StartUp Texas launched in 2019 as a means to provide local entrepreneurs with modest amounts of capital while providing insights on how to scale up their businesses.
The event coincided with the opening of the 36,000-square-foot eBridge Center in downtown Brownsville, which houses the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation. StartUp Texas is the creation of BCIC and is styled after similar events in other metro areas in the state and country. Bringing such an event to Brownsville has benefitted hundreds of local businesses – and now the event is expanding to include more of the Rio Grande Valley.
What is now billed as RGV StartUp Week began on April 25 in Harlingen and concluded in Brownsville on May 2. In between those dates were Startup activities in McAllen, Mission and Weslaco, and a fireside chat with former Mexican President Vicente Fox in Brownsville. Going regional provides wider access to speakers, panels and workshops while retaining some of the sales pitch components where business owners inform judges of their products and services.
“We thought the Valley deserved something like this,” said Nathan Burkhart, the vice president for entrepreneurship and innovation for the BCIC. “Regionalism is our strength. We have terrific entrepreneurs across the Valley so this is a way to reach more communities.”
Helping Each Other
It was a robust week for RGV StartUp activities.
There were three days of boot camps in Harlingen on the Texas State College campus as aspiring entrepreneurs received guidance from managers representing Geekdom, a San Antonio-based company specializing in the tech scene. There were numerous workshops at the eBridge Center in Brownsville that included insights on how to use social media and the challenges and opportunities facing women entrepreneurs.
The BCIC’s StartUp has matured to the point where some of its alumni entrepreneurs are being asked to give their insights on launching a business and maintaining success. One of those alumni businesses is Pluton Brewery of Brownsville, which presented a discussion entitled, “business failure is a bruise, not a scar.” The regional aspect of RGV StartUp was featured on April 30 in McAllen. Entrepreneurs of McAllen and Brownsville were brought together on their 1 Million Cups projects, a part of a national effort to champion ideas and help individuals thrive.
The week of entrepreneurship retained the open pitch competition of recent years as local small business owners made their best pitches to judges in seeking grant funding. The proof that such competitions have worked is shown in the entrepreneurs that have gone on to greater successes. Pluton is one example as is La Pale Frozen Bar and Amor Y Pan. The latter two businesses are located in Brownsville and each has scaled up their businesses to sell their products to H-E-B and its Central Market, a gourmet chain owned by the San Antonio-based grocer.
Looking Ahead
The BCIC’s Burkhart says his organization feels great pride in how its alumni businesses have developed to the extent where they consult with each other.
“It’s really about building up the ecosystem of entrepreneurs,” he said. “To see the collaboration between entrepreneurs and how they assist each other, that’s where the magic is.”
Looking ahead, Burkhart says the goals are to continue to build up the StartUp week events and extend its reach to more entrepreneurs and those who aspire to do so.
“It could be a legacy business looking to diversify their business to a more year-round model, or a teacher who is looking to change careers and take a hobby to a full-time business,” he said. “Our goal to help make those things happen is to have more workshops, more programming and improve the quality of our speaker panels.”
