This article was originally published by Rio Grande Guardian<\/p>\n
BROWNSVILLE, Texas \u2013 UT-Rio Grande Valley Associate Vice President Ron Garza says he \u201ccannot say enough\u201d about what Brownsville has done to help the entrepreneurial ecosystem.<\/p>\n
The centerpiece, he said, is the eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization.<\/p>\n
Garza spoke on the first day of RGV StartUp Week, held at the eBridge Center.<\/p>\n
According to the organizers \u2013 Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and UT-Rio Grande Valley \u2013 RGV Startup Week is the perfect opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners to ignite their passion and explore their potential. Running from May 3 through May 10, the event is free and open to the public. The aim is to showcase the innovation and business growth potential the regional community has to offer.<\/p>\n
Just before going on stage, Garza said he was chatting with keynote speaker David Fonseca and the entrepreneur asked him an intriguing question: is the needle moving.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the eBridge Center, Garza said it most definitely is.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt UTRGV, we work with cities all across the Rio Grande Valley, and everybody supports and sees the value of small businesses, right? But with this infusion that eBridge has done in just the last 14 months or so, the needle is moving to where the entrepreneurs are starting to take ownership in a way that is shaping the direction of what we do in support. That\u2019s why we know it\u2019s working,\u201d Garza said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just government or entities or economic development organizations driving. It\u2019s the entrepreneurs shaping it and moving it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garza said he is \u201cthrilled to see\u201d UTRGV is playing an integral part in everything happening at the eBridge Center. And he asked for a round of applause for the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation \u201cfor creating this ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also praised Linda Ufland Romo and her team in the Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center housed within the eBridge Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, guys, for all your hard work. It\u2019s definitely worth it and weeks like this prove it. So, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garza said Valley rightly prides itself on having a strong the entrepreneurial spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it just doesn\u2019t happen,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to be intentional about building that capacity. You have to be intentional about teaching entrepreneurs to take it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garza said he had the opportunity last week to meet with some Department of Defense folks (in Chicago).<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were talking about small businesses, two or three person operations, that were working with million-dollar (federal) contracts. So, events like this will change the narrative of what small business means. Why can\u2019t our mom and pops be the millionaires and the next billionaires? They can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garza said UTRGV is a very special place and a fine academic institution of higher education with 30,000-plus students. But, he said, at President Guy Bailey\u2019s insistence, it is also a catalyst for change in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, not all universities have community engagement and economic development programs like we do. We have a lot of infrastructure when it comes to building small businesses. Because the very fact is, there\u2019s a lot of folks that graduate or don\u2019t graduate that want to start their own businesses.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This article was originally published by Rio Grande Guardian BROWNSVILLE, Texas \u2013 UT-Rio Grande Valley Associate Vice President Ron Garza says he \u201ccannot say enough\u201d about what Brownsville has done to help the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The centerpiece, he said, is the eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization. Garza spoke on the first day of RGV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_angie_page":false,"content-type":"","page_builder":"","feature_success_story":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47,90,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ebridge-center","category-entrepreneurship","category-rgv-startup-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brownsvillecic.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}