Episode 20 Building Community Driven Startups in San Antonio’s Thriving Tech Scene

Okay, welcome everybody to a session with the Boost Live on podcast. A special thanks to our sponsors to Boost for their support this week. Now I'll pass the mic over to Leon to lead us on. That's cool. Okay, so we're going to do live podcast. I think today's topic is actually... Is it? Or is that tomorrow? I think it's today. That's what we're doing today. Okay, okay. The show moved a couple times. So, in my defense. Invest in community, that's what we're rolling with. We all love community. And everybody here is a part of a community. So Pablo is very, very swagged out. And he's got Venture Lab. Venture Lab, Rep and Venture Lab. He's got that. We've got him in the Geekdom Mentor Community. He's part of the Trinity Mentor Community. And then he's going to Mexico as part of the delegation with AIM. TechBlock and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. So a lot of involvement in the community in that perspective. Then we've got Zach here, and I'll give a little intro and then you guys can explain yourselves a little bit more. Zach's, he's involved in everything. He's got Nonprofits HQ, he's helping nonprofits figure out some pretty complex issues and managing how to run the organizations. He is in every panel. If we can get him to talk, he will talk. And he's running a lot of programs. There's a number of events I've just seen you hosting and shepherding along. And then we've got Lawrence here who's really involved in the New Tech Alliance. San Antonio New Tech. San Antonio New Tech. Which Zach is my partner in crime with that. So trying to make an alliance. He understands a lot of the perspective of reviving that, bringing it back, and then also he's a mentor at Geekdom and anything else? I'm also a board treasurer with Emerging Rise, which is an organization that's a business incubator and trying to help focus on SMB especially. Okay, very nice. So, Zach, do you want to add anything to your part? I undersold you. Yeah, no, no worries. So I think, I mean, that was the gist of it, but essentially... What I've been focused on since coming to San Antonio, I am a transplant from Phoenix, but what I've been really focused on is building that community of startup founders and really uniting the ecosystem to make it a productive, successful place for companies to grow. And a large section of that is like mentoring through the Geekdom Network. I'm also joining Pablo on the Tech Block Delegation to Mexico City. All those different things that really unite people, bring people together, and help us collaboratively build success for everybody that's building and working right here in San Antonio. I love it, and you're always willing to help. Every part of this is somebody comes to you, and I see it all the time. I'm across the hall from them in our co-working space. People are always coming and asking him to be involved in the community, and I never hear no. I hear yes, or hey, I've got this other event, which is unique because you are a transplant. You did benefit, obviously, a lot from... what they've built here, but you are giving back more than you've taken, in my opinion. And I think that's key, and it's totally not just me either. I think that's key, right? Every ecosystem has a lot of give and take. We need to find the resources that we need to build and build successfully, but we also need to give back to that and ensure that future generations of companies or organizations that are coming to San Antonio or thinking about San Antonio are able to be successful as well. So think about the things that that we don't have or that we wish we had, and let's put them in place for the next generation of founders. So one thing I'd say is, just in general, I mean, first of all, Zach flew in like a comet, okay, just ball of fire. He's been here, he's engaged, he's not just simply being a face that people get to know, and you could ride the fanfare if you wanted to, but he's not. He's putting in the most valuable asset that he and all of us in this room have, and that's our time. You know, like we keep forgetting, we keep thinking that money is the only thing that makes the world go around. The fact of the matter is our time is the most valuable thing that we can offer to each of us, right? And I hate to make it sound like, oh, you know, like that sounds so kumbaya. But the fact of the matter is, is how many people in this room have had a couple of pennies or maybe not even two pennies to, you know, to rub together? You know, it's happened many, many times in my life. And I'll tell you, Time and support and the bridges that have nothing to do with the economics are what got me through. And I think it's the kind of thing that as you start finding that success, you recognize that your time is the most valuable thing you can offer. And just be willing to do it in whatever small way you can. And it will make a huge difference to the community at large. We all benefit from that. One of the things I'd like to add, too, I'm a multi-generational Texan. I've been here since 1850s. uh our family never left uh you know we didn't explore out other than one sibling in my family who's gone on to california 99 of the rest of us from all the generations have stayed here from working with zach a lot through sa new tech and through mentoring together at geekdom just knowing him and his character one of the things i can say is one of the reasons why he's most successful too is he understands this very well and he wants to fit in here and he wants to expand what we have here. He sees the gaps in our marketplace not as a weakness in our character which has been holding us back but as things that we need to build together to push us forward. And I 100% agree with his optimistic perspective of growth and that we can focus on what we can do. to move the change forward, you know, definitely looking at where the gaps are, but, you know, doing it together. And I think that's why you and I are paired so well with the SA New Tech stuff and the things that we're working on together. Lawrence is probably one of the most diplomatic and methodical people that I have ever met, and he likes to think things through very well, and