Krista Covey and the team at VelocityTX have done an amazing job lining up speakers, meals, and activities for our 2020 Spring Summit. So far on the blog we’ve covered Krista’s work as an ecosystem builder and the San Antonio ecosystem itself. Before we descend on San Antonio, it’s time to introduce you to the organizations who will play host to attendees during our 2.5 days together.
VelocityTX: An Innovation Superhub
Your Summit Host this year, Krista Covey, is the Vice President of Economic Development and Operations for VelocityTX. Krista has hit the ground running in her 2.5 years at VelocityTX listening to the needs of entrepreneurs in the ecosystem and writing programs to meet those needs - specifically in the biotech and healthcare space.
VelocityTX is an Innovation Superhub and will be one of three sites that hosts attendees during the summit. The organization’s focus is to accelerate the process of commercializing ideas, products, services, or processes, and to guide companies entering the market in the U.S. They believe in protecting the best interest of the entrepreneur through entrepreneurship support organizations - whether incubators, accelerators, collaborative spaces, or angel investors.
VelocityTX is a separate entity under parent nonprofit TRTF (Texas Research Technology Foundation). TRTF was founded by General Robert McDermitt, who was also responsible for turning USAA into the very large, successful company it is today and credited with enacting the seatbelt law that saves millions of lives every day.
The foundation, which has been around for 35 years, also has a research park component. Years ago, it became the recipient of 1500 acres of property. The research park was not as successful. Fortunately, in 2016 Microsoft bought a large portion of the park, which gave the foundation funds to build the innovation center to continue to offer more opportunities for successful startups in San Antonio.
TRTF's $220 million investment in an innovation superhub (VelocityTX) was to energize the biotechnology industry in San Antonio and reshape a portion of the East Side. Building One, which just completed is not the only building that will make up what TRTF plans to make an innovation district for the life sciences.
The four acres the land sits on used to be the Merchants Ice site. The plan is currently set in four phases over the next 10 years. The city of San Antonio is supporting the effort with a $750,000 grant and tax incentive for redevelopment efforts in hopes that the site will spur more economic development in the area.
SCN will be the first organization to experience VelocityTX’s brand new Innovation Superhub but it won’t be the only support organization we will occupy. In the spirit of collaboration, VelocityTX has partnered with Geekdom and Launch SA.
“It’s not just about VelocityTX. You will get to see three very unique spaces where entrepreneurs can get resources and services,” explains Krista.
LaunchSA
Opened in 2014 as a partnership between the City of San Antonio’s Economic Development Department and LiftFund, the nation’s largest microfinance non-profit, Launch SA is an entrepreneurship, small business center located at the downtown central library in San Antonio, Texas.
Ryan Salts, Director of LaunchSA
The partnership was created under the watch of former mayor Julián Castro. The idea was that entrepreneurs need direction and support at the earliest stages but there weren’t any organizations that provide that at an accessible level. The task was to help entrepreneurs but not have the program managed by the city - instead have it run by entrepreneurs.
“Our goal is to not necessarily have all the answers but to help connect you with the people that do. We connect you with organizations on a more structural level to get you the answers related to the goals, questions, vision that you have. Separate from that, we also have developed programming that really fills needs and gaps to support growth,” explains Ryan Salts, Director at LaunchSA.
Ryan says that the organization is nationally recognized and has been able to provide support to over 14,000 individuals in the five years they’ve been operating. They also have relationships with over 100 partners locally, regionally, and nationally and have relationships with over 200 mentors who offer mentorship.
“We’ve built all of our programming to be focused on share of perspective - driven by the entrepreneurs that are at the upper end of their journey and achievements. It’s sort of a train the trainer model in essence,” says Ryan.
LaunchSA develops programs based on the needs of the community. They take cues from members who ask for or need specific support that doesn’t already exist or is not prevalent enough in the ecosystem. One example of that - which is one of their most recognizable programs - is their Break Fast and Launch program. This culinary business accelerator was the first of its kind in the nation. It helps food entrepreneurs get perspective to drive forward their endeavors.
“We’ve taken over 120 participants through this program since 2015. About 80% of them are still in business today. We’ve really had an uptick in terms of the growth of our culinary community because of this program in general. It was also nationally recognized by the White House when we started it.”
Other programs they run include:
1 Million Cups
The Venture Challenge (a goal setting initiative)
San Antonio Entrepreneurship Week
Pitch Tab
ImpulSA (the first Spanish-language program in the city)
Learn more about their programs here.
Geekdom
Geekdom is the largest coworking space in San Antonio and has made a huge wave in the city’s entrepreneurial efforts. Being eight years old, Geekdom was one of the key players in emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurship.
Founded 2011, the intent was a little different for its founders - one of whom is Graham Westing, cofounder of Rackspace. During the process of trying to found and build Rackspace, Graham realized how much of an ordeal it was to build or acquire the talent needed to grow. In dealing with the struggles of entrepreneurship, he realized he wanted to help the next founder. Nick Longo (the other founder of Geekdom) joined Graham to design an entrepreneurship program at Rackspace. As the two of them traveled around the country and worked on this program, they became exposed to the idea of coworking. The two came back with the idea that they needed to form a coworking space in San Antonio.
“The intent was a place for people to come and work and to give resources to startups to be able to be founded here in San Antonio,” explains Geekdom CEO Charles Wooden. “Over the past eight years we’ve grown quite significantly and there have been a few core tenants to what we do. Everything here is really focused on collaboration.”
Since 2011, they’ve grown to 1700 members and now occupy four floors and their own building. The rest of the floors are filled with other startups, as well as Google Fiber, a Rackspace training center, and Pabst Blue Ribbon, who has their technology department there.
According to Charles, Graham worked closely with former mayor Julián Castro to help redevelop downtown and reshaping some of the issues San Antonio has been dealing with. He says, “A core tenant of Geekdom is to make a more desirable downtown area for the citizens.”
In addition to being a coworking space, Geekdom runs several programs to support members. They have a Mentor Week, Pre-Accelerator, and Community Fund.