WeWork brings early-stage startup program to downtown Houston

lab work

It's WeWork Labs' second Texas location — the first opened last fall in Dallas. Courtesy of WeWork

WeWork is betting on the Bayou City as it plans to open up WeWork Labs in its downtown Houston coworking space. The early-stage program will provide up to 30 startups with mentorship and resources coordinated by its partner organization, Alice, an entrepreneurial digital resource with Texas ties.

"At Alice, our research has shown that entrepreneurs are hungry for guidance that gets into the nitty gritty: 'What next step should I take?' 'How exactly do I go about fundraising?' 'What should my to-do list look like if customer acquisition is my No. 1 goal?'' says Carolyn Rodz, CEO and co-founder of Alice, in a release. "We're really excited to collaborate with WeWork Labs to bring these answers to their members through both programming and online support."

WeWork Labs launches this month in the WeWork Jones Building at 708 Main St. It's the second Texas location — Dallas' location opened last fall. Prices for the program begin at $300 a month for entrepreneurs, and the program does not take equity in the participating startups.

Leading the program is Labs Manager Carlos Estrada and WeWork Managing Director Emily Keeton — both have long careers in innovation and startups across the country. Keeton was among the original founders of Station Houston and is based in Houston. A Houston native, Estrada most recently launched Roots Venture Group, which focused on growing startups within the agricultural and rural industries.

"As the fourth largest city, Houston is in a unique position to launch high-impact startups," Estrada says in the release. "We see WeWork Labs in Houston as a tremendous platform for innovation, as our founder-focused approach to supporting early-stage startups will nurture and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs to scale their solutions to today's biggest challenges. We look forward to growing our community here and bringing together key players across the region to drive innovation throughout Houston, the state of Texas, and beyond."

WeWork Labs launched around a year ago and now has over 30 locations worldwide. The program hopes to connect the dots for startups and the corporate world by providing education, mentorship, and a global network. The downtown Houston location will operate alongside WeWork's Veterans in Residence program and the Flatiron School campus.

"We are incredibly honored to have WeWork Labs join our community to support an already growing network of startups within the city of Houston," says Nathan Lenahan, WeWork's general manager for Texas, in the release. "Housing WeWork Labs with both our Flatiron School campus and Veterans in Residence program is a true testament to the innovative community we strive to create within our spaces. We are thrilled to expand on our commitment to Houston and its entrepreneurs and can't wait to see the impact we can have together on it's diverse community."

Alice founders, Elizabeth Gore (left) and Carolyn Rodz, will talk more about the partnership at Bumble's SXSW event, which the duo attended last year. Getty Images

Bumble Fund makes investment and partnership deals with AI-driven startup platform with Houston ties

Money moves

Rather than just imagining a world where investments made are representative of the diverse population, these two tech companies with Texas roots are teaming up to do something about it.

Austin-based Bumble, a social network with over 50 million users, has reached a deal with Alice, an artificial intelligence-powered platform for entrepreneurs founded by Houstonian Carolyn Rodz and Californian Elizabeth Gore, to use the platform for Bumble's next round of funding.

Additionally — but actually separate from the partnership — Bumble Fund, an early stage corporate investing vehicle focused on businesses founded and led by underrepresented women founders, has invested in Alice in its most recent round of funding.

"We are looking to invest in entrepreneurs whose company purpose solves a problem that disproportionately affects women," says Sarah Jones Simmer, COO at Bumble, in a release. "While we can't fund every promising business and entrepreneur, we strongly believe these companies and founders deserve access to grow, evolve, and thrive. Through community, access to experts, how-to guides, and more, Bumble and Alice are committed to helping women founders find the support and resources they need on their path to success."

The next cohort of fund recipients of the Bumble Fund will be applying through Alice's website, which provides education, support, mentorship and guidance to burgeoning startup founders. Even if applicants don't get funding from Bumble, they leave with a network of resources.

The partnership with Alice will allow Bumble to better connect the dots of its fund recipients using data and AI, and even help to eliminate any bias when it comes to selecting the recipients. The fund is open to all United States entrepreneurs who identify as women. It launched in summer of last year and cuts checks ranging from $5,000 to $250,000, with an average of $25,000.

"For the last several years, only 2 percent of venture capital went to women founders. At Alice and Bumble, we see that as a 98 percent opportunity," says Rodz in the release. "The Bumble Fund, powered by Alice, is that opportunity in action; together, we're going to rewrite the rules of venture capital to be more accessible, more transparent and more supportive for women founders."

Here are all four of Bumble Fund's second round of recipients, according to the release.

  • Alice - founded by Carolyn Rodz and Elizabeth Gore: an AI-powered technology helping entrepreneurs find the right path to start and grow their companies.
  • Gixo - founded by Selina Tobaccowala: a fitness company founded to improve global health and activity rates by democratizing access to live workouts with professional trainers.
  • Translator - founded by Natalie Egan: the world's most advanced diversity & inclusion training system for corporations, schools and nonprofits.
  • Promise - founded by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins: a technology company that creates cost-effective, equitable, and humane alternatives to incarceration with a mission to get people out of jail and provide ongoing support to help them stay out.

Bumble's first round of investments were in Beautycon, Cleo Capital, Female Founders Fund, Mahmee, and Sofia Los Angeles, a winner of the inaugural Bumble Bizz Pitch Competition.

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Johnson Space Center and UT partner to expand research, workforce development

onward and upward

NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston has forged a partnership with the University of Texas System to expand collaboration on research, workforce development and education that supports space exploration and national security.

