The Hidden Giant: Why San Antonio Is The Best Kept Secret

San Antonio already has the pieces international companies say they want: cybersecurity talent, a growing bioscience corridor, defense and advanced manufacturing, and a city built on relationships instead of transactions. Dr. Lina Rugova’s job is to make sure those companies actually see it.

Dr. Rugova is Operations Chair and a founding member of the San Antonio Applied Innovation Council, founder and president of Emerge and Rise, and co-lead of Founder Institute San Antonio. She looked at Dallas, Austin, and Houston, then moved from New York in 2019 because San Antonio was the better fit. In this episode she and Justin McKenzie talk about how the city gets on the list.
In this episode:

How San Antonio gets added next to Dallas, Houston, and Austin
The Applied Innovation Council’s four lanes: advanced manufacturing, defense and cybersecurity, biomedical and health innovation, and talent
VentureFest San Antonio’s reverse pitch, built around arts, culture, media, tourism, and hospitality.

A soft-landing path with greater:SATX for international firms and the small businesses ready to supply them.

UTSA, Trinity, UIW, and Alamo Colleges as a South Texas talent pipeline, and the quality of life that brings people back
A big city with a small-town pace: family-friendly, walkable, and rooted in Texas history.

Chapters
0:00 Put San Antonio on the list
0:46 What the Applied Innovation Council is building
2:11 The corridor shows up: Austin, Kyle, Buda, New Braunfels
2:47 Why she chose San Antonio
4:35 VentureFest, and this year’s reverse pitch
6:18 South Texas talent, and the life that brings people back
8:01 Soft landing, greater:SATX, and a city international firms can land in
10:17 BiomedSA, UT Health, UTSA, and cyber
12:10 Come as a Texan: the Alamo, the rivers, the frontier town
13:53 Creators, open doors, and businesses of every size
15:51 San Antonio’s own story, not a copy of Dallas
17:56 How Dr. Rugova is building Texas

Dr. Lina Rugova, DBA, advises organizations on innovation, intrapreneurship, and systems thinking. She is an immigrant from Kazakhstan who landed in the Bronx at 16, founded Emerge and Rise for underserved entrepreneurs, and teaches at Palo Alto College.
San Antonio Applied Innovation Council: https://sanantonioinnovates.com
Dr. Lina Rugova: https://linarugova.com

The Building Texas Show: https://www.buildingtexasshow.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebuildingtexasshow
Host: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmckenzie/
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