Inside Hill Country Venture Fest: How Central Texas Electric Co-op Powers Student Pitches

On the latest episode of The Building Texas Show, Inside VentureFest: How CTEC Powers Hill Country Student Pitches, host Justin McKenzie sits down in Fredericksburg with Tachi Hinojosa, CEO of Central Texas Electric Cooperative (CTEC), to talk about why an electric cooperative serving 11 Hill Country counties shows up for student entrepreneurs. The full conversation is also on YouTube.

CTEC sponsors Hill Country Venture Fest and the Incubator EDU program in Fredericksburg, where high school students build real businesses and pitch them to adults in the community. Hinojosa says many students sign up to build their public speaking skills, and they prepare as if a venture capitalist were ready to write a check. Sometimes the money is real. "The first place team last year in Fredericksburg won $12,000," Hinojosa tells McKenzie. At a Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce banquet, another team "raised over $100,000 because people were so impressed with their presentation."

The co-op's interest in students goes well past the pitch stage. CTEC opened its summer internship program to high school and college students, growing from one student in the first year to six this past year. The co-op also invites high schools to tour its facilities, so students can see careers beyond the line crews they recognize, including member services, engineering, human resources, accounting and IT. Hinojosa points to Brodie Smith, who toured CTEC at 16, shadowed the operations department, worked a summer internship, was hired full time as a groundman and, at about 19, is now an Apprentice Lineman I. Hinojosa says Smith is a good example that not every career path requires a college degree.

Hinojosa, a Texas A&M business graduate, started in the co-op world through a 2003 marketing internship and moved to the Hill Country in 2022. He says community service is built into the cooperative model through the principle of concern for community. CTEC employees serve on volunteer fire departments and coach youth sports, and after the co-op challenged staff to log their volunteer time, they reached 1,000 hours last year. Line crews and technicians have also helped local nonprofits set up and tear down tables and chairs for fundraisers.

McKenzie raises a challenge familiar to rural Texas: talented graduates leave for college or careers and rarely come back. Hinojosa sees Hill Country Venture Fest and Incubator EDU as part of the answer, because they give students who want to stay the tools to build a business in the Hill Country and contribute to the local economy. "When you call Central Texas Electric Co-op, you're calling the Hill Country," he says, adding that being local is the advantage of the cooperative business model.

Watch or listen to the full conversation on The Building Texas Show episode page.

About The Building Texas Show
The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, tells the stories of the founders, community leaders and projects shaping Texas, from economic development and small business to conservation and education. New episodes publish weekly on YouTube and all major podcast platforms, with highlights on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at @thebuildingtexasshow. Watch, listen and subscribe at https://www.buildingtexasshow.com and https://www.youtube.com/@thebuildingtexasshow.

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