“It’s an exciting time for the UT System and NASA to come together in new ways because Texas is at the epicenter of America’s space future. It’s an area where America is dominant, and we are committed as a university system to maintaining and growing that dominance,” Dr. John Zerwas, chancellor of the UT System, said in a news release.

Vanessa Wyche, director of Johnson Space Center, added that the partnership with the UT System “will enable us to meet our nation’s exploration goals and advance the future of space exploration.”

The news release noted that UT Health Houston and the UT Medical Branch in Galveston already collaborate with NASA. The UT Medical Branch’s aerospace medicine residency program and UT Health Houston’s space medicine program train NASA astronauts.

“We’re living through a unique moment where aerospace innovation, national security, economic transformation, and scientific discovery are converging like never before in Texas," Zerwas said. “UT institutions are uniquely positioned to partner with NASA in building a stronger and safer Texas.”

Zerwas became chancellor of the UT System in 2025. He joined the system in 2019 as executive vice chancellor for health affairs. Zerwas represented northwestern Ford Bend County in the Texas House from 2007 to 2019.

In 1996, he co-founded a Houston-area medical practice that became part of US Anesthesia Partners in 2012. He remained active in the practice until joining the UT System. Zerwas was chief medical officer of the Memorial Hermann Hospital System from 2003 to 2008 and was its chief physician integration officer until 2009.

Zerwas, a 1973 graduate of the Houston area’s Bellaire High School, is an alumnus of the University of Houston and Baylor College of Medicine.

3 Houston innovators who are making headlines right now

Featured Innovators

Editor's note: Houston innovators have kicked off the new year with big developments, from an immune-boosting nanodrug to NSF research funding and more. Below, meet three local innovators who have recently been in the headlines.

Kirsten Adam, Rice University

Kirsten Adam. Courtesy photo.

Rice University psychologist Kirsten Adam has received a $600,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award to research how visual distractions like phone notifications, flashing alerts, crowded screens and busy workspaces can negatively impact focus—and how the brain works to try to regain it. Adam’s work will aim to clarify how the brain refocuses in the age of screens, instant gratification and other lingering distractions. The funding will also be used to train graduate students in advanced cognitive neuroscience methods, expand access to electroencephalography (EEG) and for public data sharing. Read more.

Houston lab-test startup seeks $1M for nationwide expansion

Jim Gebhart, founder and CEO of TheLabCafe.com. Courtesy photo.

Driven by the desire to knock down lab-test barriers, health care industry veteran Jim Gebhart founded Houston-based TheLabCafe.com in 2024. The platform provides access to low-cost medical tests without requiring patients to carry health insurance. It currently serves patients in six states and is poised for major U.S. expansion early this year. Read more.

Wei Gao, University of Houston College of Pharmacy

Wei Gao (center). Photo courtesy UH.

Wei Gao, assistant professor of pharmacology at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, may have a solution to regulatory B cells (Bregs) which block the body's natural immunity and are found in pancreatic and lung cancers. Gao and her team have developed Nano-273, a dual-function drug, packaged in an albumin-based particle, that boosts the immune system to help it better fight these cancers. Read more.

Texas booms as No. 3 best state to start a business right now

Innovation Starts Here

High employment growth and advantageous entrepreneurship rates have led Texas into a triumphant No. 3 spot in WalletHub's ranking of "Best and Worst States to Start a Business" for 2026.

Texas bounced back into the No. 3 spot nationally for the first time since 2023. After dropping into 8th place in 2024, the state hustled into No. 4 last year.

Ever year, WalletHub compares all 50 states based on their business environment, costs, and access to financial resources to determine the best places for starting a business. The study analyzes 25 relevant metrics to determine the rankings, such as labor costs, office space affordability, financial accessibility, the number of startups per capita, and more.

When about half of all new businesses don't last more than five years, finding the right environment for a startup is vital for long-term success, the report says.

Here's how Texas ranked across the three main categories in the study:

  • No. 1 – Business environment
  • No. 11 – Access to resources
  • No. 34 – Business costs

The state boasts the 10th highest entrepreneurship rates nationwide, and it has the 11th-highest share of fast-growing firms. WalletHub also noted that more than half (53 percent) of all Texas businesses are located in "strong clusters," which suggests they are more likely to be successful long-term.

"Clusters are interconnected businesses that specialize in the same field, and 'strong clusters' are ones that are in the top 25 percent of all regions for their particular specialization," the report said. "If businesses fit into one of these clusters, they will have an easier time getting the materials they need, and can tap into an existing customer base. To some degree, it might mean more competition, though."

Texas business owners should also keep their eye on Houston, which was recently ranked the 7th best U.S. city for starting a new business, and it was dubbed one of the top-10 tech hubs in North America. Workers in Texas are the "third-most engaged" in the country, the study added, a promising attribute for employers searching for the right place to begin their next business venture.

"Business owners in Texas benefit from favorable conditions, as the state has the third-highest growth in working-age population and the third-highest employment growth in the country, too," the report said.

The top 10 best states for starting a business in 2026 are:

  • No. 1 – Florida
  • No. 2 – Utah
  • No. 3 – Texas
  • No. 4 – Oklahoma
  • No. 5 – Idaho
  • No. 6 – Mississippi
  • No. 7 – Georgia
  • No. 8 – Indiana
  • No. 9 – Nevada
  • No. 10 – California
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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