Female-founded Houston startup helps busy families do it all

The Bevy Way

Bevy co-founders and working moms Carissa Janeway (left) and Lynda Attaway wanted to create a service for helping busy families keep things moving smoothly. Photo courtesy of Bevy

So much to do and so little time? We feel you. In a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, 60 percent of U.S. adults said they sometimes felt too busy to enjoy life. Bevy, an organization company serving greater Houston, is helping the overwhelmed and active do it all.

"Bevy was actually born from our-real life experiences," explains Lynda Attaway, co-founder and CEO of Bevy.

As the former co-founder and chief strategy officer of Sunnova Energy, she led a complex schedule until the demands of doing it all got to her. While climbing the corporate ladder for 18 years, she would "do whatever it took and stay as late as it took," to succeed.

While trying to raise her three children and balance a large role, she soon realized that many of her male colleagues had a stay-at-home wife who managed the at-home projects that can take so much time.

"I finally came to the realization that I could not be everything to everybody, which is a very common kind of syndrome that we tend to have as women," she shares. "Something needed to change."

The power of an extra set of hands

Attaway's former employee, now Bevy co-founder and COO, Carissa Janeway, had a seven-month-old and another child on the way when she made a plan to leave their energy company. That's when Attaway approached her with the idea of becoming her at-home project manager.

Janeway spent 15 to 20 hours a week helping Attaway with tasks like project managing a bathroom renovation, organizing the children's wardrobe, sending flowers to her mother-in-law, and making sure the nanny got paid. The two women realized how much people could benefit from having an extra set of hands, and Attaway quit her corporate job in 2017. Together, they co-founded Bevy in 2019, an organizational service for individuals and families that specializes in project management.

"It started from ourselves, and not being able to see something out there that was scalable and had that community, local touch that could really help women and families enjoy the time that they have," says Attaway.

Unlike a virtual assistant or personal assisting service, the women feel Bevy offers a more sophisticated approach.

"We're able to provide an elevated white-glove service, almost like a concierge service, where we can completely absorb the entire project and the managing aspects of it because of the level of experience that we have," says Janeway.

The team at Bevy prizes itself as your go-to home project manager. From decluttering your children's playroom to taking on simple errands that never leave your to-do list — Attaway and Janeway pride themselves on a full suite of services. The company's offerings include home organization, planning family events, project management, room renovation, and packing for a move.

While some projects can be completed remotely, Attaway stresses that they are very much a "local" company serving the greater Houston-area.

COVID-19 demands have disproportionately impacted women in the workplace, and more than 2.2 million women had dropped out of the workforce as of October. According to the Washington Post, the percentage of women working in the U.S. is the lowest it's been since 1988. When the school year began, 865,000 women dropped out of the labor force, compared with 216,000 men. With many schools maintaining virtual learning, the brunt of education is continuing to fall on mothers.

Things like contacting the plumber, setting up your at-home office, virtual schooling, and planning your child's Zoom-accessible birthday party can stack up quickly in a global pandemic.

"How are you able to have the mental capacity to do that? [Even] before the pandemic, this service was needed," emphasizes Janeway.

During the summer, Bevy worked with one family to compile a curriculum of summer fun to entertain active children at a time where summer camps were closed.

"We put together activity kits for the kids. We were able to get them through a whole month of activities that were very family-friendly," explains Janeway. The kits included daily activities like a neighborhood scavenger hunt, rock painting, and baking bread as a family. The parents didn't have to do the "legwork" of planning or buying the items, she shares.

Something for everyone

Maybe you're not a parent or a woman to use Bevy. Maybe you're a busy startup founder, a hard-working CFO, or a healthcare worker on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.

"You don't have to have kids to have our service. You don't have to be married. Everybody needs a hand," Janeway explains.

Attaway, who is currently teaming up with several HR departments on ways to incorporate Bevy in benefit packages, says companies for years have supported employees with offer gym memberships and massages — why not give them time?

"Bevy is the gift of time... We're told to delegate at work. We're told that's how you get better and how you become managers, that you need to learn to delegate. Then, we're told to go home and do it all yourself," says Attaway. "This is a service where you can actually delegate at home, and on a broader base so that we can take on the complexity of it," she continues.

The team of project managers and assistants, called "Bevs," do home visits and phone consultations. Bevy features long-term subscriptions, where clientele would have a set number of hours to work with the Bevy team, as well as project-based options. Attaway and Janeway offer free consultations to assess the project needs and what the client is most looking for from their services.

When onboarding a new client, the Bevs call it a "deep dive," where they can do a virtual meeting or a socially-distanced, masked-on meeting. The team does "a lot of listening" before making a full list of things that need to happen for the client based on what they hear.

"We just start pouring out all the things that need to be done... we pull more and will encourage them to explore other areas," explains Attaway. As they tour client homes, they might point to areas where they feel the client may need some extra help. "We help them pull all the things that are kind of lying on their shoulders, and you start watching them kind of lift up," she says, regarding clients' demeanor.