he builds relationships, he cultivates them, and he protects those. And then I'm like, let's get shit done. Let's bulldoze through everything and get stuff done. And I think that's why you and I are paired so well together, because you've been able to, on a few things at this point, be able to kind of keep me a little more diplomatic in the situations where we need to be. And then I've been able to help kind of push us a little further along in areas where it makes more sense. Sometimes you do just need to break a few dishes. That's the truth of the matter, right? Especially in entrepreneurship, that's a huge part of what we do, execute and iterate. I think for my part, some of it is just where I've fallen flat on my face before, too. Like, okay, maybe down this path, we'll probably fall again. So that helps a little bit, looking at that perspective. But I think one of the things I value about how we get along is I think we have an interesting, similar view of business in general. everything like from early days when we met like we were aligned with a lot of you know different various choices that you can make in business well one thing that you said zach and you've mentioned it to lawrence but nobody talked about it really is those conversations you are having about the gaps in in san antonio it it's the value of death i think san antonio startup week has up talk about it you've brought those things but In those perspectives, you're the squeaky wheel to help facilitate those. You're bringing that in and saying there is a gap in what San Antonio is right now. The startup community has come a long way from before even 300 Main was here and it was a parking lot. It's progressed and it's because people stay in the community. They continue to contribute. They continue to mentor. And then TechBlock is facilitating these trips to Mexico. You've got Geekdom running the startup bootcamp, the pre-accelerator, and then the other program. What is it? It's the bootcamp, the accelerator. It's the incubator and the pre-accelerator. There we go. Call Stagger, walk around. Yes, yes. Now the next gap is that valley of death and actually raising money, actually building a sustainable business, and the way and path to do it is through a community because You are going to need, in your case, possibly through Nonprofits HQ, you're going to need channel partners. You're going to need folks to connect you with these other programs. You're going to need incubators to go connect with, especially if San Antonio is a target market and a growth potential for you. So just a quick question for Zach. I'm also a transplant. I'm from the East Coast. You know, Baltimore is a little different than obviously Phoenix. I still rep Baltimore, but I love San Antonio. I've been here eight years, and my kids are San Antonians through and through. They've lived here more than half their lives at this point. I'm not going anywhere. But I chose San Antonio because San Antonio chose me, and I was actually excited about coming, and I had a lot of connections here before I came. Obviously, being Hispanic, this is one of the most wonderful cities to be. If you want to speak Spanish on the street for some random reason, this is the place to do it. So culturally, from the standpoint of where I came from, where Latino-centric wasn't necessarily the norm, that was something that made San Antonio special for me from a cultural standpoint. But for example, coming from Phoenix, why did you choose San Antonio, Zach? Yeah, definitely. So to be honest, San Antonio was not on the list. It originally was on the list. When you're thinking about where you go to build a startup, you think what the Bay Area, you think probably New York, you think Atlanta, Chicago, all these other places, Austin, which was on our list. And as we started exploring different places, we knew we couldn't find the resources that we needed in Phoenix to build what we wanted to build. And resources not just being capital, I think a lot of companies, a lot of founders get stuck on this idea of needing to raise some type of money in order to start building and in order to start doing things. But resources in terms of teach us how to actually be business people right this is our first start-up we we know the product space really well and we're still learning how to actually you know keep the records that we need to keep how to have the conversation that we need to have and then our networking was very draining and then something that I was awful at before but so as we were exploring places to find those things that we need to build successfully we're looking at Austin which was cost prohibitive for us, right? We needed runway personally and runway professionally in order to build. San Antonio kept coming up in that search, right? As we were looking around Austin and as we were looking for places to go, San Antonio kept coming up. Resources through, you know, Geekdom and LaunchSA and Techblock and Capital Factory, all of these things kept coming up in the research that we were doing. So we had a few boxes that we needed to check off, right? We needed to have the cost of living low enough that we could sustainably build on, like, no dollars. We needed to have resources to help us on our weaknesses. Not just the weaknesses that we've identified, but the weaknesses that we don't know we have yet. Help us explore those and account for those. And then we needed a place where there was enough market for us that we could get integrated with. And San Antonio kind of checked all those boxes, the resources through the various programs that exist, the cost of living, and then it's a very... very there's a very large saturation in this case saturation is a good term of nonprofit organizations which is who we support so it checked all of those boxes and while there's still you know you mentioned the valley of death there's still a lot of work to be done once you get your product built once you get in production and start selling San Antonio, there's still a lot of work to make it a place where companies can not just start, not just grow, but more importantly stay. And I think it falls on the current ecosystem players, but not just them, it falls on us as founders to make those