Houston company is connecting rockstar developers with growing startups and big corporations

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 53

Marcelo Cordini, co-founder of December Labs, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss the unique service his company provides an evolving tech workforce. Photo courtesy of December Labs

For tech startups, a great business idea is step one, design and development is that next, make-or-break step. A Houston company exists to help staff development teams with talented specialists across various fields.

December Labs, which has offices in Uruguay and Houston, has seen the industry evolve since its founding in 2014. Nowadays, it's a competition for startups and corporations alike to get the best tech teams.

"Developers are kind of rockstars nowadays — it's very hard to attract them and keep them happy. We can help with that," says Marcelo Cordini, co-founder of December Labs, on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast.

Cordini and his co-founders — Martin Palatnik, Diego San Esteban, and Washington Miranda — designed their business's service to provide development teams to companies of all sizes and industries, from startups to big companies.

"We are always learning new technologies — that's our focus," Cordini says. "If you have a big company focused on real estate, your focus is on real estate — not technology. So, if you partner with a company like us, it will give you that value to have someone who knows how to hire developers and how to train them."

Similar to most companies, the pandemic posed its challenges to December Labs, but one thing that the company has going for it is the evolution of the workforce. Now, it's way less important to have your team in house, as Cordini explains.

"It's the same to have your developers in South America as having them in the U.S., right? Because we are all working from home," he says. "We were lucky and prepared [for the pandemic]."

You can listen to the full interview with Cordini below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

When Marcelo Cordini moved his company to Houston, he didn't know what to expect. Now, a couple years later, he's poised for growth. Courtesy of December Labs

Growing UX developer credits Houston with company success

UX expectations

In December 2014, four guys from Uruguay banded together and created December Labs, a company specializing in UX and UI design, web development and mobile development for startups. After three years of success there, co-founder Marcelo Cordini's wife had her job transferred to "a city full of companies from everywhere" — Houston.

"To be honest, I came without expectations, not knowing what to do with the tech space here," Cordini says. "But I discovered that the city's innovation scene was rising and that the whole startup environment too. We didn't know Houston had a startup environment."

Cordini, along with co-founders, Martin Palatnik, Diego San Esteban, and Washington Miranda, have created a base here in Houston at Station Houston, with headquarters stationed in San Francisco as well as Uruguay.

The company's international presence can be seen in their client base, which includes industry giants like Google, Accenture, and Nest.

"When I got here, people told us that we should just go to Austin," Cordini says. "But, to be honest, this is a big city with lots of great companies — not just corporations, but startups — that are growing and thrive and have good connections. So, maybe you don't hear much about the startup world outside the U.S., but I think the startups right now are at a different level here."

December Labs has started working with local startups around the city and has grown to have around 15 engineers and designers working for the company.

Cordini says that their experience working at Station Houston has really broadened their horizons and allowed them to make connections that they wouldn't have made otherwise.

"It's great to have connections, and that's something that I love here in Houston," Cordini says. "People are willing to help each other."

A main goal for December Labs is to help other companies succeed through their mission-driven, people-focused work. But they're focused on the future.

"We've been growing like crazy over the past year," Cordini says. "We would love to keep growing here in Houston by getting more clients and helping more startups and corporations. Our idea is to continue our expansion here in Houston and all around Texas, for sure."

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UH lands $4M NIH grant to study early signs of autoimmune disease

NIH funding

The University of Houston recently received a $4 million National Institutes of Health grant to support a 10-year longitudinal study to identify the earliest biological markers of autoimmune disease.

Led by Chandra Mohan, the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Endowed Professor of Biomedical Engineering, the study aims to examine what causes Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases (SARDs) and to identify targets for future treatments. The study will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Karen Costenbader at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

SARDs include conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren’s syndrome and systemic sclerosis—all are considered chronic diseases currently without a cure. Autoimmune diseases affect over 30 million people globally, according to UH.

SARDs occur when the body’s immune system attacks healthy, non-threatening tissues and organs. According to UH, in these diseases, the body often attacks nuclear antigens, creating anti-nuclear autoantibodies, which can be early detection signs for SARDs in more than 50 percent of patients, Mohan says.

Researchers will study blood samples and environmental exposure over the 10 years to better understand anti-nuclear autoantibodies.

“Collectively, these studies will help identify the genetic, environmental and cellular factors that are operative at the two steps of SARD development, namely the emergence of anti-nuclear autoantibodies and disease onset,” Mohan said in a news release. “ More importantly, these studies will highlight functional molecular pathways and mechanisms that may be operative at each step."

Mohan predicts that looking at SARDs’ shared characteristics, rather than each disease individually, could help identify more treatment methods.