The business of giving time

Trust is at the core of Bevy's client relationships, as the co-founders work out the best plan for each project.

"We're here to take care of you, [and] to help you. You deserve to have this taken care of for you," says Janeway. "We make sure they know that they're not alone — and they've felt so alone. Society has put so many expectations on our shoulders."

After the consultation, Bevy compiles a list of all the needs communicated and priorities to share with the client for their feedback. From there, they compose different package options for consideration. Clients can also set their own pace based on how quickly they need a project completed. At last, the Attaway and Janeway will assign a Bev from their team — or in some cases, themselves — to a client.

While the Bevs take on tasks like research and execution, they present clients with options for each project they take one. "Our goal is that our clients are in the decision-making seat," says Attaway.

When it comes to design and renovation, Janeway and Attaway both use their personal expertise to work on major home projects. Janeway, passionate about interior design, has loved providing her keen eye to a family's home to find solutions for making a room aesthetically-pleasing and purposeful. Attaway grew up in a hands-on family and has grown a savvy knowledge of construction.

One satisfaction of the job is watching clients' stress melt away. During a recent home visit, Attaway was faced with an overwhelmed client. As she broke down what tasks Bevy would take off her shoulders, the customer said she felt so much better being able to relay the tasks to her team. The stress was "falling off of her," she says, "that's why we do this."

"We do this because it changes people's lives," says Janeway, emphatically, as she recalls some of her favorite Bevy projects.

Packages at four hours of service at $360, but Bevy offers various discounts for the subscription service and larger package offerings.

The company that once ran on word-of-mouth is now venturing into Facebook advertisements and other forms of traditional marketing as they continue to build its customer base. In the future, Attaway and Janeway plan to create a digital platform and scale Bevy to cities across the country.

"We have a mission to help society and blow open the doors of how families manage homes," says Janeway.

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Houston biosciences company opens new sequencing center for drug development

bioscience breakthroughs

Houston-based Avance Biosciences has launched the Next-Generation Sequencing Center of Excellence, designed to enhance the company’s sequencing capabilities for drug development. Specifically, the facility at the company’s main campus in Northwest Houston will pursue breakthroughs in biologics, cell therapy and gene therapy.

In the drug industry, sequencing refers to studying nucleotides in DNA and RNA molecules. Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and RNA.

“This is a major milestone for Avance Biosciences as we continue to support the evolving needs of biologics and cell and gene therapy developers,” Xuening “James” Huang, co-founder, CEO and chief technology officer of Avance, said in a news release. “By consolidating state-of-the-art sequencing platforms and scientific talent, we’ve created a highly capable organization ready to solve complex genomic challenges with precision and compliance.”

In 2013, Avance rolled out next-generation sequencing (NGS) that complies with federal guidelines. Since then, Avance “has remained at the forefront of regulated sequencing services,” the company said. “The launch of the (new center) strengthens the company’s ability to deliver accurate, reproducible, and regulatory-aligned sequencing data across a wide array of therapeutic modalities.”

Cal Froberg, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Avance, said pharmaceutical and biotech clients trust the company’s technical capabilities and regulatory compliance.

“With the ever-changing global landscape and increasing scrutiny around international sample shipments, conducting advanced, cost-effective NGS testing domestically is now more feasible than ever,” Froberg said. “Our clients have confidence that their samples will remain in the U.S.”

Avance, founded in 2010, plans to hold an open house at the new facility in September to showcase its capabilities, technology, talent, and services. The company’s services include sequencing, molecular biology, cell-based testing, and bioanalytical testing.

Texas cybersecurity co. expands unique train-to-hire model to Houston

job search

It’s increasingly more difficult to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of proprietary data and information in the ever-changing, ever-evolving digital world.

Cyberattacks, including malware, phishing, and ransomware, are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated, posing a consistent threat to a company’s sustainability and bottom line.

To combat that trend, Nukudo, a San Antonio-based cybersecurity workforce development company, is expanding its initiative to bridge the global cybersecurity talent gap through immersive training and job placement to Houston.

“We saw that there was a need in the market because there's a shortage of skilled manpower within the cybersecurity industry and other digital domains,” says Dean Gefen, CEO of NukuDo. “So, our initial goal was to take a large pool of people and then make them to be fully operational in cybersecurity in the shortest amount of time.”

The company refers to the plan as the “training-to-employment model,” which focuses on providing structured training to select individuals who then acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to secure and maintain fruitful careers.

The company identifies potential associates through its proprietary aptitude test, which recognizes individuals who possess the innate technical acumen and potential for success in various cybersecurity roles, regardless of their level of education.

“We take in people from all walks of life, meaning the program is purely based on the associate’s potential,” Gefen says. “We have people who were previously aircraft engineers, teachers, graphic designers, lawyers, insurance agents and so forth.”

Once selected, associates are trained by cybersecurity experts while gaining hands-on experience through scenario-based learning, enabling them to be deployed immediately as fully operational cybersecurity professionals.

