Megan Eddings shares the full entrepreneurial journey — from founding to a pandemic pivot and an exit — on the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of Megan Eddings

After years of tolling over her athleisure wear startup, Megan Eddings knew what her company needed for it to be successful, and she knew she wasn't the right person to do it.

Accel Lifestyle, a clothing brand based on Edding's patented antimicrobial Prema fabric, launched late in 2019 just ahead of boutique fitness studio craze was significantly affected by the pandemic. After pivoting to face masks, including manufacturing tens of thousands for the United States Military, Eddings says she went into the next few years with Accel being back on track to design stink-resistant workout clothing.

But Eddings knew the company needed a huge marketing push to make a splash in the direct-to-consumer world.

"The core of who I am is not a social media person," she says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. "That isn't my skillset. If you sell a product, one of the only ways to become wildly successful is to have an incredible marketing strategy that you need a lot of money to build and create. That is not something that I liked.

"I was so passionate about inventing something, but in order to really scale to the next level, I would have had to take on quite a bit of investment money," she continues.

The process of figuring this out wasn't fast — and it wasn't easy, Eddings says. It took a lot of soul searching and figuring out her strengths and what was right for her.

Eddings says she started considering B2B opportunities — some of which were with major retail brands — but these companies weren't willing to make the financial commitment to Accel or its Prema fabric. The one exception was Talbots, which agreed to stock Accel's clothing.

"It was like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole for a solid year," she says, explaining the emotional and mental toll the process took on her.

Eddings says that just as the opportunity for entrepreneurship found her — by way of her husband's sweaty workout gear she felt convinced she could improve — the next opportunity for Accel found her as well. Eddings was invited to film a segment featuring Accel's products on TV.

As great of an opportunity as it was to sell Accel's products, the segment would be even more meaningful to the company. Shortly after the it aired, a man reached out to Eddings with an acquisition offer from him and his two Australian colleagues who want to build a clothing brand as big as Patagonia, Eddings says.

"When the three men flew in, we had a three-hour lunch and I felt like I was sitting with friends," Eddings says. "I decided I was going to sell, and that was pretty much it." The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Eddings, whose background in medical sales originally brought her to Houston 12 years ago, turned back to the business world — this time tackling another new industry: oil and gas. She's now the chief strategy officer of Houston-based consultancy New Wave Offshore Energy. And as much as she likes this new role, she says she's ready to add onto her plate a new venture taking her experience with making pivots and incorporating positivity into every asset of her life.

"What I've realized is everyone wants to be happier. When I would give talks about entrepreneurship, the No. 1 question I would get as a founder is 'how do you stay so positive?'" Eddings says.

With this inspiration, she's starting a podcast — The Pivot to Positivity — and has already filmed a pilot episode of a TV show with the same focus.

"Everyone just needs more joy in their life," Eddings says.

Guide App, a Houston startup, is looking to help its users tap into social media better. Photo via Getty Images

Houston startup develops tech to equip businesses with the social media skills they need to thrive

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Just look at any smartphone on the market and it becomes evident just how pervasive mobile apps have become, especially social media apps.

As the social networking sphere has revolutionized communication, technology has spawned multitudinous variants in the most organic way. That kind of technological momentum lends itself to why platforms like Guide App have a chance to be the next big thing in the space.

The company's CEO and co-founder, Tim Salau, tells InnovationMap that Guide is a social learning and development platform that aims to revolutionize learning experiences for creators, leaders, and organizations.

“Guide is a social learning platform for creators who are freelancers and work in the entertainment and media industry,” says Salau, Houston native and University of Texas graduate. “And they can use Guide to create and learn production skills. We pivoted in late 2019 as the pandemic hit, and we realized that Guide could be used as a B2B platform and solution for businesses to onboard and train their remote workers.

“So that's really what makes us money, and we really decided to build it because we saw that there was a huge gap in the business space of a bite-sized training platform and solution, and to do what TikTok and Reels was doing in the consumer space, but for professionals with security and privacy in mind for organizations,” he says.

With the pivot, businesses can now use Guide as a platform to onboard and train new hires for their respective companies.

“Ideally, it would be pretty much anyone within the marketing department, the product management division, or even engineers within their organizations who are creators in the sense of migrating to creative work in their own different disciplines,” says Salau. “And they could use Guide to potentially maybe create a video that's 90 seconds or less on everything a new hire needs to know within the first 90 days in the product management role or in the marketing role.”

