The Bayou City ranks highly thanks to a high quality-of-living score, lack of a state income tax and state capital gains tax, and a state sales tax rate of 6.25 percent. Photo by Natalie Harms/InnovationMap

Houston joins Dallas and Austin in a new ranking of the 10 best U.S. cities for entrepreneurs to live.

Houston appears at No. 7 on the list, compiled by SumUp, which provides payment and banking services for businesses. In part, Bayou City ranks highly thanks to a high quality-of-living score. Houston also fares well due to the lack of a state income tax and state capital gains tax, and a state sales tax rate of 6.25 percent.

Here are the top 10 places in the U.S. for entrepreneurs to live, according to SumUp:

  1. New York City
  2. Chicago
  3. Miami
  4. Los Angeles
  5. Dallas
  6. Austin
  7. Houston
  8. Seattle
  9. Washington, D.C.
  10. Boston

SumUp, based in the United Kingdom, weighed 16 factors to come up with the ranking. These factors included tax rates, number of millionaires, internet speeds, and number of international airports.

Not surprisingly, the ranking factors featured a decidedly British slant. For instance, the ranking took into account Google and TikTok search volumes in the United Kingdom for “Moving to [city name].”

Of course, Houston offers more entrepreneurial advantages than the ones cited by SumUp. For example:

  • Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business ranks as the country’s No. 1 graduate entrepreneurship program, according to The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.
  • The University of Houston’s Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the C.T. Bauer College of Business ranks as the No. 1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program, according to The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.
  • The George W. Bush Presidential Center awarded Houston the No. 6 spot on its 2024 ranking of the top U.S. metro areas for university innovation.
  • A 2023 ranking from the LendingTree personal finance website put Houston in 13th place among the U.S. metro areas where minority entrepreneurs are enjoying the most success.
    “Houston’s reputation for entrepreneurship is inextricably linked to the city’s diversity,” the Understanding Houston website notes.

“The growing populations in Houston from diverse backgrounds, namely immigrants and people of color, are not only the economic and cultural driving force for the evolution of our city, but also the future of our country.”

Three Texas cities made the new ranking. Photo via Getty Images

Houston makes top 10 list for best US cities to start a business

best of the rest

Houston plays a historic role in launching spacecraft. But it’s also a great place to launch a business.

A new list from USA Today Blueprint puts Houston in ninth place among the best U.S. cities to start a business in 2024. Austin grabs the No. 1 spot, and Dallas sits at No. 4.

“Starting and sustaining it is a major challenge, and there are a vast number of factors that can affect your chances of success,” says USA Today Blueprint. “While the best businesses and entrepreneurs can succeed anywhere and beat any odds, it can help to think about where your business might be more likely to succeed.”

USA Today Blueprint combed through data for 46 of the country’s most popular cities to create the ranking. Houston fares especially well in two categories — business openings and growth in GDP (gross domestic product):

  • In 2021, Houston saw 16,816 business openings and 13,785 business closures, resulting in a net gain of 3,031 businesses, according to USA Today Blueprint’s analysis. The net gain gives Houston a fourth-place showing for business openings.
  • From 2021 to 2022, Houston experienced GDP growth of 14.2 percent. That was a high enough rate to earn a third-place ranking for GDP growth. Only El Paso (15 percent) and Austin (14.3 percent) notched higher rates.

“Startups in Miami, Austin, and Dallas are particularly high contributors to their city’s total employment numbers. These cities also — alongside Houston and Jacksonville — make up five of the top 10 in terms of GDP growth,” says USA Today Blueprint.

Two new media startups coming to Texas in 2024. Photo via Getty Images

Breaking news: 2 media startups expand to Texas

coming soon

Houston is already a media-rich town, with multiple newspapers, magazines, and online sites. But it's about to get richer in 2024, with two newcomers arriving and setting up shop.

