5 most popular innovation stories in Houston this week

What's trending

WeWork opening its newest office was among this week's top stories. Courtesy of WeWork

This week was the beginning of the end for 2019. InnovationMap published its last curated list of business and innovation events for the year, WeWork opened its newest location in town, and a Houston startup founder shared her rollercoaster story of failure and next chapter.

Scroll through to see what Houston innovation stories trended this week.

3 Houston innovators to know this week

Get to know this week's Houston innovators to know — and the companies they've founded. Courtesy photos

This week's innovators to know are all Houston startup founders who have identified a need in their industries and created companies to provide solutions.

From blockchain and data to real estate and smart materials, these Houston entrepreneurs are making an impact across industries as well as the Houston innovation ecosystem. Continue reading.

Photos: WeWork opens 4th Houston location in Hines downtown trophy tower and plans expansion in the Galleria

WeWork opened the doors to its fourth Houston location. Courtesy of WeWork

WeWork has officially doubled down on its downtown presence in Houston. The coworking company has officially opened the doors of its space within Hines' trophy tower.

The coworking space makes up 50,000 square feet on two floors of 609 Main St. The 48-story building, which is owned and developed by Houston-based Hines, premiered on the downtown Houston skyline in 2017. Continue reading.

10+ can't-miss Houston business and innovation events for December

From startup competitions to thought-provoking panels, here's where you need to be in December. Getty Images

Before everyone checks out of 2019, Houston has a couple more weeks filled with exciting entrepreneurial networking opportunities. Scroll through the curated list of innovation events you can't miss. Continue reading.

Exclusive: Promising Houston-born DNA dating startup shuts down; founder shares story

Brittany Barreto founded the first nationwide DNA-based dating app, and she shares her story of its unexpected, and unavoidable, downfall. Photo courtesy of Pheramor

When Brittany Baretto was 18 years old and sitting in an undergraduate genetics seminar, she raised her hand. She asked, to her professor's point, if particular DNA trait differences between two people can result in attraction, could she, based on that logic, make a DNA-based dating tool. With that question, she set in motion a series of events.

These events included teaming up with Bin Huang to start a dating app, called Pheramor, that factored in user DNA; raising millions for the company; hiring a team from across the country; and signing up users in all 50 states. Though, Pheramor's hockey stick growth came to a sudden stop this year when Apple pulled the app from its store, and there was nothing the founders or their investors could do about it. Continue reading.

TMC Innovation Institute leader breaks down how much the program has grown in Houston

From robots and accelerator programs to her favorite health tech startups, Emily Reiser of the TMC Innovation Institute joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of Emily Reiser

The Texas Medical Center's Innovation Institute has just celebrated five years of advancing new technologies within health care, and over the past year, the institute has evolved to set up the TMC for its next years of innovation.

"In 2019, we had a lot of big changes around our team and our leadership," says Emily Reiser, senior manager of innovation community engagement at TMC. "That enabled us to take a bigger breath and a bigger pause to say, 'How are we really doing? And how could we be doing better?'" Continue reading and listen to the episode.

WeWork opened the doors to its fourth Houston location. Courtesy of WeWork

Photos: WeWork opens 4th Houston location in Hines downtown trophy tower and plans expansion in the Galleria

Coworking it out

WeWork has officially doubled down on its downtown presence in Houston. The coworking company has officially opened the doors of its space within Hines' trophy tower.

"The new WeWork space at 609 Main Street is a great complement to our state-of-the-art office building in downtown Houston," says Philip Croker, senior managing director at Hines, in a news release. "It's been a pleasure to work with this team and we are eager to see their space filled with Houston's cutting-edge businesses. We know WeWork in Houston is strong and look forward to our partnership growing in the years to come."

Meanwhile in the Galleria area, WeWork is opening two additional floors of its space in Galleria Tower I this month. More details on the expansion are still to come.

The new 609 Main location, which was originally announced this summer, joins the Galleria location and a Woodlands location in Hughes Landing, which also just announced its new location recently, as well as another downtown location in the Jones Building — just across the street at 708 Main St.

The new location is modern and high-end, per the release, which juxtaposes its historic sister location in downtown. The 609 Main location has a more executive feel than the homey environment of the Jones Building. For that, the new location charges a bit of a premium. Private offices at 609 Main begin at $780 a month, compared to the rates of $550 at the Jones Building and $580 at Galleria Tower I. Unassigned desk memberships are around $300 monthly for the two older locations, compared to closer to $400 for 609 Main.