Tapping into trends

Salau explains how he's got his ear to the ground when it comes to trends within media.

“With the way that things are moving in the entertainment and media industry and what's been happening with these strikes, I see the short-form content becoming even more important because people are not necessarily attending movie theaters at a high engagement rate,” says Salau. “Then there are multiple streaming platforms have so many gates and paywalls up, a lot of people aren't necessarily using all of these streaming platforms and seeing all of the long-form content out."

“I'm starting to see that in the next three to five years, macro content will become more important, and instead of the streaming era that we've seen in the last few years or in the last decade or so led by Netflix, I'm going to use our mock theory, we're going to start seeing a beaming era in which we're going to start seeing content being pushed to creators and consumers, that is literally tailored to what they want.”

According to Salau, platforms such as Instagram and TikTok push content based on their respective algorithms that followers don’t necessarily want to see, and that takes time away from the content they need, when they need it.

“Looking forward, it’s clear that in the sense of taking away all of the distractions that we see on these platforms, at Guide, we want to push content as it comes from the creators,” says Salau. “And for us, that focus will be on microcontent, which is content that’s 90 seconds or less.”

Data shows that the best micro content is video content that clocks in around 15 seconds.

“Content that goes up to 30 seconds is probably even cutting it a little bit too long, but the content that really goes a lot, and goes really viral on those platforms is 15 seconds,” says Salau. “And now that TikTok is becoming a more long-form entertainment platform, you're starting to see them kind of strip away from what really got them popular and buzzworthy.”

Monitoring monetization

Popularity aside, one of the major tenets of content creation is monetization.

“Getting to the point where creators will be able to monetize their content is our goal at Guide,” says Salau. “We have to build up towards that goal, but that’s the intent. We intend on having them be able to create profiles where they can actually list their merch. They can post about merch in their videos, and more importantly, get to a point where people can actually buy the entertaining content that they have.”

Once Guide reaches monetization, creators will be able to list content at the price they want it and have associated merchandise of their brand. This is a huge difference from how TikTok and Instagram and other consumer video platforms get creators paid.

“We see that it's better to actually go the other route and actually allow creators to monetize their own brand, which is what every creator often really wants,” says Salau. “That’s ideal because when a creator brings consumer brands into the picture, they have to play to what they want from an advertisement and dollars type of standpoint. So, we don't want to actually get into that world. We want to really keep everything creator oriented.”

Curating a culture of creators

At this point, Guide has about 150 creators, because they’ve been very selective with their icon program.

“We don’t believe that everyone’s a creator,” says Salau. “Because if everyone is a creator, then no one is a creator.

“And we kind of see this with a lot of the creator platforms out there. Just because anyone can create content with a smartphone doesn't mean it's content that's edifying or beneficial that people are actually enriching and learning from. So, we're really big on learning, because we see ourselves in that space.”

As Salau and team look forward with Guide, they plan on continuing to address the learning and talent development gap for remote and mobile teams. They’ll also remain focused on being the kind of platform where creators can talk about the behind-the-scenes and the process of how to make music or how to approach acting, or how to think about set production when on a set.

“With Instagram and TikTok, it’s really much more about fun and virality, and doing something that gets a reaction, versus helping people learn,” says Salau. “So, with us, the feedback we've received is, ‘I get it,’ and ‘I'm interested.’ And I want to continue learning and growing with y'all. Thank you.”

Why use social media for business? These two PR experts make their case. Getty Images

Houston PR team shares how social media can affect your small business

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As a small business owner, I know firsthand how important it is to stay on top of the latest marketing trends. We no longer live in a world where traditional public relations alone will achieve your business objectives. With new and evolving digital platforms creating so many ways to communicate with your target audience, businesses must diversify their public relations and media strategies to be successful.

We cannot work in silos; instead, we need to have a comprehensive approach, including tactics such as media relations, community partnerships, unique events, influencer collaborations, digital and traditional advertising, email marketing and social media.

While some of these marketing channels can be costly, social media for small business owners is an absolute must and an inexpensive way of keeping your brand top of mind.

How businesses use social media for marketing can vary depending on the industry. The first step is determining which social media platforms make the most sense for your business. Where are your competitors? Are they on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn? If so, does it also make sense for you to have a presence on each of these, as well?

Once you know where you should be, decide who you want to reach and what your message should look like in order to accomplish this. Messaging can certainly vary on each platform, as can your target audience.

