Overheard: 5 powerful quotes from Houstonians speaking at SXSW

Eavesdropping in Austin

From advice to observations, these five quotes overheard at SXSW proves Houston had some great spokespeople at the 2019 SXSW Interactive festival. Photos courtesy

Houston had no shortage of representatives at the 2019 SXSW Interactive festival, which took place March 8 to 12 in Austin. Several sat on panels, lead mixers, or even starred in a movie for the film track of the conference.

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a great deal of these events featuring the best and the brightest of Houston's innovation stars, but I realize most did not. To catch you up and rid you of your fear of missing out, check out these five overheard quotes from the fest.

"I think it's so important to find your focus and know what to say no to, because you can't do it all. Elizabeth [Gore] and I have a monthly 'meeting of no' where we literally check off things off our plate that we need to stop doing because we just don't have enough time. It's probably one of our most valuable hours."

— Carolyn Rodz, co-founded Alice with Elizabeth Gore. Alice co-hosted a series of panels at the Bumble Hive. She was asked, during the investment-focused panel, about focusing on B-to-B vs. B-to-C as a startup. Alice and Bumble just recently announced a partnership.

"We're trying to awaken the sleeping giant — a really huge city with lots of money, trying to infiltrate and activate huge family offices and rally people behind the goal of building a vibrant startup community. We've got a long way to go in terms of attracting VC talent — we're still behind Austin and Dallas."

— Lawson Gow, founder and CEO of The Cannon, at the Austinpreneur podcast recording of "The Texas Startup Manifesto" episode. He was asked about what he's been trying to accomplish at The Cannon. Gow is the son of InnovationMap's parent company's CEO.

"We've got all the basic tools, and we know what the main issues are. There's still a lot to do, but we need to be smart and do fact-based and mechanism-based combinations."

— James Allison, chair of Immunology and executive director of the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center. At his panel, "Making the Fight Against Cancer Even More Personal," he was asked about the current status of immunotherapy research.

“Have very specific questions. I hate the ‘can I pick your brain’ request. If you want advice on something, ask me that specifically. And, show up at everything. … It’s not about what network you have, but how many networks you can get into.”

— Grace Rodriguez, CEO and executive director of Impact Hub Houston. On the "Equitable Growth Ecosystems for Entrepreneurs" panel, she was asked about how an entrepreneur might try to grow their network and mentorship.

"Houston is an incredibly industrial town. We have more Fortune 500 companies here than anywhere other than New York — most of them in the world of the dirty and dangerous. We don't have a lot of scooter companies."

— Gabriella Rowe, CEO of Station Houston. She was asked while on her panel, "Startup Funding: From Apprenticeships to Professions," about bootstrapping as a startup. Read more about this discussion here.

Houston, we have a problem — and it's helping local startups have access to funding. Photo by Zview/Getty Images

SXSW panelists: Improving access to funding is key for Houston's continued ecosystem growth

Show me the money

A few weeks ago, Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner and Station Houston CEO Gabriella Rowe proclaimed that Houston's up-and-coming innovation ecosystem was no longer up and coming: It had arrived. But what preceded that proclamation was years of figuring out what it was Houston could do to get to this point.

"We're the fourth largest city in the United States, and in 2015 were ranked 20th out of 25 ecosystems," Rowe says at a panel at the 2019 SXSW Interactive festival.

Following that shocking news, Rowe says the city's focus was on building tools — accelerators, incubators, education — but nowhere did anyone talk about funding. Now, years later, with plenty of accelerators, workspaces, and educational programs, Rowe says Houston now has a great pipeline of companies, but the problem is finding funding for them to tap into.

Entrepreneurs are looking for three things when it comes to finding ways to fund their companies, according to Rowe. They want it to be accessible capital — not something they have to take a class on to figure out how to get to it. They also want it to be impactful and local to where their headquarters is.

"When I think about accessible, impactful, and local, I think, well, not a lot falls into that category [in Houston]," Rowe says. "We're not doing it particularly well right now."

It's a structural problem, according to Rowe. While the city has built up its entrepreneurial climate, it hasn't yet made the same effort with investors.