"WeWork is eager to continue its expansion in the Houston area with the opening of our fourth location in Houston and second downtown," says Nathan Lenahan, general manager for Texas at WeWork, in the release. "The space at 609 Main Street is a perfect location for those businesses and entrepreneurs downtown looking to expand and have a flexible, creative office environment that promotes community."

Last month, the New York Times announced job cuts companywide for WeWork, however there has not been any regional reports for the coworking company or any information on how the cuts will affect Houston locations.

Executive feel

Courtesy of WeWork

Compared to WeWork's other Houston locations, the 609 Main space has more of an executive feel — and monthly membership reflects that. Rates are a full $200 more a month for a private office compared to WeWork's other downtown location.

WeWork will have a fourth Houston location. Photo courtesy of WeWork

WeWork doubles down on downtown with its 4th Houston coworking space announced

Coworkers unite

WeWork has decided to open yet another coworking location in Houston — this time, the new office is just down the street from an existing location.

The New York City-based coworking company has opened three locations across Houston — one in downtown's The Jones Building, one in the Galleria Office Tower I, and one in Hughes Landing in The Woodlands, which was recently announced in May.

The new location will occupy 56,000 square feet of the 25th and 26th floors of 609 Main, Houston-based Hines' 48-story trophy tower that joined the Houston skyline in early 2017. The building now has tenants to the tune of United Airlines, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Orrick, and Hogan Lovells, to name a few.

"The modern office is evolving and providing a coworking component is essential to a building's long-term viability," says Philip Croker, Hines senior managing director, in a release. "Adding a tenant of WeWork's caliber further reinforces the strength of 609 Main and will deliver an outstanding amenity for the building and its future occupants."

In addition to the usual WeWork perks — like 24/7 building access, coffee, community events, and business resources — members will also have access to a 7,000-square-foot high-performance fitness center in the building and the lobby coffee shop.

Michael Anderson and Damon Thames with Colvill Office Properties represented Hines in the transaction and Mark O'Donnell with Savills Commercial Real Estate negotiated on behalf of WeWork.

"Houston is a thriving business hub and innovative city," says Nathan Lenahan, general manager of WeWork, in a release. "We are excited to expand our footprint with a second location downtown and continue to strengthen the WeWork network with the opening of 609 Main Street."

In May, WeWork announced that it would be opening 1,000 desks in its new Woodlands location, but the company also disclosed that 775 desks will be added to the Galleria location in 2019 too. In the same release, an additional 1,000 desks were noted to be in the works, pending new leases. This figure could have been referring to the then-unannounced downtown location.

"In 2018, WeWork grew its footprint in a very big way in Houston. Now, in 2019, we're growing even more, but in a way that's as much about desks as it is impact," says Roniel Bencosme, WeWork Houston's community director, in the news release. "In this next year, WeWork will build a constellation of opportunity through new spaces spread across Houston, and opening in the Woodlands is key to that effort."

Regionally, WeWork has a presence in five cities in Texas — Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and Plano — but will launch in its sixth Texas city, San Antonio, in early 2020.

Last month, WeWork announced that Houston's Jones Building location would be one of three WeWork locations selected for a 3D printing pilot program. Additionally, earlier this year the company announced its early-stage incubator program, WeWork Labs, also in the Jones Building location.

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Telsa targets Houston area for new $10 billion manufacturing plant

Project Sun City

Electric vehicle and clean energy company Tesla is considering building a new $10.1 billion solar cell manufacturing facility in Fort Bend County, according to documents filed with the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

If approved, the plant, called Project Sun City, would be located on a 3,050-acre site off FM 762 and FM 1994 in Richmond, Texas. Tesla aims to finish construction in 2028, with the plant being operational by early 2029.

The plant will manufacture photovoltaic (PV) solar cells and modules that can convert sunlight into electricity. PV Magazine reports that the facility is "the largest single manufacturing investment Tesla has proposed on paper."

Advisory and consulting firm Kroll submitted the documents to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and noted if an agreement regarding tax incentives isn't reached, the project will exit Texas.

Tesla has requested credits under the Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) Act. The incentive program aims to attract large, capital-intensive economic development projects by lowering the property taxes an entity must pay over 10 years if it meets requirements related to job creation and investment. For example, pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co. recently announced that its forthcoming $2.3 billion Houston-area manufacturing site is a qualified project under the JETI program.