The program training lasts just six months—all paid—followed by three years of guaranteed employment with NukuDo.

While in training, associates are paid $ 4,000 per month; then, they’re compensated by nearly double that amount over the next three years, ultimately pushing their salaries to well into the six figures after completing the entire commitment.

In addition to fostering a diverse talent pipeline in the cybersecurity field, NukuDo is creating a comprehensive solution to address the growing shortage of technical talent in the global workforce.

And arming people with new marketable skills has a litany of benefits, both professional and personal, Gefen says.

“Sometimes, we have associates who go on to make five times their previous salary,” says Gefen. “Add to that fact that we had someone that had a very difficult life beforehand and we were able to put him on a different path. That really hits home for us that we are making a difference.

Nulkudo currently has partnerships with companies such as Accenture Singapore and Singapore Airlines. Gefen says he and his team plans to have a new class of associates begin training every month by next year and take the model to the Texas Triangle (Houston, Austin and Dallas)—then possibly nationwide.

“The great thing about our program is that we train people above the level of possible threat of replacement by artificial intelligence,” Gefen says. “But what we are also doing, and this is due to requirements that we have received from clients that are already hiring our cyber professionals, is that we are now starting to deliver AI engineers and data scientists in other domains.”

“That means that we have added more programs to our cybersecurity program. So, we're also training people in data science and machine learning,” he continues.

All interested candidates for the program should be aware that a college degree is not required. NukuDo is genuinely interested in talented individuals, regardless of their background.

“The minimum that we are asking for is high school graduates,” Gefen says. “They don't need to have a college degree; they just need to have aptitude. And, of course, they need to be hungry to make this change.”

2 Houston universities declared among world’s best in 2026 rankings

Declaring the Best

Two Houston universities are in a class of their own, earning top spots on a new global ranking of the world's best universities.

Rice University and University of Houston are among the top 1,200 schools included in the QS World University Rankings 2026. Ten more schools across Texas make the list.

QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), a London-based provider of higher education data and analytics, compiles the prestigious list each year; the 2026 edition includes more than 1,500 universities from around the world. Factors used to rank the schools include academic reputation; employer reputation; faculty-student ratio; faculty research; and international research, students, and faculty.

In Texas, University of Texas at Austin lands at No. 1 in the state, No. 20 in the U.S., and No. 68 globally.

Houston's Rice University is close behind as Texas' No. 2 school. It ranks 29th in the U.S. and No. 119 in the world. Unlike UT, which fell two spots globally this year (from No. 66 to 68), Rice climbed up the charts, moving from 141st last year to No. 119.

University of Houston impresses as Texas' 4th highest-ranked school. It lands at No. 80 in the U.S. and No. 556 globally, also climbing about 100 spots up the chart.

Rice and UH are on a roll in regional, national, and international rankings this year.

Rice earned top-15 national rankings by both Niche.com and Forbes last fall. Rice claimed No. 1 and UH ranked No. 8 in Texas in U.S. News & World Report's 2025 rankings. Rice also topped WalletHub's 2025 list of the best colleges and universities in Texas for 2025.

More recently, in April, both UH and Rice made U.S. News' 2025 list of top grad schools.

In all, 192 U.S. universities made the 2026 QS World University Rankings — the most of any country. Topping the global list is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“The results show that while U.S. higher education remains the global leader, its dominance is increasingly challenged by fast-rising emerging systems,” says the QS World University Rankings report. “A decade ago, 32 American universities [were] featured in the world’s top 100; today, that number has dropped to 26, and only 11 of these institutions have improved their position this year."

The 12 Texas universities that appear in the QS World University Rankings 2026 list are:

University of Texas at Austin, No. 20 in the U.S. and No. 68 in the world (down from No. 66 last year).
Rice University, No. 29 in the U.S. and No. 119 in the world (up from No. 141 last year).
Texas A&M University, No. 32 in the U.S. and No. 144 in the world (up from No. 154 last year).
University of Houston, No. 80 in the U.S. and No. 556 in the world (up from 651-660 last year).
University of Texas at Dallas, No. 85 in the U.S. and No. 597 in the world (down from 596 last year).
Texas Tech University, No. 104 in the U.S. and No. 731-740 in the world (unchanged from last year).
University of North Texas, No. 123 in the U.S. and No. 901-950 in the world (up from 1,001-1,200 last year)
Baylor University, tied for No. 136 in the U.S. and at No. 1,001-1,200 in the world (unchanged from last year).
Southern Methodist University, tied for No. 136 in the U.S. and at 1,001-1,200 in the world (unchanged from last year).
University of Texas Arlington, tied for No. 136 in the U.S. and at 1,001-1,200 in the world (unchanged from last year).
University of Texas at San Antonio, tied for No. 136 in the U.S. and at 1,001-1,200 in the world (unchanged from last year).
University of Texas at El Paso, No. 172 in the U.S. and at 1,201-1,400 in the world (down from 1,001-1,200 last year).

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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