"Even if we have one or two funds, we need an ecosystem that supports funding in the same way we have an ecosystem that supports entrepreneurs," she says.

Joe Milam, founder of Austin-based AngelSpan, an early stage investor relations platform, says the issue in Houston — and Austin — is that industries can be siloed. There's a huge need for an honest broker to connect the dots across the city, and that person needs to be impartial.

"You gotta care about your community first, before you care about your own agenda," Milam says. "Otherwise, you're going to flounder like Houston has, and how Austin still does."

One thing everyone agreed on during the Saturday, March 9, panel was that Houston has a lot of money, but it's been sitting on the sidelines. The mission is, in addition to bringing in venture capital firms, finding ways to engage money that's already in town.

"We have to produce tools to enable that capital that's hiding," Rowe says.

Houston-based PolyVascular earned recognition in two categories, as well as nabbing up to $25,000. Courtesy of TMC Innovation

2 TMCx companies leave SXSW with awards and grant money

Med tech

Two Houston companies are walking away from SXSW with awards and grant funds.

PolyVascular, a member of TMCx's 2017 medical device cohort, won the fifth annual Impact Pediatric Health pitch competition's medical device and health disparities and equity categories. Additionally, the Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium granted the company up to $25,000.

PolyVascular co-founder Henri Justino represented his company in three-minute pitch, and team members Dan Harrington and Kwon Soo Chun were also in attendance.

The company was one of 12 finalists in the competition, which took place on March 8 at SXSW in Austin. Among the judges was Houston doctor, Chester Koh, professor of urology, pediatrics, and OB/GYN at Baylor College of Medicine and Pediatric Urologist at Texas Children's Hospital.

"At the Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium, we are always looking for the next cutting-edge breakthrough in the world of medical devices," says Koh in a release. "Impact Pediatric Health's reputation for bringing together the leaders in pediatric medical technology innovations makes it the perfect venue to help identify and accelerate the next generation of medical device companies impacting our youngest of patients."

Founded in 2014, PolyVascular produces polymeric transcatheter valves for children with congenital heart disease — the most common birth defect and number one cause of infant mortality in the developed world. The company's goal is to reduce that number of infant deaths by introducing a higher quality of valves.

Meanwhile, VastBiome, a 2018 biodesign TMCx company, received a $1,000 grant and is now one of two finalists for the San Francisco-based Illumina Accelerator program. The company works with scientists with ongoing clinical trials focusing on the microbiome as it pertains to therapy.

Another TMCx company, Zibrio, was up for an award in the 2019 SXSW Pitch event, but left the contest empty handed.

TMCx has multiple representatives at the festival, and the organization partnered with Energizing Health to host events throughout the first weekend of the conference.

Jim Allison, immunotherapy researcher at MD Anderson and Nobel Prize recipient, is the subject of a new film that premiered at SXSW. Photo courtesy of MD Anderson Cancer Center

Film about Nobel Prize-winning Houston scientist premieres at SXSW

Now showing

For most of his career, James Allison has been a cancer research wildcatter fighting an oftentimes lonely battle for the advancement of immunotherapy. The medical community has historically been skeptical of the science, but nonetheless Allison dedicated his life to developing a better treatment to the disease that has claimed so many lives — including his mother's.

Last year, Allison, the chair of Immunology and executive director of the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson, won the 2018 Nobel Prize in medicine, and Breakthrough, a film about Allison's progression from early researcher to Nobel Prize recipient, premiered on March 9 at the 2019 SXSW Interactive festival.

But despite the Nobel Prize and the new film both validating the science to the public, Allison says there's a lot more work to be done in immunotherapy. Allison, his colleague, Padmanee Sharma, and the filmmaker for Breakthrough, Bill Haney, hosted a discussion at SXSW about the future of immunotherapy.

"It's a time of considerable optimism — and we're just at the beginning," says Allison.

The film focuses on the man behind the science — a 70-year-old, harmonica-playing researcher from small-town Alice, Texas. It's both an ode to Allison's career and a thought-provoking take on all the work left to be done in the industry.

