The 36,000-square-foot eBridge Center in downtown Brownsville was envisioned as a space where aspiring entrepreneurs and existing business owners could experiment and test new ideas.

After a year of operations on East Adams Street, eBridge is proving to be just that and more. Its StartUp Texas innovation competitions feature enterprising businesses from a variety of industries representing food, research and emerging technologies. Just in recent months, presenters offered judges in the competitions a look at one company developing technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and another advocating fitted bed sheets to monitor patients via wireless means.

An earlier 2023 StartUp event featured barbecue meats rubs and frozen fruit bar paletas. All of the entrepreneurs and business owners shared the same characteristic of being local and connected to Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley with the ability to appeal to U.S. and Mexican markets. Seed funding is awarded to the top three winners at each event. Expertise and guidance is also shared with all entrants in developing business plans and improving their products. 

“It’s about as as we can make it,” said Nathan Burkhart, the director of marketing and small business development for the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation. “We’re seeing a more robust entrepreneurial ecosystem developing in the Rio Grande Valley. It’s a reflection of what’s happening with the economy on a local and regional level.”

Keep Them Local

StartUp Texas began in 2019 with the goal of helping local entrepreneurs seeking capital to expand their Brownsville-based operations.

Initially, the thought was to invest in early stage companies. It has now evolved into what Burkhart calls “full accelerator programs” to include the opportunity to win up to $40,000 at the StartUp competitions after participants make pitches and presentations to a panel of local and out-of-area judges. The presentations take place after the selected entrepreneurs go through an eight-to-12-week program utilizing curriculum from UTRGV’s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center. 

With product presentations developed and financial projections sharpened, the entrepreneurs go before the judges at the eBridge Center to make their pitches. The end result is investment capital for the emerging entrepreneurs. It’s a confirmation that some of the Valley’s best and brightest can stay locally and regionally to develop their ideas. 

“In the past, entrepreneurs with these kinds of ideas and projects would leave our community,” Burkhart said. “We want to use the resources and the facilities we have here to keep them in Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley.”

‘Think Outside Of Box’

The pitch summits are just one aspect of the offerings at the eBridge Center.

It goes beyond being a conventional business incubator. The center offers an array of services that include programs and insights on how to scale up local small businesses and properly use market research to grow revenues. The building’s second floor also features large laboratory spaces. Here, emerging businesses can temporarily house equipment and test its capabilities before going to market. 

“It’s collaborative space to inspire and think outside of the box,” Burkhart said. 

UTRGV and its ECC are key partners in making the eBridge facility an effective one. Here, city government also offers insights on the permitting process and the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce has an extension office. 

“It’s convenient to have everything under one roof,” Burkhart said. “It can be difficult to build an ecosystem if it’s spread out all over a city.”

The eBridge center is a public incubator in that it is funded through public sales tax dollars and university assistance. Private incubators would take equity or stock in businesses they assist, but with eBridge, Burkhart said, Brownsville-based entrepreneurs own their businesses outright and retain as much of their business as is possible. 

Next up is a Dec. 14 Startup Texas event, now in its third of the year at eBridge. Startup Texas will feature emerging local companies in the areas of energy, technology and health care. 

“We’re developing different cohorts,” Burkhart said of the three StartUp Texas events. “We want the community to see what we have here. Five-to-10 years from now, there will be an even more robust ecosystem of entrepreneurship where you can still leave (the Valley) if you choose to do so, but you won’t have to.”