How Houston startups, small businesses can prep for storm interference

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As we head into hurricane season, here's what entrepreneurs should know, according to an expert. Photo via Getty Images

Disasters, emergencies, and pandemics can cause monumental disruptions for businesses.

So, as we enter hurricane season, now is the time to think about how to protect your business and your customers. The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season was among the most damaging in modern history, producing 14 named storms, including 8 hurricanes.

Regardless of whether your business is in the path of devastating hurricanes, tornados, or flash flooding - connectivity is critical.

Below are tips to help your business, employees and customers stay connected.

Set up a call-forwarding service to a predetermined backup location

Set up a single or multiple hotline number(s) for employees, employees’ families, customers, and vendors to call so that all parties know about the business situation and emergency plan.

Protect hardware/software/data records/employee records, etc.

Routinely back up files to an off-site location. Cloud services can remove the burden of offsite data storage and ensure faster recovery from temporary or remote locations.

Stay Connected with Your Team

Save smartphone’s battery life. In case of a power outage, encourage your employees to keep their phones in power-save mode, turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, delete apps, or put the phone in Airplane Mode.

Keep mobile devices charged. Have another way to charge smartphones if the power goes out. A car charger or back-up battery pack can come in handy.

Keep mobile devices dry. Mobile phones can be a critical lifeline during a storm. To protect yours, store it in a water-resistant case, floating waterproof case, or plastic bag.

Outline detailed plans for evacuation and shelter-in-place plans

Establish a backup location for your business and a safe meeting place for all employees.

Create a remote access plan

Equip business-critical staff with remote work access in advance, so they can access applications and databases from remote locations, when connectivity is restored.

Assemble a crisis-management team

Coordinate efforts with neighboring businesses and building management

AT&T has also created a planning guide to help businesses navigate protecting critical assets, processes and services, with checklists for short and long-term preparations. For example, negotiating vendor contracts and/or lease agreements necessary to acquire equipment and services in the event of a significant disruption or disaster.

The cost of developing a business continuity plan and groundwork to support it is minimal compared to the financial impact once disaster strikes.

AT&T has invested billions to strengthen the resiliency of our network to ensure our business customers keep operating during disruptions when consumer needs and demand are at an all-time high. We back up equipment at cell sites and invest in infrastructure to boost reliability, coverage, speed, and performance.

Our goal is to keep you connected to critical processes, applications, data, work centers, and networks during major emergency events, so your business continues to run.

The 2023 hurricane season will officially begin on June 1 and it only takes one big storm to cause major destruction. Take the time to ensure your business is disruption ready.

Afterall, planning is best done in advance.

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Mark Spelman is director of sales at AT&T Business – Houston.

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Houston hospital names leading cancer scientist as new academic head

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Houston Methodist Academic Institute has named cancer clinician and scientist Dr. Jenny Chang as its new executive vice president, president, CEO, and chief academic officer.

Chang was selected following a national search and will succeed Dr. H. Dirk Sostman, who will retire in February after 20 years of leadership. Chang is the director of the Houston Methodist Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center and the Emily Herrmann Presidential Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research. She has been with Houston Methodist for 15 years.

Over the last five years, Chang has served as the institute’s chief clinical science officer and is credited with strengthening cancer clinical trials. Her work has focused on therapy-resistant cancer stem cells and their treatment, particularly relating to breast cancer.

Her work has generated more than $35 million in funding for Houston Methodist from organizations like the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, according to the health care system. In 2021, Dr. Mary Neal and her husband Ron Neal, whom the cancer center is now named after, donated $25 million to support her and her team’s research on advanced cancer therapy.

In her new role, Chang will work to expand clinical and translational research and education across Houston Methodist in digital health, robotics and bioengineered therapeutics.

“Dr. Chang’s dedication to Houston Methodist is unparalleled,” Dr. Marc L. Boom, Houston Methodist president and CEO, said in a news release. “She is committed to our mission and to helping our patients, and her clinical expertise, research innovation and health care leadership make her the ideal choice for leading our academic mission into an exciting new chapter.”

