San Antonio’s Texas Venture Crawl, 10/6/23
Photo from Ileana Gonzales
Authored by Ileana Gonzales, CEO of Tech Bloc:
Tech Bloc & Frost hosted the Texas Venture Crawl in San Antonio, and to say it was FIRE, is an understatement. It is proof of how San Antonio is growing its Tech and Venture Ecosystem more and more each year.
Our venture capital panel was four strong Latinos making a difference in the entire state and nation: Elisa Sepulveda, partner at Angel Ventures; Mariano González Vasconcelos, founder and GP at MGV Capital, Cat Dizon, cofounder and COO at Active Capital, and Juan Sebastian Garzon, Executive Director at Alamo Angels.
Photo from Ileana Gonzales
Our Founder Panel was three of the most successful San Antonio founders building startups in the heart of Texas: John Goodson, CEO of Darkhive; Joshua Sanchez, CEO and cofounder of FloatMe, and Somer Baburek, MBA, Cofounder, CEO & President of Hera Biotech. It was moderated by the one and only Marcos Resendez, Founder and CEO of The Down Market.
Photo from Ileana Gonzales
Couldn't be more honored to bridge the network between The University of Texas at San Antonio, Trinity University, CAST Tech High School students with our professionals early on. It was so much fun seeing our students have fun networking. They are the future of our city and I had a blast seeing them roam around and approaching professionals twice their age. This is why we do what we do at Tech Bloc.
Photo from Ileana Gonzales
Immense appreciation for Christine Colburn, Alexys Mathis, the ladies of Capital Factory, for their support, work, cheers and tears on helping me make this happen. We are so proud to have joined in CS Freeland’s vision of uniting the state through a simultaneous event that happened in over 10 cities and 13 venues across our state.
View more photos on Ileana’s LinkedIn post here. View more photos Instagram account here & here.
More From San Antonio
Marcos Resendez, Founder and CEO of The Down Market:
I'm thrilled to share an exciting update that embodies our unwavering commitment to growth, community impact, and positive change. As we prep for the relaunch of The Down Market, this provides a great example of how we intend to spotlight initiatives that make a genuine difference in our community, and this one truly shines.
Recently, I had the privilege of moderating a panel of dynamic founders at the Texas Venture Crawl, by the Texas Venture Alliance. The core mission of these organizations aligns seamlessly with the vibrant spirit and San Antonio event organizer: Tech Bloc, an organization devoted to propelling technology and innovation in San Antonio. Texas Venture Crawl and the Texas Venture Alliance serve as crucial bridges, uniting entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors to cultivate collaboration and drive technological advancement.
I must express my heartfelt gratitude to Ileana Gonzalez, Tech Bloc's newly installed CEO for extending the invitation to participate in this event. Her dedication to driving tech innovation and fostering community collaboration is truly commendable, and I'm sincerely honored to be part of this dynamic journey.
Events like the Texas Venture Crawl provide a valuable platform for thought leaders and speakers to share their insights, connect with the community, and propel positive change. I firmly believe that by nurturing these connections, we can collectively transform our vision into reality.
Stay tuned for more updates! With appreciation and excitement for what lies ahead.
View more from his post here.
Photo from Somer Baburek
Somer Baburek, Cofounder, CEO of Hera Biotech:
Had a blast tonight representing Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Corporation and Boerne Kendall County Angel Network at the Tech Bloc event in San Antonio tonight! Congrats to the freshly minted CEO, Ileana Gonzalez on a fantastic event!!
View more from her LinkedIn post here.
Christine Colburn, Community Engagement & Strategic Partnerships at Capital Factory:
WE DID IT San Antonio!
Oh what a night!! KUDOS to EVERYONE (most especially those that came down from Austin, WOW) who came out last night to hang with us and celebrate the very first SA Texas Venture Crawl 2023. Ileana, we are so, so very proud of you!! We couldn’t have done this if it wasn’t for your leadership, cheers to you & the many more to come.
And of course another big heartfelt thank you to Frost for your sponsorship and continued support for our ecosystem. It was a true honor to have had you in the room enjoying the night with us.
Notice the new face of Capital Factory San Antonio? Everyone meet our newest team member Alexys! Yup, she’s ours and she’s already killing it! WELCOME to the Capital Factory #dreamteam babes!
This is just the begining ya’ll, you’ll see more of us doing what we do best on the 17th at the Tech Fuel event happening at our very own Boeing Center at Tech Port. We’ve only just begun, LETS GOOOOO San Antonio!
More information from her LinkedIn post here.
Photo by Christine Colburn
Tina Pacheco, QT Marketing: I think this event was well organized and met some great people and exchanged contact info. I had fun seeing the downtown scene from the top floor.
Francisco Bezanilla, 3Sixty Degrees: The event was great, thank you very much to the organizers, I really enjoyed it! There was a lot of networking opportunity and the place was fantastic at the FROST Tower, I really liked the event… the entire event was great! Congratulations!
CS Freeland, Texas Venture Alliance: What an exceptional group and a truly unique Texas Venture Crawl y’all threw for San Antonio! WOW. Thank you for everything y’all do in the venture and startup community! Ileana took San Antonio’s Texas Venture Crawl from no venue and just about 30 registrations to being at capacity with hundreds of folks excited to join within just about a week. It was wild to see this come together so fast because of Ileana and all the leaders she convened there to put together something special for their city.
Put the next statewide, simultaneous venture networking experience, hosted in San Antonio on your calendar for next year here.
About the Texas Venture Crawl
The Texas Venture Crawl is a simultaneous statewide startup and investor networking experience founded in 2022 and is a partnership between Texas Venture Alliance and leading cohosts all across Texas. It started in downtown Austin, hosted in 5 venues, used 3 venture shuttle stops, and attracted more than 1,300 attendees.
This year it grew to 10 cities, 15 venues, 22 committee members, 10 volunteers, 41 venture panelists, and 2,500+ Texans. The following cities participated: Austin, Dallas, Round Rock, Houston, Kerrville, Brownsville, El Paso, Buda, Boerne, and San Antonio.
Thank you to the “Texas-sized” statewide sponsors: Pacific Western Bank, Akerman, the Texas State Chamber of Commerce (Texas Association of Business), In Good Taste Wines, Liquid Death Water, and returning supporter from the first founding sponsorship of the Venture Crawl, Eisner Amper.