These guest articles — with advice and perspective on topics ranging from quiet quitting to emotional intelligence — attracted the most readers throughout the year. Photo via Getty Images

Editor's note: Every week, InnovationMap — Houston's only news source and resource about and for startups — runs one or two guest columns written by tech entrepreneurs, public relations experts, data geniuses, and more. As Houston's innovation ecosystem gets ready for 2023, here are some of this year's top guest contributor pieces — each with pertinent information and advice for startups both at publishing and into the new year. Make sure to click "read more" to continue reading each piece.

Is your New Year's resolution to start contributing? Email natalie@innovationmap.com to learn more.

Houston expert: How to navigate Gen Z's quiet quitting movement at your company

Your perspective on quiet quitting is probably generational, says one Houston expert and startup founder. Photo via Getty Images

This month, the internet has been discussing "quiet quitting," the practice of employees setting hard boundaries about when they work and to what extent they are willing to go beyond the outlined expectations of their jobs.

The conversation around quiet quitting has also been lively at the Ampersand offices. As a training company that is dedicated to training new professionals for employers both big and small, it's critically important for our team to have a good grasp on the relationship employees have with their jobs, and what motivates them to succeed. So we had a long meeting where we discussed what quiet quitting meant to each of us. Read more.

Houston expert shares how small business leaders can encourage PTO use

Retaining employees is no easy feat these days. Encouraging a healthy PTO policy can help avoid burnout. Photo courtesy of Joe Aker

As many small businesses continue to operate in a challenging, fast-paced environment, one thing that has arrived at breakneck speed is midyear, along with the summer months. Theoretically, to ensure work-life balance, most employees should have 50 percent of their PTO remaining to use for summer vacations and during the second half of the year. In reality, that is probably not the case given workers are hesitant to use their PTO, leaving approximately five days of unused PTO on the table during 2020 and 2021.

While the pandemic affected PTO usage the last two years, the labor shortage appears to be a major contributor in 2022, which has led to PTO hoarding and increasing levels of employee burnout. Although these factors can be compounded for small business owners because there are fewer employees to handle daily responsibilities, it is imperative for workers to take PTO, returning recharged with a fresh perspective on the tasks at hand. Read more.

Houston expert: 3 emotional intelligence tips for improving patient-practitioner experience

A Houston expert shares how to improve on communication in the health care setting. Image via Getty Images

After spending hours with healthcare professionals as both a consultant and patient, I know that it takes a special kind of person to take care of others in their most distressing and vulnerable times. That responsibility has been in overdrive because of COVID, causing emotional burnout, which in turn affects patient care. By equipping yourself with emotional intelligence, you can be more resilient for yourself and patients.

Emotional intelligence is keeping your intelligence high, when emotions are high.

Health care sets up an environment for a tornado of emotions, and the rules and regulations centered around patient-provider interactions are often complex to navigate. This leaves many on the brink of emotional exhaustion, and for survival’s sake, depersonalization with patients becomes the status quo. Feeling a disconnect with their patients is another added weight, as few get into this industry for just the paycheck – it’s the impact of helping people get healthy and stay healthy that motivates them. I’ve seen it time and time again with people in my life, as well as on my own patient journey as I battled stage 3 cancer. Read more.

Here's what types of technology is going to disrupt the education sector, says this Houston founder

Edtech is expected to continue to make learning more interactive, fun, and inclusive for people around the world. Photo via Pexels

Technology has always maneuvered education in a certain direction but the COVID-19 pandemic has forced it to shift towards a new direction entirely.

What started off as a basic video lecture turned into a more hybrid and innovative form of education, enabling student engagement and interactivity like never before. Social media forums allow teachers to pay one-on-one attention to students boosting their learning process.

With an edtech boom on the rise, there is a question of what further expansion in educational technology is expected. Here are some technology breakthroughs currently underway in the education sector. Read more.

Houston expert weighs in on marketing from an investor’s perspective

What should Houston startups know about marketing? Photo via Getty Images

Just what do investors want to see from a startup with regards to the company’s marketing? I recently spoke on this topic to a cohort of early-stage technology startup entrepreneurs at Softeq Venture Studio, an accelerator program that helps founders build investable technologies and businesses. Read more.

