Entrepreneurs' Organization had seven of its members give TED-style talks on April 25. Ammar Selo

Moving the needle on something — whether it's changing the world or growing your business — hearing how others accomplished their own goals can be a beacon of hope and guidance for others.

The local Entrepreneurs' Organization chapter, EO Houston, hosted a series of seven TED Talk-style talks by members of the organization. These seven entrepreneurs discussed everything from being an introvert in a world of extroverts to the biggest security threat to American citizens: obesity. EO Talks took place at a breakfast event on April 25 at Houston Baptist University. If you missed the event, check out these overheard quotes from the day of discussions.

“When you get people involved in your organization, your job (as CEO) is alignment. Keep your team aligned with the strategic objectives of your company.”

— Paul Sarvadi, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Insperity, in his talk, "Take Care of Your People: An Entrepreneur's Journey." Connectivity is key, says Sarvadi.

“Taking care of your people is not rocket science. In fact, rocket science would be easier. It involves math and science — it works the same every day. But as soon as you put people in the mix, what worked yesterday might not work today.”

— Sarvadi continued in his talk about the importance of human resources in the the work place.

“What if everyone in the world knew what they stood for — imagine what that world would look like. We would know how we fit. We would be the best versions of ourselves. And, the world would be the best version of itself.”

— Winnie Hart, founder of TwinEngine in her talk, "What Do You Stand For?" Hart discussed finding one's identity and motivators — both in business and in life.

“Everywhere we look introverts are living in an extroverted world. It’s natural if you’re an introvert, like me, to feel a little insecure or that you feel the need to compete with your extraverted friends.”

— Darlene Gagnon, CEO and co-founder of Kinnect Global Management Services in her talk, "The Introverted Entrepreneur Competing in an Extroverted World." Gagnon says that introverts on track to be the most successful entrepreneurs with their execution skills, detail oriented nature, and ability to tune out the noise.

“It is the men in our lives that need to take action. Gentlemen, stand with us. Help us create a better presence so that we can sustain a future.”

— Shoshi Kaganovsky, CEO and founder of SensoLeak Global, in her talk, "Women Entrepreneurs—To Be..Or..To Be The Best." Kaganovsky compared how people say, "behind every great man is a woman," to how female leaders also need the support from the other gender.

“Entrepreneurship is an endless circle of reinventing yourself, being able to change, and keeping a positive attitude while doing so.”

— Kaganovsky continued in her talk as advice to the room of entrepreneurs.

“We can escape this crushing threat we call obesity. How are you going to make your escape?”

— Dr. Joe Galati, liver disease expert, radio host and author in his talk, "America's #1 National Security Threat." Galati argued that it's not Russia or North Korea that pose a major threat to the United States — it's our own health issues caused by obesity.

“We’ve all heard of the term ‘side hustle.' Maybe my dad invented the ‘side hustle.’”

— Chris Hotze, CEO and founder of Crescere Capital, in his talk, "Understanding the Power of Recurring Revenue." Hotze tells the story of how his father created a residential real estate side business out of necessity, and how that entrepreneurialism affected his own business career.

“As entrepreneurs, as long as we see control, we visualize an opportunity far greater than we see the risk.”

— Ali Nasser, CEO of AltruVista in his talk, "The Entrepreneur's Opportunity Cost," Nasser explains how entrepreneurs are hesitant to put money in the stock market, yet dive into ownership and risks for their own businesses.

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Tilman Fertitta tops new Forbes list of Houston's richest billionaires

A dozen of Houston's illustrious billionaires have made the cut on the newForbes 400, a list of the 400 richest people in the United States for 2024.

Houston hospitality king and Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is the 12th richest Texan and the 99th richest person in the United States, according to Forbes' list, released October 1.

Forbes estimates Fertitta's net worth in 2024 as $10.1 billion, which has steadily climbed from his 2023 net worth of $8.1 billion. Fertitta, 67, purchased the Houston Rockets in October 2017 for $2.2 billion. The billionaire also owns Texas-based hospitality and entertainment corporation Landry's. In 2019, Fertitta embarked on a new venture as an author.

"Fertitta released his first book titled Shut Up And Listen! in September [2019], detailing his experiences in the dining and entertainment industries," Forbes wrote in Fertitta's profile.

The Forbes 400list is a definitive ranking of the wealthiest Americans, using interviews, financial data, and documentation provided by billionaires and their companies.