Here's two new media startups coming to Texas in 2024:

Amaré Magazine Texas
A quarterly print and digital magazine covering lifestyle, fashion, reality TV, celebrities, philanthropy, entertainment, events, arts & culture, cuisine, breaking news, and pop culture — phew, that's a lot — is launching an edition in Texas.

Their "about us" page says they began in L.A. in 2016. Their founder/CEO is George Rojas, a fashion/stylist expert, event producer, and according to his bio, former meth addict. The mission: shine a light on artists, entrepreneurs, and businesses via a business model that allows professionals to expand their network, grow their social media, and work with advertisers and investors. Prior issues include "profiles" similar to the Voyage-type sites where the subjects write the profiles themselves.

Helping to launch in Texas is skincare doctor and "Bravo TV personality" James Mercer and editor Lindsay Stevenson.

While short on experience, they're long on enthusiasm. They breezed through Texas in May, stopping at Dallas restaurant Bistro 31, as well as the Highland Park home of D’Andra Simmons and the Houston home of reality-TV star and famed closet-owner Theresa Roemer — the latter of whom will be on the cover of the first issue which they say will debut in August. They claim to also be launching an edition in New York.

Courier Texas
National pro-democracy news network founded in 2019 is opening a bureau in Texas, and advertising for positions — based in Dallas — that include political reporter, operating/managing director, and a statewide social media manager, with a launch slated for summer 2024.

Courier's mission is to build a more informed and engaged America by providing factual, values-driven news, and analysis online. Their reporting is produced primarily for social media and online channels, with an emphasis on video, graphics, and skimmable newsletters.

Their CEO is Tara McGowan, who has worked in journalism and politics, mostly for Democratic candidates, as have a number of their staffers. To avoid spreading misinformation, they eschew the "both sides" approach followed by so many mainstream media sites under the guise of being "balanced."

They currently have outlets based in 10 states: Arizona, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Nevada.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

The 17 finalists are competing for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 Gulf South Award. Photo via Getty Images

17 Houston entrepreneurs named finalists in annual regional competition

on to the next round

Entrepreneurs from the Houston area have been named finalists for one of the region’s most prestigious business awards.

The 17 finalists are competing for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year 2024 Gulf South Award. The Gulf South region includes parts of Texas, along with Louisiana and Mississippi.

An independent panel of judges selected the 48 finalists. Contenders were evaluated based on their demonstration of building long-term value through factors such as entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth, and impact.

The Houston-area finalists are:

  • Shannon Payne, Allied Fire Protection, Pearland
  • Jay McEntire IV, Arva Intelligence, Houston
  • Andrew Levy, Avelo Airlines, Houston
  • Derek Maetzold, Castle Biosciences, Friendswood
  • Scott Aronstein, Connectivity Source, Houston
  • Joshua Weisman, Construction Concepts, Houston
  • Feras Moussa and Ben Suttles, Disrupt Equity, Houston
  • John Poindexter, J.B. Poindexter, Houston
  • James Ross, LJA Engineering, Houston
  • Asher Kazmann, Locke Solutions, Houston
  • Chad Millis, Millis, Missouri City
  • Mike Francis, NanoTech Materials, Houston
  • Stuart Hinchen and Peter Jenkins, Quva Pharma, Sugar Land
  • Trevor Best and Suman Khatiwada, Syzygy Plasmonics, Houston
  • Hal Brumfield, Tachus Fiber Internet, The Woodlands
  • Jared Boudreaux, Vector Controls and Automation Group, Pearland
  • Ting Qiao, Wan Bridge, Houston

“The finalists of this year are audacious entrepreneurs who are making a significant impact in their respective industries and communities,” says Anna Horndahl, an EY partner and co-director of the EOY Gulf South Program.

“These pioneers, chosen by an independent panel of judges, showcase relentless commitment to their businesses, customers and communities. We are thrilled to acknowledge their accomplishments,” adds Travis Garms, an EY partner and co-director of the EOY Gulf South Program.