resources available and to make this an environment where startups can succeed. So I started this by saying San Antonio was not on the list of places where we thought we could go and build. So the mission now becomes let's change that. Why isn't San Antonio on the list of cities where people think they can come and they can successfully build? Let's identify what those reasons are. Let's bring these conversations into public, which we've been doing a lot of throughout Startup Week this year, and let's actually turn those into actions. Let's put San Antonio on the list where people can come and build. Very well said. Loud cheering applause. Yay! Lawrence. Yeah. You've been here forever. Yeah, yeah. Why do you choose to stay, I guess, is the question. Why do I choose to stay? That's a great question, actually. I've been recruited throughout my career, throughout the country. When I was spending some time with a consultant practice here in San Antonio, got recruited to go to their headquarters back off in the east. Multiple times, those kind of situations arose twofold to that. One, first and foremost, from the perspective of it's my homeland. We've been here. Forever anyone that you know was born in Texas understands sort of Why we have a tendency more than any other state to have the highest retention rates like if you look at studies Part of it's just you know the simple answer of I'm just another native Texan And then the other side of it is Genuinely, I'm a business person. I think Zach was touching on some things and what he was talking about that really resonated with me about how we really know business fundamentals well. And Texas is really good at business fundamentals. And it's something that I know that, for example, in San Antonio, like we talked about this earlier this week, we had Datapoint here in San Antonio that built the initial technology for the... modern, you know, computer. They created the first microchip processor. Intel was their builder on that. And, you know, after that time period in the 90s, we also had Wi-Fi standards that we helped contribute to. So basically, the modern computer, the Wi-Fi that we're connecting to wouldn't have existed had San Antonio not existed. Going back to my forebearers, I mean, they were vicarios and they were cowboys. And so like there's the whole, you know, cowboy ingenuity and innovation. So I've always seen San Antonio as an innovation city because of that origin and because of our roots. But I've seen it as something, one, we're not braggadocious. That's maybe a downside. So if we have successful founders, for example, they're not necessarily. talking about or sharing about it where others might and provide more visibility but as well i see that you know if we stay if more of us stay that you know and there's the talent here we can build it like this conversation we're having right now i argue that us everyone in this room everyone this week is the future leaders that we need to come to the next level and i would also argue that like look at other places that don't have what we've already achieved. We're the seventh largest city in the US. We are very successful as a city. Could we look at like New York City? Could we look at LA or San Francisco? all these other places and compare ourselves yeah we certainly we could and there's always things to look at there's also lessons learned right and and as people scale and there's a lot of the native texans i know grew up with like we always kind of like you know you'd have uh you know i didn't wear my first cowboy hat and didn't own my first cowboy hat a year ago because my grandfather would have called me a dime store cowboy You know, even though I was born in a house with a dirt floor, you know, it's like I never was a cowboy. My grandfather was last in our line. I still have his spurs hung up in my office. And, you know, the reality is that, you know, we've got something special here, I think. And I think that the folks that we have, like Zach, understand that at a core level that, you know, is like, you know, they say, you know, if you didn't get you didn't get here fast enough or whatever you know the expression is and he's out as an ambassador and met like you are in mexico and uh california these other areas that yes we do need to stretch out a little bit outside of our comfort zone as texans and say hello world let's communicate with you and let's be proactive i mean we're setting up right now in the process of setting up an exchange our own exchange like the NASDAQ, you know, like anything else here in Texas. And so this is coming. The next phase is coming. It's really, like, what do we think is the best way to avoid mistakes is sort of more the conversation I think we're having right now than, like, will it come, can it come? I think it's coming whether or not we want it to or not. I want to add before we move on, add to something that Lawrence just said that was amazing. San Antonio is unique. So we often fall into this trap of comparing ourselves to Austin or San Francisco or New York, all these places, because they have a record, a history of building successful enterprises and really being on the bleeding edge of technology. But I think San Antonio is San Antonio. because of San Antonio. So we can look at these other places and we can learn about what made sense for that location to be as successful and to build the ecosystems that they did. But I think we need to translate that into what makes sense for San Antonio. Just because we're missing something in comparison to another place doesn't mean it's something that we need to build here. I think we need to understand what it is that our founders need, that our companies need, that our cities need, and we need to build that. And you hit the nail on the head there. San Antonio is unique. Let's lean into San Antonio. Hey, man. Nothing to add. The part I'm going to add is most of these programmings are free. This is provided from 8020, HUB, and Proxy, Weston Urban, Grand Weston. Geekdom. Techplot. Yes. Marginalize. These communities are all the central focus. selfless leaders that are coming and giving away a lot of content and a lot of material that other places charge a lot of money for. If you want to be in San