3 Houston innovators to know this week

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This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Amanda Ducach of SocialMama, Sam Newman of Little Red Box Grocery, and Gina Luna of GP Capital Partners. Courtesy photos

Editor's note: In this week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three local innovators across industries — from investment to femtech — recently making headlines in Houston innovation.


Amanda Ducach, founder and CEO of SocialMama

Amanda Ducach, founder of SocialMama, is gearing up for a total rebrand and new product launch. Photo courtesy of SocialMama

For years, Amanda Ducach has been collecting data from the users of her social networking app, SocialMama. Now that data is fueling the AI of the new platform and a whole new phase of the company.

"When you have a compatibility-friendship-based product, you have crazy amounts of data. We could have went and sold that — like an unethical company and like a lot of companies we've unfortunately seen do recently. Instead, we used the data to improve our product to create positive health outcomes for our users," Ducach says.

Ducach share more of what she's working on ahead of the launch of the new platform and what it's been like starting and running a consumer-focused app in Houston on the Houston Innovators Podcast. Click here to read more and stream the episode.

Sam Newman, founder of Little Red Box Grocery

Equitable access to services is integral to the vitality of all communities. Photo courtesy

In a recent guest column for InnovationMap, Sam Newman, founder of Little Red Box Grocery, writes of how around 40 million Americans, including five million Texans, live in food deserts. Startups have an opportunity for impact.

"Equitable access to services is integral to the vitality of all communities. Good food, secure housing – it doesn’t just nourish bodies and minds, it can spur new investment into our neighborhoods and prove once and for all that manmade deserts of any kind do not have to exist if we let imagination and innovation prevail. If there was ever a time to prioritize access – and action – it is now," he writes. Click here to read more.

Gina Luna, partner at GP Capital Partners

GP Capital Partners is a part of a new initiative to provide training and job placement for future cybersecurity professionals. Photo courtesy

Houston-based private credit and equity investment firm GP Capital Partners has teamed up with LP First Capital, a private equity firm with offices in Austin and New York, to form National Cyber Group. The new entity, headquartered in Washington, D.C., will provide foundational IT certification training, job placement resources, and more, according to a news release.

Gina Luna, managing partner of GP Capital Partners, says this is a huge opportunity for Houston, as the city's tech jobs continue to grow, and the city continues to be a major hub for tech talent.

"There are many Houston companies that need well-trained, qualified cybersecurity analysts and many hard-working Houstonians that would find a career in cybersecurity an attractive path to better opportunity for themselves and their families. National Cyber Group can provide both, which is certainly good for Houston," she says. Click here to read more.

Equitable access to services is integral to the vitality of all communities. Photo by Erik Scheel/Pexels

Founder: Inflation is creating a barrier to healthy food access, affordable housing for Houstonians

guest column

Approximately 40 million Americans, including five million Texans, live in food deserts. These are communities with low access to fresh and healthy foods and high access to unhealthy alternatives, where a trip to the grocery store is oftentimes a tradeoff between convenience, cost, and choice. Everyone deserves (indeed, needs) good food access, yet current market offerings are not designed to satisfy demand.

And food is but one part of a tapestry of disparity – which includes among other things health and wellness services, digital connectivity, debt and access to credit, and housing insecurity – that disproportionately impacts historically marginalized communities and leaves residents vulnerable to greater risks. These issues, long-standing though they are, have become more acute with inflation, as the cost of everything goes up and wages lag.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the price of food that people eat at home rose 10 percent in the last year. At the same time, the cost of rent in Houston also increased 10 percent last year - Houston now ranks in the top 50 most expensive cities in America for renters. Across Texas, rents are up 30 percent in Austin, 11 percent in San Antonio, and 17 percent in Dallas-Fort Worth last year. When tenants face a rent increase it hampers their ability to move, because even if they are working, it can be a challenge to pay the lump sum of a new first month’s rent plus a security deposit. This is a huge barrier for our neighbors living paycheck to paycheck.

