Long-time San Antonio startup incubator Geekdom is leaving coworking spaces behind.
After more than 20 years of trying to build tech and entrepreneurial ecosystems downtown, Geekdom is shifting strategies. The organization will consolidate its operations onto one floor of the Rand Building on Houston Street and then shift its focus to helping startups through the so-called “valley of death” — the gap between launching and profitability.
CEO Charles Woodin said the change in strategy will start when Geekdom ends its coworking contracts in September and launches a new membership club model in October. Woodin said $100 monthly memberships will include access to Geekdom programs, resources, mentorship and support.
There are other coworking spaces downtown, he said, and having that space is no longer essential.
“We sit down with founders and the stories they have and the needs we hear … Very rarely, if ever, do we hear they need a desk or an office,” Woodin said.
“If me and my team spend less time filling offices, we can spend more time uniting partners and supporting startups,” he added.
Geekdom will consolidate nearly 50,000 square feet across four floors of the Rand Building to the building’s third floor, where members can still reserve space for work, but won’t have full time offices or desks.
It’s part of a deeper change in Geekdom’s focus, though, Woodin said. Much of the organization’s programming has centered around helping San Antonians turn ideas into businesses. Now, Geekdom wants to support people who already have startups off the ground.
Those are companies that have started operations, but are not yet sustainable or profitable. They’re in what tech investors call the “valley of death.”
“We would get a lot of exciting ideas coming to the table that would not necessarily become companies down the line,” Woodin said. “They would have a hard time finding funding locally, they would have a hard time finding customers locally.”
Pat Matthews, the founder of pre-seed venture capital firm Active Capital, said that problem isn’t confined to San Antonio.
“Most startups everywhere fail because they never find enough customers, never reach product-market fit, or simply run out of money and time before they do. That’s the nature of startups,” he said.
Woodin wants Geekdom to help those startups connect with local investors and potential customers.
“They’re in the thick of it, trying to find funding and customers,” Woodin said. “I view us, as an organization, a founder-success-oriented account manager.”
Woodin added that there are spaces for people who have fresh ideas. Geekdom runs Launch SA, a program that supports early entrepreneurs, through a contract with the City of San Antonio. Geekdom’s new memberships will still be open to all, he added.
Biz community weighs in
The announcement has led to deeper conversations about San Antonio’s startup scene. Matthews has been based in San Antonio since 2007, when Rackspace acquired his company.
He’s watched businesses deal with challenges here since then. San Antonio is geographically spread out, he said, making it hard to bring startups and their founders together. Austin, 70 miles to the north and far more plugged into the global tech economy, also tends to drain away talented workers and funding.
Matthews said there are advantages in San Antonio, like low cost of living and less competition for labor and other resources. He’s not sure if Geekdom’s changing strategy will solve San Antonio’s core problems, Matthews added, but he’s seen the organization’s positive impact.
“It introduced thousands of people to entrepreneurship and helped create a startup community where almost none existed before,” Matthews said. “The recent decision to reduce its coworking footprint also strikes me as a rational response to how founders work today.”
Nick Longo, who founded Geekdom in 2014, endorsed the move in a post on LinkedIn. He said the change would lead to more collaboration.
“My take on the changing Geekdom model is that it’s going ‘back’ to the why we started it,” he wrote.
Some of the startups in Geekdom’s ecosystem are already on board. Franklin Morris won money from the organization’s community fund and launched KeepTabz, an artificial intelligence competitive marketing tool, this year.
“If I get help with the business-side of things, I don’t care about losing my office. There’s plenty of places to co-work,” Morris said.
Morris said Geekdom has given him community and support that have been helpful for turning his idea into a business. Now, he said, he’s trying to bridge that gap between startup and success.
“Your objective is to find product-market fit and a scalable model before you go bankrupt,” he said. “It’s the early survival phase.”
Morris did note that in-person co-working had benefits. It allowed startups to meet and learn from one another, but he added that support from Geekdom’s new model could make or break startups in San Antonio. The organization could connect startups with each other or with potential customers and investors in a way that cold calls or emails can’t accomplish.
