Overheard: What Houston corporates are looking for from startups

eavesdropping at the ion

At its annual Activation Festival, the Ion hosted a conversation about the relationship between corporates and startups. Photo courtesy of Shannon O'Hara/the Ion

Hundreds of innovators from Houston and beyond flocked to the Ion's annual Activation Festival, and one of the topics discussed at the series of programming was the relationship between corporates and startups.

One of Houston's points of pride is having the third most Fortune 500 companies headquartered here, but how can the city's innovation ecosystem take advantage of that market? And, on the other side of it, how can corporates make the most of Houston innovators?

At a panel on May 17 entitled "Corporate-Startup Partnerships: How to Build Them, Sustain Them, and How They’re Key to Fast-Tracking Innovation and Growth," three corporate leaders explained how they navigate relationships with startups and how cultivating these opportunities is key to the future of business.

Here are a few of the discussion's highlights.

“Investing in the startup community generally, you’re never going line of sight of where that value is going to come back. You can expect it — I’m not saying it’s altruism, it just comes back in forms that you might not appreciate.”

— Scott Gale, executive director of Halliburton Labs says, explaining that corporate contribution doesn't just have to be financial.

“Ask for advice, don’t ask for money. Show up. Be curious. If you think a corporate is the right potential customer for you, spend the time to try to understand what the people are, who the champions are, what motivates them, and what they need to do to be successful.”

— Tom Luby, director of TMC Innovation says, noting that it's tried-and-true advice, but still important to remember.

“The person who takes the most risk is the lead adopter — the lead user. That person puts their assets and their name on the line.”

— Nazeer Bhore, global manager, tech scouting, innovation and ventures at ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering, says. “What we bring to the table for startups is all the resources we have — technical resources, assets, use cases, testing facilities, and, of course, funding. Irrespective of what stage you’re in, or how many adjacencies you are, we’re always happy to engage with you," he explains. "The key is for us is to be a lead user.”

“The opportunity for us is to be generalists across a lot of different spaces and then work with our specialists to take a deeper dive. We listen to the market and try to find things our corporate partners or entrepreneurs are interested in and then surround them with the type of things they need to be successful. In many case, talent and expertise are top of that list.”

— Luby says, explaining the nature of the TMC's various programs, from creating startup tech directly and supporting them through their accelerators and even seeding them through the TMC Venture Fund.

“What startups bring is a lot of different ideas — but startups are temporary organizations that’s looking for a scalable and repeatable business model. And we’re not just interested in just the technology, but the business model.”

— Bhore says about what ExxonMobil looks for.

“The flywheel is spinning here in the city of Houston. The next five years are going to be incredibly exciting.”

— Gale says, explaining how much has changed in the past few years in Houston's innovation ecosystem.

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The Ion named three corporate partners ahead of its annual innovation-focused festival. Photo courtesy of the Ion

Houston innovation hub adds Oxy, United, and Woodside as partners

onboarding

Houston’s Ion innovation hub has recruited three heavyweight corporate partners, the hub announced earlier this week.

The new partners are:

Houston-based energy company Occidental (known as Oxy).
United Airlines Ventures, the sustainability-focused VC arm of Chicago-based United Airlines. United operates a major hub in Houston.
Australia-based Woodside Energy, which maintains an office in Houston.

Oxy, United Airlines Ventures, and Woodside will share their expertise in support of Ion’s mission to transform Houston into a global innovation ecosystem, according to an Ion news release. In addition, they will participate in Ion programming and network with Ion affiliates. Executives from all three of the new partners will serve on the Ion Leadership Advisory Roundtable.

“Welcoming our newest partners into Ion’s ecosystem is a further testament to our momentum in the aerospace and energy transition,” says Jan Odegard, who became executive director of the Ion in 2021 after a year of holding the interim position. “Each organization brings their own culture of innovation that aligns with what we are doing at the Ion.”

Michael Leskinen, president of United Airlines Ventures, says the VC firm believes “the Ion will be the epicenter for Houston’s rapidly growing innovation community — a one-stop shop to share ideas, foster startups, and to develop relationships with Houston’s brightest companies and academia.”

