I forgot about my dream of being part of a city and space my children would one day want to call home. When I learned about Graham Weston’s vision for founding Geekdom, those dreams came flooding back to me.
Graham’s overall vision for revitalizing downtown San Antonio was to build a city that his kids would want to move back to, where they could find a career and build their futures. I was born and raised in Michigan, growing up around Flint and Detroit in the 1980s and 1990s. I never saw a future for myself in Michigan in that way, but I had the desire for that. After high school, I joined the military, which set me on a path away from Michigan.
Those who have joined the military know that where you come from becomes your identity. I was known as the Detroit kid throughout my military career. The thing is, I never felt a sense of attachment to Detroit.
After an eight-year stint in the United States Air Force as a Korean Linguist, I chose to settle in San Antonio. I joined my family here, later met my now-wife, and am now raising my children here. Putting down roots in San Antonio felt natural. I felt a connection to San Antonio. I thought I had a purpose in San Antonio, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
That realization came the instant I grasped Graham’s vision to revitalize downtown San Antonio.
Creating Geekdom – and the mission to create a startup space for San Antonio – centered around community and collaboration. That’s the essence of San Antonio. That’s precisely what I felt pulled me to San Antonio and made me want to put roots down here.
Community and collaboration are culturally significant in San Antonio like nowhere else I’ve lived. It is a deeply rooted city. It feels like it touches everything and everybody touches it. San Antonio is like a companion: it’s always there.
What San Antonio has taught me is this intense collaborative nature that transcends race, class, age, and gender. I’ve heard people compare it to how the San Antonio teams play. And Spurs are the perfect example of this: they’re an amazing team and organization. Not one player stands above the others; everybody is equal, and they stand shoulder-to-shoulder, work as a unit, pass the ball a lot, and involve everyone on the court. This style and approach win great championships for the team – and the city. The Spurs have become a dynasty by playing basketball differently than other NBA teams do with their one-star-player shows.
That is what I see every day in San Antonio, playing out within organizations and startups across the city. It is what powers entrepreneurs to take their ideas, turn them into startups, and scale them into successful businesses. San Antonio’s community and collaboration work as hard as the entrepreneur to make it succeed.
Charles Woodin is the Chief Executive Officer of Geekdom, a new kind of collaborative workspace where entrepreneurs help each other build businesses together. Prior to joining Geekdom in 2017, Charles served in the United States Air Force as a Korean Linguist for eight years and spent a stint as a business developer for Apple in Texas. He was born and raised in Flint and Detroit, Michigan, and moved to San Antonio after leaving the USAF. His mission is to build and transform San Antonio one startup at a time.