Rushi Patel, co-founder and COO of Homebase, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast in honor of National Small Business Week. Photo courtesy of Homebase

Houston tech founder shines spotlight on small businesses with new awards initiative

houston innovators podcast episode 234

For decades, small businesses have operated in essentially the same manner — handwritten notes to request time off, manual punch cards to clock in, and verbal agreements to swap shifts. And 10 years ago, Houstonian Rushi Patel thought it was time to upgrade these local shops, eateries, and other businesses.

Homebase, which was founded in San Francisco in 2014 and has its largest office in Houston, provides a suite of software tools for employee scheduling, time tracking, communication, and task management for its users, most of which are small businesses.

After a decade of growing its technology and clientbase, Patel, co-founder and COO of the company, explains the unique challenges these small businesses face on the Houston Innovators Podcast — as well as how Homebase helps.

"It's a bit of an orchestra in terms of what entrepreneurs have to do. Your job is to compose a little, but conduct as well," Patel says on the show. "You've built the song of what you want to have happen, but you're conducting lots of different things to make it a reality as a small business owner."



Patel explains how optimizing these personnel aspects of the business frees up founders and managers and improves the employee experience too. Currently, the job market is competitive for these types of businesses, and retention and hiring are major focus points for entrepreneurs.

With 10 years of data and experience of working with small businesses, Homebase introduced a new awards program this week in honor of National Small Business Week. The inaugural Top Local Workplace Awards honored over 50,000 businesses across the country for a range of positive workplace factors — like pay transparency and employee engagement.

"There are over 2 million employee-centric, main street type of businesses in the United States," Patel says, "these are the restaurants, the retailers, and the service providers. They employ north of 70 million people, so there's a lot of impact that these businesses can have. But what we found was they deserve recognition, and there wasn't recognition for the good practices that these employers were doing."

Using its data, which includes over 2.5 million hourly worker data points, Homebase's team implemented the awards to highlight the companies providing their employees — who are in most cases considered a work family, as Patel says — with a great experience.

A new ranking puts Texas at No. 9 among the states with the highest expenses for starting and operating a business. Photo via Getty Images

Texas lands in top 10 most-expensive cities for running a new business

pay up

Everything is bigger in Texas — or at least somewhat bigger — and that appears to include the cost of running a new business.

A new ranking from business consulting firm Venture Smarter puts Texas at No. 9 among the states with the highest expenses for starting and operating a business.

New York appears at No. 1 on the list, followed by Washington and Massachusetts.

The cheapest state? Mississippi. It was preceded in the ranking by Kentucky and North Dakota.

To come up with its list, Venture Smarter looked at eight metrics, including corporate tax rate, average LLC filing fees, average real estate costs, and minimum wage.

Texas scored 59.74 out of 100 for startup expenses, with a higher score being worse.

The Lone Star State tied with Tennessee for the highest initial LLC filing fees ($300). But unlike many other states, Texas doesn’t require business owners to pay LLC filing fees each year to keep a business incorporated.

Texas fared well on several counts, though, such as no corporate tax, a low state-mandated minimum wage ($7.25 an hour), and relatively low real estate costs.

“This research aims to provide valuable insights into the business climate across various states, offering new entrepreneurs the information they need to make well-informed decisions on their entrepreneurial journey,” Venture Smarter says in a statement. “By understanding the unique characteristics and challenges of each state, aspiring business owners can navigate the complexities of different markets and optimize their chances of success.”

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6 Houstonians named to prestigious national group of inventors

top honor

Six Houston scientists and innovation leaders have been named to the National Academy of Inventors’ newest class of fellows. The award is the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors by the NAI.

The 2025 class is made up of 169 fellows who hold more than 5,300 U.S. patents, according to the organization. The group hails from 127 institutions across 40 U.S. states.

The Houston-based inventors are leading fields from AI to chemistry to cancer research.