Recruiting, B2B content and company updates are best suited for LinkedIn, while beautiful visuals and brand stories are reserved for Instagram and Facebook. Twitter can serve as a great platform for timely updates and conversations with followers. To create effective social media marketing for small businesses, solidify your brand voice and target audience before creating content.

As you begin creating organic content to push out to your target audience, take advantage of the advertising tools within each platform. Facebook's Ad Manager provides businesses with an intuitive approach to advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook's Audience Network. By adding marketing dollars to your social media strategy, small businesses cast a wider net with individual posts and reach a larger audience by creating campaigns with specific objectives such as driving website visitors. With advertising spend on social media, you will be equipped with even more data and analytics than your organic posts generate in order to understand who is engaging with your content.

It's always beneficial to keep these options in mind, while understanding the value social media brings to your overall marketing strategy. Social media is a great tool for upper funnel objectives, such as raising brand awareness and interest, rather than lower funnel, conversion objectives. You want to rely on social media to increase your customer base, connect with current customers and influence them down the purchasing path.

The beauty and power of social media for small business owners is that it's affordable and efficient. It can serve as a snapshot of your brand when potential customers visit your page.

There's no better way to build relationships with your current and prospective customers than through social media marketing. It offers a quick turnaround time, granular targeting options and real-time consumer feedback and communication.

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Karen Henry is the founding partner of The PR Boutique, a Houston-based public relations firm. Kirby Levey is the company's senior accounts and digital executive.

It's possible to predict some violent public protests by tracking social media posts on moral outrage over a triggering event. Tracy Le Blanc/Pexels

Rice University researchers find that tracking social media can predict violent events

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Every grade school teacher knows that student conduct can get out of hand, fast, when a group of kids eggs on one individual. Time-outs are a testimony to the power of isolating one 10-year-old from a choir of buddies.

Social media plays a role similar to a gang of hyped-up grade schoolers, providing a community that can express collective disapproval of people or events. When this disapproval has a moral cast ⁠— for example, after a police shooting or the removal of a statue ⁠— the social network's particular characteristics are key predictors about whether that disapproval will turn violent.

There is a word for the way group support of a belief system makes it seem worth fighting for: moralization. Tracking social network activity now makes it possible to measure the chances for an individual belief to become moralized by a group ⁠— a phenomenon known as moral convergence.

In a recent study in Nature, Rice Business professor Marlon Mooijman, then at the Kellogg School of Management, joined a team that analyzed when and how violence erupts in protests. In a series of observation and behavior experiments that mixed psychology, organizational theory and computer science, they accurately predicted how violence is influenced by group discussion of moral views on social media.

The researchers started by studying the number and content of tweets linked to the Baltimore riots in 2015, after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. The researchers then compared these tweets with the number of arrests in a given time frame, using a methodology developed by Marlon Mooijman and Joe Hoover from the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California.

To analyze the tweets responding to Gray's death, they first separated them into two sets: Those with moral commentary and those without moral judgments.

Next, the researchers tracked whether tweets with moral content increased on days with violent protests. Violence was measured using the number of police arrests, which the researchers compared with the specific time frames of moral tweets.

There was no major difference in the overall tweet traffic discussing Freddie Gray's death on days with violent protests and on peaceful days. The number of moralizing tweets, however, clearly correlated with episodes of violent protests, rising to nearly double the moralizing tweets on days with no violence.

This raised a provocative question. Were morally ⁠— based tweets a response to the events of the day ⁠— or were they somehow driving the violence?

To find out, Mooijman and Hoover worked with computer scientists Ying Lin and Jeng Ji of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Morteza Dehghani of the University of Southern California to develop algorithms that could establish mathematical probabilities for the results.

For every single-unit increase in moral tweets over a 4-hour period, the researchers found, there was a .25 corresponding increase in arrests.

The researchers then tried to measure the effect similar moral views ⁠— such as a social media page with self-selected members of a similar political affiliation ⁠— had on violence during protests.

To do so, they set up a second study, which measured participant reactions to the protestors of a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. Participants ranked their level of agreement over the morality of protesting the rally.

There was a direct relationship between believing a protest action was moral, the researchers found, and finding violence at that protest acceptable. This relationship held true throughout the study, regardless of political orientation.

The researchers' next goal was to identify the impact of exposure to people of like beliefs. To do this, participants rated their feelings when they were told that most people in the U.S. shared their views. While the intensity of participants' moral views created the potential for violence, the researchers found, violence resulted when only actively validated by others with similar views.

