Houston e-commerce company ranks as one of fastest-growing business in Texas, says Inc.

This Houston company is among the fastest-growing businesses in the state. Sean Pavone/Getty Images

A Houston-based company is among the 100 fastest growing businesses in the nation.

Homestead Brands, an e-commerce business comprised of the Lori Wall Beds and Organic Swings brands, grew 3,916 percent from 2017 to 2020, according to the newly released Inc. 5000 list. That makes the Humble-based business the eighth-fastest-growing private company in Texas and the 98th nationally.

"We are a team of A players determined to build the kind of company we all wish we could have worked at from the start of our careers: a place where everybody is valued, challenged, and comes to work with a sense of purpose," Homestead Brands says on its website.

A total of 90 Houston-area companies made the list. Other tech companies making the cut includes Onit, GoCo.io, Velentium, Softeq, Poetic, Techwave, and more.

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage growth in revenue from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They also must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent. The minimum revenue threshold for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. Among the 5,000 companies on the list, the average median three-year growth rate stood at 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million.

"The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc., says in an August 17 news release. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people."

San Antonio-based Texas Solar Integrated took the top spot statewide and ranked 11th nationally with a growth rate of 22,381 percent. The company installs commercial and residential solar energy systems.

"At Texas Solar, we treat our customers like family. We believe that successful relationships with partners and homeowners alike develop through transparency and the trust for doing things right the first time," the company says on its website.

The top-ranked company from the Austin area is Empowering a Billion Women, landing at No. 28. The company, which does business as EBW Worldwide, focuses on social, health, and economic empowerment of women. The company saw three-year revenue growth of 10,676 percent.

"Access to opportunity, education, and a support system for success is key to breaking the historical biases that have previously held women back from reaching their fullest social, health, and economic potential," says Linda Pringle Evans, dean of The EBW Business School for Women.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, Pomerenke Holdings is the top-ranked company on the Inc. 5000. Holding down the No. 73 spot, the automotive remarketer grew 5,164 percent from 2017 to 2020.

"Being ranked 73rd in a tough economic year for so many demonstrates the outstanding work and dedication of our team and partners," says Joey Pomerenke, founder and CEO of Pomerenke Holdings.

Following are other Texas companies that made the top 200 in the Inc. 5000, along with their three-year growth rates:

49. Residential real estate platform OJO Labs, Austin, 6,767 percent
77. Book club operator Literati, Austin, 4,898 percent
79. Tea-by-the-box purveyor Sips by, Austin, 4,754 percent
87. YouTube ad platform AdOutreach, Austin, 4,515 percent
120. Staffing agency Rayne Staffing, Houston, 3,390 percent
141. Dental services provider Endo1 Partners, Houston, 2,936 percent
165. Healthcare consulting firm ReMedi Health Solutions, Houston, 2,547 percent
169. Mortgage lender NXT Mortgage, Coppell, 2,496 percent
196. Software provider Noblesoft Technologies, Irving, 2,200 percent

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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New UT Austin med center, anchored by MD Anderson, gets $1 billion gift

Future of Health

A donation announced Tuesday, April 21, breaks a major record at the University of Texas at Austin. Michael and Susan Dell are now UT Austin's first supporters to give $1 billion. In response, the university will create the UT Dell Campus for Advanced Research and the UT Dell Medical Center to "advance human health," per a press release.

The release also records "significant support" for undergraduate scholarships, student housing, and the Texas Advanced Computing Center for supercomputing research.

Both the new research campus and the UT Dell Medical Center will integrate advanced computing into their research and practices. At the medical center, the university hopes that will lead to "earlier detection, more precise and personalized care, and better health outcomes." The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will also be integrated into the new medical center.

That comes with a numeric goal measured in 10s: raise $10 billion and rank among the top 10 medical centers in the U.S., both in the next decade.

In the shorter term, the university will break ground on the medical center with architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) "later this year."

“UT Austin, where Dell Technologies was founded from a dorm room, has always been a place where bold ideas become real-world impact,” said Michael and Susan Dell in a joint statement.

They continued, “What makes this moment so meaningful is the opportunity to build something that brings every part of the journey together — from how students learn, to how discoveries are made, to how care reaches families. By bringing together medicine, science and computing in one campus designed for the AI era, UT can create more opportunity, deliver better outcomes, and build a stronger future for communities across Texas and beyond.”

