Posted on October 18, 2017 by Joanna Carver
Helping self-proclaimed geeks become entrepreneurs is the mission of David Garcia, Jr. ’93, chief executive officer of Geekdom.
Following high school, Garcia enrolled in community college briefly.
“I took my basic courses and never really got a good idea of what I wanted to do,” Garcia said. “That led me to think I didn’t need to go to college, so I just left and went straight into the workforce.”
He worked at several different retail jobs over the next few years and began to realize that he had the mind-set to be a manager. Garcia decided to seek out a top-tier education at UTSA.
“There were so many benefits to being a UTSA student,” he said. “I was able to work and take classes at the same time, which enabled me to pay my way through school.”
Having realized business was his true calling, Garcia majored in management, knowing it was a field of study that could apply to many different career paths. One of the first jobs he acquired after graduation was managing a computer store, part of a large national chain. He hired a number of promising young people.
“Many of the people that worked under me there had the same kind of drive and ambition that I had at that age,” Garcia said. “I tried to be a mentor and pass on my own values.”
When the chain folded, the employees moved on, but Garcia stayed in touch with several of them. Many of his former employees had gone on to work at Rackspace and became affiliated with Geekdom, a co-working space in downtown San Antonio that brings together aspiring technology entrepreneurs and fosters small business development.
At Geekdom, they sang Garcia’s praises for his management skills. He started as chief operating officer and was promoted this fall to his current role as chief executive officer.
“Throughout my journey, I’ve been all about seeing people succeed,” he said. “I’m still a manager. I still want to see people grow and develop. At UTSA, I laid the foundation to make myself succeed. That was where it happened.”
–Joanna Carver
Please send your comments to: wendy.frost@utsa.edu
— Joanna Carver