Francisco and talk about San Francisco, you look at Y Combinator. They're going to invest in you. It's a small subset group of folks that are startups. They're going to take 10%. Granted, you get 500K or a million now. But those are very small groups of people. The same happens in New York and Chicago, Nashville, Austin. Capital Factory is amazing, but again, it's still a very small niche. They're looking for return on their money, almost always. Geekdom is a small portion of that that takes no equity. They don't ask for anything, minus a Geekdom membership. Which is also fairly priced. Yeah, it starts at like $200. And it's free coffee. Free coffee, free drinks, free events, free networking. And you don't get that at places like WeWork. You don't get those at any sort of other co-working places. And I've been to many cities where you go to a co-working spot, and it's very boring. It's very dry. Nobody's really interacting. Nobody's collaborating. And San Antonio has that small, unique part. And you mentioned it to me maybe a few months ago when Fiesta was going on. It feels like a few months ago. It was much longer. But you don't see that programming, even on a city and state level, really happen. anywhere else like phoenix has fairs and they have other things but fiestas are unique things same thing with geekdom and and who started that with lorenzo and nick longo and and graham weston it's it's a important part that has contributed to san antonio actually growing their tech scene from data point to rack space to now so many other companies from bronston to uh jungle disc that became non-profits hq yes one day But that free programming, I think, is the core part of it. Everybody is giving back, and they're not asking for a dollar or a dime. They're asking for that next help, the cosmic karma of, hey, at some point, I'm going to need help. I'm going to need to be picked up, or I'm going to have a hard problem, and I want to come to you. And that's what really, I think, makes this community go around. I think one of the ways that we're looking at it here is if we build it, they will come. And, you know, here's Zach. He's maybe the first of many that will start coming. I've been hearing some folks coming from Mexico. Like, we've got a Mexico City founder that was in the last incubator with Geekdom. And, you know, that was, for me, GenDox, right? GenDox. Gene Paradox. Gene Paradox. Gene Paradox. And so he's the first of potentially many from that corridor, right, that's coming this way. For similar reasons, probably from the conversations I've had with him, is the reason why he came. It was a startup MBA. Is that what we're going to call it? I don't know. But it's like that's the program that Geekdom and TechBlock, Emerging Rise, and other leaders within our community are providing. One thing that I'll share also, and it doesn't get enough fanfare because I think it's a bit of an assumption. San Antonio is one of the few majority Hispanic cities in the whole country. People don't recognize that. That means that there's a natural inclination, a natural leaning into minority business enterprise and tech entrepreneurs. Nobody likes to talk about it because, hey, everybody's Hispanic here, right? I'm coming from a place where not everyone is. And I also come from a place where that underrepresentation is a foregone conclusion. Because of the makeup of this city, naturally, there are more entrepreneurs startups that have founders that look more like me. Now, I'm nearly 50 years old and I've been doing this thing for a long time. And the thing is, is this is not something that should be taken for granted. It's something that should be cultivated. So back to the community building, it's supporting those things and ensuring that you make yourself available because it's not something that everyone can do. It's hard to be an entrepreneur. It's hard to do things when people are telling you that you can't, right? So it's not a rah-rah. It's just simply to say, look, if we support each other, naturally we will all do better. And I think at the end of the day, and what I mean by minorities, I don't mean just skin color. I'm talking about, look, VentureLab started by someone that was interested in promoting more females in STEM from a young age. Now it's open to everyone. But those are the types of things, that's the spirit that we're talking about. I see that in San Antonio a lot. I do not see that in a lot of other cities where it is all about just revenue generation but not social entrepreneurship. That's something else to be considered as well, and I feel like that makes us special as well. Yeah, I love that. I think, you know, a big part of the reason why my wife and I, you know, chose San Antonio over Austin. I'm from Corpus originally, so South Texas boy, but grew up a lot of time within the Houston market. I chose San Antonio specifically because of the cultural components of my wife being first generation from Monterrey. Myself and my family came from a diverse background, a mutt, and we found a home here with that. I think one of the things that you mentioned that was very interesting that i think we don't want to glorify entrepreneurship i think because of the fact that it is hard and there is going to be failure i think for me the way forward to get through like the and grow as a as a city we're going to have to basically increase two things we're going to have to have more failed businesses and we're going to have to have more successful ones i think the two go hand in hand because 90 of businesses fail So it's a hard game, but to your point, I think entrepreneurship is like the number one way to rise people up. And I think it goes beyond just any one minority, to your point, anyone that is coming from being downtrodden. If you have any category you might fit into, the best way to get out of that is to fight your way through in entrepreneurship, and it's why something... I believe strongly in giving back time. I've done, like, huge, big things in my career, and that's why I love mentorship so much because I feel like there's an opportunity, like, through that kind of volunteering that I can do so much more help than anything else. But I do try to, I mean, people will sometimes call