Whether it’s rent or the price of eggs, families are being squeezed, and in order to bridge this widening chasm – the Market Gap and Equity Gap – we need to embrace fresh solutions for all who live in service deserts. Fortunately, new organizations are coming to the fore in a targeted and meaningful way:

Tech start-ups such as Providers and Forage are empowering low-income households with greater access and insight on how and where to use food stamps.

At the community level, New York-based Wellfare is leveraging density and community knowledge to run a direct-to-door food subscription model for low-income households. And here in Houston, my organization, Little Red Box Grocery, will soon be launching a reimagined community store, designed to bring the benefits of good food access + health to Houston’s Food Deserts.

Yet when it comes to the wellspring of uncertainty, so much flows downstream from unstable housing it is hard to overstate its importance on family stability. If a landlord increases the rent, some renters can certainly move, but others have no choice but to pay up as they cannot afford the upfront costs required to find alternative housing. And the more one spends on housing, the less there is for life’s other many necessities… including food.

Fresh food access and housing insecurity are intertwined challenges that we must meet head on. Fortunately, companies like Rhino are helping solve one of renters’ biggest financial hurdles – the up-front cash required for a security deposit – with security deposit insurance. This gives renters a low-rate policy as affordable as $5 per month for an apartment renting for $1,000 per month. Some property owners in Texas are already accepting it as an alternative way to secure an apartment.

The benefits of this kind of arrangement are easy to see. People can put money that would otherwise be locked away in a security deposit into savings, pay down debt, buy groceries for their family in a manner that improves home and community health and well-being. One could even start a business, or pursue a degree. The point is that it frees up home economics to be used in a manner most efficient for that family.

And services such as this should help level the playing field. In a recently released survey of renters, renters of color were more likely to pay a security deposit than white renters and they paid $150 more on average in the security deposit than white renters. Renters of color also submitted more applications and paid higher application fees than white renters.

Equitable access to services is integral to the vitality of all communities. Good food, secure housing – it doesn’t just nourish bodies and minds, it can spur new investment into our neighborhoods and prove once and for all that manmade deserts of any kind do not have to exist if we let imagination and innovation prevail. If there was ever a time to prioritize access – and action – it is now.

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Sam Newman is the founder of Houston-based Little Red Box Grocery bringing the benefits of good food access to Houston’s Second Ward.

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New manufacturing facility breaks ground at NASA’s Johnson Space Center

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HITT Contracting has broken ground on NASA’s Applied Spaceflight Fabrication Facility (ASFF) at Johnson Space Center, the Washington, D.C.-based construction firm announced late last month.

The project, known as Building 70, will house a high-bay machine shop to support component production for future NASA space missions, according to HITT. The 37,625-square-foot building is the first part of a larger goal to create an engineering complex that unites assembly space, lab capabilities and manufacturing at JSC. It will consolidate machining equipment and operations that are currently spread across multiple campus buildings into one location.

The project broke ground in October at JSC’s Historic District. The Houston Business Journal reports construction is expected to wrap in August of 2028.

“This project will modernize facilities that support America’s space missions,” PJ Ross, chief financial officer at HITT, said in a LinkedIn post. “Proud of our team and partners as we begin construction that will advance aerospace testing and innovation.”

HITT Contracting is one of seven companies awarded infrastructure contracts by NASA earlier this year for work at JSC. According to NASA, the construction contracts “[support] up to $300 million in upgrades to mission‑support facilities, utilities, and equipment across the NASA Johnson campus.”

Construction Drive reports that HITT will also renovate Building 13 South on the JSC campus as part of the $300 million initiative.

“Building for precision manufacturing starts with understanding how the space needs to perform,” Todd Hudson, vice president at HITT Contracting, added in the release. “Our team brings the technical expertise and collaborative approach to deliver a facility that meets the Johnson Space Center’s needs today and supports the next generation of spaceflight innovation. We’re proud to continue our partnership with NASA.”

NASA also recently announced awards as part of its expanded Moon Base exploration, science and infrastructure capabilities. Houston-based Intuitive Machines and seven other spacetech companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Firefly Aerospace, were selected to receive funding.

The awards are part of the next phase of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative, which will grant the companies a combined total of up to $10 billion over 10 years.

Intuitive Machines and Webster-based MEI Technologies were also awarded contracts this past summer from NASA to develop robots for exploring the surface of Mars. Read more here.

