4 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Kevin Coker of Proxima CRO, Gaurab Chakrabarti of Solugen, and Phil Sitter and Chris Chomenko of RepeatMD. Courtesy photos

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

Kevin Coker, CEO and co-founder of Proxima CRO, and Gaurab Chakrabarti, CEO and co-founder of Solugen

First Bight VC named two Houstonians to its board. Photos courtesy

First Bight Ventures, a new VC firm focused exclusively on early-stage synthetic biology startups founded by Veronica Wu in January, has named two new board members: Gaurab Chakrabarti, co-founder and CEO of Solugen, and Kevin Cocker, co-founder and CEO of Proxima CRO.

"We are excited to announce the addition of Dr. Gaurab Chakrabarti and Kevin Cocker," Wu says in a press release. "These two advisors are experts in their respective fields of medicine and biotechnology. They are proven leaders of Houston-based companies, which is key to our overall growth strategy, as we seek to establish Houston as a geographic center for innovation in Synthetic Biology." Click here to read more.

RepeatMD's CEO Phil Sitter and Vice President of Sales Chris Chomenko

RepeatMD's CEO Phil Sitter and Vice President of Sales Chris Chomenko join the Houston Innovators Podcast to explain how they are revolutionizing the aesthetics industry. Photos courtesy

Houston restaurateur pivoted his restaurant marketing business amid the pandemic — to a growing industry: aesthetics. Phil Sitter took the idea and tech he created with VIPInsiders to launch RepeatMD, a customizable marketing and fintech platform focused on the aesthetics industry, which includes plastic surgeons, dermatologists, etc.

Sitter, who serves as the company's CEO, says once he dived into learning about the industry, he found out these types of business are seeing incredible growth following the pandemic.

"They call it the 'Zoom boom' — everyone saw themselves on Zoom daily and decided to invest in themselves and their facial treatments." says Chris Chomenko, vice president of sales for the company, on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

"And they had the time," Sitter adds. "When you think about aesthetic procedures — whether its invasive or non-invasive, it takes time for recovery." Click here to read more.

RepeatMD's CEO Phil Sitter and Vice President of Sales Chris Chomenko join the Houston Innovators Podcast to explain how they are revolutionizing the aesthetics industry. Photos courtesy

Houston innovators find 'perfect storm' for fintech and marketing platform

Houston innovators podcast episode 129

Phil Sitter saw fast growth and adoption from his restaurant rewards platform he founded in 2019, but when the pandemic hit, he had to go back to the drawing board to find a growing industry that needed to be disrupted by his technology. And he did.

Sitter, a Houston restaurateur, originally founded VIPInsiders to help his restaurants — and later, licensing the technology out, other Houston eateries too — reward loyal patrons who continue to come in. However, in 2020, Sitter considered a pivot.

"We realized the restaurant industry may never be the same, and we asked ourselves who could be an ideal client," Sitter says on the Houston Innovators Podcast.

This pivot ended up creating RepeatMD, a customizable marketing and fintech platform focused on the aesthetics industry, which includes plastic surgeons, dermatologists, etc.

Sitter, who serves as the company's CEO, says once he dived into learning about the industry, he found out these types of business are seeing incredible growth following the pandemic.

"They call it the 'Zoom boom' — everyone saw themselves on Zoom daily and decided to invest in themselves and their facial treatments." says Chris Chomenko, vice president of sales for the company.

"And they had the time," Sitter adds. "When you think about aesthetic procedures — whether its invasive or non-invasive, it takes time for recovery."

After initially branching out into the field, Sitter says they are now onboarding up to 200 new locations a month, providing med spas around the world the ability to reward returning customers, as well as inform them on the breadth of options the facility offers. RepeatMD has expanded its team to 50 people and is eyeing seed funding this summer.

"Some things had to work out perfectly in order," Chomenko says, "for this perfect storm of perfect timing. Whenever you talk about entrepreneurs and how much of it was luck and how much of it is hard work, we really have attribute a lot of our success to being there with the right idea, in the right place, at the right time."

Sitter and Chomenko share more about the future of RepeatMD on the podcast episode. Listen to the full interview below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

RepeatMD offers its clients rewards-based software and is expanding with a new fintech tool. Photo via Getty Images

Fast-growing Houston software startup expands with fintech model

innovative marketing

A less than one-year-old B2B software startup in Houston is beefing up its offerings with a new feature that thrusts it into the rapidly growing fintech space.

RepeatMD, founded in December 2020, specializes in white-label rewards apps for plastic surgeons, medical spas, dermatologists, and similar businesses. Now, it's expanding into the "buy now, pay later" fintech realm through a new deal with BTL Industries, a Marlborough, Massachusetts-based provider of body-sculpting equipment.

RepeatMD's new Medical Gym function enables customers treated with BTL equipment to finance add-on enhancement and maintenance packages through "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) arrangements. BNPL is a booming sector. The size of the global BNPL market approached $90.7 billion in 2020 and is projected to come close to $4 trillion by 2030, according to Allied Market Research.