me out because geekdom can be very positive and optimistic, and so sometimes when we're giving the talks at the end, I'll hit with, like, then you might fail you know and it comes across as harsh but it's kind love too you know and that that might be the outcome i can tell you from experience i've gone down that path i've had failures with massive collateral damage in my life and i've had you know just miniature failures of things where i was right completely but at the end of the day it was just the wrong time for things which is why we always talk about the pivot the pivot making sure you're hitting market fit That's such an interesting point too because as we're building, San Antonio already turns out so many companies and entrepreneurs and shows people that are already connected in the system or have found that it's available that you can build something regardless of where you come from, regardless of what your background is. You can build something that can be successful. But I think a lot of what isn't necessarily taught in our current programs and as we're building these companies, are that it's hard. Entrepreneurship and starting a company is probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. On days, it sucked. It really sucked. You know, you're trying to figure out how you pay your personal electric bill, then you're trying to figure out what your runway for your business looks like, and then you're also trying to figure out what networking event you go to so you can eat that day, right? Because there's usually food. And so all these things that have to kind of go in to building these companies, and I... I think we need to be honest like we don't want to scare people away from building a company but the worst thing you can do is you know have people have this like glorified idea of entrepreneurship like what you see on Shark Tank or you see on the TechCrunch articles from these YC deals that come out and then they get slapped in the face with the reality of what it is. You're going to be fighting against almost every odd that there is, right? You're going to have to prove that what you're talking about makes sense and that you are the person to execute on that. And then you're going to have to actually execute on that. Well, 9 out of 10 people are telling you, no, this doesn't make sense. I don't understand this. This isn't for me. But you do it for that 10th person that says, wow, this makes sense. You know, when we first generated revenue with nonprofits HQ, We were running our beta program and we weren't charging subscription fees or anything like that because we wanted to iron out the details. But we were collecting a small markup on transactions that were processed on the platform. And so the first time somebody actually paid us for what we built and all the hard work, it was 33 cents. It was 33 cents of revenue. And we were so excited. I left my job making half a million dollars a year as a software engineer. I was so excited because we made 33 cents. And now every year we have the 33 party because that's where we started. And that was so exciting and so rewarding. We built something against all odds that somebody said, wow, this makes sense. This is really cool. It was 33 cents. And we just went from there. But it's really hard, but I think that's where we can lean back into community. A lot of our first customers were people that we knew, were people that we met, that we understood what their problems were and worked with them to create technology solutions to solve them. And I think we need to lean more into community. We need to talk about how hard entrepreneurship is, not in a negative way, but in a way that can move people forward. And we need to think about... sustainable business models. We have not raised a dollar in capital. We have not We kept building and you know we got like resources from Google like they still cover a lot of our infrastructure costs through the Google for Startups program. We won the pitch competition at Geekdom which was 20K in and things like this, right? But we need to start thinking about these companies that were turning out making themselves sustainable. You're going to have those edge cases where what you're building is super capital intensive. That's always going to be the case and in those situations you have to change that approach. But nine out of 10 companies, or nine out of 10 ideas, are just refinements of something that already exists, right? And you can build on that and you can refine those processes and expand on those very quickly by yourself or within your community, right? But we need to start generating revenue as quickly as possible. Even small amounts of revenue, like 33 cents, sets us on that path to building the rest of what we're building. The game is basically get revenue or die, realistically. Exactly. And when we're talking about solving these things like the startup value of death, which has been a really hot topic that a lot of folks are working on here in San Antonio, that's one of the paths that we have to get across that bridge, right? As entrepreneurs, it is our responsibility to find that revenue. If what we're doing is not working, we have to pivot. We have to do something else to find revenue in, even if it's a different stream than we anticipated. And I think community and being realistic about what that looks like is a good first step. And to me, that's part of why I love the Boost podcast and appreciate again for y'all letting us, you know, go on. Boost FM. Boost FM. And SA New Tech, we see as partners in that, you know, going forward as well because we see it as a way to elevate this conversation that we think we need to continue to have and that No one's coming to save us, right? There's not going to be a bunch of money coming in until we have successful founders here in San Antonio that have the money to reinvest back in and all the niches we need them to continue to grow. Because we have places that we do, right? We've had founders that have had success and invest back. That's part of the challenge. It doesn't cover it like you might be just a random startup that you have no investor for here, right? So that's where you've got to go outside. So I think until we break through