“Individual SARDs have been examined in silos without an attempt to discern shared underlying features at the molecular level,” he added in the release. “Current understanding of the initial (and likely shared) origins of SARDs is only rudimentary but urgently needed to develop means for prevention and treatment.”

Earlier this year, UH also received an $11 million NIH grant to conduct a first-of-its-kind study of early language development in children ages 18 to 24 months. Read more here.

New Texas Stock Exchange officially begins trading in Dallas

Welcome to Y'all Street

Two-step aside, New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. The Dallas-based Texas Stock Exchange, nicknamed Y’all Street, just kicked off live trading with five stocks — and lots of Lone Star ambition.

“The Texas Stock Exchange aims to revitalize competition for [stock] issuers, establish the premier venue for listings, and create a world-class trading platform for all market participants,” the exchange says in a fact sheet.

The exchange — whose Texas-influenced nickname is a nod to New York City’s Wall Street — has collected at least $275 million in investments. The roughly 90 financial backers of TXSE include Bank of America, BlackRock, Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, Dell Family Office, Fortress, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase.

Representatives of TXSE couldn’t be reached for comment. On its website, the exchange calls itself “the most well-capitalized equities exchange to ever be approved” by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Not to be outdone, NYSE has launched Dallas-based NYSE Texas and Nasdaq has expanded its presence in Dallas.

Y’all Street adds to Dallas-Fort Worth’s rising status as a major hub for financial services, with The Wall Street Journal naming North Texas the country’s second biggest financial hub after New York City.

“A homegrown national exchange means more jobs, more investment, and more growth opportunities for businesses and communities across the Lone Star State,” Gabriela von zur Muehlen, senior vice president and chief policy officer at the Texas Association of Business, told The Texas Tribune.

Bulent Temel, an associate professor of practice in economics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told Texas Standard that TXSE “is going to boost the credibility of the Texas economy.”

Texas’ estimated gross domestic product (GDP), a yardstick for the size of an economy, climbed to a record-setting $2.9 trillion in 2025, making it the state with the second highest GDP after California. DFW’s estimated GDP in 2023 stood at $744.6 billion, eclipsing the GDP of many countries.

“The center of gravity for American capitalism is now headquartered in the Boom Belt,” Abbott proclaimed in April, referring to an 11-state region (including Texas) in the South and Southeast that’s seeing tremendous economic and population growth. “The Texas Stock Exchange is the natural extension of that capitalism. It ensures that capital markets will reflect the quadrant that is driving American growth.”

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Orion vehicle manager reflects on Artemis II, looks to 2028 moon mission

Q&A

Humanity is finally headed back to the moon after more than half a century. This year's launch of the Artemis II mission in the Orion spacecraft put four crew members in lunar orbit and tested the new ship developed by Lockheed Martin.

Everything went smoothly, safely returning astronauts home, but there is always room to improve. InnovationMap chatted via email with Orion vehicle manager Branelle Rodriguez, shortly after a talk at The Ion, for insight on how Orion might perform in the future as the next lunar landing approaches in early 2028.

InnovationMap: How satisfied are you with the way Orion operated on this past mission?

Branelle Rodriguez: Orion performed exceptionally well during Artemis II, successfully demonstrating critical spacecraft capabilities, including life support systems, displays and controls, and executing manual piloting operations. Artemis II brought humans back to the moon, achieving key exploration and scientific imagery, while validating systems essential for future Artemis missions.

IM: What is the most important thing you learned about improving Orion for the next mission?

BR: The Artemis II mission provided invaluable insights into crew operations and spacecraft performance in a deep-space environment. With every mission, NASA applies lessons learned to continuously improve Orion’s operations, validate design and ensure mission readiness. Artemis II offered our first opportunity to evaluate several new systems and gain a deeper understanding of what it is like for astronauts to live and work inside the spacecraft. The operational, technical and human factors data collected are being integrated across the program to refine future missions, reduce risk and enhance overall mission success.

IM: How has Orion helped the mission to explore space?

BR: Orion is one of NASA’s foundational elements for human deep space exploration—not only supporting the mission but serving as a core component of it. It is currently the only spacecraft capable of carrying crew on deep space missions and returning them safely to Earth from the high speeds required from the vicinity of the moon. No other spacecraft has the technology to endure the extremes that come with human deep-space travel, such as advanced environmental and life support, navigation, communications, radiation shielding, and the world’s largest ablative heat shield to protect the astronauts during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Orion has already taken astronauts to explore space farther than ever before—252,756 miles from Earth— and will carry crews to the moon on future missions to explore the lunar South Pole region. The astronauts’ observations, samples, and data collected on these future missions will expand our understanding of our solar system and home planet.

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This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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