernandez said.
The growth isn’t expected to slow down any time soon.
“We’ve really seen companies just inject tech wherever they can to modify those solutions and help solve those problems. Where I think it’s going next is more collaboration, more communication. And we’re just going to see tech kind of help to reimagine how we solve problems,” Hernandez said.
So how can the Alamo City compete with other big cities like Austin or Dallas?
“We can stand alone. And we do have a strong and vibrant startup ecosystem. And, you know, what really shines here is our culture. The culture in San Antonio, especially in the startup scene. Everybody wants to lift each other up. There’s a lot of collaboration and you don’t really see that a lot of other places like we see it here in San Antonio. I’ve witnessed it on my own. I’ve seen companies and founders help each other grow. And that’s, I think, going to be our differentiator in San Antonio,” Hernandez said.
Pitching San Antonio to young and upcoming businesses is getting easier and easier.
“Well, first off, it’s affordable to come to San Antonio and live in our city. We have a beautiful downtown. It’s very walkable. There’s lots of space. There’s tons of historic buildings that you come to San Antonio. You can get a corner office and have your founders set up, have your employees set up. And we just have a vibrant culture that is always evolving. And so there’s lots to do here. It’s a great place to raise your family. And if you haven’t realized the resources that we have at our disposal these next seven days, we’ll show you. We have resources for marketing, for funding employees, and all that kind of stuff. So and so, yeah. I mean, I think San Antonio is a great place to grow your startup, and we’ve seen it happen,” Hernandez said.