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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Houston femtech co. debuts new lactation and wellness pods

mom pod

Houston-based femtech company Work&, previously known as Work&Mother, has introduced new products in recent months aimed at supporting working mothers and the overall health of all employees.

The company's new Lactation Pod and Hybrid Pod serve as dual-use lactation and wellness spaces to meet employer demand, the company shared in a news release. The compact pods offer flexible design options that can serve permanent offices and nearly all commercial spaces.

They feature a fully compliant lactation station while also offering wellness functionalities that can support meditation, mental health, telehealth and prayer. In line with Work&'s other spaces, the pods utilize the Work& scheduling platform, which prioritizes lactation bookings to help employers comply with the PUMP Act.

“This isn’t about perks,” Jules Lairson, Work& co-founder and COO, said in the release. “It’s about meeting people where they are—with dignity and intentional design. That includes the mother returning to work, the employee managing anxiety, and everyone in between.”

According to the company, several Fortune 500 companies are already using the pods, and Work& has plans to grow the products' reach.

Earlier this year, Work& introduced its first employee wellness space at MetroNational’s Memorial City Plazas, representing Work&'s shift to offer an array of holistic health and wellness solutions for landlords and tenants.

The company, founded in 2017 by Lairson and CEO Abbey Donnell, was initially focused on outfitting commercial buildings with lactation accommodations for working parents. While Work& still offers these services through its Work&Mother branch, the addition of its Work&Wellbeing arm allowed the company to also address the broader wellness needs of all employees.

The company rebranded as Work& earlier this year.

Rice biotech studio secures investment from Modi Ventures, adds founder to board

fresh funding

RBL LLC, which supports commercialization for ventures formed at the Rice University Biotech Launch Pad, has secured an investment from Houston-based Modi Ventures.

Additionally, RBL announced that it has named Sahir Ali, founder and general partner of Modi Ventures, to its board of directors.

Modi Ventures invests in biotech companies that are working to advance diagnostics, engineered therapeutics and AI-driven drug discovery. The firm has $134 million under management after closing an oversubscribed round this summer.

RBL launched in 2024 and is based out of Houston’s Texas Medical Center Helix Park. William McKeon, president and CEO of the TMC, previously called the launch of RBL a “critical step forward” for Houston’s life sciences ecosystem.

“RBL is dedicated to building companies focused on pioneering and intelligent bioelectronic therapeutics,” Ali said in a LinkedIn post. “This partnership strengthens the Houston biotech ecosystem and accelerates the transition of groundbreaking lab discoveries into impactful therapies.”

Ali will join board members like managing partner Paul Wotton, Rice bioengineering professor Omid Veiseh, scientist and partner at KdT Ventures Rima Chakrabarti, Rice alum John Jaggers, CEO of Arbor Biotechnologies Devyn Smith, and veteran executive in the life sciences sector James Watson.

Ali has led transformative work and built companies across AI, cloud computing and precision medicine. Ali also serves on the board of directors of the Drug Information Association, which helps to collaborate in drug, device and diagnostics developments.

“This investment by Modi Ventures will be instrumental to RBL’s growth as it reinforces confidence in our venture creation model and accelerates our ability to develop successful biotech startups,” Wotton said in the announcement. "Sahir’s addition to the board will also amplify this collaboration with Modi. His strategic counsel and deep understanding of field-defining technologies will be invaluable as we continue to grow and deliver on our mission.”