Everything McAllen EDC's Ralph Garcia said to investors from India

Rio Grande Guardian's Podcast

MCALLEN, Texas - Various economic development organizations from across the Rio Grande Valley recently made a pitch to three investors from India.

McAllen Economic Development Corporation had an advantage: it could point to a successful collaboration with an Indian firm.

McAllen EDC Vice President Ralph Garcia told the story of how Zoho, a billion-dollar tech company, was recruited to his city.

“They're a tech company out of India, a billion-dollar business,” Garcia said of Zoho. “They don't need to be asking for support. But what we did with them was very unique.”

Garcia explained.

“In visiting with them the challenge they were having (is that) they had purchased a site in Austin and were trying to launch that project there. They were having a lot of trouble, especially with recruitment competing with Tesla, Dell, and others, not being able to find that labor pool of people.

“So, they expanded that search and when they did that, they started noticing a lot of people coming from the Rio Grande Valley. Rather than uproot those folks, bring them to Austin and have them go into an economy that's already challenged with costs, they chose to come here instead.”

Garcia said that was when McAllen “got creative” with Zoho.

“We incubated them the first year in McAllen at no cost to them. We put them in a facility, set them up and they started recruiting and hiring people. Today, they have about 60 employees,” Garcia said,

“They’re still being incubated. But they're actually purchasing a piece of land here in the city where they're going to build a technology campus. And for us, that's exciting.”

But, said Garcia, it took effort on MEDC’s part to make Zoho feel at home.

“It took effort on our part also to understand that it wasn't just getting the big fish here. It was helping them find a way to be successful in the community. And that was really important to them. They see that relationship. They like the Valley. They like working with the other communities in this room. So, there's there's been some good opportunity that's developed with that.”

Garcia made MEDC’s pitch at an event hosted by the Council for South Texas Economic Progress. COSTEP brought three Indian investors to the Valley, with a morning gathering at the Port of Brownsville and an afternoon gathering at Casa de Palmas in McAllen.
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