ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) — The Round Rock Chamber is launching the city’s first business accelerator program to support startups in their early stages.
The Round Rock City Council approved the creation and funding of the program, gBETA Round Rock, on Aug. 28. The city will invest $1.2 million in the program over the next three years.
On Wednesday, it was announced that the Round Rock Chamber has partnered with gener8tor, a venture capital firm, to help provide such services to startups.
“Entrepreneurs and small business owners, they’re the backbone of every community,” said Adriana Nunez, the Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Round Rock Chamber. “There are a lot of startups and founders who are here in Round Rock that have great ideas, and they need just a little bit of assistance or a little bit of help opening those doors.”
The program will be seven weeks long for each startup, and will provide coaching tailored to the company’s needs, along with access to a network of mentors, customers and investors. Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan said that the program is a big step forward for the city’s growth.
“What you hope is you have the next Dell Technologies,” Morgan said. “I think the workforce development is huge. We’ve got Texas State, ACC, we got a great public education system in Round Rock ISD — all those factors will help someone that’s wanting to scale up and start a business here.”
How entrepreneurs think about business accelerator programs help
Liz Cordill Aguilar is the co-founder of Māk, a digital fabrication manufacturer company currently operating out of Round Rock. Aguilar and her partner founded the company back in 2014 and were also a part of a business accelerator program.
“When we started, it was really just feeling our way around and trying to figure out how to do all the different things that are required in a business,” Aguilar said. “In 2019, we did participate in an accelerator in Houston…that really helped us a lot to develop our IP and move it along much faster.”
That sentiment is echoed by Brandon Nagle, the president of Round Rock Leasing and Nagle Holdings.
“To have the guidance and mentorship of people who’ve been in the business longer than you—who have resources, who have connections and can help facilitate relationships and show you where they mis-stepped and help you navigate pitfalls and hopefully avoid holes that they stepped into—ss integral, I believe, to the success of any young business,” Nagle said.
The application for the gBETA Round Rock cohort opened on Wednesday, and the deadline to submit is on Oct. 19. The first gBETA Round Rock program will start on Oct. 30 and will end early January 2026.
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