Immunotherapy is the process of targeting one's immune system's T-cells, infection-fighting white blood cells, to attack cancer cells. Sharma, a fellow MD Anderson oncology expert and clinician, says their work has received clinical approvals for treating Melanoma, kidney cancer, lung cancer, and bladder cancer. The scientists are now focused on expanding that treatment to other cancer types and building upon the established platform they've created, while also making sure nothing comes in the way of the facts of the science.

"It really requires that we dedicate ourselves to the basic science, understanding it and educating people about it, so we don't allow the facts and science get muddied by things that are political or nonfactual," Sharma says.

In a lot of ways, this is what Breakthrough has been able to do — communicate the facts on a platform where anyone can understand the science.

"We have a revolution on our hands, and thankfully we have people like Bill who can really tell the story well, because maybe as a scientist and a clinician, we're not always equally talented on telling the story to laypeople," Sharma says.

Moving forward, Allison says he's focused on finding out why the treatment fails in some instances, and he's determined to progress immunotherapy's success rate from the 20 to 40 percent rate he says he sees it at now to 100 percent.

"We've got all the basic tools, and we know what the main issues are," Allison says. "There's still a lot to do, but we need to be smart and do fact-based and mechanism-based combinations."

One of this week's top stories is about a Rice University professor discovering new ways to conserve Houston's prairie ecosystem, which might even result in flood mitigation. Courtesy of Cassidy Brown Johnson

5 most popular innovation stories in Houston this week

Now trending

Editor's note: It's been a truly exciting week for Houston innovation news — from a medical device company gaining FDA approval to a global accelerator program landing in Houston. Now, Houston innovators, investors, investors, and more are headed to SXSW to keep up the momentum.

5 Houston innovators headed to SXSW to know this week

Take a good look at these Houston entrepreneurs' faces, because you might be seeing them in downtown Austin next weekend for SXSW. Photos courtesy

Welcome to a special edition of InnovationMap's weekly innovators to know series. This week has more innovators featured than ever, and we're highlighting a particular group of people: The Houston founders headed for SXSW in Austin later this week. From startup founders, coworking space leaders, and pitch competition organizers, here's the Houston SXSW attendees you should know about. Continue reading.

Houston conservationist is helping to find new ways to protect local species and ecosystems

Memorial Park, which is currently undergoing a master plan renovation, and other Houston parks can be a great opportunity for introducing urban conservation inside the city limits. Rendering courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz

The Houston toad is a species that was discovered in Harris County in the 1950s. It has a very distinct, loud call that reverberates at quite a high pitch. But the Houston toad's call hasn't been heard in the city of Houston for almost 50 years. The species is locally extinct and critically endangered elsewhere. In fact, it's the most endangered amphibian in North America, says Cassidy Brown Johnson, a Rice University lecturer and president of the Coastal Prairie Partnership.

"When we think about extinction, we think of the dodo bird or the woolly mammoth," Johnson says. "But extinction is happening right underneath our noses." Continue reading.

Houston medical device company gains FDA approval

Houston-based Saranas has received de novo distinction from the FDA for its bleed monitoring technology. Courtesy of Saranas

When it comes to early bleeding detection, Houston-based Saranas, which closed $2.8 million in funding last year, is ahead of the game with its Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System. The Food and Drug Administration has recognized the medical device company and granted it De Novo distinction. Continue reading.

Exclusive: Global early stage accelerator program launches second Texas location in Houston

Palo Alto-based Founder Institute is launching its Houston program at Station Houston. Image courtesy Founder Institute

Silicon Valley-based Founder Institute has announced its second Texas program in Houston, which will operate out of Station Houston. Founder Institute Houston applications for the inaugural cohort close May 19. The early stage accelerator focuses on advancing startup companies in the pre-funding phase. Continue reading.