Oxy, United Airlines Ventures, and Woodside join Ion corporate partners such as:

Aramco Americas
Baker Botts
BP
Chevron
ExxonMobil
Global Custom Commerce
Intel
Microsoft
Transocean

The Ion announced the new corporate partners in advance of the second annual Ion Activation Festival, set for May 17-19. The Ion and Rice Management Co. host the festival, which shines a spotlight on entrepreneurship and innovation in Houston.

Activities will take place primarily at the Ion’s 16-acre campus. To register for the festival, visit the Ion’s website.

The inaugural festival, held in 2022, drew more than 2,500 attendees.

Paul Cherukuri, vice president of innovation at Rice University, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo via Rice.edu

This Houston innovator is set on bringing more innovation off campus and into the world

houston innovators podcast episode 180

Rice University was founded on a mission of an "unfettered pursuit of knowledge," says Paul Cherukuri, the inaugural vice president for innovation at Rice University. And that goal is specifically designed to be "for the greater good of society," — especially in Houston.

"Rice is right in the middle of one of the greatest cities in the world," Cherukuri says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "Houston is special on so many levels that it's ridiculous that no one outside of Houston seems to get that. ... We have a moral responsibility as Rice to do more for this city and the country."

Among the top action items on this overarching mission Rice is on is ensuring that the Rice University's inventions and research that have the potential to make the world a better place are able to commercialize to deliver on that impact.

For decades, university research that made it out into the world did so in two ways: papers and patents. While those two avenues are reliable and on going, they take a while. And, as Cherukuri says, the world needs innovative solutions quicker than ever. Cherukuri is focused on expanding those pathways so that more of this innovation — which he describes as invention and commercialization — to come to fruition.

One of the ways Cherukuri is hoping Rice innovators get "beyond the hedges" of the university, as he describes it, is through the Rice Nexus, a hub within the Ion that Cherukuri announced last month. He says Rice is leasing space in the hub, which is owned and operated by Rice Management Company.

"It's a two-way street," Cherukuri says. "We're going to solve problems out in the real world and get those solutions to scale, and we'll be able to find new problems in the real world and bring them inside of Rice and create that new tech. We want to be able to make solutions."

The idea is to create a bridge between the university and the Ion so that more innovation and research can be shared between the campus and Houston's innovation ecosystem.

"We've got so much technology in our labs that we've never shared with the world," Cherukuri says. "We're going to demonstrate that in the Ion."

Also important to Cherukuri is that other universities have a seat at the table, too.

"The Ion represents this catalyst — it's an aggregator and concentrator of excellence for around the city," Cherukuri says. "We're designing the place so that we can connect to the world better."

Hear more of Cherukuri's thought leadership on Houston, Rice University, and the challenges of advancing research and technology to address society's greatest needs on the podcast. Listen to the interview below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

David Cordúa, right, leads The Lymbar. Photo by Dylan McEwan

Houston restaurant royalty reveals details of at new Ion eatery

coming soon

A veteran Houston chef’s new Midtown bar and restaurant is taking shape. When it opens later this fall, The Lymbar will mark chef David Cordúa’s return to Houston's dining scene.

Cordúa's name is well known to Houston diners. The chef worked with his father, legendary Houston restaurateur Michael Cordúa, at Cordúa Restaurants — the hospitality group behind Churrascos, Americas, and Amazon Grill — before the duo parted ways with the company in 2018. They're teaming up again on this new project.

Located inside The Ion, Rice University’s innovation district in the former Sears in Midtown, The Lymbar describes itself as an all-day neighborhood craft cocktail bar and restaurant. Named for the street in Meyerland where Cordúa grew up, the restaurant will serve an eclectic menu of Latin and Mediterranean-inspired dishes in a space designed by local firm Gin Design Group (Eunice, Daily Gather).

“The Ion already has an exciting buzz of ‘greenergy’ with great minds, start-ups and entrepreneurs coming together. The Lymbar will be their living room,” Cordúa said in a statement. “The vibe is ‘Golden Girls Chic’ with inspiration from childhood nostalgia like ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and Shel Silverstein.”

Cordúa provided CultureMap with a preview of some of the menu items he plans to serve at The Lymbar. Those looking for a bar snack may order the 'Rosespud', oversized potato and plantain chips served with dips such as onion dip, chimichurri, and red curry romesco or items such as foie gras doughnut holes, Monte Cristo empanadas with raspberry dill vinaigrette, and sweet corn flan with Cracker Jacks. The truffle twinkie that won him the top prize at the first Truffle Masters competition will also be available.

