San Antonio's advanced manufacturing, defense, cybersecurity, and biomedical sectors are robust, but the city remains largely unknown to international companies, according to Dr. Lina Rugova, operations chair and founding member of the San Antonio Applied Innovation Council. In a recent episode of The Building Texas Show, titled The Hidden Giant: Why San Antonio Is The Best Kept Secret, Rugova told host Justin McKenzie that when speaking with international companies, "they never even heard of San Antonio. The first option is always going to be Dallas, Houston, and Austin." That marketing gap has real economic implications: without visibility, the city risks losing investment and jobs to rival Texas metros that have stronger international brand recognition.
Rugova, who is also founder and president of Emerge and Rise and co-lead of Founder Institute San Antonio, is working to close that gap through the San Antonio Applied Innovation Council, which connects industry, public infrastructure, capital, and higher education around four focus areas: industrial and advanced manufacturing, defense and cybersecurity, biomedical and health innovation, and applied technology and talent. "Talent is everything in San Antonio," Rugova says, emphasizing that retaining graduates is as critical as attracting outside firms.
That philosophy shaped Texas Venture Fest San Antonio, which Rugova co-hosted on Oct. 1. The event was planned around arts and culture, media, tourism, hospitality, and innovation and technology, because the council identified two pressing issues: a lack of creative marketing for San Antonio and the need to keep local talent. The goal, she says, is to focus on opportunities ahead "instead of concentrating on challenges and issues all the time." The implication is clear: by reframing the city's narrative, Rugova and her partners aim to make San Antonio a destination for both companies and skilled workers.
Rugova also described work with greater:SATX, the region's economic development organization, on an international soft-landing path that helps overseas companies settle in, including through cultural integration, and gives local small businesses a way to partner with those companies on procurement and vendor opportunities. She sees a strong fit for European and Asian companies, describing San Antonio as having "a big city, small town mentality" that is more relationship-driven than transactional. That approach could diversify the local economy and create supply-chain links for small businesses.
McKenzie noted that the talent pipeline is already strong, with students from the Rio Grande Valley attending UTSA, Trinity University, and the University of the Incarnate Word, while Alamo Colleges is "doing great stuff." He also pointed to UT Health Science Center, data science at UTSA, cybersecurity education, and access to wet labs. The challenge, he said, is giving graduates a reason to stay or to return to raise a family in a city known for its outdoors and rivers. Rugova speaks from experience: an immigrant from Kazakhstan who landed in the Bronx at 16, she holds a DBA, founded Emerge and Rise for underserved entrepreneurs, and teaches at Palo Alto College. She moved from New York City in November 2019 after weighing Dallas, Austin, and Houston, and chose San Antonio as the better fit. Her advice for the city is to tell its own story: "We should never ever compare ourselves to other cities. We have our unique opportunity and uniqueness in our city that we should be showcasing." The full conversation is available on The Building Texas Show.
