The Hill Country Venture Fest has announced Frontera Healthcare Network as its fourth and newest Gold-tier sponsor, rounding out a slate that includes Hill Country Telephone Cooperative (HCTC), Central Texas Electric Cooperative (CTEC), and Texas Regional Bank. These sponsors will back the festival's October 1, 2026 student pitch night at the Odeon Theater in Mason, Texas, each contributing the prestigious $1,000 sponsorship commitment.
The festival, named the 2025 Texas Venture Fest of the Year by the Texas Venture Alliance, is a free, one-evening event where rural Hill Country students pitch real ideas to real judges. Gold-tier sponsors are among the businesses whose backing keeps the event free for students and families to attend and enter. The diversity of this year's Gold sponsor slate—spanning healthcare, telecommunications, electric service, and banking—reflects the local infrastructure that rural students grow up around and rely on.
Frontera Healthcare Network brings a regional healthcare presence to the sponsor wall, while HCTC, CTEC, and Texas Regional Bank represent services that already touch homes, schools, farms, ranches, and small businesses across the Hill Country. For the festival, this mix matters. Hill Country Venture Fest is not built as a one-night contest alone; it is designed as a public signal that student ideas belong in the same room as local employers, lenders, co-ops, service providers, families, and community leaders. Sponsor backing helps keep the event free, gives students a real stage, and shows young entrepreneurs that the region's established institutions are paying attention.
"When a bank, a co-op, a telephone company, and now a healthcare group all say yes to the same room of kids, that tells you something about what this community values," said Katie Milton Jordan, a festival organizer. The event's sponsor tiers range from Community Partner ($250) to Presenting ($2,000), and additional sponsors are still being welcomed ahead of the October 1 event. Details are available at hillcountryventurefest.com.
