New Houston tech startup launches to streamline afterlife planning

smooth transitions

The Postage is a new company that uses technology to help ease the experience of afterlife responsibilities for family members. Photo courtesy of The Postage

Three years ago, Emily Cisek was struck with immense grief when she lost three family members back to back. She says she learned first-hand how arduous the process of wrapping up someone's life is and how it can take away from the grieving process.

"I saw the frustrations in my family," she explains, as she grappled with the passing of both her grandmothers and her cousin's young child.

Cisek says in that moment she thought, "Wow, there's got to be a better way so that people have a resource to get a plan and walk through the process so that when you do lose someone, there is a really easy way to manage that."

Cisek's realization planted a seed and she has the idea for The Postage, a digital platform that helps collect information and digital assets in one place to ease with affair planning.

She sought out to build an online platform that provides an easy path for people to plan their affairs and leave behind wishes for loved ones, making affairs management after death easier and less time-consuming. The features include document storage and organization, password management, funeral and last wishes planning, and the option to create after-life messages to posthumously share with loved ones.

Up until now, death care has been a predominantly business-to-business model. Prior to becoming the co-founder and CEO of The Postage, Emily was the Director of Sales at Integrate Agency, a full-service digital and traditional marketing agency in Texas. Her years of launching robust marketing initiatives and developing communications programs, made bringing The Postage to consumers that much easier.

She partnered with her former boss and serial entrepreneur, Robbie Wright, to build The Postage and make her vision a reality to help loved ones deal with loss.

The Postage completed funding in April of 2020, surpassing its initial fundraising goal. In total, Cisek raised $925,000 in a three month span. The platform officially launched in September, bringing a new, accessible contender to the estate planning industry.

Making death a conversation point

Everything you need on one digital platform. Photo courtesy of The Postage

According to The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 92 percent of Americans say it's important to discuss their wishes for end-of-life care, but only 32 percent have actually had the conversation. Talking about your death plans is never an easy conversation, Cisek remarks. Her goal is to provide a methodical process that "makes it simpler."

"Until the last 100 years, death was just a part of life. Right now with technology and healthcare, it almost is seen as a weakness versus as you know, something we all experienced together," says Cisek.

Knowing how arduous these conversations are, she feels The Postage is like a "guidebook" that provides "clear-eyed compassion" to start the conversation. The site's planning options, password and document storage, and ability to share final wishes aims to make the process less emotional and difficult for users.

Accessibility for all ages

The Postage is something anyone can use. Photo courtesy of The Postage

While creating a death plan may feel like something reserved for later in life, Vox reports that millennials are becoming a "death positive" generation. More people in their 20s and 30s are planning their own funerals, donating their body to science, and contemplating how they want to pass peacefully.

From YouTube channels like "Ask a Mortician" to apps that remind you that — sorry to break it to you — you will eventually die, young creators are coping with death online. Despite the online vote of confidence in passing to the other side, dying is, well, expensive.

According to data from The Postage, estate planning and legal services can cost an average of $6,500. Cisek's company allows a monthly subscription with prices ranging from $5.99 to $9.99 a month, depending on storage space and features.

"I think the way The Postage has [made planning more available] it's provided a price point, an understanding and steps involved that are more easily accessible; no matter what age group, what race, what your background is, your religion, anything like that, you're able to sign up," says Cisek.

Digital options like password management and storage also make the site a more cost effective, approachable option for young people born into the digital era.

Saving time

Founder Emily Cisek prioritized convenience in her design. Photo courtesy of The Postage

Death puts into perspective just how valuable time can be. According to The Postage, families can expect to spend nearly 500 hours on completing end-of-life details if there is no planning done in advance. If every moment matters, 500 hours can sound like an exorbitant amount of time spent on paperwork.

From knowing who your loved one's electricity provider is to ensuring you have the key to their safety deposit box, the process can be a nightmare, says Cisek. She believes that should be spent "celebrating [their life] and processing the loss versus getting frustrated and trying to dig through things that you don't understand, and frankly, don't know what the wishes were of that person you lost."

The Postage's features allow you to drop in documents and passwords at your own pace to provide your loved ones with a smooth transition and instructions. To Cisek, she minds the site to be a guidebook that says, "This is what we need to do, and here is how I'm leaving the best gift I can for my loved ones."

National growth

The Postage went live nationally. Photo courtesy of The Postage

The Postage is a Houston-based company, but Cisek and her team want it to reach Americans everywhere.

