Print edition of San Antonio Express News (6.20.10) and online at My SA News

Increasingly, Austin and San Antonio seem to be switching personalities. If you don't believe me, take the following quiz:

Question No. 1: If someone told you that InCube Labs, a company based in California's brainy Silicon Valley, would move to either high-tech Austin or low-tech San Antonio and build a “medical device incubator” that will spawn hundreds of high-paying jobs and create a new class of wealthy entrepreneurs, would you have guessed: A) Austin, or B) San Antonio?

Question No. 2: In the same hot week in June as the InCube Labs announcement, if you'd read that a city had signed a 10-year contract with Formula One to host the noisy, gasoline-guzzling United States Grand Prix, would you have guessed: A) sports-crazy San Antonio, which fought hard for Fiesta Texas, SeaWorld and the San Antonio Spurs to bring in hospitality bucks, or B) Austin, which aspires to keep its carbon footprint low and its civic nose pointed in the air?

The answers, of course, are that San Antonio snagged the company — an innovator in biosciences and health care — and Austin won Formula One and the swanky car race, which only goes to prove that sometimes the world just flat turns upside-down.

How to explain this surprising turn of events?

Austin's race car deal is easy enough to understand. First, Austin already has a strong class of high-tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. It didn't need to court InCube's Mir Imran, who invents medical devices that turn to gold and has founded 22 companies, 15 of which sold for major profits.

Second, in the headlong race of all large Texas cities to replicate much of California's ever-new economy and culture, Austin, with its hip, lucrative film and music industry, is the undisputed winner.

Besides, after Austin builds a $250 million racing facility, Formula One's Grand Prix in Austin will be on a racing circuit that includes stops in Sao Paulo, Singapore and Monte Carlo. Who needs California when you're in the fast lane with Monte Carlo?

As for San Antonio, Imran made his decision to expand here, rather than Austin or anywhere else, for practical business reasons. The fact is San Antonio ponied up: Imran raised $30 million in private funds here in five months, which proves his Houdini-like powers. And, led by the city, the public sector invested $10 million in the deal.

While that figure is chicken feed in Austin, it represents pretty much all the available venture capital in San Antonio. It makes the little-known Imran an instant, powerful X-factor in local business and political circles. We know what San Antonio has done for him; within the next few months, we'll find out what Imran delivers for San Antonio.

While business drove Imran's decision, something else sealed the deal. He liked San Antonio because it doesn't look like every place else. Often, I despair at the competitive pressure on individuals — and cities — to give up their essential natures.

One of the lessons here is that innovation, and not imitation, is the way to win.

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jrussell@express-news.net