Having one's moral outrage supported by others on social media, the professors concluded, may explain the spike in violence in recent protests.

While respect for privacy remains critical, governments and law enforcement can use the social media trend to pinpoint the moments when moral outrage can turn deadly. Perhaps most importantly, however, the research also suggests practical tactics for calming violent tendencies before they get out of control. To reduce real-life protest violence, they wrote, it's critical that social media sites include a variety of voices. It's another reason, if any were needed, that a bit of judicious exposure to other views is healthy for everyone.

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This story originally ran on Rice Business Wisdom.

Marlon Mooijman is an assistant professor of Organizational Behavior. He teaches in the undergraduate business minor program and MBA full-time program.

Using social media — the right way — can help foster better relationships with millennial clients. Tracy Le Blanc/Pexels

How this Houston Realtor uses technology to interact with an increasingly younger clientele

Social media butterfly

According to a 2018 AdWeek article by Dario Cardile, the millennial population accounts for 66 percent of the first-time homebuyer's market, and industry research suggests the millennial generation chooses Instagram as its top social media platform.

I have learned the importance of adapting to modern techniques including adopting the social media climate and using it to my advantage, both as an individual and as a company. It's not just because social media has grown to be a leading component of brand promotion but because it's my direct line of communication to my current and future clients.

Today, social media, particularly Instagram, is not just a small promotional tool among many, but rather a major engagement platform for the real estate industry. As a real estate agent in the competitive Houston market, I use Instagram as another avenue to reach a larger audience, connect with potential new clients and showcase my listings in a unique and organic way that complements my overall approach.

I have found that my Instagram followers enjoy seeing both sides of me: the professional and personal. Keeping up with my account isn't as simple as posting every so often. People like to know and trust who they are working with and it's been a fun challenge to balance (and blur) my work and personal life to give my followers and clients a behind-the-scenes look at my career and lifestyle. I've learned that they want to know who you are in and out of the office and I've even been asked for tips outside of real estate such as make up, skincare, and fitness.

One way I organize my Instagram account is through categorized story highlights. Because I post frequent stories, it's important to feature and distinguish the most notable ones in order for people to find what they are looking for, whether it be things I have to offer as a Realtor or what I do in my free time. I've created story categories such as "Listings," "Nan Properties," "Fitness," "Beauty," and "In the News" in order for easy access.

My posts on my feed often feature pictures of me in both the work and social environment. I like to create fun captions that encourage followers to check out my story in order to see the latest listings. This makes the work aspect of my life exciting and engaging.

Because real estate is very focused on visual content, videos and photos of listings provide a quick and convenient way for clients to view listed properties. This engagement is incredibly important to keep my real estate company top-of-mind for clients, especially those who are millennials. In addition, I feature pictures of my family and adorable puppy in order to show my followers what is important in my life.

Of course, it's necessary to set boundaries when it comes to sharing personal information on social media. I've taken a lot of precautions when it comes to sharing my personal life and my biggest rule is to avoid sharing in real time when possible.

A major tip that I would pass on to any Realtors or client-focused professionals getting involved with social media is to have fun. People love to see your excitement about what you do. Be consistent with your posts and as more followers engage with your content, take note of what they enjoy and would like to see you posting about frequently.

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Nancy Almodovar is the president and CEO of Nan and Company Properties in Houston.

Set the framework for your startup's social media policy. Tracy Le Blanc/Pexels

Houston social media expert urges startups and companies to establish a sharing policy and strategy

Guest column

While employees mean well, they may share or post company information on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, blogs, among others) that could be misaligned with business objectives, creating a potential reputational risk for the company. For this reason, it is essential that companies big or small, including startups, develop, and implement a social media policy, so management and employees work from the same playbook.

Build the company’s social media strategy

First, management needs to define its social media to help inform its policy. How active do you want to be on social media? How do you plan to respond to comments? How involved do you want employees to be on social media as it relates to the company, specifically when involving company-issued devices or during business hours?

Companies must consider a proactive role in social media because if the company is not telling its story, someone else will fill the void. Plus, it's a great way to engage with the community and give everyone a glimpse of the company's culture.

Also, define what "social media" is for your company. Companies will likely want to cast a wide net to encompass blogs, personal websites, message boards, Wikipedia, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Determine the company's response process as well. Management's gut reaction might be to censor the content or take down less-than-flattering comments about the company. Management needs to understand the purpose of social media, and instead have a well-thought-out social media response process in place to ensure timely responses to questions and comments, so issues don't linger or snowball.

