A Maryland-based cybersecurity firm whose clients include the U.S. Department of Defense and the Air Force is expanding its presence in San Antonio.
X8 becomes the latest company to locate at Capital Factory, which operates out of the Boeing Center at Tech Port on the Port San Antonio campus.
The company joins IntelliGenesis, another Maryland-based cybersecurity firm; Leidos, the global technology company that makes airport body scanning machines; GDIT, a subsidiary of General Dynamics; and Peraton, a national security defense contractor.
All have taken up residence either at the Port or Capital Factory‘s San Antonio office within the last 18 months. The startup incubator launched an outpost of its Center for Defense Innovation at the Port in 2021 to help connect tech companies to the U.S. Defense Department — and each other.
That growing ecosystem is what attracted X8, said Vic Malloy, the company’s new executive director for Texas.
Malloy, a military veteran and longtime cybersecurity industry booster, credited Port leadership with bringing together academia, government and private industry “to say, ‘what can we do to better collaborate?'”
Cybersecurity is a rapidly growing field, noted Dave Ortiz, X8’s chief technology officer and principal engineer, “and there are not enough of us doing this work. There’s a lot of work out there, so we all have to collaborate … even though we’re sometimes competitors.”
Ortiz, who grew up in San Antonio — he graduated from Judson High School, before you ask — will remain in X8’s Maryland office, but returns home regularly. Hiring Malloy, who has built relationships across the region for years, “will help us concertedly grow in Texas.”
Almost half of the company’s roughly 50-person workforce is already in San Antonio, he said, embedded with various clients. For now, only Malloy will office out of Capital Factory.
The Port would love to see companies like X8 expand their initial presence at the Port, said Will Garrett, the Port’s vice president of talent and technology. “Our goal with any company is to engage them as to, how do we help become a part of your development, to increase your contract aperture?”
Finding new talent is always part of that conversation, Garrett said, and in this regard, San Antonio has a leg up on other cities. Ten to 15 years ago, it wouldn’t have been as clear cut to a company headquartered in Maryland to make an investment in San Antonio, he said.
Now, “we’re seeing firms understand that the talent pipeline is here, and it’s rich, coming out of our high schools, colleges and universities, and through our transitioning military [population].”
Garrett said companies aren’t asking whether the talent pool is here, but rather, “how do we partner with the Port to ensure the talent pool knows we’re here?”
X8 is hosting an open house at Capital Factory on Oct. 10 from 4 p.m.-6 p.m., mostly for networking, although company leaders will be on hand for a short program.