Meals will begin with seasonal small plates such as fresh corn gnocchi with smoked tomato sauce, labneh and basil as well as rotating flatbreads like caramelized onions with new potatoes. Entree options include a stuffed chicken ballotine with sherry cream sauce and morels that draws upon the chef’s French training or go South American with a dish like arroz tumbado with oven-roasted branzino.

Expect to see The Lymbar’s build-your-own-taco boards on Instagram. They’ll combine proteins such as chicken shawarma, achiote pork belly, and sesame-seasoned tri-tip with basmati rice and house sourdough pita.

The chef has recruited an experienced group to help him open the restaurant. They include: executive chef Adolfo Lopez, Jr. (Brenner’s on the Bayou, Churrascos); general manager Jaime Rangel (Cordúa Restaurants); manager Travis Wingate (Churrascos, La Griglia); and bar manager Sean Stapleton (The Refuge in the Woodlands).

“We’re the lobby bar of The Ion,” Cordúa added. “We’ll be a place that celebrates the creativity and innovative spirit that makes Houston one of the best cities in the world.”

Already home to a location of Common Bond On-The-Go and Second Draught, a craft beer bar, The Ion will also soon welcome Late August, a Afro-Asian restaurant from Houston chef and Top Chef finalist Dawn Burrell.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

The Ion has announced its latest corporate partner — and more Houston innovation news. Photo courtesy of the Ion

Ion names latest partner, Houston startup raises more funding, and more local innovation news

short stories

As Houston ramps up for fall, the city's innovation news has followed suit, and there might be some headlines you may have missed.

In this roundup of short stories within Houston startups and tech, Houston investors announce new deals in sports and energy tech, veterans can apply for new grant program, and more.

The Ion announces latest partner

The Ion has named its latest partner. Image courtesy of the Ion

The Ion Houston announced that Switzerland Transocean has joined on as an affiliate partner. The oil and gas company joins other corporate partners — including Chevron, Baker Botts, Microsoft, and more — in providing programming and resources for the Ion community and taking a seat at the Ion’s Roundtable.

Transocean's Houston office is in the Energy Corridor.

Houston-based Codenotary has expanded its series B fundraising round

Codenotary's software enables tools for notarization and verification of the software development life cycle. Photo via Getty Images

A Houston software startup that raised $12.5 million earlier this year has announced additional funding of $6 million. Codenotary, whose technology helps secure software supply chains, closed its series B round in January. The fresh funding brings the company's total investment raised to $24 million — thanks to investors Bluwat and Elaia.leaders and following a series A round that was announced in 2020.

Codenotary, formerly known as vChain, was founded in 2018 by CEO Moshe Bar and CTO Dennis Zimmer. The additional capital, which will go towards scaling up sales in the U.S. and Europe as well as entering the Asian market, was raised as an extension of the series B round.

“Software supply chains are under constant attack and so every enterprise is looking for effective ways to protect their valuable software assets,” says Bar in a news release. “The additional capital will help us expand faster – increasing our ability to roll out additional features and build out our worldwide sales efforts that includes our partner network. Not every startup company is able to do that right now but we’re fortunate to have good growth and the right investors behind us.”

Houston-based energy investor announces latest portfolio company

Here's Energy Transition Ventures' latest investment. Image via Getty Images

Energy Transition Ventures, a Houston-based investment firm, has announced its latest investment. ETV led Rutgers University-spinout RenewCO 2's $2 million seed round.The startup has created a "novel catalyst technology to convert carbon from hard-to-abate sectors and transform it into a feedstock for carbon-negative, plastic monomers at a fraction of the cost of plastics derived from fossil sources," per a news release.

Including this latest seed round, the New Jersey-based cleantech company has raised $10 million in grants and investment. RenewCO2 hops to start supplying its eCUT electrolysis systems to customers by 2025.

"Converting CO2 directly into negative carbon products is a game changer for the climate. With low-cost renewable power, combined falling costs and advancements in electrolysis, the RenewCO2 has the opportunity to be world-changing," says Neal Dikeman, co-founder and partner of Energy Transition Ventures. "They are completely rewriting how we make plastic and chemical products and how these industries will handle carbon emissions, regardless of the price of carbon or credits. We are excited about power to chemicals and working to use renewable energy to make CO2 the low-cost chemicals feedstock of the future, not the present pollutant."