According to the report, America's elite class is now worth $5.4 trillion collectively, which is a $1 trillion jump since 2023.

“The Forbes 400 is richer than ever, and it’s harder than ever to be one of the 400 richest people in America," said Forbes senior editor Chase Peterson-Withorn in a press release.

In all, 43 Texas billionaires made the list.

Unsurprisingly, Austin resident Elon Musk ranks No. 1 nationally for the third time, with a net worth of $244 billion. Despite ranking at the top of the list this year, Musk's net worth has actually dropped by $7 billion since 2023.

New to the 2024 list are Houston-based Westlake Corporation co-owners Albert Chao, James Chao, and their respective families. According to their Forbes profiles, the Chaos own nearly 25 percent of Westlake Corporation, which produces low-density polyethylene that is used for food packaging and other products.

"His father, T.T. Chao, moved the family from Taiwan to the U.S. and founded Westlake in 1986," Albert Chao's profile says. "Albert and brother James Chao are credited with helping launch the company. Albert was CEO from 2004 to July 2024, when he became executive chairman. James was chairman from 2004 to July 2024, when he became senior chairman."

Here's how the rest of Houston's billionaires fared on this year's list:

  • Oil and gas chairman Richard Kinderranks No. 112 nationally with an estimated worth of $9.3 billion.
  • Houston pipeline heir Randa Duncan Williams ties for No. 126 with an estimated net worth of $8.6 billion. Fellow pipeline heirs Dannine Avara and Milane Frantztie for 130th nationally. Each has an estimated net worth of $8.5 billion. Scott Duncan ranks No. 137 with an $8.3 billion estimated net worth.
  • Toyota mega-dealer Dan Friedkin and Houston oil tycoon Jeffery Hildebrand tie for 156th nationally with an estimated net worth of $7.6 billion.
  • Houston Texans owner Janice McNair ties for No. 210 nationally with an estimated net worth of $6.2 billion.
  • Energy exploration chief exec George Bishop of The Woodlands ranks No. 266 with an estimated net worth of $5 billion.

Missing from the 2024 list is local hedge fund honcho John Arnold, who ranked No. 345 nationally in 2023 but now ranks No. 991 in 2024 with an estimated net worth of $3.3 billion. As of October 1, Forbes estimates Arnold's net worth at $2.9 billion.

Find all the Texans on the new Forbes 400 list here.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Houston-based autonomous trucking tech co. raises $20M

fresh funding

A Houston-based autonomous vehicle technology company has raised early funding.

Bot Auto has announced the completion of its pre-series A funding round which was oversubscribed and raised $20 million. The round was led by investments from Brightway Future Capital, Cherubic Ventures, EnvisionX Capital, First Star Ventures, Linear Capital, M31 Capital, Taihill Venture, Uphonest Capital, and Welight Capital.

“As true believers in autonomous trucking, we're thankful for our investors' shared vision,” Xiaodi Hou, founder and CEO of Bot Auto, says in a news release. “Our strong commitment, combined with recent AI advancements and a sharpened focus on operational efficiency, has created a clear path to commercialization.”

The funds raised will be focused on developing the technology and will opt to avoid unnecessary hiring ahead of operational maturity, scaling the operational footprint prior to product readiness, over expansion and partnership debt. The company aims for a more sustainable and efficient future, and is hoping its engineers and AV executives help Bot Auto become an autonomous trucking game changer.

The Investment is expected to help expand Bot Auto's tech development in autonomous trucking that will focus on safety and operation efficiency.

“Our prospects for success have never been more promising,” Hou adds. “ We march forward, committed to bringing this transformative technology to humanity for a brighter future.”

Bot Auto’s vision aligns with the pioneering spirit of Houston’s legacy in space exploration, striving to achieve remarkable feats in technology and transportation. The company is dedicated to leveraging this investment to make significant strides in the US autonomous trucking industry, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and efficient future.

Profile: Houston founder helps create a new way of making clean electricity

leading energy

When Cindy Taff was a vice president at the giant oil and gas company Shell in Houston, her middle schooler Brianna would sometimes look over her shoulder as she worked from home.

“Why are you still working in oil and gas?” her daughter asked more than once. “Is there a future in it? Why aren’t you moving into something clean?”

The words weighed on Taff.

“As a parent you want to give direction, and was I giving her the right direction?” she recalled.