RepeatMD essentially layers the Medical Gym's BNPL functionality on top of the rewards feature of its apps.

Chris Chomenko, vice president of sales at RepeatMD, says the startup already had been working on a BNPL offering when BTL approached the RepeatMD team about creating a BNPL product. RepeatMD and BTL share many of the same clients.

"We are rolling out with them nationally at a breakneck speed because the demand they have from their client base is so high," Chomenko says. "It's kind of forcing us to do in three months what we planned on doing in three years."

While the concept of a rewards app or a BNPL program is not unique, their pairing is, according to Chomenko. Sitter calls the marriage of the two a "game changer" — a game changer that eventually should extend well beyond BTL's clients.

RepeatMD founder and CEO Philipp Sitter says the Medical Gym feature lets customers break up the cost of, say, a $5,000 treatment into management monthly payments. The results of a survey of RepeatMD app users found that the guilt of putting down a wad of cash on aesthetics services was the No. 2 barrier cited in terms of spending money on treatments.

"What we'll be working on is being a full, proper fintech play, where we have that buy now, pay later functionality, and doctors can get paid in advance for treatments. But that is a large endeavor that will take us all of a year to [complete]," Chomenko says.

RepeatMD counts more than 600 practices in North America as customers. The startup envisions that figure rising to 1,000 by the end of this year. In tandem with that growth, RepeatMD foresees revenue climbing to eight figures (at least $10 million) by the end of 2022 and its valuation growing to nine figures (at least $100 million) by then.

Today, RepeatMD employs about 30 people. Sitter says the headcount should reach 75 to 100 by the end of next year.

Sitter is self-funding RepeatMD with proceeds from other business ventures, including Houston-based food and beverage loyalty and rewards platform VIPinsiders and Houston-based brunch and lunch restaurant EggHaus Gourmet. However, RepeatMD plans to raise outside capital in the first quarter of 2022.

The company sets up each client with an exclusive private-label app. RepeatMD says businesses using its app have seen an average sales increase of $313,000 and an average of 51 new referrals within the first 90 days of adopting the app.

Sitter says the RepeatMD rewards app provides a "gateway" for businesses to drum up repeat business and sell more services, much like the Starbucks rewards app incentivizes customers to try different food and beverage products.

"We see us becoming ubiquitous in the industry, where anybody that's a dermatologist, a plastic surgeon, or a medical spa has [our app]," Sitter says.

"We look at mobile app experience as something that's coming for all the local businesses. We're just the frontrunners in bringing it to the masses," he adds.

Philipp Sitter is the founder of RepeatMD. Photo via LinkedIIn

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Innovative life science hub opens doors of Houston location, welcomes inaugural startups

ready to grow

A new life science-focused venture capital engine has officially opened offices in Houston.

Portal Innovations moved into a space at Helix Park in October. The offices are led by executive director Monique Knighten.

Knighten has been in Houston for 16 years, since she was a postdoc at the University of Texas Institute for Molecular Medicine. “It's like a lot of us. We come for a specific reason, and then we just find reasons to stay,” she says.

And now, that reason is to push the emerging Houston ecosystem forward by helping early-stage startups to build themselves toward success. Portal does that partly by providing capital, but besides cash investments, emerging companies need a physical infrastructure where their work can happen. They also need great people to support their cause at every step of development. To that end, networking and convening with beneficial people is key for Portal.

With locations already in Chicago, Boston and Atlanta, why did Portal choose Houston?

“If you take a look at where lots of scientific publications are coming from, if you look at where a lot of technology that eventually becomes commercialized, a lot of it will come initially from labs that are right here in Houston,” says Knighten. “Houston also has a great quality of life. That's really important so that startups need to be able to have a place where they can have their teams.”

And who has joined Portal in its 30,000-square-foot Helix Park lab space? March Biosciences, a cancer-focused cell therapy startup; Crossbridge Bio, responsible for a cancer therapeutic that just closed a $10 million seed round; Artidis, which is personalizing cancer diagnosis thanks to a new nanomedical biomarker technology; Spanios, which has created human model systems to help researchers better identify therapeutic options for solid tumors; Stingray Therapeutics, a cancer immunotherapy company working on metastatic or advanced solid tumors; Remunity Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology startup developing immune-stimulating antibody-drug conjugates that reactivate anti-tumor immune response; and Phiogen, which is doing promising work in the world of non-antibiotic anti-infectives.

The Cancer Focus Fund, an oncology-focused investment fund in partnership with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is also sharing space with the burgeoning biomedical companies.

Even Texas Medical Center CEO Bill McKeon is excited to greet Portal.

“In Portal, we have a partner with a proven track record of leveraging venture capital funding, expert partners and strong programming to support dynamic, entrepreneurial businesses at pivotal moments of their growth. We look forward to building on our collective expertise and shared vision to further support the breakthroughs of early-stage life science ventures,” he says on the company’s website.