"When we went live nationally, we actually launched over 100 new enhancements — even small, little things in the customer experience that would make it better and easier," she explains.

During its summer launch the website received 60 percent engagement and over 43 percent in new referrals. The Postage plans to continue enhancing the user experience and expanding the app with new technologies.

Cisek, bright-eyed with entrepreneurial spirit, has big hopes for the future as she imagines the opportunities. She hopes to change the way her generation plans for the future, contributing to a shift in sharing your legacy and wishes with loved ones.

"I think that technology, in recent times, has really focused on the consumer being the product versus the technology being the product," remarks Cisek. "If we're able to take that back and provide a product that truly makes our users' lives easier, the sky's the limit on what that could look like," she continues.

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UH secures $5M in philanthropic gifts to bolster engineering, nursing

major gifts

The University of Houston has received two significant philanthropic gifts to advance innovation and healthcare, the college announced this month.

Manmohan Singh Kalsi and Marie-Luise Schubert Kalsi granted $4 million to UH’s Cullen College of Engineering to support endowed and current funds for graduate fellowships and industry interest in the mechanical and aerospace fields.

The gift is the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering’s largest donation in years, according to UH, and will establish two endowed professorships to attract and retain leading faculty. It will also create the Kalsi Faculty Research Fund, which aims to take emerging research to the next level.

Additionally, UH says it will also bring industry experts to campus to present and collaborate with students via the forthcoming Kalsi Seminar Series.

Manmohan Kalsi earned both his master’s degree and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from UH. He went on to found Sugar Land-based Kalsi Engineering in 1978, which pioneered hydrodynamic rotary sealing technology and valve technology for nuclear power plants. In 2014, he established an endowed professorship within Cullen College in honor of the late UH professor Gabriel Fazekas.

"This gift provides a tremendous boost to our department's strategic momentum,” Karolos Grigoriadis, chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, said in a news release. “By simultaneously supporting faculty, graduate researchers and collaborative seminars, the Kalsis are strengthening every part of our research enterprise and creating new opportunities for discovery, collaboration and student mentorship.”

Meanwhile, Houston’s The Hamill Foundation also gave a $1 million gift to UH’s Andy and Barbara Gessner College of Nursing. The funds will establish The Hamill Foundation Endowed Professorship in Community Care Nursing, to support a faculty member focused on community-based nursing education, partnerships, research, and outreach to underserved communities in Houston.

Additionally, the funding will go toward efforts to address nurse shortages through the newly established UH Health program. The Hamill Foundation has donated $6 million previously to UH through the years, but the latest $1 million is the largest single investment from the foundation to date.

“The Hamill Foundation continues to help us raise the bar for nursing education and address the nursing shortage,” Kathryn Tart, founding dean and professor at Gessner College and Humana Endowed Dean's Chair in Nursing, said in a news release. “The enduring commitment and generosity of The Hamill Foundation allow us to answer the call and educate generations of competent and caring nursing professionals.”

Both of the recent gifts help fund UH’s $1 billion Can’t Stop Houston: The Centennial Campaign. As of September, the university had raised more than $881 million. UH turns 100 years old in March 2027.

SpaceX's supersized Starship rocket launches into orbit for first time

Out in Space

SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time Monday, September 28, and successfully delivered the most advanced Starlink satellites yet, but cut the flight short to ensure safety.

The spacecraft reentered over the Pacific and splashed down north of Hawaii three hours after blasting off from Texas. The company had been aiming for a 10-hour flight, spanning six full laps around Earth, to prove its readiness for NASA’s Artemis moon program.

Starship tipped over and erupted in flames upon splashdown, a dramatic end to the mission.

Elon Musk's Starship almost didn't make it to orbit when one of its engines shut down prematurely. But with everything else working well and the bad engine no longer needed, flight controllers decided, after several tense minutes, to proceed as planned.

“Starship is orbital,” Mission Control announced to cheers.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on reaching orbit and “managing every step in a safe, responsible and especially inspirational way.”

Rocket carries 26 of Musk's most advanced Starlink satellites

Musk’s showpiece rocket — the biggest and most powerful ever built — carried 26 of the latest Starlinks to join the 11,000 older models already providing internet service. They popped out of the spacecraft one by one, drawing more cheers from the SpaceX crowd at the Starbase launch site.