Grants open for veterans

Veteran-owned businesses can apply for this grant. Photo via Getty Images

National nonprofit Founders First CDC, which exists to empower expansion in diverse founder-led, revenue-generating businesses, has announced that applications are open online for qualified individuals to apply to its 2022 Stephen L. Tadlock Fund – a grant program to support U.S. veteran small business owners. Twenty-five veterans will receive a $1,000 grant.

To be eligible, the company’s founder must be a U.S. military veteran, have an active U.S.-based business, and employ between 2 and 50 employees, per a news release. Applications are open through October 18, and recipients will be announced on Veterans Day, November 11, 2022.

“Given the current state of our economy, small business owners are feeling the brunt of the rising cost of living, inflation and the challenges to provide goods and services for their customers,” says Shaylon Scott, executive director of Founders First, in the news release. “As our founder, Kim Folsom has strong ties to the military through her brother’s service in the U.S. Navy, this particular grant is incredibly special to Founders First, as we’re able to help veteran business owners by investing in their businesses during uncertain economic times. Grants such as these, no matter how large or small of an investment, are a vital and impactful way to help sustain businesses and provide growth opportunities, and we are incredibly proud to support veterans throughout the country during this critical time.”

The judging committee for the Stephen L. Tadlock Grant includes a panel of distinguished veterans, representing multiple branches of service.

Local investment group focuses next fund on sports tech

UCN is focused on sports tech. Image via UCN

The Urban Capital Network — a Houston-based organization focused on democratizing startup investment — has focused its most recent fund on sports tech. The fund, which will raise $500,000 to $1 million, will focus on sports tech businesses, including the first two investments in National Cycling League and Screen Skinz. The National Cycling League is innovating cycling with real and virtual interaction. Screen Skinz has created a new kind of screen protector and has been licensed by several sports entities. UCN investors can be a part of the fund for as little as $5,000.

The new Dream Lab from Teach For America Houston will take 25 ninth graders to the Ion for a mini-innovation accelerator. Image courtesy of TFA

National nonprofit launches Houston innovation lab for kids

dreaming up innovation

Teach For America's Houston chapter has announced a new initiative for children to check out educational opportunities within innovation.

TFA Houston's Network Learning and Innovation Hub is opening a new space, called The Dream Lab. The lab is a set of immersive spaces where students leverage their imagination and creativity to innovate and solve problems affecting their communities.

“The Dream Lab is one of the novel ways we’re re-imagining the ways we meet the needs of Houston’s most vulnerable students and communities,” says Sarah Essama, founder of The Dream Lab and director of social innovation at Teach For America Houston, in a news release. “It introduces a non-traditional approach to learning so that students are better equipped to handle the complexities of an ever-changing world.”

This Friday, the new concept is rolling out to high school students in partnership with DivInc Houston, a nonprofit focused on social and economic equity in entrepreneurship, and 25 ninth graders will get to spend the day at the Ion for a mini-innovation accelerator. The students will be tasked to creatively solve problems in their own communities.

“If there is anything we have learned over the last two and a half years, it’s the need to be innovative, and it’s a skill we must teach our younger generations so they can be adequately prepared for the future,” says Tiffany Cuellar Needham, executive director of Teach For America Houston, in the release. “We look forward to growing The Dream Lab initiative as we continue exploring ways to re-invent and re-imagine what schools can look like for students.”

TFA, which has operated out of Houston for over 30 years, has hosted two other Dream Labs for fourth graders in Houston. Those students were tasked with using technology to design their innovative dream space, and TFA Houston receved positive feedback from participants.

The Dream Lab is right in line with Teach For America Houston’s quest to create educational equity for all students regardless of their socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

“All students should have access to education that prepares them to become leaders and change-makers of tomorrow. While we have made great progress on this front, we know we have a lot more work ahead of us. Programs like Dream Lab will help us realize our mission of ensuring that one day all children in our country will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education,” says Essama.

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Houston health care institution secures $100M for expansion, shares renderings

fresh funding

Baylor College of Medicine has collected $100 million toward its $150 million fundraising goal for the college’s planned Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower.