or we have enough failure, like to Zach's point, we need revenue, we need revenue, like sell, sell, sell. So two parts here. The first one is the reason why we started the Boost was to allow startups to come and make infomercials, more or less. Have those clips, go share them on social media, look important, and be able to have something that they can tout and say, hey, They're going to go build their personal brand. I've talked to every single founder that I've mentored through the program. You need to build a personal brand. You have to be on LinkedIn. It depends what you're doing. You can be on X, Twitter, whatever you want to call it. It's Twitter. Or it might even be Instagram. There's fitness companies. There's fitness folks that come in there. There's restaurants that come in there. And it's, hey, build a personal brand. Make sure that if you fail, you have to be ready to pivot. And if you're going to pivot, you're going to have to have a network of folks that you can turn around and not be ashamed to say that project failed. And I think that is also part of it is there's a glorification of the success. Look, you know, you guys are all successful. I've done well for myself too. And it's something that nobody really talks about is their failures. You know, there's been so many things that have gone wrong in a business or cash flow problems that you're trying to address or even loans that you're coming up on and how do you pay for it? It's an additional loan or you go get outside funding and now you've got investors. There's a lot of that and kind of ties to the second part is how do we support those folks and kind of air those parts of the community out and say, hey, this is not always bad. There's many, many a failure that you're going to do it. Don't have an ego. Don't worry about it. It's part of building because everybody talks about that hockey stick. But part of it is there was maybe six, seven years of building before that hockey stick happened. Yeah, I think some of it is through, you know, the boost. It's through SA New Tech. And it's through, I know Matt also, you know, plug his show. What is Matt's? Matthew Duke, the South Texas Business Work. Yeah, yeah. He also has a great program as well. We're all trying to provide that visibility to the community as a whole. So some of that's, it's a platform where folks like y'all in our community here today can continue to come out and to listen to what businesses are doing and provide that feedback, you know, in many respects and provide the, you know, the visibility and share it with your network and things to that effect. And I think through, like SNU Tech, one of the things we're also doing is, as folks are coming up, our talks are somewhat like a panel format where we're letting people give a pitch, essentially, like taking the capability presentation and putting it into a conversation. As part of that, as folks that know how to have a commercial conversation, we're saying, okay, well, this is how you talk to, like... sell your product versus how you talk to an investor to pitch your product, which we have a lot of support in our ecosystem for how to pitch to investors. But besides, you know, Matt's, y'alls, and us, you know, that's the first three kind of out, you know, the gate trying to help build community around, let's have a conversation about what your capabilities are, what you're trying to sell and who you're trying to sell and where you're trying to go. And that's one step. I mean, obviously the other part of it's going to be where founders need to focus in on that the one thing that i'd share is i think in general the conversations that leon and i have had and we've done plenty of websites we've done plenty of you know marketing materials for for founders and look the fact of the matter is most founders don't have it figured out they don't know step one about what it is to run a business we just had a show earlier today where uh the founder said i don't know how to run a business i know how to getting my idea out there i know how to present it but now what right so don't feel like because you haven't figured out how to do the sales or the marketing or the branding or any of those things that are beyond the idea right beyond just the platform that's it to be on the idea because that's what geekdom is right right it's the idea how do you get beyond the idea to where your commercial phase and to your point marketing sales can help especially it gets beyond sort of that early idea stage where you're just conceptually putting together lean canvas and maybe a pitch exactly exactly and many times i mean we've donated our time expertise that just simply get over the hump and money that's true um you know i think the thing is is don't be afraid to ask i guess at the end of the day even if you need guidance look guidance is free you know opinion sometimes Everyone has them, but very few people will give you the help that you're asking for. So I think that's the piece. Take the opinions of the people that are willing to roll up their sleeves and help you actually address the issue. Yeah, there's many folks in the community. Some of them are Geekdom, some of them are TechBlock, some of them are LaunchSA. There's so many... There's so many resources out there for startup founders. It's nice to see, especially during Startup Week, everybody come together from every single background. I saw immigration lawyers, I saw UTSA folks, HEBs here, there's so many, the Massachusetts MassChallenge was here. Yeah, MassChallenge. They originally had reached out and we connected them with TechBlock. They're making a big entrance from Dallas and planning on staying here. That's an indication of all the stuff that Geekdom and TechBlock have been working towards. Well, I appreciate everybody here. Thank you guys for coming and watching the show actually live. Yes, thank you very much. If you guys want to ever subscribe it's youtube it's this podcast it's all of that we're we're at geekdom all the time so if you want to be on the show just also talk to the video audience later yes like comment subscribe yes i'll record another little block for that but thank you everybody for coming and then thank you guys for joining us thank you

