Houston startup founders prepare to scale globally following Shark Tank success

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 205

Berkley Luck and Pedro Silva, co-founders of Milkify, join the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss the impact of their successful Shark Tank experience. Photo courtesy of Milkify

While Milkify's founders — husband and wife team Pedro Silva and Berkley Luck — secured partners on a popular business pitch and investment show, the entire experience almost didn't happen.

Silva and Luck, who got her PhD in molecular and biomedical s at Baylor College of Medicine, founded the company to provide breast milk freeze drying as a service to Houston-area families. Now, Milkify has customers across the country, but the duo didn't know if going through the process would be worth the investment and publicity, or if it would just be a distraction.

"The competitor in me wanted to be the first breast milk company to go on the show and to tell our story to the world — to show the world what my wife came up with that we thought was so great," Silva says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "It was probably the scariest 45 minutes of my life."

But the sharks bit. Milkify's episode aired in April, and two investors — Gwyneth Paltrow and Lori Greiner — agreed to a $400,000 convertible note for 20 percent equity in the company. Paltrow even said on the show that she would have used the service when she was breastfeeding.

"It was empowering," Luck says of getting to wear her white coat on TV and share the story of how she came up with the idea of Milkify. "It was important to me when we went on the show to express that this had a scientific basis, that we didn't start this lightly, and that we've made huge strides in doing this in the absolute safest way possible."

Silva says they can't talk about some of the details of the show or the deal, but since then, Milkify has reached new customers, received additional investment interest, grown its team, and built out its plan to scale, the founders shared on the podcast. The team also shares its big-picture scale plans, which include tapping international partners to potentially take Milkify's tech global.

"Our vision is for every family to have access to breast milk formula, but instead of re-creating breast milk in a lab, we're doing it with mom's own milk," Silva says, mentioning a partnership with a breast milk bank that will convert its operation from freezing to freeze drying donated milk. "We're also working with groups in the UK and Australia to launch similar services using our patented technology."

"By the end of the year, we hope to see some announcements with those partnerships across the globe."

From the beginning, the importance of Milkify's team has been on supporting working parents to give them the best way to care for their families, Silva says. And for Luck — who says she's proud of the integrity Milkify has at its core despite competitors offering lower-quality and, in some cases, dangerous alternatives — she sees a lot of research benefits for the company.

"It's amazing to be at this leading edge, not just of innovation but of research, and to be able to still put out meaningful advances as an industry partner, not just as an academic," Luck says, adding that she hopes to be able to continue to contribute to the ongoing research into breast milk.

Luck and Silva share more about their Shark Tank experience, their co-founder strengths, and the future of Milkify on the podcast. Listen to the interview here — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Paul Cherukuri of Rice University, Berkley Luck of Milkify, and Reid Wiseman of NASA. Photos courtesy

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: In this week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three local innovators across industries — from space to molecular biology — recently making headlines in Houston innovation.

Paul Cherukuri, vice president of innovation at Rice University

This Houston innovator is set on bringing more innovation off campus and into the world

Paul Cherukuri, vice president of innovation at Rice University, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo via Rice.edu

Rice University was founded on a mission of an "unfettered pursuit of knowledge," says Paul Cherukuri, the inaugural vice president for innovation at Rice University. And that goal is specifically designed to be "for the greater good of society," — especially in Houston.

"Rice is right in the middle of one of the greatest cities in the world," Cherukuri says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "Houston is special on so many levels that it's ridiculous that no one outside of Houston seems to get that. ... We have a moral responsibility as Rice to do more for this city and the country."

Among the top action items on this overarching mission Rice is on is ensuring that the Rice University's inventions and research that have the potential to make the world a better place are able to commercialize to deliver on that impact. Read more.

Berkley Luck, founder and COO of Milkify

Houston-based Milkify pitched their freeze-drying breast milk concept on Shark Tank. Photo via LinkedIn

Houston startup Milkify pitched on ABC’s “Shark Tank” on Friday, April 7. Pedro Silva, co-founder and CEO, created Milkify along with his wife, Berkley Luck, PhD, in 2019. Today, Luck is a mom, COO, and a molecular biologist, but she had the idea for the company back in grad school. A coworker was struggling with pumping breast milk “lugging the pump back to work,” as Luck puts it.

Luck was studying probiotics at the time and was using a freeze-dryer in her work. The problem inspired her to create a process of freeze-drying breast milk that is now patent pending. The trademarked process is centered around SafeDry, special freeze-drying pouches.

“The breast milk never makes contact with our equipment,” Luck explains. The powdered milk is transferred directly from the bag in which it’s freeze-dried to the final packaging under sterile conditions. The result is not only shelf-stable, but keeps for at least three years, exponentially longer than frozen milk. Read more.

Reid Wiseman, NASA's Artemis II commander

Meet Commander Reid Wiseman, the responsible for the success of the Artemis II mission once it launches. Photo courtesy of NASA

Last week, NASA announced its four-person crew for Artemis II, the first manned mission to the moon in over 50 years.

While the announcement in itself — with the first person of color and first woman to head to the moon — is history making, Commander Reid Wiseman says there's still a lot of work to be done.