The $100 million in gifts include:

A total of $30 million from The Cullen Foundation, The Cullen Trust for Health Care, and The Cullen Trust for Higher Education.
$12 million from the DeBakey Medical Foundation
$10 million from the Huffington Foundation
More than $45 million from members of Baylor’s Board of Trustees and other community donors, including the M.D. Anderson Foundation, the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation, and The Elkins Foundation.

“The Cullen Trust for Health Care is very honored to support this building along with The Cullen Foundation and The Cullen Trust for Higher Education,” Cullen Geiselman Muse, chair of The Cullen Trust for Health Care, says in a news release. “We cannot wait to see what new beginnings will come from inside the Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower.”

The Baylor campus is next to Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park, a 37-acre project. Rendering courtesy of BCM

The Lillie and Roy Cullen Tower is set to open in 2026. The 503,000-square-foot tower is the first phase of Baylor’s planned Health Sciences Park, an 800,000-square-foot project that will feature medical education and research adjacent to patient care at Baylor Medicine and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center on the McNair Campus.

The Baylor campus is next to Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park, a 37-acre project that will support healthcare, life sciences, and business ventures. Baylor is the anchor tenant in the first building being constructed at Helix Park.

“To really change the future of health, we need a space that facilitates the future,” says Dr. Paul Klotman, president, CEO, and executive dean of Baylor. “We need to have a great building to recruit great talent. Having a place where our clinical programs are located, where our data scientists are, next to a biotech development center, and having our medical students all integrated into that environment will allow them to be ready in the future for where healthcare is going.”

In the 1940s, Lillie and Roy Cullen and the M.D. Anderson Foundation were instrumental in establishing the Texas Medical Center, which is now the world’s largest medical complex.

“Baylor is the place it is today because of philanthropy,” Klotman says. “The Cullen family, the M.D. Anderson Foundation, and the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation have been some of Baylor’s most devoted champions, which has enabled Baylor to mold generations of exceptional health sciences professionals. It is fitting that history is repeating itself with support for this state-of-the-art education building.”

The Cullen Foundation donated $30 million to the project. Rendering courtesy of BCM

5 most popular innovation stories in Houston this week

what's trending

Editor's note:Another week has come and gone, and it's time to round up the top headlines from the past few days. Trending Houston tech and startup news on InnovationMap included overheard advice from corporates to startups, a rising hub for innovation at UH, and more.

University of Houston plans to build new central campus innovation hub

The University of Houston will construct a new hub for innovation on its main campus. The building is planned to be adjacent to the M.D. Anderson Library. Photo via uh.edu

Over a year ago, the University of Houston got the greenlight from the state of Texas to create a central hub for innovation on campus, Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president of energy and innovation at the University of Houston, tells InnovationMap.

“We asked the state two years ago for appropriations to create an innovation hub at the University of Houston,” Krishnamoorti says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. “We are now in the process of creating an innovation hub central to the campus at the University of Houston."

While the project is still in its early stages, the university has revealed some details on the building, which is slated to open in 2025 next to the M.D. Anderson Library on UH's main campus. It will be around 70,000 square feet and will house a makerspace, the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, the Energy Transition Institute, innovation programs, and Presidential Frontier Faculty labs and offices. Read more.

Overheard: What Houston corporates are looking for from startups

At its annual Activation Festival, the Ion hosted a conversation about the relationship between corporates and startups. Photo courtesy of Shannon O'Hara/the Ion

Houston bank opens new innovation hub within its location in The Woodlands

The new space allows for Amegy Bank employees as well as North Houston innovators to work collaboratively. Photo via Amegy Bank

Amegy Bank renovated it banking center in The Woodlands to add a hub for innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.

The office, located at 4576 Research Forest Dr., now houses a refurbished space from The Cannon, a co-working and entrepreneurship hub with locations across Houston. The Cannon creates and manages spaces where startup founders, business owners, investors, and more can meet on common ground to collaborate on their entrepreneurial endeavors.

“Amegy Bank has served the needs of business owners and families across Houston for over 30 years,” Amegy Bank-Houston President Dave Stevenson says in a news release. “The banking center’s refreshed design, with The Cannon onsite, will revolutionize North Houston’s access to localized financial resources tailored for entrepreneurs and small-to-mid-size businesses."Read more.