Introduction:

Welcome to the latest episode of the Boost Podcast! This week, we're thrilled to host a live discussion featuring key voices in San Antonio’s tech and entrepreneurial scene. Special thanks to our sponsor Geekdom and to everyone in the San Antonio startup ecosystem for their incredible support. Join Leon and Pablo are joined with two special guests as they dive deep into what makes San Antonio a unique and promising space for tech startups and entrepreneurs. 

Hosts: 
Pablo Calvo: 
-- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablocalvo322/

Leon Hitchens: 
-- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonhitchens/
-- X: https://x.com/leonhitchens

Guest:
Lawrence Coffee : https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencecoffee/
Zac Brown: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacjordanbrown/

Find Us: 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBoostchannel
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AHGT1Aoq9oAHZEHeORBpa?si=1cea25e611bb4ec6
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-boost/id1720047128
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBoostChannel
Website: https://theboost.fm 


Key topics:

Community’s Role in Startups:
--The group discusses the importance of community involvement, mentorship, and the collaborative spirit that make San Antonio stand out as a supportive city for startups.

Unique Challenges and Opportunities:
--With its lower cost of living and community-driven programs, San Antonio is positioned uniquely among larger tech hubs like Austin and San Francisco. Zach shares insights on why he chose San Antonio as his startup’s base after moving from Phoenix.

Resilient Entrepreneurship:
--Honesty about the entrepreneurial journey is vital, from celebrating small wins, like the first 33 cents earned by Nonprofits HQ, to sharing personal challenges.

The Importance of Free Resources:
--San Antonio’s startup ecosystem is rich with free resources like those provided by Geekdom, Launch SA, and Tech Block, which help founders focus on growth without the upfront costs of other markets.


Episode Highlights:

Community and Mentorship: 
--Hear how community leaders mentor new founders and foster a give-and-take culture that encourages everyone to contribute to the city’s growth.

Building San Antonio’s Startup Identity:
--The panel shares how creating San Antonio-specific solutions is better than imitating larger markets, with programs like SA Startup Week, Venture Lab, and Geekdom as prime examples.

Entrepreneurship Challenges and Realities:
--An open conversation on the harsh realities of entrepreneurship, from overcoming financial stress to the relentless pursuit of revenue.

Building a Supportive Ecosystem:
--From creating supportive networks to organizing events, the panelists discuss ways San Antonio could foster future founders and business growth sustainably.


Conclusion:

San Antonio is on the rise as a tech hub, but it’s the people—the mentors, founders, and community members—who make it truly unique. This episode captures the spirit of this city’s collaborative journey towards a thriving startup ecosystem.