Thank you to everyone who attended the 2024 Texas Venture Fest in El Paso! You made this an incredible event and your support truly made a difference. 

Special shoutout to our amazing panelists Emma Wollschlager Schwartz, Managing Director of Ecotone Fund; Alejandro Muñoz, Managing Partner of No Border Ventures and Adjunct Professor at UTEP; and Jerome Meier, MIT Venture Mentor. 

We’re also grateful to our sponsor, UTEP Woody L. Hunt College of Business and our in-kind sponsor, Glazer's Distributors.

🔑 💡Key insights from the panel:

• Embrace criticism and grow
• Avoid taking on too much at once—have a clear plan
• Failure is part of the journey
• Trust your gut and prioritize customer discovery
• Match the founder to the problem and investor expectations
• Make pitch presentations concise and easy to understand
• Focus on R&D and revenue first 

Great turnout at the Texas Venture Crawl event with enthusiastic participants diving into the nitty-gritty of entrepreneurship. Huge thanks to our moderator: University of Texas El Paso’s Assistant VP of Innovation, Michael Dalby, and panelists: Ecotone Fund Investor & CFO at Main Strike, Holly Trubowitsch and JJ Childress, Community Engagement Member at Microsoft Techsparks & Ecotone Fund Investor. 

There were also guest speakers: Adriana Pulecio International Business and Trade Development Manager at the City of El Paso and Mia Romero, their Director of Advocacy for all their insightful contributions. Thank you to Minski for letting P21 use your space for our event!

Key takeaways were: 1) transparency is key, 2) coachable teams that solve problems attract investors, and 3) master your financials and market knowledge.

Thank you to the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation, El Paso Chamber, Mike Loya Center for Innovation and Commerce for their collaboration and support in putting this Texas Venture Alliance Crawl together!