San Antonio—It hasn’t been easy for San Antonio to stand out among tech capitals like San Francisco, New York, Boston, or even Austin, its smaller neighbor to the north.
For years, the Alamo city has had deep expertise in areas such cybersecurity, cloud computing, healthcare, and energy—but getting national recognition for that work has been another story. A startup culture that has been brewing in recent years appears to be changing things. That momentum was central to the discussion at Xconomy’s first public event in San Antonio last week, “San Antonio Tech: Seizing the Momentum.”
It was a half-day forum with a star-studded lineup of speakers, such as U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, who moderated a panel of some of San Antonio’s top cybersecurity minds on what there is to be wary of in this new digital world (in short: a lot). Manoj Saxena, a founding general partner of The Entrepreneurs’ Fund and the chairman of two Austin-based artificial intelligence companies, gave the packed audience insights into the rapidly shifting field of A.I. and his personal perspectives on entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, Rackspace chief operations and product officer David Meredith discussed the way the company has transitioned its business model to meet the demands of the shifting cloud computing sector.
Speakers in panels on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and emerging sectors shared insights into accessing capital, developing young business talent, and bringing more creative startups to San Antonio. Graham Weston and Lorenzo Gomez, two entrepreneurs who helped Geekdom and the 80/20 Foundation succeed in the city, capped the event by discussing their relationship as entrepreneurs and the future of the San Antonio tech scene.
Special thanks to our platinum sponsor, Port San Antonio, for making this event possible.
It was a day not to miss—but don’t fret if you did. Check out the slideshow above to get a glimpse of the action (thanks to Aiessa Ammeter for the photos), keep an eye out for future San Antonio events, and stay tuned to Xconomy’s coverage of Texas innovation.
