Texas A&M University has announced a new technology that will keep up with Aggie-founded businesses. Photo via tamu.edu

Texas A&M University has teamed up with a tech company in New York state to track the performance of startups spawned by the College Station school.

The tech company, StartupTree, produces software that manages university entrepreneurship data. StartupTree is creating a performance-tracking platform for Texas A&M University Innovation Partners, which fosters A&M-born innovations, and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Office of Commercialization and Entrepreneurship. The platform will monitor the performance of Texas A&M spinouts. It also will match startups with business mentors, legal advisers, potential investors, and other resources.

Among the Houston companies affiliated with Texas A&M University Innovation Partners are ECM Biosurgery, a medical device maker, and

Pulmotect, a biopharmaceutical business.

“StartupTree is going to make it easier for our startups to be successful,” says Chris Scotti, director of new ventures at Texas A&M Innovation Partners and chairman of the Texas A&M New Ventures Competition. “It will be easier for startups to find mentorship, funding, and other forms of help they may need to bring a technology to market.”

Texas A&M joins the University of Texas System as a StartupTree customer.

“Already, Texas A&M has influenced the product in terms of data collection, including the ability for mentors and administrators to leave notes on venture profiles,” says Theresa Kim, president of StartupTree. “If we can play a role in developing scalable data collection processes for Texas A&M within the platform, we see this paying dividends over time, especially given the trends of external stakeholders being more data-focused.”

Texas A&M’s pilot phase of the StartupTree installation is expected to launch later this year.

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Mark Cuban calls AI ‘the greater democratizer’ for young entrepreneurs

eyes on AI

Texas billionaire Mark Cuban—whose investment portfolio includes Houston-based Holliball, a startup that makes and sells large inflatable holiday ornaments—believes AI is leveling the playing field for budding low-income entrepreneurs.

At the recent Clover x Shark Tank Summit in Las Vegas, the Shark Tank alum called AI “the greater democratizer.”

Cuban told Axios that free and low-cost AI tools enable disadvantaged teenagers to compete with seasoned professionals.

“Right now, if you’re a 14- to 18-year-old and you’re in not-so-good circumstances, you have access to the best professors and the best consultants,” Cuban said. “It allows people who otherwise would not have access to any resources to have access to the best resources in real time. You can compete with anybody.”

While Cuban believes AI is “the great democratizer” for low-income young people, low-income workers still face hurdles in navigating the AI landscape, according to Public Works Partners, an urban planning and consulting firm. The firm says access to AI among low-income workers may be limited due to cost, insufficient digital literacy and infrastructure gaps.

“Without adequate resources and training, these workers may struggle to adapt to AI-driven workplaces or access the educational opportunities necessary to acquire new skills,” Public Works Partners said.

Texas 2036, a public policy organization focused on the state’s future, reported in January AI jobs in Texas are projected to grow 27 percent over the next decade. The number 2036 refers to the year when Texas will celebrate its bicentennial.

As for the current state of AI, Cuban said he doesn’t think the economy is witnessing an AI bubble comparable to the dot-com bubble, which lasted from 1998 to 2000.

“The difference is, the improvement in technology basically slowed to a trickle,” Cuban said of the dot-com era. “We’re nowhere near the improvement in technology slowing to a trickle in AI.”

CPRIT hires MD Anderson official as chief cancer prevention officer

new hire

The Austin-based Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which provides funding for cancer research across the state, has hired Ruth Rechis as its chief prevention officer. She comes to CPRIT from Houston’s University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she led the Cancer Prevention and Control Platform.

Before joining MD Anderson, Rechis was a member of the executive leadership team at the Livestrong Foundation, an Austin-based nonprofit that supports people affected by cancer.

“Ruth has widespread connections throughout the cancer prevention community, both in Texas and across the nation,” CPRIT CEO Kristen Doyle said in a news release. “She is a long-term passionate supporter of CPRIT, and she is very familiar with our process, programs, and commitment to transparency. Ruth is a terrific addition to the team here at CPRIT.”

Rechis said that by collaborating with researchers, policymakers, public health leaders and community partners, CPRIT “can continue to drive forward proven prevention strategies that improve health outcomes, lower long-term costs, and create healthier futures for all.”

At MD Anderson, Rechis and her team worked with more than 100 organizations in Texas to bolster cancer prevention initiatives at clinics and community-based organizations.

Rechis is a longtime survivor of Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the lymph nodes, which are part of a person’s immune system.