Cynthia Phelps, PhD, is the Founder of InnerAlly, a company set to revolutionize how we take care of our mental wellness.

This piece was orginally published in The San Antonio Report. The photo is by Al Rendon, the words by Cynthia Phelps.

------------

I was doing post-doc work in Houston, which is what brought me to Texas. I lived in Houston for about 18 years, then I took a job here in San Antonio designing games for the iPhone. The company offered me a job, and it was a really cool job. They wanted me to relocate here, and so that’s how I made it to San Antonio.

It was so affordable that I just about bought a house immediately, using a government program where you can get your money back, but you have to stay in the house for three years. After I left the job at the start up, I still had one more year before I could sell the house, so I looked around and thought, “Oh, gosh, there doesn’t seem to be anything going on in San Antonio.” I had a mixer at my house, and one of the women that came found out what I did and she said, “Oh, you need to check out this new thing they call Geekdom.”

Geekdom had not even opened yet, but they had a sign-up sheet online, so I went ahead and signed myself up and that really changed the course of my future. To be able to have my company, do the networking, meet the right people, have things available like the Geekdom Fund and mentor support, it’s a fantastic place to have a small startup tech business now. I’m not sure I would have ever said that four years ago when I first moved here.

I have a little dachshund, so my favorite thing to do when I’m not at the computer is to play with her. We go to McCallister Park, which is one of San Antonio’s many, beautiful large parks, and I love to cook. Otherwise, the Geekdom community integrates with my private life as much as I want it to. Last year I started an event called “Meet and Geek,” we said it was like speed dating for nerd networking. a chance to meet a whole bunch of people in a very short time. I have friends and business partners that are Geekdom members, my work life and my social life do sort of cross here.

As an entrepreneur, you don’t necessarily have the best work/life separation. That sounds like something bad, but it’s mostly how I prefer to live my life. Because I am so passionate about what I’m doing, it’s what I want to be doing with most of my time. This is what I want to be, this is what I want to do.