This is the second major gift this year for the planned multibillion-dollar medical center. In January, Tench Coxe, a former venture capitalist who’s a major shareholder in chipmaking giant Nvidia, and Simone Coxe, co-founder and former CEO of the Blanc & Otus PR firm, contributed $100 million$100 million.

Baylor scientist lands $2M grant to explore links between viruses and Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s research

A Baylor College of Medicine scientist will begin exploring the possible link between Alzheimer’s disease and viral infections thanks to a $2 million grant awarded in March.

Dr. Ryan S. Dhindsa is an assistant professor of pathology & immunology at Baylor and a principal investigator at Texas Children’s Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI). He hypothesizes that Alzheimer’s may have some link to previous viral infections contracted by the patient. To study this intriguing possibility, the American Brain Foundation has gifted him the Cure One, Cure Many award in neuroinflammation.

“It is an honor to receive this support from the Cure One, Cure Many Award. Viral infections are emerging as a major, underappreciated driver of Alzheimer's disease, and this award will allow our team to conduct the most comprehensive screen of viral exposures and host genetics in Alzheimer's to date, spanning over a million individuals,” Dhindsa said in a news release. “Our goal is to identify which viruses matter most, why some people are more vulnerable than others, and ultimately move the field closer to new therapeutic strategies for patients.”

Roughly 150 million people worldwide will suffer from Alzheimer’s by 2050, making it the most common cause of dementia in the world. Despite this, scientists are still at a loss as to what exactly causes it.

Dhindsa’s research is part of a new range of theories that certain viral infections may trigger Alzheimer’s. His team will take a two-fold approach. First, they will analyze the medical records of more than a million individuals looking for patterns. Second, they will analyze viral DNA in stem cell-derived brain cells to see how the infections could contribute to neurological decay. The scale of the genomic data gathering is unprecedented and may highlight a link that traditional studies have missed.

Also joining the project are Dr. Caleb Lareau of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Dr. Artem Babaian of the University of Toronto. Should a link be found, it would open the door to using anti-virals to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s.

Tesla Robotaxi service officially launches in Houston and Dallas

Future of the Roads

Tesla’s Robotaxi service has taken to the streets of Houston. In a brief statement Saturday, April 18 on its X social media account, Tesla Robotaxi says the autonomous rideshare service just launched in Texas’ two biggest metro areas — Houston and Dallas.

“Try Tesla Robotaxi in Dallas & Houston!” Tesla CEO Elon Musk says in a reposting on X of the Robotaxi announcement.

One of Robotaxi’s competitors, Alphabet-owned Waymo, beat the Tesla service to the Dallas, Houston, and Austin markets. Another competitor, Amazon-owned Zoox, has Dallas flagged for its autonomous rideshare service.

Robotaxi previously kicked off in Austin, where Tesla is based and manufactures electric vehicles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Nearly 50 Robotaxis operate in Austin, where the service’s inaugural rides happened last year, and more than 500 in the San Francisco area.

Of the three rides logged in a 31-square-mile area in Dallas as of Monday morning, the average fare was $7.96 and the average trip was 3.5 miles, according to an online tracker of autonomous rideshare services. The tracker showed only one Robotaxi was on the roads in Dallas.

As of Monday morning, a 25-square-mile area in Houston had two Robotaxis on the road, according to the online tracker. The average fare for five recorded rides was $11.34 and the average trip was six miles.

“We want Robotaxi pricing to be simple and easy for you to understand,” according to the Robotaxi website. “Initially, as part of our introductory program, we will charge a simple, affordable rate plus applicable taxes and fees for all rides within the available service area.”

The tracker shows the Robotaxi in Dallas did not have a human aboard to monitor each trip, and only one of Houston’s two Robotaxis did not have a human monitor in the driver’s seat.

For now, all passengers ride in Tesla Model Y cars. Robotaxi operates from 6 am-2 am daily.

To use the service, you first must download the Robotaxi app, which works only on iPhones.

Robotaxi lets you stream music and adjust climate settings and seat positioning from the Robotaxi app or the vehicle’s touchscreen. Climate and media settings are stored in your Robotaxi profile and automatically transfer from one vehicle to another. If you own a Tesla, certain profile settings and media preferences are available in your own car as well as in a Robotaxi.

In January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Musk said a “widespread” network of driverless rideshare vehicles would be operating in the U.S. by the end of this year, CNBC reported.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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