At Shell, Taff was in charge of drilling wells and bringing them into production. She worked on oil and natural gas that's called unconventional in the industry, because the oil or natural gas is difficult to get out of the ground — it doesn't naturally gush out like in movies. It's a term often used for oily shale rock. Taff was somewhat unconventional for the industry, too. Her coworkers used to tease her for driving an efficient hybrid.

“You’re not helping oil and gas prices by driving a Prius," they'd say.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of an occasional series of personal stories from the energy transition — the change away from a fossil-fuel based world that largely causes climate change.

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Taff wanted Shell to pursue the energy that comes from the Earth's natural heat — geothermal. Her team looked into it, but Shell never greenlit any of those projects, saying it would take too much time to recoup the investment.

When Brianna went to college, she was passionate about energy too, but she wanted to work on renewables. After her sophomore year, in the summer of 2020, she got an internship at a geothermal company — one that in fact had just been launched by Taff's former colleagues at Shell — Sage Geosystems in Houston.

Now it was Taff looking over her daughter's shoulder and asking question as she worked from home during the pandemic.

And Sage executives were talking to Brianna, too. “We could use your mom here," they said. "Can you get her to come work for us?” Brianna recalled recently.

That's how Cindy Taff left her 36-year career at Shell to become chief operating officer at Sage.

“I didn't understand why Shell wasn't pursuing it,” she said about applying the company's drilling expertise to heat energy. "Then I got this great opportunity to pivot from oil and gas and work with these guys that I have the utmost respect for. And also, I wanted to make my daughter proud, quite frankly.”

Brianna Byrd, now 24, is the operations engineer and spokesperson at the company. She's glad her mother, now CEO, left oil and gas.

“Of course I’m biased, she’s my mom, but I don’t think Sage would be where it is without her,” she said.

The United States is a world leader in electricity made from geothermal energy, but this kind of electricity still accounts for less than half a percent of the nation’s total large-scale generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 2023, most geothermal electricity came from California, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii, Oregon, Idaho and New Mexico, where there are reservoirs of steam, or very hot water, close to the surface.

The Energy Department estimates this next generation of geothermal projects, like what Sage is doing, could provide some 90 gigawatts by 2050 — enough to power 65 million homes or more. That hinges on private investment, and on companies like Sage introducing this form of energy to regions where, until now, it’s been thought to be impossible.

How it works

Sage has two main technologies: The first makes electricity out of heat. The company drills wells and fractures hot, dry rock. Then electric pumps push water into those fractures, heating it up, and the hot water gets jettisoned to the surface where it spins a turbine.

But a funny thing happened during testing in Starr County, Texas. In late 2021, the team realized much of their technology could also be used to store energy.

If that works, it could be a big deal. Currently, to store energy at large scale, the United States is adding batteries, mostly lithium-ion type, to solar and wind projects, so they can charge up and send electricity back to the electric grid when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. These batteries typically supply four hours maximum power.

Sage envisions some of its technology placed at solar and wind farms, too. When electricity demand is low, they'll use extra energy from a solar or wind farm to run electric pumps, pumping water into the underground fractures, leaving it there until demand for electricity increases — storing the energy beneath the Earth's surface for hours, days or even weeks.

It's a novel way to use the technology, said Silviu Livescu, lead author on a report looking at the future of geothermal in Texas. Livescu knows Taff and has followed the company's progress.

“It’s the right moment for companies like Sage with a purpose, with a mission and with the technology to show that geothermal indeed is the energy source we need to address climate change,” said Livescu, who co-founded a different geothermal startup in Austin, Texas.

These days, Taff is often out in front, talking with politicians and policymakers about the potential of geothermal. She attended the United Nations COP28 climate talks last year to share her vision for this kind of energy.

Sage has raised $30 million so far and is growing.

It's building a small (3-megawatt), geothermal energy storage system at San Miguel Electric Cooperative, Inc., south of San Antonio this year. It's working with U.S. military facilities in Texas that see geothermal as a way to power their bases securely. Sage recently announced partnerships for heating communities in Bucharest, Romania; clean electricity from geothermal for Meta's data centers, and energy storage and geothermal projects in California.

The company is final-testing a proprietary turbine to more efficiently convert heat to electricity.

Because of her oil and gas background, Taff said she knows geothermal will only be adopted widely if the cost comes down. The mantra at Sage is: It's going to be clean and it's going to be cheap. She's excited to be working in a field she feels is on the cusp of playing a big role in cleaning and stabilizing the electrical grid.

“I’ve never looked back,” she said. “I love what I’m doing and I think it’s going to be transformative.”