This new-to-Houston startup is simplifying trading for the next generation of investors

Andre Norman founded Jellifin, an options trading platform, flipping the script on the traditional investment process. Courtesy Jellfin

Say you're a young, working professional who wants to get involved in trading. Where do you start? If you get involved in options, which are contracts that give investors the ability to buy or sell a stock at a specific price on or before a specific date, you might go the traditional route and seek out a brokerage that focuses on options trading. There's a major catch, though: most brokerages tack on a fee of anywhere between $7 and $20 per trade, says Andre Norman, founder of Jellifin, an online options trading platform, is disrupting that norm. Continue reading.

From pitch competitions to panels, here's how Houstonians will be representing at SXSW. Marie Ketring/via sxsw.org

10 can't-miss events at SXSW featuring Houston speakers

South by the Bayou

Plenty of Houstonians, SXSW badge in hand, will be headed to Austin to network, learn, and share the stage with the rest of the festivals attendees. While InnovationMap has highlighted a few of the faces to be on the lookout for this weekend, here's a roundup of 10 events that have a Houston speaker or participant.

3/8 — Featured Session: Opening Speaker, Brené Brown

SXSW is starting right out of the gate with a Houstonian. Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston, will be the keynote address. Her thoughtful talk will focus on community and one's sense of belonging.

The SXSW keynote address will be at 11 am on Friday, March 8, at the Austin Convention Center. Learn more.

3/8 — Hysteria No More: Data, Doctors and Women’s Health

Gone are the days that medical professionals dismiss women's health concerns as "hysteria," but there's still room for improvement on the matter. Three ob/gyns will talk about new ways women are finding health care solutions outside the doctor's office.

Rashmi Kudesia, physician at CCRM Fertility Houston, is one of the panelists, which occurs on Friday, March 8, at the JW Marriott. Learn more.

3/8 — Equitable Growth Ecosystems for Entrepreneurs panel

The country has an equity problem — especially when it comes to startups and funding. Nationally, venture capital funds are not distributed in a way that represents the populations diversity, so how does the industry right the course?

Grace Rodriguez of Impact Hub Houston is among the panel that will discuss this at 3:30 pm on Friday, March 8, at the Hilton Austin Downtown. Learn more.

3/9 — Austinpreneur: The Texas Startup Manifesto

Texas is among the growing innovation ecosystems in the world, but there's plenty of untapped potential. This Capital Factory panel will focus on taking Texas to the next level.

Lawson Gow, founder and CEO of The Cannon, will be a panelist at the event, which begins at 11 am on Saturday, March 9, at the Hilton Austin Downtown. Learn more.

3/9 — Startup Funding: From Apprenticeships to Professions

Venture capitalism has changed tenfold since its start. Looking back on the history of early stage funding can help predict where it's going — from Silicon Valley to every corner of the world.

Station Houston CEO Gabriella Rowe is on the panel, which will take place at 12:30 pm on Saturday, March 9, at the Hilton Austin Downtown. Learn more.

3/9 — Making the Fight Against Cancer Even More Personal

No one loves discussing cancer, but there's a large group of scientists who have to daily and they develop new technologies and innovations to help discover a cure for the deadly affliction.

James Allison, researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and 2018 Nobel Prize recipient, will be on the panel discussing ways to innovate within cancer research. The program starts at 5 pm on Saturday, March 9, at the JW Marriott. Learn more.

3/10 — SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx Awards Ceremony

Two Houston startups are competing for an award in the 11th annual SXSW Pitch Event. Fluidity Technologies will be presenting as its drone controller, FT Aviator, in the Hyper-Connected Communities category on Saturday, March 9, at 5 pm, and Zibrio SmartScale, which is in the Health and Wearable category, will present on Sunday, March 10, at 5 pm.

The pitch awards will take place at 6:30 pm on Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin Downtown. Learn more.

3/11 — Tech Diversity Report Card 2019

Is diversity and inclusion basically just a myth in technology? Is it something that's attainable at this point, and what can the industry do to make that happen? A group of panelists discuss based on their experience and observations.

Heidi Hoover, head of office at Houston-based Flanders Investment & Trade, will be a member of the panel, which occurs on Monday, March 11, at 5 pm, at Capital Factory. Learn more.

