Michael Girdley has become a well-known advisor, commentator, investor, and authority on all things San Antonio business related. He has a huge Twitter following and has a lot to say about our city and what we need to keep progressing.

Transcript:

Justin Hill: Hello and bienvenidos, San Antonio. Welcome to The Alamo Hour, discussing the people, places and passion that make our city. My name is Justin Hill, a local attorney, a proud San Antonian, and keeper of chickens and bees. On The Alamo Hour, you'll get to hear from the people that make San Antonio great and unique in the best-kept secret in Texas. We're glad that you're here.

Michael Girdley: How long do we go?

Justin: One hour. Welcome to The Alamo Hour. Today's guest is Michael Girdley. He's kind of all things. I'm going to hit some of the points from his website. His bio, he's currently Chairman and Co-founder of Dura Software. He's a partner at Geekdom Fund. He's been involved in co-founding and leading multiple different ventures in San Antonio and around Texas.

He was Man of the Year with San Antonio Business Journal and Geek of the Year with Geekdom, right, in 2016. He's passionate about San Antonio's future. If you follow him on Twitter, you know how much San Antonio and the future of our city matters to him. He's a perfect kind of guest to have on here, so thanks for being here.

Michael: Yes, excited. Thanks for having me.

Justin: You've listened to a few of my really compelling episodes, so I appreciate it.

Michael: Yes, four actually. [unintelligible 00:01:10]

Justin: That's more than most people. I start a lot with just some general questions about San Antonio I wanted to ask you about.

Michael: Yes.

Justin: All right. Do you have any pets?

Michael: We have two cats.

Justin: Okay. What kind of cats?

Michael: Four-legged ones, simple.

Justin: Like alley cats?

Michael: Ones we got at The Humane Society.

Justin: Okay. Some people are into like Persians or these bald cats.

Michael: Yes, we're not.

Justin: None of that?

Michael: We're not fancy.

Justin: All right. Favorite hidden gems in San Antonio?

Michael: Oh man. I definitely like just the normal taquerias that are like all over the place.

Justin: Do you have a favorite?

Michael: Man, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. They're all my favorites.

Justin: I had a judge on here who wouldn't give me a single restaurant she liked because she didn't want to endorse them.

Michael: I love that we have Tex-Mex. To be totally frank with you, I don't enjoy eating it that much. When my wife and I have options to go out or we go out for dinners like we're ended up at Bliss or Cured or those types of places. We lived in California for a while and we still brought that taste back with us. We want to eat that kind of food and have that kind of dining experience.

Justin: Bliss and Cured do it for you.

Michael: They're definitely fancy. We love going to the Pearl Food Hall as well. I will be unabashedly snobby about where I like to go.

Justin: I like the Food Hall now that you can just sit at your table and order on the QR code and it comes out. I appreciate that, especially during the pandemic. Do you have any odd hobbies...