Kroll predicts that the facility would create 9,712 new full-time jobs, over 1,100 construction jobs and billions of dollars in future property tax revenue, the documents show. Additionally, it says the project will spur $1.1 billion in local business expenditures and that Texas would increase its GDP by approximately $107 billion as a result of the project activities.

Tesla opened its $200 million Megafactory in Brookshire, Texas, last year. The company is continuing its goal to deploy 100 gigawatts of solar manufacturing in the U.S before the end of 2028. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 100 gigawatts is equal to about 8 percent of the country's power grid capacity.

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Tech giant Apple opens Advanced Manufacturing Center at massive Houston facility

up and running

Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. unveiled its Advanced Manufacturing Center in the Houston area last week, marking the completion of the second of three facilities the tech giant plans to launch in the city by the end of this year.

The 20,000-square-foot training center will welcome small- and medium-sized businesses for free training and educational sessions to "help accelerate smart manufacturing across America," according to a release from Apple. Apple opened a similar Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit last year.

The AMC is part of Apple's 500,000-square-foot site in northwest Harris County. It also features a massive manufacturing site for Apple’s advanced AI servers and Mac mini. The facility was originally slated to open in 2026, but Apple began producing its advanced AI servers ahead of schedule in 2025.

The company said it plans to begin manufacturing its Mac mini at the site this year. The move will bring production of the compact desktop computer to the U.S. for the first time.

“In less than nine months, we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into this Houston facility. We stood up a factory, started production, and shipped the first advanced AI servers off the line. Today, we’re thrilled to open our new Advanced Manufacturing Center, a place where businesses, workers, and students can learn the same innovative processes that we use to make Apple’s most groundbreaking products. And we’re pleased to begin Mac mini production later this year,” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in the news release. “We believe in American workers and American ingenuity, and we are moving at an incredible pace because we want to build more than great products. We want to build the future of American manufacturing.”

Apple's Advanced Manufacturing Center. Photos courtesy Apple

Apple's Houston expansion is part of a $600 billion commitment the company made to the U.S. in 2025.

The company originally announced plans in February 2025 to open a 250,000-square-foot Houston factory, but doubled the facility's planned size about a year later. Apple has reported that the factory will employ thousands of workers.

“Houston is grateful to Apple for this significant investment in our city. The Advanced Manufacturing Center will create local jobs and will continue improving the quality of life of Houston residents," Houston Mayor John Whitmire added in the release. "The AMC also recognizes our city as a growing technology hub and solidifies Houston’s leadership in the manufacturing sector of the United States.”

The opening comes on the heels of New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co. officially naming Houston home of its new $2.3 billion, state-of-the-art manufacturing site. Read more here.

Nominations for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards are due by Aug. 27

Calling All Innovators

Calling all Houston innovators: The 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, presented by InnovationMap, return this fall to celebrate the best and brightest in the Houston innovation ecosystem right now.

We're asking you to nominate Houston's top innovators and startups for this year's awards. Nominations are open now through August 27 and can be made on behalf of yourself, your organization, and other influential leaders in the local innovation scene.

The annual awards program recognizes the most innovative individuals and companies in Houston across 10 prestigious categories.

This year's awards will honor the following categories:

Minority-founded Business, honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by BIPOC or LGBTQ+ representation.
Female-founded Business, honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by a woman.
Energy Transition Business, honoring an innovative startup providing a solution within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy, and beyond.
Health Tech Business, honoring an innovative startup within the health and medical technology sectors.
Deep Tech Business, honoring an innovative startup providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges, including those in the AI, robotics, and space sectors.
Startup of the Year (People's Choice), honoring a startup celebrating a recent milestone or success. The winner will be selected by the community via an interactive voting experience.
Scaleup of the Year, honoring an innovative later-stage startup that's recently reached a significant milestone in company growth.
Incubator/Accelerator of the Year, honoring a local incubator or accelerator that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups.
Mentor of the Year, honoring an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs.
Trailblazer, honoring an innovator who's made a lasting impact on the Houston innovation community.

You have three weeks to submit nominees, so don't delay — nominate today at this link or fill out the form below. Qualified nominees will receive a formal application to complete, which will be reviewed by our esteemed panel of judges to determine the finalists and winners.

More announcements about the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards are coming soon, including an introduction to this year's panel of judges. Interested in sponsoring the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards? Please contact sales@innovationmap.com.

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