About Jason
Jason Straughan.
Vistage Chair.
San Antonio.
Two CEO roles. Nine companies. Co-founder of Codeup and Grok Interactive. Founding member and Board Member of TechBloc, and founding board member of Geekdom. Eight years as a Vistage member before ever chairing a group. He runs peer advisory groups for CEOs and senior executives in San Antonio because he has been in the seat, and knows what it takes to build something real – and why the best leaders never do it alone.
The Background
From there to here.
Jason started his first business in 1999 – a computer shop in a mall in Huntsville, Texas. Over the following two decades he developed LED display software, built web applications for clients including Big Ass Fans and the Wounded Warrior Project, published a technical book through Packt Publishing, and founded Grok Interactive, growing it from inside Geekdom in San Antonio.
In San Antonio he joined Geekdom as a founding community member and helped launch Codeup – a coding program that trained hundreds of software developers over the following decade. He ran Grok Interactive as CEO while serving as CTO of Codeup, then took the CEO role at Codeup full-time in 2017 and divested Grok. He held the Codeup CEO role until retiring from the company in 2023.
Alongside his company-building work, he helped found TechBloc – the organization that activated San Antonio’s technology community – and served on its Board of Directors and Executive Committee from 2017 to 2023. He served on the founding board of Geekdom, on the board of Launch SA, and as a mentor through TechStars Cloud from 2014 to 2017.
For eight years before becoming a Chair, he was a Vistage member. He knows what the program does from the inside. He launched his Chair practice in January 2024 – the newest Vistage Chair in San Antonio – and has been building the groups described on this site since.
The Path
Where it all comes from.
Every conversation Jason has with a CEO or executive is shaped by what he has actually built. Here is the timeline.
Credentials
What it adds up to.
Community
- Founding Member, TechBloc – Board of Directors and Executive Committee, 2017–2023
- Founding Member, Geekdom Board of Directors
- Board of Directors, Launch SA, 2015–2016
- Board of Directors, Geekdom, 2019–2020
- Founding Member, SA Business Journal Leadership Trust, 2019–2023
- Mentor, TechStars Cloud, 2014–2017
Accolades & Awards
- EY Entrepreneur of the Year Nominee, 2022
- INC 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies (#3,309), 2020
- SABJ C-Suite Award — CEO, San Antonio, 2019
- SABJ Best Places to Work, 2019, 2020, 2021
- SABJ Diversity & Inclusion Award, 2022
- SABJ Tech Titan, 2016
- Packt Publishing Author, 2011
By the Numbers
The Chair’s Role
What happens in the room.
His job as a Chair is not to be the smartest person in the room. It is to build the room that makes everyone in it think more clearly. He asks the questions no one inside your organization will ask. He surfaces the assumptions no one is challenging. He creates the conditions for the kind of honest, experienced conversation that only happens when everyone in the room has something real at stake and nothing to sell.
He does not tell people what to do. He helps them see what they are not seeing and holds them to the standards they have already set for themselves. The distinction matters.
If you want someone to validate your current thinking, there are plenty of coaches who will do that. If you want someone who will ask the question no one else will ask. A 30-minute call is where that conversation starts.
San Antonio
This city runs deep.
San Antonio is not a stepping stone city for Jason. It is home. He has been part of its business community since the early Geekdom days, helped build the infrastructure that made its tech scene real, and has watched dozens of founders and CEOs grow companies here that are now significant. The leaders in his Vistage groups are building the city’s next chapter. He is invested in that, not as a bystander, but as someone who has been in the room for most of it.
Selective Membership
Not everyone gets a seat.
Jason chairs a limited number of groups and accepts a limited number of new members each year. An initial call is a direct conversation about fit. No pitch, no pressure. You will leave knowing whether one of his groups makes sense for you, and he will tell you honestly if it does not.
initial call
Book a 30-minute call.
Direct conversation. Honest assessment. 30 minutes.
Book a 30-Minute Call →No pitch. No obligation. 30 minutes.