McCoy College alumna Andrea Hernandez Peraza receives Rising Star Award

SAN MARCOS, Texas — Austin Woman Magazine named McCoy College of Business alumna Andrea Hernandez Peraza this year's Rising Star at the 10th Annual Woman's Way Business Awards Gala early in May.

"It was just a moment to take it all in," Hernandez Peraza said. "My parents were there, my siblings were there, and my husband, as well as our team. I feel like those were the only faces that I could see in the audience, and it really was all for them and because of them."

The Rising Star Award recognizes emerging entrepreneurs who show promise and early impact and whose businesses are less than three years old. The Woman's Way Business Awards are Austin's only awards for women-owned and women-led businesses. Categories span across various industries, including product innovation, health and wellness, and social impact, recognizing the significant work women are doing to impact Austin's community and beyond. A committee comprised of local women business owners and community leaders selects the winners for each category.

For Hernandez Peraza, receiving the award validates the sacrifices she and her husband made to build their business, Airstrike HVAC, a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) company offering installation, repair, and maintenance services, especially in a typically male-dominated field.

"Personally, it means that all of our efforts up to this point have been worth it," she said. "Professionally, it means that we have what it takes, but that this is just the start. It just means this is the beginning of even more success and more challenges, but just the beginning of overcoming them as well."

She felt honored to be recognized in a room filled with inspiring women and leaders who help shape the community. From those just starting their careers to those whose contributions have left a lasting legacy, their presence made the moment even more meaningful.

"It was honestly really special," Hernandez Peraza said. "Being in a room like that, I'm surrounded by the people I want to be with because I want to learn from their success. I think that was probably the coolest thing. These people are not jealous, they're not gatekeepers. They're very humble, very hardworking, but they also share. They're ready to give back to their community and ready to give back to the next generation."

In 2017, Hernandez Peraza and her family moved to the U.S. from El Salvador, leaving behind the instability of political and social unrest in hopes of finding better opportunities and a chance to build a promising future. She graduated from high school with honors and began attending Texas State and McCoy College during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She graduated magna cum laude as a member of the Honors College in just two and a half years, while also working full-time in December 2022.

"That's kind of the theme of my life," she said. "We make it happen."

The decision to start Airstrike HVAC came naturally after she worked in the industry during college, where she met her husband while working at his uncle's business and gained a deep understanding of the industry. She also completed a business project in faculty member Emily Wiley’s Small Business Operations and Financials course, outlining a comprehensive market research and launch plan that laid the foundation for her business.

“The first week of class, Andrea contacted me and asked if I could make the Small Business Operations and Financials course an honors-level elective,” said Wiley, an assistant professor of instruction at McCoy College’s Department of Management. “It was the best work I had ever gotten out of my students in that course. She set the bar high. Andrea worked on her HVAC business idea in the course, completing assignments that would help her develop a business plan. After graduating, she started her business and stayed in touch. Andrea came to my class as a guest lecturer to share her experiences of opening and running her HVAC business. I’m very proud of what she has accomplished since graduation.”

Hernandez Peraza acknowledged McCoy College's role in creating an environment that helped shape her professionally and inspired her to start her own business just one month after graduating from Texas State.

"It's an incubator for the future entrepreneurs and the future leaders of our local community, maybe even beyond," she said. "During my time at Texas State, one thing that I would say was very common was there a lot of hardworking people, lots of them are in school and usually have something else going on besides that, so they're wearing a lot of hats, which goes on par and hand-in-hand with being a business owner. I think that the college is doing amazing work in building and shaping those entrepreneurs."

Hernandez Peraza said winning the Rising Star Award also provided unexpected opportunities for connection and collaboration.

"The fact that we were featured in the magazine gave us a lot of exposure," she said. "We have had a few people reach out to feature us potentially in some podcasts. So that is exciting. We met with other builders who are interested in partnering up with us because they believe in our mission and the work that we've done thus far. It's just really good and is widening our network."

As a young woman in the HVAC space, she said there have been challenges, but she remained optimistic about the opportunity to learn and grow.

"At the very beginning, I used to not even tell people that I was the owner of the business," she said. "My husband is very young as well. So we do get a lot of doubts from people at the beginning, but now we have been able to build a reputation for ourselves, and nothing better than to look at our work and see what it looks like, so that has been a learning opportunity."

She also said she hopes to inspire other women to lead in spaces that are typically not built with them in mind.

"I think definitely that it is absolutely possible, that we have to listen to the voice that is telling us to go ahead and do it and kind of tune out all the ones that are maybe telling us that the space wasn't built for us so why would we make it harder on ourselves," she said. "I think that was a lot of the more common discouragement that I got whenever I wanted to get in this field. But I also got a lot of people that encouraged me. So I would say for any women that are looking at that, and young entrepreneurs as well, tune out the negative and embrace the positive and believe in yourself."

Hernandez Peraza is looking forward to continuing to grow her business, one she says is essential in places like Texas that regularly face dangerously high temperatures.

"Ultimately, the consumer just wants cool air, which is absolutely important in Texas, especially with 100-degree summers," she said. "We need to make it happen. There are pregnant women, there are babies, there are families, there are pets in these homes, and they unfortunately cannot just do life in the 100-degree weather. It affects our functionality too much, from sleep to our day-to-day tasks. So it's for them that we need to make it happen." ✯