Inside Hill Country Venture Fest: How Central Texas Electric Co-op Powers Student Pitches
On The Building Texas Show, Central Texas Electric Cooperative (CTEC) CEO Tachi Hinojosa tells host Justin McKenzie why an electric co-op serving 11 Hill Country counties sponsors Hill Country Venture Fest, supports Incubator EDU student teams in Fredericksburg, and opens its doors to students looking for careers close to home.
Fredericksburg, TX (Newsworthy.ai) Saturday Oct 31, 2026 @ 7:00 AM CDT
The Building Texas Show — Inside VentureFest: How CTEC Powers Hill Country Student Pitches
Photo: Justin McKenzie
"When you call Central Texas Electric Co-op, you're calling the Hill Country." — Tachi Hinojosa, CEO, Central Texas Electric Cooperative
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 Building Texas Show — Inside VentureFest: How CTEC Powers Hill Country Student Pitches
Photo: Justin McKenzie
"When you call Central Texas Electric Co-op, you're calling the Hill Country." — Tachi Hinojosa, CEO, Central Texas Electric Cooperative
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is VentureFest and how is CTEC involved?
- VentureFest is a student pitch competition tied to the Incubator EDU program, where high schoolers present businesses to community judges for real prize money. Central Texas Electric Co-op sponsors the Hill Country event and Tachi Hinojosa personally coaches and mentors student teams. On the podcast, host Justin McKenzie noted roughly 20 VentureFest events were happening across Texas on October 1st, including the Hill Country edition in Mason.
- How much money have student teams actually raised through these pitches?
- Hinojosa told McKenzie that the first-place team in Fredericksburg last year won $12,000 in the competition. Separately, one student team pitched at the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce banquet and raised over $100,000 from attendees who were impressed by the presentation. Those numbers underscore that VentureFest is not a classroom exercise but a real fundraising stage for Hill Country teenagers.
- Who is Tachi Hinojosa and how did he get to CTEC?
- Tachi Hinojosa is the CEO and President of Central Texas Electric Co-op, which serves 11 counties in the Texas Hill Country. A Texas A&M business graduate, he entered the co-op world through a marketing internship in the summer of 2003, joined that co-op full time after graduation, and has now spent more than 19 years in cooperatives. He moved his family to the Hill Country in October 2022.
- Why does CTEC invest in internships and high school tours instead of just hiring linemen?
- Hinojosa wants students to see that co-ops employ engineers, member services staff, IT, HR, and accounting professionals, not only linemen. CTEC invites high schools to tour its facilities, shadow departments, and apply for summer internships. The program grew from one intern in year one to six last summer, and produced hires like Brody Smith, who started as a 16-year-old shadow and is now a 19-year-old apprentice.
- How is CTEC embedded in the Hill Country beyond providing electricity?
- Concern for community is a core cooperative principle, and CTEC employees volunteer on fire departments, coach Little League and flag football, and serve local churches and nonprofits. Hinojosa challenged staff to log volunteer hours and they hit 1,000 last year, with crews even helping set up tables and chairs for nonprofit fundraisers. As he put it, calling CTEC means calling the Hill Country.
- Why does student entrepreneurship matter for Hill Country workforce retention?
- McKenzie and Hinojosa note that most talented graduates leave for college or careers and rarely return, which is especially hard on communities built on generational land and multi-generational family businesses. Because the Hill Country lacks corporate headquarters like AT&T, Valero, or USAA, programs like Incubator EDU and VentureFest give students the tools to build companies at home and contribute to the local economy.
- How does the co-op model differ from other Texas power providers?
- McKenzie outlines three models operating in Texas: investor-owned utilities, where customers in markets like Houston can choose their rate; municipalities such as San Antonio's CPS Energy; and electric cooperatives like CTEC. Co-ops are member-owned, meaning customers are also owners, which keeps investment and decision-making local across the 11 counties CTEC serves.
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