This article has been updated.
Matthew Espinoza was a student at UTSA in 2015 when he landed an internship at Launch SA, the City of San Antonio’s one-stop shop for would-be entrepreneurs seeking guidance.
Now a small business owner who first pitched his idea at a Launch SA event, he’s returning to lead the organization.
In addition to running his business, Espinoza, 29, worked most recently as director of programs for Geekdom, the business incubator and co-working space that earlier this year was awarded a three-year, $1.7 million contract by the city to run Launch SA.
Geekdom CEO Charles Woodin, who has hired Espinoza on two different occasions to work at Geekdom, said Espinoza has been key to Geekdom’s efforts to expand its own role in serving startups beyond those in tech.
“So I was thrilled when Matt came to me early on and said he was interested in this role,” Woodin said. He said as he reviewed candidates for the position, he was looking for someone who understood the landscape of existing small business support in San Antonio as well as what it’s like to start a small business.
Espinoza and his father incubated their business, San Antonio Business Calendar, which offers a free calendar of business events plus a more comprehensive subscription model, at Geekdom, one of several ventures he has launched there.
“We wanted this person to be really knowledgable, and I think Matt fits that on both ends, and I am super excited he raised his hand,” Woodin said.
Woodin noted that Launch SA already has a strong identity in the community. LiftFund ran the program since it began as Café Commerce in 2012, hosting thousands of events and assisting 37,000 people who reported, via survey, a 64% increase in sales, $4.5 million in investments secured and more than 1,000 jobs generated.
Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, director of the city’s Economic Development Department, called Launch SA “critical to supporting a thriving small business and entrepreneurial ecosystem” in San Antonio. Her department will track its outcomes “such as improved economic resiliency, stability and growth for those in underserved areas as well as strengthened network connections.”
The organization rebranded in 2016, not long after it started Break Fast & Launch, a culinary business incubator that has since launched dozens of eateries and packaged food businesses. Espinoza hopes to eventually relaunch a version of that program, as well as 1 Million Cups, a national program that connects small businesses with the community over coffee.
Espinoza said one his biggest priorities is to reactivate the organization’s space after the pandemic forced much of its programming to go virtual. Launch SA has 9,600 square feet within the San Antonio Central Library at 600 Soledad St. that is being upgraded thanks to $300,000 in federal COVID relief money.
Launch SA’s first event will be a “Shop & Learn Holiday Market” on Dec. 13 from 5 p.m.- 8 p.m. featuring food and drink, a popup with local vendors selling their wares and a panel discussion featuring H-E-B buyers and consumer packaged goods entrepreneurs. Both the market and discussion are free and open to the public.
Espinoza also plans to get beyond that downtown location into other parts of the city to help reach more budding entrepreneurs. He did something similar with Geekdom’s bootcamps, helping revamp the content and hosting them in different locations to reach a wider audience.
“We want to meet entrepreneurs and business owners where they’re at, to hear their needs,” he said, “as well as just hosting events around the community.”
Perhaps most importantly, Espinoza said he wants to make sure all the existing small business support organizations are connected to Launch SA, so that no matter the small business need, the organization can point the business person in the right direction for help. That includes business development organizations like San Antonio Growth for the Eastside (SAGE), Prosper West and Southside First, as well as UTSA’s Small Business Development Center and microlenders like LiftFund.
“In just the month or so that we’ve been the partner, we’ve had a lot of inquiries already, a lot of [organizations that] point people here, so we’ve got the brand recognition, now we just want to keep growing it” to become, as the under-construction website for Launch SA states, “the front door to small business and entrepreneur support in San Antonio.”