By working with Portal, each of the companies will benefit not only from Knighten’s expertise i building teams gathered from her time at Sartorius Stedim Biotech and decade with Miltenyi Biotec, but also that of the other Portal teams. Working on a national scale also gives the brands opportunities for national exposure. Just one more way, Houston’s ecosystem is continuing to move the needle both for the healthcare companies in it and the patients who will one day benefit.

Houston-based, NASA-founded tech startup closes $5.6M in seed funding

money moves

A Houston startup with clean tech originating out of NASA has secured millions in funding.

Helix Earth Technologies closed an oversubscribed $5.6 million seed funding led by Houston-based research and investment firm Veriten. Anthropocene Ventures, Semilla Capital, and others including individual investors also participated in the round.

“This investment will empower the Helix Earth team to accelerate the development and deployment of our first groundbreaking hardware technology designed to disrupt a significant portion of the commercial air conditioning market, an industry that is ready for innovation,” Rawand Rasheed, Helix Earth co-founder and CEO, says in a news release.

Helix Earth was founded based on NASA technology co-invented by Rasheed and spun out of Rice University and has been incubated at Greentown Labs in Houston since 2022. Currently being piloted, the technology is estimated to save up to half of the net energy used in commercial air conditioning, reducing both emissions and costs for operators.

“The enthusiastic response from investors reinforces our team’s confidence in our ability to transform innovation-starved sectors such as commercial air conditioning with an easy-to-install-and-maintain solution that benefits distributors, mechanical contractors, and most of all, building owners, with a positive benefit to the environment,” Rasheed says.

Prior to its raise, the company received grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Energy.

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Helix Earth team," Maynard Holt, Veriten’s founder and CEO, adds. "We were so impressed with their unique combination of a technology with broad applicability across multiple industries, a product that will have an immediate and measurable impact on our energy system, and a fantastic and well-rounded team.”

Helix Earth, per the release, reports that is also looking to provide solutions for commercial humidity control and carbon capture.

Houston gala attendees prescribe $1M for groundbreaking stem cell research

breaking boundaries

There’s a new gala in H-town, folks, and it made its grand, sold-out debut thanks to a power couple known for believing that the sky's the limit when it comes to local philanthropy. Chairs Jessica Rossman and Gordon Bethune piloted the inaugural Hope Biosciences Research Foundation (HBRF) fundraiser on October 26 at the Post Oak Hotel in Uptown Houston.

The event spotlighted the organization’s strides in regenerative medicine, fueling advancements in adult stem cell therapies for conditions often deemed incurable, such as Parkinson’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injuries.

The evening offered patrons a deeper look into the group’s pioneering work, led by co-founders Donna and Daniel Chang. More than 400 supporters — many of whom have witnessed the impact of HBRF’s clinical trials on their health and the lives of loved ones — were enticed to partake in the event by a host committee helmed by Donae, Bella, and Rob Chramosta.

Sherry Diers and David Gonzales, hosts of the foundation’s Hopeful News Network podcast, shared heartfelt stories from their hands-on experiences with HBRF patients. In a touching moment, high school senior Bella Chramosta recounted her own health journey before announcing the inaugural HBRF Luminary Award recipients — Ema Suljkanovic, Rachel Phillips, and Alayna Nunez. The three Kingwood High School students had raised $1,400 for the foundation, and Houston icon Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale proudly presented the award.

HBRF offered a Hope-inspired jewelry pull, sponsored by Thomas Markle Jewelers. Each silver necklace entry doubled as a ticket for a chance to win a diamond version of the necklace — 2.27 carats in 18kt white gold, valued at $7,500. The winning ticket, drawn by Sarah and Phillip Markle, brought cheers from those who purchased necklaces throughout the evening. Guests enjoyed a silent auction chaired by Cathy Jackson, featuring everything from health and beauty experiences to travel packages like golfing at St. Andrews and fishing in Cabo.

Gala-goers were treated to a meaningful musical performance by Faith and Jon Hartlage. Upon departure, each guest received a gift from Hope Biosciences, LLC — a tube of Wondercell gel, an anti-aging product made from stem cell byproducts, as a reminder of the foundation’s impact both inside and outside the lab.

Seen on the scene were Ginger and Dick Hite, Maria and Omar Alaoui, Roslyn Bazzelle Mitchell, Cheryl Byington, Gracie and Bob Cavnar, Anna Dean, Karen and Peter Remington, Dr. Romy Dell’Ario, Jan Duncan, Nene Foxhall, Mandy Kao, Stacey Lindseth, Linda McIngvale, Beth Muecke, Patti Murphy, Jennifer Pinkerton, Rachel and Tom Regan, Dallas Rowdan, Ally Shell, Natalie Wall, Christina Zhou, Tama Lundquist and Dr. Peter Farrell, Stephanie and Gary Loveless, Azeemeh Zaheer, Chris Perry, Gregg Harrison, and Dr. Roland Maldonado.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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