“NAI Fellows are a driving force within the innovation ecosystem, and their contributions across scientific disciplines are shaping the future of our world,” Paul R. Sanberg, president of the National Academy of Inventors, said in a news release. “We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of Fellows to the Academy. They are truly an impressive cohort, and we look forward to honoring them at our 15th Annual Conference in Los Angeles next year.”

The 2025 list of Houston-based fellows includes:

  • Vineet Gupta, Vice President for Innovation, Technology Development and Transfer at the University of Texas Medical Branch
  • Eva Harth, chemistry professor at the University of Houston
  • Dr. Raghu Kalluri, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Sanjoy Paul, Executive Director of Rice Nexus and AI Houston and Associate Vice President for Technology Development at Rice University
  • Dr. Jochen Reiser, President of the University of Texas Medical Branch and CEO of UTMB Health System
  • Todd Rosengart, Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine

"It is a great honor to be named a Fellow of the NAI. It is deeply gratifying to know that the work my students and I do — the daily push, often in small steps — is seen and recognized," Harth added in a news release from UH.

The 2025 fellows will be honored and presented with their medals by a senior official of the United States Patent and Trademark Office at the NAI Annual Conference this summer in Los Angeles.

Innovative Houston research leads our top health tech news of 2025

year in review

Editor's note: As 2025 comes to a close, we're looking back at the stories that defined Houston innovation this year. The Bayou City continued to grow as a health tech hub, bringing in a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical development, playing home based to startups developing innovative treatment options and attracting leading researchers and professionals to the city. Here are the 10 most-read Houston health tech stories of the year:

Houston Nobel Prize nominee earns latest award for public health research

Dr. Peter Hotez with Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi. Photo courtesy of TMC

Houston vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez is no stranger to impressive laurels. In 2022, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his low-cost COVID vaccine.

His first big win of 2025 was this year’s Hill Prize, awarded by the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST). Hotez and his team were selected to receive $500,000 from Lyda Hill Philanthropies to help fund The Texas Virosphere Project, which aims to create a predictive disease atlas relating to climate disasters. Rice University researchers are collaborating with Hotez and his team on a project that combines climate science and metagenomics to access 3,000 insect genomes. The goal is to aid health departments in controlling disease and informing policy. Continue reading.

U.S. News ranks Houston hospital No. 1 in Texas for 14th year in a row

Houston Methodist is once again the top hospital in Texas. Photo via Houston Methodist

U.S. News & World Report's 2025 rankings of the best hospitals in Texas prove that Houston is in good hands.

The esteemed Houston Methodist Hospital was rated the No. 1 best hospital in Texas for the 14th consecutive year, and the No. 1 hospital in the metro area. Eleven more Houston-area hospitals earned spots among the statewide top 35. Continue reading.

Eli Lilly to build $6.5B pharmaceutical factory at Generation Park

Eli Lilly is expected to bring a $6.5 billion manufacturing facility to Houston by 2030. Rendering courtesy Greater Houston Partnership.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. plans to build a $6.5 billion manufacturing plant at Houston’s Generation Park. More than 300 locations in the U.S. competed for the factory.

The Houston site will be the first major pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Texas, according to the Greater Houston Partnership. Lilly said it plans to hire 615 full-time workers for the 236-acre plant, including engineers, scientists and lab technicians. The company will collaborate with local colleges and universities to help build its talent pipeline. Continue reading.

How a Houston company is fighting anxiety, insomnia & Alzheimer’s through waveforms

Nexalin develops non-invasive devices that help reset networks in the brain associated with symptoms of anxiety and insomnia. Photo via Getty Images.

Houston-based Nexalin Technology is taking a medicine-free approach to target brain neurologically associated with mental illness. The company's patented, FDA-cleared frequency-based waveform targets key centers of the midbrain. Delivered via a non-invasive device, the treatment gently stimulates the hypothalamus and midbrain, helping to “reset networks associated with symptoms” of anxiety and insomnia.