"When you look at our crew, our next step is to learn about the spacecraft that will be operating in deep space. It's a very capable, very redundant, robust machine. So we have to get in the classroom, we've got to learn about all the capabilities, but we also have to get out and see the workforce," Reid says. Read more.

Houston-based Milkify will pitch their freeze-drying breast milk concept on Shark Tank this Friday. Photo courtesy of Milkify

Houston startup with breast milk freeze-drying tech heads to Shark Tank

coming to a TV near you

A Houston startup is competing in the "Super Bowl of Business," as founder Pedro Silva calls it, and you can watch the action later this week.

Milkify will appear on ABC’s “Shark Tank” this Friday, April 7. Silva, co-founder and CEO, created Milkify along with his wife, Berkley Luck, PhD, in 2019. Today, Luck is a mom, COO, and a molecular biologist, but she had the idea for the company back in grad school. A coworker was struggling with pumping breast milk “lugging the pump back to work,” as Luck puts it.

Silva admits that when Luck first pitched Milkify to him, he thought it was a crazy idea. “But Berkley is way smarter than I am. There must be something to it,” he realized. At the time, he was working in energy private equity. But he vowed that if they could find a viable path to making Milkify a business, he would join Luck full-time.

Early in the company’s life, the couple purchased a blue van that said “We will freeze-dry your breast milk,” recalls Silva. This grassroots marketing introduced them to a neighbor whose baby refused to drink her frozen milk. “He spat it out, he hated the taste,” Silva says. The pair freeze-dried her milk for the baby and their neighbor soon sent a video of the little one chugging six ounces of her rehydrated milk.

“That was the lightbulb moment,” says Silva. “How often do you get to work on something really meaningful?”

Since its founding, Milkify has freeze-dried and powdered more than half a million ounces of breast milk, all carefully preserved and packaged individually. Last October, Milkify opened what Luck claims is, “The only GMP-certified processing facility in the world right now specifically designed for freeze-drying breast milk.”

The 6,400-square-foot Houston space is a vast improvement from the previous 200-square-foot facility. That was thanks to raising $1.2 million in funds, which has also allowed them to build a larger staff.

“Our entire workforce at this point other than Pedro is moms,” says Luck. Including the couple, they are a team of 10, and just hired two additional members. They are currently looking to hire, says Silva, with roles including both operations and logistics associates. Experience, he says, is less important than conscientiousness and a good attitude, as they will train their new hires in-house.

And Milkify is about to receive more attention than ever with its appearance on “Shark Tank.” “Getting on a national stage to share our story was the main motivation for it,” says Luck. That translates to both education about the potential for freeze-drying breast milk, and about Milkify’s unique model.

“We started this business as a labor of love. It wasn’t just a financial reason,” says Silva. “This can actually help a lot of people. This is a way to spread the word.” And in the process, help countless moms and babies.

Berkley Luck and Pedro Silva — the wife and husband team behind Milkify — appear on Shark Tank this Friday. Photo courtesy of Milkify

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Innovation Labs @ TMC set to launch for early-stage life science startups

moving in

The Texas Medical Center will launch its new Innovation Labs @ TMC in January 2026 to better support life science startups working within the innovation hub.

The new 34,000-square-foot space, located in the TMC Innovation Factory at 2450 Holcombe Blvd., will feature labs and life science offices and will be managed by TMC. The space was previously occupied by Johnson & Johnson's JLABS @TMC, a representative from TMC tells InnovationMap. JLABS will officially vacate the space in January.

TMC shares that the expansion will allow it to "open its doors to a wider range of life science visionaries," including those in the TMC BioBridge program and Innovation Factory residents. It will also allow TMC to better integrate with the Innovation Factory's offerings, such as the TMC Health Tech accelerator, TMC Center for Device Innovation and TMC Venture Fund.

“We have witnessed an incredible demand for life science space, not only at the TMC Innovation Factory, but also on the TMC Helix Park research campus,” William McKeon, president and CEO of the TMC, said in a news release. “Innovation Labs @ TMC enables us to meet this rising demand and continue reshaping how early-stage life science companies grow, connect, and thrive.”

“By bringing together top talent, cutting-edge research, and industry access in one central hub, we can continue to advance Houston’s life science ecosystem," he continued.

The TMC Innovation Factory has hosted 450 early-stage ventures since it launched in 2015. JLABS first opened in the space in 2016 with the goal of helping health care startups commercialize.

13 Houston businesses appear on Time's best midsize companies of 2025

new report

A Houston-based engineering firm KBR tops the list of Texas businesses that appear on Time magazine and Statista’s new ranking of the country’s best midsize companies.

KBR holds down the No. 30 spot, earning a score of 91.53 out of 100. Time and Statista ranked companies based on employee satisfaction, revenue growth, and transparency about sustainability. All 500 companies on the list have annual revenue from $100 million to $10 billion.

According to the Great Place to Work organization, 87 percent of KBR employees rate the company as a great employer.

“At KBR, we do work that matters,” the company says on the Great Place to Work website. “From climate change to space exploration, from energy transition to national security, we are helping solve the great challenges of our time through the high-end, differentiated solutions we provide. In doing so, we’re striving to create a better, safer, more sustainable world.”