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Asma Mirza of Steradian Technologies, Sahar Paz of Own Your Voice, and Emily Cisek of The Postage. Photos courtesy

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

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

Asma Mirza, founder and CEO of Steradian Technologies

Asma Mirza joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to explain how a pandemic pivot turned into a global health opportunity. Photo courtesy

It took a global pandemic for Asma Mirza to see a gaping hole in modern health care: Quick and affordable diagnostics tools. She founded Steradian Technologies in 2018, originally to create human super-sight via proprietary optics. In early 2020, the company was getting ready to start testing the device and fundraising. Then, the pandemic hit, knocking the company completely off course.

Co-founder and CEO of the company, Mirza, says on last week's Houston Innovators Podcast that the Steradian co-founders discussed how their optic technology could detect diseases. Something just clicked, and the RUMI device was born.

"We are from Houston, Texas, which is one of the most diverse and accessible cities in the country, and we were having trouble with basic diagnostic accessibility. It was taking too long, it was complicated, and people were getting sick and didn't know if they were positive or negative," Mirza says on the show. "That's when we pivoted the company and decided we were going to pivot the company and use optics to detect diseases in breath." Click here to read more.

Sahar Paz, CEO of Own Your Voice Strategy Firm

A Houston expert shares how to improve on communication in the health care setting. Photo courtesy

Emotional intelligence is a major part of running a business — but its crucially more important in the health care space, according to Sahar Paz. She writes in a guest column for InnovationMap how to improve on communication in the health care setting — and why it is necessary to provide a high level standard of care.

"Health care sets up an environment for a tornado of emotions, and the rules and regulations centered around patient-provider interactions are often complex to navigate," she writes. "This leaves many on the brink of emotional exhaustion, and for survival’s sake, depersonalization with patients becomes the status quo. Feeling a disconnect with their patients is another added weight, as few get into this industry for just the paycheck – it’s the impact of helping people get healthy and stay healthy that motivates them." Click here to read more.

Emily Cisek, founder and CEO of The Postage

A Houston founder shares an analysis of relationship banking, the pros and cons of digital banking competition, and an outlook of digital banking inroads to develop relationship banking. Photo courtesy

Emily Cisek is the founder and CEO of The Postage, a tech-enabled, easy-to-use estate planning tool, and she is helping simplify estate management — something that includes working with banks. She writes in a guest column for InnovationMap how ripe for innovation the industry is.

"Digital banking firms that want to thrive in the upcoming decades are going to need to innovate in long-term financial planning products that bring their customers into a closer, more personal relationship with them," she writes. "The finance world will continue to change and develop, but the hopes, fears, and dreams of people trying to build and secure a better future for themselves and their children will remain the same for tomorrow’s customers as they were for their parents and grandparents. It is up to the digital finance industry to adapt and develop to provide the customers of today—and tomorrow— with these invaluable services and securities." Click here to read more.

A Houston expert shares how to improve on communication in the health care setting. Image via Getty Images

Houston expert: 3 emotional intelligence tips for improving patient-practitioner experience

guest column

After spending hours with healthcare professionals as both a consultant and patient, I know that it takes a special kind of person to take care of others in their most distressing and vulnerable times. That responsibility has been in overdrive because of COVID, causing emotional burnout, which in turn affects patient care. By equipping yourself with emotional intelligence, you can be more resilient for yourself and patients.

Emotional intelligence is keeping your intelligence high, when emotions are high.

Health care sets up an environment for a tornado of emotions, and the rules and regulations centered around patient-provider interactions are often complex to navigate. This leaves many on the brink of emotional exhaustion, and for survival’s sake, depersonalization with patients becomes the status quo. Feeling a disconnect with their patients is another added weight, as few get into this industry for just the paycheck – it’s the impact of helping people get healthy and stay healthy that motivates them. I’ve seen it time and time again with people in my life, as well as on my own patient journey as I battled stage 3 cancer.

Before the pandemic, reducing job burnout among healthcare workers became a standard policy. Now, it’s more than a policy, it’s top priority with staff shortages growing in healthcare. A February 2022 survey conducted by USA Today and Ipsos of more than 1,100 health care workers found nearly a quarter of respondents said they were likely to leave the field in the near future.

It’s time to maximize your health by embracing emotional intelligence with these three tips, which will also enhance your communications with peers and patients.

​Recognize your emotions.

