Geremy Landín is either one of the youngest Millennials or an elder statesman of Gen Z, depending on which year one considers the transition between the two.
Regardless, this 28-year-old San Antonio native is always on the go.
In 2021, he ran for City Council District 5 at age 25, tying for third out of 11 candidates; two years later he ran for the San Antonio Independent School District Board. While outgoing board member Patti Radle said she’d vote for him, he lost to the other candidate.
The jobs he’s held since he earned a master’s in public history at St. Mary’s University in 2018 have been eclectic and often brief, with stints at the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores’ office and the H.E. Butt Foundation.
He’s now celebrating one year at the helm of the Maestro Entrepreneur Center, a business development organization headquartered on the near West Side which serves small businesses across Bexar County. In that year, the nonprofit has grown, raising more money and serving more businesses.
“There’s always lots of buzz here now,” said Jacqueline Hernandez, a therapist and small business advocate who moved her private practice to an office at Maestro in April 2023. Hernandez now serves on Maestro’s board. “Geremy is always thinking about ways to maximize space, to maximize time, to maximize resources.”
Landín reflected on the past year in a recent LinkedIn post, using Oprah’s “What I Know For Sure” teachings as a template to describe what he’s learned.
“Leadership in a nonprofit has tested me in ways I couldn’t have predicted,” he wrote. “Staff turnover, navigating challenging relationships, and securing city funding and community support — it’s a constant balancing act, a 24/7 commitment.”
‘We need to build our own’
Founded in 2016 by Julissa Carielo of DreamOn Group, Willie Vasquez Ng of Blue Armor Security Services and others, Maestro Entrepreneur Center opened under the aegis of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and its then-CEO Ramiro Cavazos. It became a stand-alone private nonprofit in 2018.
Maestro was envisioned as a place that could provide customized support for San Antonio small businesses to grow beyond the startup stage, Carielo said. At the time, she’d spent 10 years of “trial and error,” including seeking resources that didn’t exist. “I needed the next level of support, and I was going everywhere looking for it, and eventually I just thought, ‘OK, we need to build our own.”
Carielo has recently rolled off the board, but she remains an advisor, and DreamOn Group offices across the courtyard from Maestro on Laredo Street in what was once a school testing site for SAISD. Vasquez Ng is also now a board advisor; he interviewed Landín and made the case for his hire.
Landín’s tenure “has exceeded my expectations,” said Vasquez Ng, whose “only hesitation” was the candidate’s age. But from “managing staff, and our programs, to finding financial support … he has done extremely well.”
‘Second-stage’ companies
After he stepped away from the board, Vasquez Ng applied to one of Maestro’s two main programs, Accelerate For Growth, informally known as the Second Stage cohort, which is aimed at helping for-profit companies with revenue between $1 million and $5 million, among other requirements, grow more quickly.
Blue Armor has been in business since 2003, but Vasquez Ng said even longtime business owners can benefit from the support of meeting with other business owners and sharing their challenges. “I learned from people who’d had their business for one year,” he said. “I don’t care if you have two years or twenty years [in business], you’re going to benefit from these programs.”
Maestro’s other main program is a 12-week accelerator for small businesses.
The two-hour, in-person classes include business development, cost pricing, project management, insurance and legal matters, technology and other topics. The next round begins July 18, and this time around, Landín said, the program is open for businesses that want to drop in to individual classes.
Other programs and classes are offered based on need and funding. Landín said current board chairwoman Janell Davila hoped to focus this year on access to capital — far and away the number one need small business owners identify as a barrier to growth.
But as the nonprofit helped business owners apply for loans, many were rejected, he said, even under the looser standards of community development finance institutions. So the organization pivoted to more foundational assistance that can help businesses lay the foundation necessary to qualify.
Reaching small businesses
Maestro is hardly alone in helping small San Antonio companies grow.
It is one of several business development organizations that have spent the past several years helping to shore up local businesses hammered by the pandemic, inflation and construction woes — often while facing leadership challenges of their own.
All say that getting the word out to small businesses and connecting them to available resources is one of the most difficult parts of the job. Landín and Maestro’s lone other employee — Landín hopes to hire an event manager and a communications coordinator soon — recently walked the corridors eligible for the City of San Antonio’s latest round of construction grants to let businesses know they could get help applying.
“I love technology, but it just doesn’t always work,” he said, describing a recent encounter with the owner of a watch repair shop on South Presa Street as an example. “I asked for her email, and she said, ‘no tengo’ — I don’t have one. So I can send out a mass email encouraging businesses to apply, but they’re never going to see it.”
Even business owners who consider themselves more plugged in often aren’t aware of the breadth of the services that exist. Hernandez, who began her career in economic development and was invited to Maestro to speak to other small businesses, didn’t know it offered office space until she got a tour.
Landín does use technology to track the organization’s metrics, so he can show the board and donors how it’s growing and what small businesses need.
He also recently uploaded the nonprofit’s financials to GuideStar, which posts that information in the interest of transparency. Doing so earned Maestro the organization’s “gold” seal, given to organizations that provide comprehensive information about their finances, leadership and demographics.
A West Side community space
Landín has also opened Maestro’s space to neighborhood groups. He described a meeting with several neighborhood leaders after his District 5 loss that has stuck with him.
“They kind of grilled me, like, ‘What’s your goal here?'” he recalled. Landín said he committed to not run against Councilwoman Teri Castillo and promised to stay involved with the community.
Last month, Maestro screened the documentary Remembering Gus Garcia for the Westwood Square Neighborhood Association and also hosted a vaccine clinic.
These types of events aren’t directly related to small businesses development, he acknowledged, but they serve to strengthen the organization and get the word out about what resources do exist.
They also serve to deepen his relationships with politically active members of the West Side, should he he choose to run for District 5 again once Castillo terms out of office.
That doesn’t happen until 2029, though, giving Landín a long runway to continue growing Maestro. He said the cause is personal to him, as he watched his parents struggle with their own small businesses. “This is not some abstract idea I read about it in a book.”
Landín acknowledged that he still sometimes feels imposter syndrome, but then comes the gratification from small business owners Maestro has helped. “That matters to me.”