How this Houston-based studio is tackling billion-dollar problems with internal innovation

Anu Puvvada, KPMG Studio leader, shares how her team is advancing software solutions while navigating hype cycles and solving billion-dollar-problems. Photo courtesy of KPMG

In 2021, KPMG, a New York-based global audit, accounting, and advisory service provider, formed a new entity to play in the innovation space. The Houston-based team finds innovative software that benefit KPMG's clients across industries.

"We're really focused on transformative businesses that we can offer our clients in the next three to five years to solve fairly large problems," Anu Puvvada, KPMG Studio leader, tells InnovationMap.

Now, almost two years later, KPMG Studio has spun out its first company, AI-based security startup Cranium, which has raised $7 million in a seed round led by SYN Ventures with support from KPMG.

Established to advance internal innovation, KPMG Studio's technologies don't always get spun out into startups like Cranium, but with support of the team, the early-stage ideas receive guidance from the company's resources with the potential to be rolled into KPMG's suite of services for its clients. Read more.

Houston startup with revolutionary battery technology opens new labs

TexPower's founders — Board Chairman Arumugam Manthiram, CTO Wangda Li, and CEO Evan Erickson, respectively — celebrated the opening of the company's new lab space. Photo courtesy of TexPower

A Houston startup founded off research out of a Texas university has cut the ribbon on its new lab space.

TexPower EV Technologies Inc. celebrated the opening of its 6,000-square-foot laboratory and three-ton-per-year pilot production line at a ribbon-cutting event last week. The Northwest Houston site is located at 6935 Brittmoore Rd.

The new space will help the company further commercialize its cobalt-free lithium-ion cathode, lithium nickel manganese aluminum oxide (NMA). The technology is game changing for the electrification of the United States, including the rapid adoption of electric vehicles.

Currently, the country is experiencing a supply chain crisis, says Evan Erickson, co-founder and CEO of the company, at the event. Most of the world's cobalt, a material traditionally used in lithium-ion cathodes, is sourced primarily from the Congo and refinement is mostly controlled by China, he explains.

For these reasons, Cathodes are the most expensive component of lithium-ion batteries. But TexPower has a unique technology to solve this supply chain issue, and now with its new labs, is one step closer to commercialization of its materials. Read more.

Texas angel investor group expands to make impact in Houston

angels flying in

An angel investment network founded in Austin has announced its entrance into the Houston market.

SWAN Impact Network, which focuses on funding early-stage, impact-driven startups, announced that Houston will be its next market expansion. Founded in 2016, the organization expanded to Dallas two years ago. Now, SWAN is hitting the Bayou City and is actively looking for potential angel investors to join its network.

"Houston is the logical place for us to go because a lot of our deep expertise we developed is grounded around life science, health and wellness, and environmental," Bob Bridge, executive director of SWAN, tells InnovationMap. "There's a lot of people in Houston in the spaces where we've spent most of our time and money."

SWAN, originally founded as the Southwest Angel Network, has grown from several investors to over 80 across Texas. The investors, who meet virtually, range from former entrepreneurs, seasoned investors, and first time angels.

Valerie Tompson, who's serving as the Houston market lead, is an example of someone who was drawn to SWAN's mission, even though she had never invested in startups before.

"I was intrigued by the idea of being able to invest in companies that are making a difference in the world — and it's not a charitable donation," she says, explaining that joining a network allowed for her to learn the ropes and understand the process.

Bridge says they are looking to add 20 Houston investors over the next year. He says they are also interested in adding on volunteer analysts to help in the diligence work of the group. Whether you're a frequent investor or just interested in learning more, SWAN's door is open.

"We encourage new angels not to invest at first — go with us for a ride for six months, learn how we think about companies, see a bunch of companies pitch," Bridge says. "Once they start to get the comfort level up, then they can start making investors. We're very much about helping new angels get comfortable."

Currently, SWAN has two Houston startups — Scriptly Rx and Eisana — in its investment portfolio. In addition to the investor network, SWAN, a nonprofit organization, also has its SWAN Impact Philanthropic Fund that also invests in impact-driven businesses.

SWAN is hosting an event at the Ion on Wednesday, May 31, at 6 pm to celebrate its new Houston expansion, as well as to host a panel discussing impact investing. The event is free to attend, and registration is open.

Valerie Tompson, Houston chapter lead, and Bob Bridge, executive director, will be at the May 31 event. Photos courtesy of SWAN

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