Meet 6 mentors guiding Houston’s next generation of startup founders

meet the finalists

Houston’s thriving startup ecosystem is supported by a network of experienced leaders who work behind the scenes, investing their time and knowledge to help the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed.

As part of the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, the Mentor of the Year category will honor an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs. They support promising startups in the medical tech, digital health, clean energy, hardware sectors and more.

Read more about these businesses, their founders and their breakthrough technologies below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Al Danto, Rice University

Al Danto is a senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Rice University. He mentors undergraduate and graduate students at Rice and through the university's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lillie). He's also involved in the Houston Entrepreneurs Organization and Rice Veterans' Business Battle.

"[Mentoring] is very rewarding and fulfilling," Danto says. "[It] helps to me to pay back full circle over the incredible mentors I have had."

Eric Rubenstein, New Climate Ventures

Eric Rubenstein is managing partner at New Climate Ventures. He mentors startups through the clean energy-focused early-stage VC firm and also through the Breakthrough Energy Fellowship, Activate, Greentown Labs and Yale Ventures. Rubenstein has worked with numerous startups and Innovation Awards finalists, including Solidec, Rheom Materials, Bairitone Health, Pattern Materials and many others.

"Being a mentor is an important part of an innovation ecosystem," Rubenstein says. "Seeing founders succeed is rewarding, particularly if what they are building will meaningfully contribute to society. It is a way to give back that also builds community, as mentorship often involves introducing founders to other mentors, to potential investors and to potential customers. Just like the adage 'it takes a village' is used in reference to raising a child, the same adage applies to building a startup. That’s why we say 'let’s build.' Let’s build is inclusive because we do it together, as a community, even if the founders need to execute on a daily basis to make their vision a reality."

Jeremy Pitts, Activate

Jeremy Pitts serves as managing director of Activate Houston, which launched in Houston in 2024. He was one of the founders of Greentown Labs in the Boston area and served in a leadership role for the organization between 2011 and 2015. Through Activate, he has mentored numerous impactful startups and Innovation Awards finalists, including Solidec, Coflux Purification, Bairitone Health, Newfound Materials, Deep Anchor Solutions and others.

"Mentorship to me is all about selflessly supporting a person," Pitts says. "The person comes first--if you're not supporting the person, then their business needs don't matter. I'm there not to answer questions for people, but to help them gain the confidence and the capability to solve problems on their own. I am successful when my mentees are successful and happy, regardless of what their personal definition of success might look like."

Joe Alapat, Liongard

Joe Alapat founded and serves as chief strategy officer at Houston software company Liongard. He founded Startup Circle Houston and co-hosts Cybersecurity Circle, which both meet regularly at The Ion. He participates in Mercury Fund Day and has also mentored through Impact Hub Houston. He's worked with founders of FlowCare, Unytag, STEAM OnDemand, Lokum and many other early-stage startups.

"I compare being a mentor for startup founders to the Montessori method. ... Mentoring should not involve telling a founder what to do," Alapat says. "I see it as a founder whisperer approach that seeks to challenge the founder to think through their journey through different lenses and go on a journey of self-discovery while discovering the true market pain they are seeking to solve. The cherry on top is that the mentor gains as much as the mentee, so learning is happening for both. Ultimately, the meter of achievement with mentoring is seeing visible progress with the maturity of the founder and the degree of traction for their startup."

Kyle Judah, Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Kyle Judah is the executive director of Lilie, where he mentors pre-seed student startups. He also mentors through organizations like TEX-E, Greentown Labs, Activate and previously with MassChallenge. Some of the startups he's mentored include Helix Earth Technologies, Tierra Climate, Solidec, HexaSpec, SteerBio and many others.

"[Being a mentor] means helping to ensure that the most people possible have the best shot possible at making their company a successful reality," Judah says. "It means, at its root, opening the aperture for what is possible for people, by believing in them before anyone else even understands what their ambitions are. Because belief is the most infectious thing in the world. And before digging into the work in the trenches, most times founders need to kickstart their journey by having someone from the outside believe in them, when there's no real evidence to support that belief. So I guess, mentorship is a pure form of entrepreneurial faith."