KBR recorded revenue of $7.7 billion in 2024, up 11 percent from the previous year.

The other 12 Houston-based companies that landed on the Time/Statista list are:

No. 141 Houston-based MRC Global. Score: 85.84
No. 168 Houston-based Comfort Systems USA. Score: 84.72
No. 175 Houston-based Crown Castle. Score: 84.51
No. 176 Houston-based National Oilwell Varco. Score: 84.50
No. 234 Houston-based Kirby. Score: 82.48
No. 266 Houston-based Nabor Industries. Score: 81.59
No. 296 Houston-based Archrock. Score: 80.17
No. 327 Houston-based Superior Energy Services. Score: 79.38
No. 332 Kingwood-based Insperity. Score: 79.15
No. 359 Houston-based CenterPoint Energy. Score: 78.02
No. 461 Houston-based Oceaneering. Score: 73.87
No. 485 Houston-based Skyward Specialty Insurance. Score: 73.15

Additional Texas companies on the list include:

No. 95 Austin-based Natera. Score: 87.26
No. 199 Plano-based Tyler Technologies. Score: 86.49
No. 139 McKinney-based Globe Life. Score: 85.88
No. 140 Dallas-based Trinity Industries. Score: 85.87
No. 149 Southlake-based Sabre. Score: 85.58
No. 223 Dallas-based Brinker International. Score: 82.87
No. 226 Irving-based Darling Ingredients. Score: 82.86
No. 256 Dallas-based Copart. Score: 81.78
No. 276 Coppell-based Brink’s. Score: 80.90
No. 279 Dallas-based Topgolf. Score: 80.79
No. 294 Richardson-based Lennox. Score: 80.22
No. 308 Dallas-based Primoris Services. Score: 79.96
No. 322 Dallas-based Wingstop Restaurants. Score: 79.49
No. 335 Fort Worth-based Omnicell. Score: 78.95
No. 337 Plano-based Cinemark. Score: 78.91
No. 345 Dallas-based Dave & Buster’s. Score: 78.64
No. 349 Dallas-based ATI. Score: 78.44
No. 385 Frisco-based Addus HomeCare. Score: 76.86
No. 414 New Braunfels-based Rush Enterprises. Score: 75.75
No. 431 Dallas-based Comerica Bank. Score: 75.20
No. 439 Austin-based Q2 Software. Score: 74.85
No. 458 San Antonio-based Frost Bank. Score: 73.94
No. 475 Fort Worth-based FirstCash. Score: 73.39
No. 498 Irving-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group. Score: 72.71

Texas ranks as No. 1 most financially distressed state, says new report

Money Woes

Experiencing financial strife is a nightmare of many Americans, but it appears to be a looming reality for Texans, according to a just-released WalletHub study. It names Texas the No. 1 most "financially distressed" state in America.

To determine the states with the most financially distressed residents, WalletHub compared all 50 states across nine metrics in six major categories, such as average credit scores, the share of people with "accounts in distress" (meaning an account that's in forbearance or has deferred payments), the one-year change in bankruptcy filings from March 2024, and search interest indexes for "debt" and "loans."

Joining Texas among the top five most distressed states are Florida (No. 2), Louisiana (No. 3), Nevada (No. 4), and South Carolina (No. 5).

Texas' new ranking as the most financially distressed state in 2025 may be unexpected, WalletHub says, considering the state has a "bigger GDP than most countries" and still has one of the top 10 best economies in the nation (even though that ranking is also lower than it was in previous years).

Even so, Texas residents are stretching themselves very thin financially this year. Texans had the ninth lowest average credit scores nationwide during the first quarter of 2025, the study found, and Texans had the sixth-highest increase in non-business-related bankruptcy filings over the last year, toppling 22 percent.

"Texas also had the third-highest number of accounts in forbearance or with deferred payments per person, and the seventh-highest share of people with these distressed accounts, at 7.1 percent," the report said.

This is where Texas ranked across the study's six key dimensions, where No. 1 means "most distressed:"

No. 5 – "Loans" search interest index rank
No. 6 – Change in bankruptcy filings from March 2024 to March 2025 rank
No. 7 – Average number of accounts in distress rank
No. 8 – People with accounts in distress rank
No. 13 – Credit score rank and “debt” search interest index rank

Examining these financial factors on the state level is important for understanding how Americans are faring with economic issues like inflation, unemployment rates, or natural disasters, according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.

"When you combine data about people delaying payments with other metrics like bankruptcy filings and credit score changes, it paints a good picture of the overall economic trends of a state," Lupo said.

On the other side of the spectrum, states like Hawaii (No. 50), Vermont (No. 49), and Alaska (No. 48) are the least financially distressed states in America.

The top 10 states with the most people in financial distress in 2025 are:

No. 1 – Texas
No. 2 – Florida
No. 3 – Louisiana
No. 4 – Nevada
No. 5 – South Carolina
No. 6 – Oklahoma
No. 7 – North Carolina
No. 8 – Mississippi
No. 9 – Kentucky
No. 10 – Alabama

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A version of this article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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