3/11 — Angel Investor Meetup

Calling all acting and aspiring investors — it's time to rally. Two Texas investors are gathering the troops to discuss trends and opportunities in the state's — and the world's — investment sector.

Samantha Lewis of Houston-based GOOSE Society of Texas will be one of the hosts of the meetup, which takes place on Monday, March 11, at 5 p.m, at the Fairmont Hotel. Learn more.

3/12 — AI & IoT Panel and Emerging Company Showcase

Houston-based Baker Botts and Global Corporate Venturing are setting the stage for emerging tech companies to shine. The event includes a panel, a showcase, and an evening of networking.

James McKell, of Chevron Technology Ventures, is representing Houston on the panel, which begins at 2 pm on Tuesday, March 12, at Hotel Van Zandt. Learn more.

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Rice Business Plan Competition names startup teams for 2026 event

ready, set, pitch

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship has announced the 42 student-led teams that will compete in the 26th annual Rice Business Plan Competition this spring.

The highly competitive event, known as one of the world’s largest and richest intercollegiate student startup challenges, will take place April 9-11 on Rice's campus and at the Ion. Teams in this year's competition represent 39 universities from four countries, including one team from Rice and two from the University of Texas at Austin.

Graduate student-led teams from colleges or universities around the world will present their plans before more than 300 angel, venture capital and corporate investors to compete for more than $1 million in prizes. Top teams were awarded $2 million in investment and cash prizes at the 2025 event.

The 2026 invitees include:

  • Alchemll, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
  • Altaris MedTech, University of Arkansas
  • Armada Therapeutics, Dartmouth College
  • Arrow Analytics, Texas A&M University
  • Aura Life Science, Northwestern University
  • BeamFeed, City University of New York
  • BiliRoo, University of Michigan
  • BioLegacy, Seattle University
  • BlueHealer, Johns Hopkins University
  • BRCĒ, Michigan State University
  • ChargeBay, University of Miami
  • Cocoa Potash, Case Western Reserve
  • Cosnetix, Yale University
  • Cottage Core, Kent State University
  • Crack'd Up, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Curbon, Princeton University
  • DialySafe, Rice University
  • Foregger Energy Systems, Babson College
  • Forge, University of California, Berkeley
  • Grapheon, University of Pittsburgh
  • GUIDEAIR Labs, University of Washington
  • Hydrastack, University of Chicago
  • Imagine Devices, University of Texas at Austin
  • Innowind Energy Solutions, University of Waterloo (Canada)
  • JanuTech, University of Washington
  • Laetech, University of Toronto (Canada)
  • Lectra Technologies, MIT
  • Legion Platforms, Arizona State University
  • Lucy, University of Pennsylvania
  • NerView Surgical, McMaster University (Canada)
  • Panoptica Technologies, Georgia Tech University
  • PowerHouse, MIT
  • Quantum Power Systems, University of Texas at Austin
  • Routora, University of Notre Dame
  • Sentivity.ai, Virginia Tech
  • Shinra Energy, Harvard University
  • Solid Air Dynamics, RWTH Aachen (Germany)
  • Spine Biotics, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  • The Good Company, Michigan Tech
  • UNCHAIN, Lehigh University
  • VivoFlux, University of Rochester
  • Vocadian, University of Oxford (UK)

This year's group joins more than 910 RBPC alums that have raised more than $6.9 billion in capital, according to Rice.

The University of Michigan's Intero Biosystems, which is developing the first stem cell-driven human “mini gut,” took home the largest investment sum of $902,000 last year. The company also claimed the first-place prize.

Houston suburb ranks as No. 3 best place to retire in Texas

Rankings & Reports

Texas retirees on the hunt for the right place to settle down and enjoy their blissful retirement years will find their haven in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, which just ranked as the third-best city to retire statewide.

A new study conducted by the research team at RetirementLiving.com, "The Best Cities to Retire in Texas," compared the affordability, safety, livability, and healthcare access for seniors across 31 Texas cities with at least 90,000 residents.

Wichita Falls, about 140 miles northwest of Dallas, claimed the top spot as the No. 1 best place to retire in Texas.