Pushing away emotions takes more energy than acknowledging them because rarely do you have to push them back just one time, it is a constant tug-of-war. When you don’t process your emotions, they can show up as physical pain. Recognize your emotions beyond the narrow definitions of sad, angry or happy — use as many adjectives as you can think of, get descriptive, look up synonyms. Write them down. Share with your therapist. Acknowledge it when you work out. Talk it out into a notes page on your phone. Once you recognize, you can acknowledge, process, and address.

Acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses.

Your colleagues can be a catalyst. When you’re overworked, your endurance changes, and it’s important to share that with your team, because they are feeling the same — and in these situations you can lean on each other. Verbalizing that you need help and asking others how they can be supported cultivates trust. This dynamic between colleagues allows your team to be more adaptable, which leads to improved culture. Your patients will feel this shift, as they will be more at ease and more likely to listen to your instructions and advice

Don’t assume, ask. 

Assumptions lead to destruction. You can’t read minds – especially when you exist in a diverse city with an array of cultures that approach life and work responsibilities in various ways. If you need to take a day off, ask. If your patient is looking confused, slow down and ask what’s going on. If you’re starting to overcompensate because you notice a colleague struggling, ask them how you can help. If you need more resources at work, but think you shouldn’t ask because of budget cuts, ask anyway. Assumptions are rarely correct, and it leaves just one person carrying all the weight —YOU. Do yourself a favor, open up the dialogue.


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Sahar Paz is the CEO of Own Your Voice Strategy Firm and a Harvard-certified emotional intelligence expert with a mission to transform the patient-provider experience.

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Houston researchers secure funding for superconductivity project

fresh funding

Researchers at the Department of Physics at the University of Houston and Texas Center for Superconductivity have received a second-year funding from global leader in business of invention Intellectual Ventures to continue their work on exploring superconductivity,

The project, which is led by Paul C. W. Chu, T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science, professor of physics and founding director of the TcSUH and assistant professor of physics and a new TcSUH principal investigator Liangzi Deng, has been awarded $767,000 to date.

“Working with IV gives us the freedom known for scientific pursuit and at the same time provides intellectual guidance and assistance in accord with the mission goal,” Chu says in a news release.

The researchers are working on making superconductivity easier to achieve. At room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure is where the researchers are looking to simplify superconductivity. One finding from Chu and Deng’s team is called pressure-quench protocol, or PQP.The PQP will help maintain key properties (like superconductivity) in certain materials after the high pressure needed to create them is removed.

“Intellectual Ventures funded this research because Paul Chu is one of the acknowledged thought leaders in the area of superconductivity with a multi-decade track record of scientific innovation and creativity,” Brian Holloway, vice president of IV’s Deep Science Fund and Enterprise Science Fund, adds. “The work led by Chu and Deng on pressure quenching could result in game-changing progress in the field. We are very excited about the preliminary results from the first year and we look forward to continuing this collaboration.”

The project showed early success the first year, as the research used a special system to synthesize materials under high temperatures and pressure. The second-year projects will include the investigation of pressure-induced/enhanced superconductivity in cuprates and hydrides.

“If successful, UH will once again break the record for the highest superconducting Tc at atmospheric pressure,” Deng says in the release. “Additionally, we will collaborate closely with theorists to uncover the mechanism of PQP. Our research has far-reaching implications, with the potential to extend beyond superconductors to other material systems.”

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

Houston expert on how you can keep your company HR compliant

guest column

Failing to remain compliant with federal and state employment laws can be costly for businesses. Doing so can lead to audits or even lawsuits.

At the same time, keeping up to date with new human resource rules and regulations may seem like a significant task, especially for small businesses focused on maintaining sufficient staffing, making payroll, keeping the lights on and building a positive culture. Companies can prevent minor mistakes from snowballing into big problems by following these tips.

Recognize the most common HR compliance mistakes

There are a few HR compliance areas where companies big and small are prone to errors. One of the most common and costly mistakes can be the incorrect classification of employees. The rules can vary significantly for full-time, part-time and contract employees when it comes to areas like benefits coverage, tax responsibilities and employment status. Failures to submit required paperwork and noncompliance with state and federal safety regulations are other common problem areas. In addition to any local or state regulations related to employment, companies should also be familiar with the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping and youth employment standards, covering employees in the private sector and in federal, state and local governments.