Once management determines the company strategy, establish tools, i.e., social media monitoring to help achieve the objectives.

Establish social media policy and identify a social media manager

While every company's social media policy is unique, make clear to employees that the company's code of conduct must be followed online as it is followed offline. Employees must protect proprietary and intellectual property and never share any confidential or proprietary information via social media, even through private messaging.

State clearly in the policy that employees can never represent themselves as official spokespersons for the company unless given explicit permission by the company. Moreover, while there should be management support of employee comments or likes on content associated with the company, employees need to make it clear that the views they express on social media are theirs and do not represent the company.

A company should determine one person that is responsible for its public persona and social media efforts, including monitoring and posting regularly on all social media channels. The social media manager must also be the one to handle any negative comments about the company, as well as any media requests.

Conduct regular training for employees

Companies must consider training for employees. Host a brown bag luncheon with social media training to provide employees an opportunity to understand the company's social media policy better, as well as ask questions. Employees often make social media mistakes when they don't know better.

Social media has changed the role of company communications. Companies — both big and small — that build a strong social media strategy and policy see the value of delivering company messages to a broader community, monitoring for feedback, and listening to conversations about their brands.

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Melanie Taplett is a communications professional serving energy, professional services, and healthcare companies. Contact her at mtaplett@taplycom.com or taplycom.com.

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Houston biotech VC firm's portfolio cos. score $5.3M in federal funding

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Three portfolio companies of Houston venture capital firm First Bight Ventures have received a combined $5.25 million from the U.S. Defense Department’s Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program.

“The allocation of funds by the federal government will be critical in helping grow biomanufacturing capacity,” Veronica Breckenridge (née Wu), founder of First Bight, says in a news release. “We are very proud to represent three dynamic companies that are awardees of this competitive and widely praised program.”

The three companies that were awarded Defense Department funds are:

  • Hayward, California-based Visolis, received $2.25 million to plan a facility for production of a chemical that can be transformed into rocket propellants, explosive binders, and sustainable aviation fuel.
  • Alameda, California-based Industrial Microbes received $1.55 million to plan a facility for converting ethanol feedstock into acrylic acid. This acid is a key component used in coatings, adhesives, sealants, lubricants, corrosion inhibitors, and wound dressings.
  • San Diego-based Algenesis received $1.5 million to plan and develop a facility that’ll produce diisocyanates, which are chemical building blocks used to make polyurethane products.

“This award is a testament to our commitment to advancing sustainable materials and will enable us to contribute to both national security and industrial resilience. Our planned facility represents a key step towards securing a domestic supply of critical components for polyurethanes,” says Stephen Mayfield, CEO of Algenesis.

Texas grocer H-E-B finally rolls out digital tap-to-pay services

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Texas' favorite grocery store has some good news for shoppers who have a habit of forgetting their wallets. H-E-B is starting a phased rollout for digital tap-to-pay services, starting in San Antonio before spreading to the rest of the chain's stores.

The rollout began Monday, October 7. A release says it'll take "about a week" to spread to all stores in the region before making it ways across Texas. Although it is not known which stores will add the service on what date, the rollout includes all H-E-B stores, including Mi Tienda, H-E-B's Mexican grocery store that has locations in Houston.

With tap to pay, shoppers will finally be able to use smartphone-based systems such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay, as well as tapping a physical card.

Payments can be made with those apps, or "digital wallets," at cash registers and self-checkout lanes, as well as restaurants and pharmacies within H-E-B stores. They won't be accepted right away at H-E-B fuel pumps, but customers can use them to pay for gas if they bring their phones to the fuel station payment window.

This isn't exactly cutting-edge technology; Google Wallet launched in 2011, leading the market, and was followed by Apple Pay in 2014. But it's not ubiquitous either. In 2023, a poll by Forbes Advisor found that barely more than half of respondents used digital wallets more than traditional forms of payment.

H-E-B is on a bit of a payment revolutionizing kick, also launching a debit card in 2022 and a partnership in August of 2024 with the H-E-B-owned delivery service Favor for its fastest order fulfillment yet. Central Market and Joe V’s Smart Shop, two other H-E-B brands, also recently launched tap to pay.

“At H-E-B, we’re always exploring a broad range of technologies to enhance how customers shop and pay for products,” H-E-B vice president Ashwin Nathan said in a statement. “This has been one of the most requested services we have received from our customers and partners, and we are excited to now make this popular technology available at all our H-E-B locations.”

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.