Rachel Bickham, Bickham Services Unlimited LLC

Rachel Bickham is CEO of Bickham Services Unlimited, through which she mentors founders across a range of business stages and industries. She founded the organization in 2017. Bickham also mentors through The Affirmed Entrepreneur, a mentorship platform that she also launched. In 2024, she also began mentoring through the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business program. Some of the startups she has worked with included Elaine Transportation, Nakira's World and NP Skills Made Easy, among others.

"Being a mentor means helping someone see what is possible while being honest about what it will take to get there," Bickham says. "It is not about giving generic advice or telling entrepreneurs what they want to hear. Sometimes mentorship means offering encouragement, and sometimes it means asking difficult questions that help someone avoid an expensive mistake. In both situations, my responsibility is to listen, share what I have learned, and help the entrepreneur make an informed decision. ... Being a mentor also means opening doors when I can—making introductions, inviting entrepreneurs into rooms they may not have entered on their own, and helping them build relationships that can change the direction of their businesses. It also means holding them accountable for what they said they wanted to accomplish. I do not measure successful mentorship by how often someone returns to me for an answer. I measure it by whether they become more confident, more strategic, and better equipped to make decisions on their own."

3 Houston incubators and accelerators fueling the growth of local startups

Meet the finalists

It takes a village to launch a business. That's where Houston's network of incubators and accelerators can step in, providing the resources, mentorship and community needed to push a fledgling company forward.

As part of our 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, the Incubator/Accelerator of the Year category honors a local organization that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups.

Three incubators and accelerators have been named finalists for the 2026 award. They support startups ranging from hard-tech companies to food and youth concepts.

Read more about these organizations below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Activate

Hard tech incubator Activate supports scientists in "the outset of their entrepreneurial journey." The Houston hub was introduced in 2024, and joins others in Boston, New York, and Berkley, California—where Activate is headquartered. It named its third Houston cohort this summer.

The two-year program graduated its first class of Houston fellows in 2026 and saw its first alumni IPO from Houston-based Fervo Energy, which previously participated in a Berkley cohort. Nationally, it has supported 346 fellows and 276 companies since 2015. Those companies have raised more than $6 billion in follow-on funding, according to Activate. In Houston, it has supported Houston startups like Solidec, FlowCellutions and Orbital Arc. Activate Houston is led by managing director Jeremy Pitts, who co-founded Greentown Labs in Boston. It is based out of the Ion.

Impact Hub Houston

Impact Hub Houston supports early-stage ventures at various stages of development through innovative programs that address pressing societal issues. The nonprofit organization supports social impact startups through mentorship, connections and training opportunities.

There are more than 110 Impact Hubs globally with members spanning 72 countries. Launched in 2018, Impact Hub Houston says its membership tripled by the beginning of 2026. This year brought major milestones for the community, including the launch of its Ideas to Impact Accelerator, which supported 11 founders across the health, education, food systems, civic technology and workforce development sectors. It also received funding from more than 20 international Impact Hubs to develop SYNC, a collaboration platform that 25 Impact Hubs across five continents have committed to pilot. The organization has worked with local startups including Myoviva Health, The Change Lab and INNERVERSE Inc.

MarMo Innovation

Galveston-based business incubator MarMo Innovation is focused on removing barriers to entrepreneurship. It aims to provide affordable space, education, mentorship, market access, connections and real-world opportunities that help entrepreneurs move from idea to launch to sustainable growth. The "industry-agnostic" incubator was founded in 2022 and is led by Executive Director Erica Delgadillo.

This year, the organization moved from primarily serving as a coworking and community space into a more comprehensive entrepreneurial incubator by expanding its MarMo Market, MarMo Market Jr. and Lunch LineUp programs. A major focus for MarMo is food entrepreneurship. It is developing an Incubator Kitchen, which MarMo says will support programs like its Cottage to Commercial Bootcamp and Food Biz 101. The organization also expanded its board this year and says it is diversifying its revenue through memberships, events, markets, equipment and space rentals, sponsorships, grants and new entrepreneurial programming.

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