Chang is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Stand Up to Cancer Scientific Advisory Council. She earned her medical degree from Cambridge University in England and completed fellowship training in medical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital/Institute for Cancer Research. She earned her research doctorate from the University of London.

She is also a professor at Weill Cornell Medical School, which is affiliated with the Houston Methodist Academic Institute.

Texas A&M awarded $1.3M federal grant to develop clean energy tech from electronic waste

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Texas A&M University in College Station has received a nearly $1.3 million federal grant for development of clean energy technology.

The university will use the $1,280,553 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a cost-effective, sustainable method for extracting rare earth elements from electronic waste.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a set of 17 metallic elements.

“REEs are essential components of more than 200 products, especially high-tech consumer products, such as cellular telephones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, and flat-screen monitors and televisions,” according to the Eos news website.

REEs also are found in defense equipment and technology such as electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, and radar and sonar systems, says Eos.

The grant awarded to Texas A&M was among $17 million in DOE grants given to 14 projects that seek to accelerate innovation in the critical materials sector. The federal Energy Act of 2020 defines a critical material — such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, lithium, magnesium, nickel, and platinum — as a substance that faces a high risk of supply chain disruption and “serves an essential function” in the energy sector.

“DOE is helping reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign supply chains through innovative solutions that will tap domestic sources of the critical materials needed for next-generation technologies,” says U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “These investments — part of our industrial strategy — will keep America’s growing manufacturing industry competitive while delivering economic benefits to communities nationwide.”

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This article originally appeared on EnergyCapital.

Biosciences startup becomes Texas' first decacorn after latest funding

A Dallas-based biosciences startup whose backers include millionaire investors from Austin and Dallas has reached decacorn status — a valuation of at least $10 billion — after hauling in a series C funding round of $200 million, the company announced this month. Colossal Biosciences is reportedly the first Texas startup to rise to the decacorn level.

Colossal, which specializes in genetic engineering technology designed to bring back or protect various species, received the $200 million from TWG Global, an investment conglomerate led by billionaire investors Mark Walter and Thomas Tull. Walter is part owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, and Tull is part owner of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.

Among the projects Colossal is tackling is the resurrection of three extinct animals — the dodo bird, Tasmanian tiger and woolly mammoth — through the use of DNA and genomics.

The latest round of funding values Colossal at $10.2 billion. Since launching in 2021, the startup has raised $435 million in venture capital.

In addition to Walter and Tull, Colossal’s investors include prominent video game developer Richard Garriott of Austin and private equity veteran Victor Vescov of Dallas. The two millionaires are known for their exploits as undersea explorers and tourist astronauts.

Aside from Colossal’s ties to Dallas and Austin, the startup has a Houston connection.

The company teamed up with Baylor College of Medicine researcher Paul Ling to develop a vaccine for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV), the deadliest disease among young elephants. In partnership with the Houston Zoo, Ling’s lab at the Baylor College of Medicine has set up a research program that focuses on diagnosing and treating EEHV, and on coming up with a vaccine to protect elephants against the disease. Ling and the BCMe are members of the North American EEHV Advisory Group.

Colossal operates research labs Dallas, Boston and Melbourne, Australia.

“Colossal is the leading company working at the intersection of AI, computational biology, and genetic engineering for both de-extinction and species preservation,” Walter, CEO of TWG Globa, said in a news release. “Colossal has assembled a world-class team that has already driven, in a short period of time, significant technology innovations and impact in advancing conservation, which is a core value of TWG Global.”

Well-known genetics researcher George Church, co-founder of Colossal, calls the startup “a revolutionary genetics company making science fiction into science fact.”

“We are creating the technology to build de-extinction science and scale conservation biology,” he added, “particularly for endangered and at-risk species.”

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