The senior living experts said Pasadena has the best healthcare access for seniors in the entire state, and it ranked as the No. 8 most affordable city on the list.

"Taking care of one’s health can be stressful for seniors," the report said. "Harris County, where [Pasadena is] located, has 281.1 primary care physicians per 1,000 seniors — that’s almost 50-fold the statewide ratio of 5.9 per 1,000."

Pasadena ranked 10th overall for its livability, and ranked 25th for safety, the report added.

Meanwhile, Houston proper ranked as the No. 31 best place to retire in Texas, but its livability score was the 7th best statewide.

Seven of the Lone Star State's top 10 best retirement locales are located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Carrollton (No. 2), Plano (No. 4), Garland (No. 5), Richardson (No. 6), Arlington (No. 7), Grand Prairie (No. 8), and Irving (No. 9). McAllen, a South Texas border town, rounded out the top 10.

RetirementLiving said Carrollton has one of the lowest property and violent crime rates per capita in Texas, and it ranked as the No. 5 safest city on the list. About 17 percent of the city's population is aged 65 or older, which is higher than the statewide average of just 14 percent.

The top 10 best place to retire in Texas in 2026 are:

  • No. 1 – Wichita Falls
  • No. 2 – Carrollton
  • No. 3 – Pasadena
  • No. 4 – Plano
  • No. 5 – Garland
  • No. 6 – Richardson
  • No. 7 – Arlington
  • No. 8 – Grand Prairie
  • No. 9 – Irving
  • No. 10 – McAllen
---

This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Rice University lands $18M to revolutionize lymphatic disease detection

fresh funding

An arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $18 million to scientists at Rice University for research that has the potential to revolutionize how lymphatic diseases are detected and help increase survivability.

The lymphatic system is the network of vessels all over the body that help eliminate waste, absorb fat and maintain fluid balance. Diseases in this system are often difficult to detect early due to the small size of the vessels and the invasiveness of biopsy testing. Though survival rates of lymph disease have skyrocketed in the United States over the last five years, it still claims around 200,000 people in the country annually.

Early detection of complex lymphatic anomalies (CLAs) and lymphedema is essential in increasing successful treatment rates. That’s where Rice University’s SynthX Center, directed by Han Xiao and Lei Li, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, comes in.

Aided by researchers from Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the center is pioneering two technologies: the Visual Imaging System for Tracing and Analyzing Lymphatics with Photoacoustics (VISTA-LYMPH) and Digital Plasmonic Nanobubble Detection for Protein (DIAMOND-P).

Simply put, VISTA-LYMPH uses photoacoustic tomography (PAT), a combination of light and sound, to more accurately map the tiny vessels of the lymphatic system. The process is more effective than diagnostic tools that use only light or sound, independent of one another. The research award is through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT) program, part of the U.S. HHS, which saw the potential of VISTA-LYMPH in animal tests that produced finely detailed diagnostic maps.

“Thanks to ARPA-H’s award, we will build the most advanced PAT system to image the body’s lymphatic network with unprecedented resolution and speed, enabling earlier and more accurate diagnosis,” Li said in a news release.

Meanwhile, DIAMOND-P could replace the older, less exact immunoassay. It uses laser-heated vapors of plasmonic nanoparticles to detect viruses without having to separate or amplify, and at room temperature, greatly simplifying the process. This is an important part of greater diagnosis because even with VISTA-LYMPH’s greater imaging accuracy, many lymphatic diseases still do not appear. Detecting biological markers is still necessary.

According to Rice, the efforts will help address lymphatic disorders, including Gorham-Stout disease, kaposiform lymphangiomatosis and generalized lymphatic anomaly. They also could help manage conditions associated with lymphatic dysfunction, including cancer metastasis, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration.

“By validating VISTA-LYMPH and DIAMOND-P in both preclinical and clinical settings, the team aims to establish a comprehensive diagnostic pipeline for lymphatic diseases and potentially beyond,” Xiao added in the release.

The ARPA-H award funds the project for up to five years.

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