The decision to end the flight early came soon afterward. SpaceX said hours later in an online update that the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution” because of the early engine trouble.

It was Starship’s 14th full-scale launch from Texas’ southern tip in three years. Earlier test flights ventured no farther than the Indian Ocean halfway around the world, often crashing in flames and briefly skimming space.

This time, the intent was for SpaceX to circle the globe from an altitude of 170 miles (275 kilometers) — not just once but six times over almost 10 hours, ending with a Pacific splashdown near Chile. While Starship achieved the proper orbit, zipping along at 17,500 mph (28,000 kph), flight controllers opted to play it safe and bring it back several hours sooner, after just a couple of laps.

The first-stage booster was never meant to return to the Starbase launch site either, dropping instead into the Gulf of Mexico within minutes of the morning liftoff.

SpaceX wants to ensure that everything works before flying Starship back to Starbase. If the spacecraft breaks apart over land and rains debris onto people, “our popularity would diminish very rapidly,” Musk said at a business summit earlier this month. “That’s why we’re being extremely cautious here.”

Depending on the findings from Monday's orbital debut, the next Starship could return to the launch pad, where giant mechanical arms would grab the hovering spacecraft. If the catch works — Musk gives it even or slightly better odds — then SpaceX will refly the spacecraft by year’s end or early next year.

The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket was designed from the start to be fully reusable, a key to lowering launch costs. SpaceX managed to salvage the last Starship from the Indian Ocean in July. Engineers modified the newly launched Starship’s heat shield based on hands-on inspections of the recovered spacecraft, which is being tugged back to Starbase.

SpaceX wants Starship to be certified for orbital flight

SpaceX is pressing hard to certify Starship for orbital flight, a vital step toward moon and Mars travel.

NASA’s Artemis III mission is coming up as soon as next summer, a triple-launch docking exercise in orbit around Earth between an Orion capsule full of astronauts and competing lunar landers. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Moon would blast off first, followed by Orion — which would close in for a linkup — and then Musk’s Starship for a docking with Orion once Blue Moon is unleashed.

The next mission, Artemis IV, is slated for no sooner than 2028 and would have astronauts landing on the moon in either Blue Moon or Starship, whichever is ready first. Subsequent moonshots will alternate between the two billionaires’ landers.

Musk originally developed Starship for Mars, intending to launch scores of them with the red planet’s first settlers. For now, he plans to focus on the moon and use Starship to haul satellites into orbit by the truckload, phasing out the company’s frailer Falcon 9 rocket within several years. A second Starship launch site is nearing completion at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center and a third is planned for Louisiana.

Houston startup raises $2.4M for sleep apnea technology

sleep score

Houston-based Bairitone Health has closed an oversubscribed seed round and achieved a regulatory milestone, the company tells InnovationMap.

The healthtech startup, which is developing solutions and technology for untreated obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), raised $2.4 million, says CEO and co-founder Meagan Pitcher, exceeding its $2 million goal.

New York-based Golden Seeds, which invests in female entrepreneurs, led the round. Houston-based South Loop Ventures also participated, as well as MALIAM, Impact Invest Her and additional angel, venture, syndicate and family office investors. The company previously raised a pre-seed round of $435,000 in 2024.

Pitcher says the latest funding will go toward Bairitone's clinical site expansion, FDA-facing work and the continued product development of its SOMNAR technology.

"What I’m most excited about is what this lets us do next: expand our clinical testing, work with more patients and physicians, and keep improving based on what we learn," Pitcher said in a LinkedIn post.

SOMNAR is the company's noninvasive diagnostic platform for sleep apnea airway assessment. The platform maps users' anatomy during natural sleep using a facial patch to determine the root cause of airway obstruction. It then offers effective therapies for each patient.

SOMNAR received Breakthrough Device Designation from the Food and Drug Administration in April. It is currently for investigational use only and is still pending FDA clearance. The new designation aims to help speed up development, assessment and review for premarket approval for medical devices, according to the FDA. It will also give Bairitone more opportunities to interact directly with FDA experts to make the approval process more efficient.

Bairitone was founded in 2022 in the Texas Medical Center's Biodesign program by Pitcher, CTO Onur Kilic and chief medical officer Britt Cross. It was a member of Activate Houston's inaugural cohort and has participated in numerous accelerators and incubators.

The company was a finalist for the Houston Innovation Awards in 2025 and 2024.

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