Nexalin’s proprietary neurostimulation device moved forward with a clinical trial that evaluated its treatment of anxiety disorders and chronic insomnia in Brazil this year and enrolled the first patients in its clinical trial at the University of California, San Diego. Continue reading.

Houston doctor aims to revolutionize hearing aid industry with tiny implant

Houston Methodist's Dr. Ron Moses has created NanoEar, which he calls “the world’s smallest hearing aid.” Photo via Getty Images.

“What is the future of hearing aids?” That’s the question that led to a potential revolution.

Dr. Ron Moses, an ENT specialist and surgeon at Houston Methodist, is the creator of NanoEar, which he calls “the world’s smallest hearing aid.” NanoEar is an implantable device that combines the invisibility of a micro-sized tympanostomy tube with more power—and a superior hearing experience—than the best behind-the-ear hearing aid. Continue reading.

Houston scores $120M in new cancer research and prevention grants

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas doled out 73 more grants to health care systems and companies in the state in November. Carter Smith/Courtesy of MD Anderson

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas granted more than $120 million to Houston organizations and companies as part of 73 new awards issued statewide this fall. The funds are part of nearly $154 million approved by the CPRIT's governing board, bringing the organization's total investment in cancer prevention and research to more than $4 billion since its inception. A portion of the funding will go toward recruiting leading cancer researchers to Houston. Continue reading.

Digital Health Institute's new exec director aims to lead innovation and commercialization efforts

Pothik Chatterjee was named executive director of Rice University's and Houston Methodist's Digital Health Institute, effective May 1. Photo courtesy Rice University.

The Digital Health Institute, a joint venture between Rice University and Houston Methodist, appointed Pothik Chatterjee to the role of executive director this summer. Chatterjee’s role is to help grow the collaboration between the institutions, but the Digital Health Institute already boasts more than 20 active projects, each of which pairs Rice faculty and Houston Methodist clinicians. Once the research is in place, it’s up to Chatterjee to find commercial opportunities within the research portfolio. Those include everything from hospital-grade medical imaging wearables to the creation of digital twins for patients to help better treat them. Continue reading.

Innovation Labs @ TMC set to launch for early-stage life science startups

Innovation Labs @ TMC will open next year at the TMC Innovation Factory. Photo courtesy JLABS.

The Texas Medical Center announced its plans to launch its new Innovation Labs @ TMC in January 2026 to better support life science startups working within the innovation hub. The 34,000-square-foot space, located in the TMC Innovation Factory at 2450 Holcombe Blvd., will feature labs and life science offices and will be managed by TMC. The expansion will allow TMC to "open its doors to a wider range of life science visionaries." Continue reading.

6 Houston health tech startups making major advancements right now

Tatiana Fofanova and Dr. Desh Mohan, founders of Koda Health. Photo courtesy Koda Health.

The Health Tech Business category in our 2025 Houston Innovation Awards honored innovative startups within the health and medical technology sectors. Six forward-thinking businesses were named finalists for the 2025 award, ranging from an end-of-life care company to others developing devices and systems for heart monitoring, sleep apnea, hearing loss and more. Continue reading or see who won here.

Houston students develop cost-effective glove to treat Parkinson's symptoms

Rice University students Emmie Casey and Tomi Kuye used smartphone motors to develop a vibrotactile glove. Photo by Gustavo Raskosky/ Courtesy Rice University.

Two Rice undergraduate engineering students have developed a non-invasive vibrotactile glove that aims to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease through therapeutic vibrations. Emmie Casey and Tomi Kuye developed the project with support from the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK). The team based the design on research from the Peter Tass Lab at Stanford University, which explored how randomized vibratory stimuli delivered to the fingertips could help rewire misfiring neurons in the brain—a key component of Parkinson’s disease. Continue reading.