Graham Weston

And in October, it relaunches as a membership club on one floor of the historic Rand Building, built around what its CEO calls the Valley of Death, the stretch between launch and initial validation, perhaps first funding, fledgling customer base, where most startups either break through or break down.

Since Graham Weston and Nick Longo opened the doors in 2011, Geekdom has been an essential part of downtown San Antonio's fabric.

Many companies were born here, as well as innovative nonprofits.

And now the model is evolving, perhaps to replicate some of the historic successes, but as well to anticipate what future is to come for San Antonio's startup ecosystem.

I was working with one of my board members, Brett Pyatt, this amazing guy, was a founder of Jungle Disc and Cyber Fortress.

We went around and we started knocking on doors and talking to the right people and getting them to the table.

uh with commitment one of our first calls was to graham weston you know our benefactor and stakeholder and he was game to take part in this and when you think about what geekdom's role has been in this ecosystem and his original vision for it to me mit reap and what it has the potential of doing in the city is a evolutionary step for what geekdom was originally intended to do so to have him at that table Being the champion of this group was essential.

And the very next big co-champion we brought to the table is UT San Antonio.