The pandemic fueled many business ideas and led to new entrepreneurial ventures in San Antonio, and the startup community is in full throttle to bring more jobs and technological advancements to the Alamo City.
Charles Woodin, CEO of Geekdom, a collaborative community and co-working space for entrepreneurs and new startup companies, joined us for a KSAT Money Q&A to discuss how the San Antonio business community has evolved and grown organically over the past 10 years since Geekdom was first founded and what new entrepreneurs can do to enter the startup scene.
Woodin joined Geekdom in 2017 as the business development manager and took over as CEO in 2019. He says his goal is to promote growth in San Antonio’s bustling startup scene and lower the barrier for those interested in becoming entrepreneurs.
“One of the things that I really wanted to do was to create a pathway and make it more accessible for anybody who was interested in starting their own company, had an idea, who needed resources that they could plug themselves in. And so now our main goal is to build San Antonio one startup at a time,” he said.
But building one startup at a time isn’t easy, and San Antonio entrepreneurs have built each other up to create a more vibrant business community.
“How we accomplish that is by empowering entrepreneurs to cultivate, shape and grow their ideas into viable businesses that are ready for the next level,” Woodin said. “So we’ve been doing that now for the past handful of years. We’ve seen some great successes, and we’re super excited now that we’re, hopefully, seeing the tail-end of this pandemic and seeing a lot more amazing new training startups come out of our space.”
Some may find themselves interested in creating their own startup but may be intimidated by the culture or lack of tech knowledge. Woodin says one of the best ways to jump that hurdle is to get involved.
“My first thought is this it’s totally acceptable and understandable to be nervous about that. But my answer is to come in and get involved,” he said. “There’s a couple of different ways when you’re at that idea stage for you to get plugged into the community that has been built now for over 10 years here in San Antonio. And the way to get involved is to come in and be a part of a startup weekend. We here at Geekdom are going to be hosting eight of those this year.”
During this KSAT Money Q&A, Woodin also spoke about the emerging industries in San Antonio, other ways to get involved in the startup community and how entrepreneurs can get a free LLC. Watch the entire interview in the video player above.
For more information about Geekdom, click here.
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