Arrowhead Center to focus on innovation in construction

Original Article | Jacob Maranda | jmaranda@bizjournals.com | January 4, 2024

New Mexico State University's Arrowhead Center — a multi-purpose organization based in Las Cruces that drives entrepreneurship and innovation — is synonymous with Southern New Mexico's startup and technology ecosystem. Carlos Murguia, the center's senior economic development officer, is one of its many faces.

Murguia, a New Mexico State University graduate and alumni awardee, can frequently be seen at events across the state and neighboring El Paso. Alongside work with the Arrowhead Center, he sits on the board of the angel membership organization New Mexico Angels and is a fund manager for the Arrowhead Innovation Fund, the venture arm of the Arrowhead Center.

With a reach across New Mexico but a base in the Borderplex, Murguia offered New Mexico Inno his thoughts on how the startup and technology scene is shaping up around Southern New Mexico in the year ahead.

This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.

New Mexico Inno: Are there any trends that you are planning for or looking forward to in terms of startup or investment activity around the Borderplex and Southern New Mexico area?

Carlos Murguia: We're planning to do a lot of activity in construction, like innovation in construction — prop-tech, new materials, software. That's going to be intentional. We expect ideas and events. What I have seen so far is an intersection between artificial intelligence and the strengths of the region. To give you an example — logistics. Import, export, artificial intelligence around that. El Paso is a very strong area in terms of hospitals, med-tech. Agriculture is always a thing in [Las] Cruces — media, too. New Mexico in general, but Las Cruces is also strong in media. And then looking at New Mexico in generally, I'd say clean-tech is probably the strongest.

Of those industries, are there any you're particularly excited about in the next year? I would say logistics. I think it's one of those industries that are not so up to speed in using technology, so seeing that intersection between technology — AI, machine learning — and an industry that is very powerful but is an old-fashioned kind of industry. How do you go from taking notes on a piece of paper to using AI? And because you are at the border, it's a nice sandbox. I think that's interesting for the region.

I know 2023 was tough in terms of venture capital. Are there other challenges that you think are going to be prominent in 2024 that you're concerned about helping founders and others get through? I think it's probably going to be the same, at least for the first six months. If you look at the interest rates, everything is still the same. We were hoping for a better end of the year, but we are still in the same position. I think there are going to be more sources of capital in New Mexico. Entrepreneurs need to be better prepared, because now all the funds will have more options. So, I think it's a very exciting time because we have more capital. I don't know if we have more entrepreneurs — that is a question mark. We're getting there, but we are still stuck in the number of entrepreneurs. One challenge is to cultivate more entrepreneurs. What's the purpose in having three, four, five new funds if there are no startups? We have more capital, but do we have more entrepreneurs who want to do it and who have done it, or can we bring in more companies from the outside?