A $500,000 donation from Graham Weston to the San Antonio Area Foundation and Geekdom will launch a fund available to organizations across South Texas to encourage entrepreneurship.
With that seed funding, the Accelerate South Texas Fund will allow Geekdom to offer resources to regional organizations that work to support small business growth.
The fund’s announcement came as part of the first “State of Geekdom” event, which also shared that organization’s annual impact report.
“We’ve been asked for years to expand Geekdom programming outside of downtown San Antonio,” said Weston, who with Nick Longo founded Geekdom 13 years ago. “There’s so much more demand for it. South Texas needs a greater boost for startup culture and entrepreneurship, and this gives us an opportunity to have that bigger impact.”
Onstage, Weston honed in on the ultimate goal of growing entrepreneurship: “That’s what creates the jobs. Create jobs, creates wealth and creates opportunity for all Texans.”
Weston said the new fund would allow companies like USAA and Frost Bank, which he said are interested in “boosting the ecosystem of the tech industry, training and entrepreneurship,” to further their support.
Serial entrepreneur Ben Jones, founder of Skipcart and Geekdom’s first Entrepreneur in Residence, donated $100,000 to the fund, designating it for Geekdom’s Pre-Accelerator program.
That six-week program preps startups to rapidly scale and seek investment opportunities. It’s one of several programs Geekdom offers along a continuum for startups, from boot camps through the company’s Community Fund, which invests directly in local companies.
Over the past two years, Geekdom has launched 260 startups, which together raised almost $72 million, created 348 jobs and filed 14 patents. Of those startups, 85 were launched by women, 96 are minority-owned and 15 were launched by veterans.
Helmed by Charles Woodin since 2019, today Geekdom counts more than 1,000 members and 90 mentors, who in the past two years have donated more than 500 hours to supporting entrepreneurs.
The Accelerate South Texas fund continues Geekdom’s recent expansion efforts. That has included moving away from its early focus on tech to embrace startup companies of every type. Last year, the company won a three-year contract from the City of San Antonio to run LaunchSA. Earlier this month, it expanded inside the Rand building, adding another 12,000 square feet.
The San Antonio Area Foundation will manage and distribute the fund. Among the largest community foundations in the country, it manages nearly 600 charitable funds totaling $1.3 billion in assets. In 2022 it distributed more than $57 million in grants and college scholarships.
Last week, the foundation announced Nadege Souvenir has been named CEO after a nationwide search. Souvenir served most recently as chief operating officer of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation. Her tenure begins April 15.
Interim CEO Lisa Brunsvold said the foundation had been working with Geekdom for more than a year to design a fund that could offer the greatest impact. “The innovative approach to economic development is incredible,” she said. “But then, what else would you expect from working with a roomful of serial entrepreneurs?”
Correction: This story has been updated to accurately reflect the number of charitable funds managed by the San Antonio Area Foundation.
