Room to improve

See where Texas falls among most innovative states in the U.S.

Natalie Harms
Mar 19, 2019, 1:28 pm
Texas has some room to improve when it comes to being innovative. Getty Images

Texas isn't among the top 10 innovative states in the United States, according to a new study, but it isn't too far off. The Lone Star state ranked as the country's No. 15 most innovative state, as reported by WalletHub.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia were evaluated across 24 metrics two dimensions: human capital and innovation environment. Texas ranked No. 18 for its human capital and No. 14 for its innovation environment.

Texas' star shined bright across a few categories and made it in the top 10 in:

  • Business churn
  • Jobs in new companies
  • Entrepreneurial activity
  • Industry-cluster strength (refers to the level of high employment specialization of a cluster, which is defined by the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project as a "regional concentration of related industries in a particular location")
  • Average internet speed

The state performed the worst in the following categories:

  • Scientific-knowledge output (measures the number of peer-reviewed articles published per $1 Million of Academic S&E research and development)
  • Open roads and skies friendly laws
  • Average annual federal small-business funding per GDP
  • Share of households with internet access
  • Research and development spending per capita
  • Research and development intensity

The U.S. is expected to spend a reported $581 billion on research and development, according to WalletHub, which is more than any other country in the world. Some states, the study found, are better at pulling their weight. Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Colorado make up the top five, in that order, while Tennessee, Iowa, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Mississippi round up the bottom of the list.

While there's much to learn from other innovative ecosystems, copying them is not the best plan, says expert on the study Joseph Tranquillo, Bucknell University professor and author.

"Trying to replicate an innovative ecosystem that has worked somewhere else never seems to turn out well," he says. "Like biological ecosystems, they must be homegrown from the strengths that already lie within."

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Overheard: What Houston corporates are looking for from startups

At its annual Activation Festival, the Ion hosted a conversation about the relationship between corporates and startups. Photo courtesy of the Ion

Hundreds of innovators from Houston and beyond flocked to the Ion Houston's annual Activation Festival, and one of the topics discussed at the series of programming was the relationship between corporates and startups.

One of Houston's points of pride is having the third most Fortune 500 companies headquartered here, but how can the city's innovation ecosystem take advantage of that market? And, on the other side of it, how can corporates make the most of Houston innovators?

At a panel on May 17 entitled "Corporate-Startup Partnerships: How to Build Them, Sustain Them, and How They’re Key to Fast-Tracking Innovation and Growth," three corporate leaders explained how they navigate relationships with startups and how cultivating these opportunities is key to the future of business.

Here are a few of the discussion's highlights.

“Investing in the startup community generally, you’re never going line of sight of where that value is going to come back. You can expect it — I’m not saying it’s altruism, it just comes back in forms that you might not appreciate.”

— Scott Gale, executive director of Halliburton Labs says, explaining that corporate contribution doesn't just have to be financial.

“Ask for advice, don’t ask for money. Show up. Be curious. If you think a corporate is the right potential customer for you, spend the time to try to understand what the people are, who the champions are, what motivates them, and what they need to do to be successful.” 

— Tom Luby, director of TMC Innovation says, noting that it's tried-and-true advice, but still important to remember.

“The person who takes the most risk is the lead adopter — the lead user. That person puts their assets and their name on the line.”

— Nazeer Bhore, global manager, tech scouting, innovation and ventures at ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering, says. “What we bring to the table for startups is all the resources we have — technical resources, assets, use cases, testing facilities, and, of course, funding. Irrespective of what stage you’re in, or how many adjacencies you are, we’re always happy to engage with you," he explains. "The key is for us is to be a lead user.”

“The opportunity for us is to be generalists across a lot of different spaces and then work with our specialists to take a deeper dive. We listen to the market and try to find things our corporate partners or entrepreneurs are interested in and then surround the with the type of things they need to be successful. In many case, talent and expertise are top of that list.”

— Luby says, explaining the nature of the TMC's various programs, from creating startup tech directly and supporting them through their accelerators and even seeding them through the TMC Venture Fund.

“What startups bring is a lot of different ideas — but startups are temporary organization that’s looking for a scalable and repeatable business model. And we’re not just interested in just the technology, but the business model.”

— Bhore says about what ExxonMobil looks for.

“The flywheel is spinning here in the city of Houston. The next five years are going to be incredibly exciting.”

— Gale says, explaining how much has changed in the past few years in Houston's innovation ecosystem.

Corporate-Startup Partnershipsactivation festivalthe ionion houstonscott galehalliburton labstom lubytmc innovationnazeer bhoreExxonMobilthe ion houston

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