Support Title VII compliance

Employers and employees should be well-versed when it comes to workplace discrimination and anti-harassment laws, but they don’t just apply to managers and staff. Title VII applies to discrimination and harassment from clients, vendors and even customers. Because discrimination and harassment are often thought of as “internal workplace issues,” many companies may not be aware that they can be held responsible for the actions of non-employees when the employer (or its agents or supervisory employees) knew or should have known of inappropriate conduct and failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. This is why employees should be well aware of the protections in place and understand the importance of reporting harassing conduct.

Know AI-related regulations as they intersect with employment best practices

Companies are increasingly using AI in a variety of helpful ways. For instance, many employ smart software solutions to match candidates to open positions. However, these technologies can also pose a risk as they quickly evolve, along with the laws that govern them. Some AI programs may demonstrate bias to certain individuals or groups and certain cities and states are enacting legislation to prevent these kinds of issues.

Understanding varying payroll requirements

Prior to 2020, remote work options were becoming an increasingly popular benefit. The pandemic led to this option's explosive, lasting expansion. Nowadays, employees can work from other states, other times zones and even from other countries. While this is an attractive benefit to offer - especially across the technology and software sectors - there are some regulations that companies should know about.

At the top of the list are payroll laws, which can vary significantly from state to state. Employees in other states may be subject to city or state minimum wage laws or pay frequency requirements that differ from the regulations where the company headquarters is based. Overtime regulations and payroll deductions may also vary. A contracted payroll provider can help address these issues. Still, if these functions are led internally, care should be taken to stay current with the evolving regulatory landscape across the U.S.

With so many areas where mistakes can be made, companies can avoid costly errors by obtaining outside help. An employment attorney can assist in identifying and eliminating risks before they arise. Another option for small and medium-sized businesses is partnering with a professional employer organization (PEO

The rules surrounding employment in the U.S. are a moving target. This is why companies must stay up-to-speed on the various regulations that may impact their operations and be prepared to adjust as needed.

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Fernanda Anzek is managing director of HR services with Insperity, a Houston-based provider of human resources and business performance solutions.

Hardtech startup moves into Houston area with new Conroe facility, eyes tests in space

LEADING TECH

FluxWorks, a hardtech startup, recently opened its new base of operations in Workhub Developments’ Conroe location.

Founded in College Station by CEO Bryton Praslicka, FluxWorks specializes in making contactless magnetic gears for use in extreme conditions. At 9,000 square feet, the new Conroe facility is a result of discussions with Governor Greg Abbott's office and the Greater Houston Partnership, who introduced the company’s leadership to the Conroe Economic Development Council, encouraging their move, Praslicka tells InnovationMap.

“The pieces of the puzzle were all there, and with the support of the local, state, and federal government, we were thrilled to move to Conroe,” Paslicka says.

CEO Bryton Praslicka founded the company in College Station. Photo courtesy FluxWorks

The enterprise recently won the MassChallenge’s technology in space prize, allowing them to test four gears at the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory in 2026. The prize is funded by Boeing and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS which runs the ISS. Praslicka says their new offices will expand their manufacturing capacity by having all levels of production on-site.

"Since our inception, FluxWorks has been fragmented, having an office in one location, manufacturing in another location, and testing in a third location," Praslicka explains. "This is a new chapter for us to begin having the entire process, from design to testing and validation and then shipping to customers, all under one house.”

The magnetic gears FluxWorks makes are suited to space applications because they do not require lubricants, which can be difficult to control at harsh temperatures and in microgravity, to minimize friction. Through their partnership with the ISS, Praslicka says FluxWorks has strengthened their connections to other space tech companies including Axiom and Boeing, and it's opened the door to collaborations with the new Texas Space Commission.

“Now the NASA Johnson Space Center is even officially supporting our proposal to the Texas Space Commission as a proposed teaming partner,” Praslicka says.

The new facility received special security certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, increasing FluxWorks’ opportunities to work with NASA and defense contractors. The Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center awarded FluxWorks for “outstanding innovation” during its recent ribbon cutting ceremony.

The company, named a finalist for the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards, cleaned up in the 2023 Rice Business Plan Competition with a $350,000 investment prize from Houston group, Goose Capital.

FluxWorks has moved into its 9,000-square-foot facility in Conroe. Photo courtesy FluxWorks