3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Richard Seline of the Resilience Innovation Hub, Deanna Zhang of Tudor, Pickering, and Holt, and Brad Hauser of Soliton. Courtesy photos

Editor's note: In the week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three innovators across industries recently making headlines — from resilience technology to energy innovation.

Richard Seline, co-founder at the Houston-based Resilience Innovation Hub Collaboratory

Richard Seline of Houston-based Resilience Innovation Hub joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss how it's time for the world to see Houston as the resilient city it is. Photo courtesy of ResilientH20

Richard Seline says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast, that people are exhausted and these feelings are festering into frustration and anger — and calling for change. The things that need to change, Seline says, includes growing investment and innovation in resilience solutions.

"As a fourth generation Houstonian, it's just so hard to see my hometown get hit persistently with a lot of these weather and other type of disasters," Seline says.

These unprecedented disasters — which are of course occurring beyond Houston and Texas — have also sparked a growing interest in change for insurance companies that have lost a trillion dollars on the United States Gulf Coast over the past seven years, Seline says. Something has got to change regarding preparation and damage mitigation. Read more and stream the podcast.

Deanna Zhang, director of energy technology at Houston-based Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

Deanna Zhang of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. writes a response to the energy crisis that occured in Texas in February. Photo courtesy of TPH

Deanna Zhang specializes in energy tech, and what she witnessed from February's winter weather was basically an epic fail caused by a myriad of issues.

"But it's oversimplifying to say that the only solution to preventing another situation like this is continued or increased reliance on the oil and gas industry," she writes in a guest article for InnovationMap. "What last week ultimately demonstrated was the multitude of technology solutions that needs to scale up to provide us with the best energy reliability and availability." Read more.

Brad Hauser, CEO of Soliton

Houston-based Soliton can use its audio pulse technology to erase scars, cellulite, and tattoos. Photo courtesy of Soliton

A Houston company has created a technology that uses sound to make changes in human skin tissue. Soliton, led by Brad Hauser, is using audio pulses to make waves in the med-aesthetic industry. The company, which is licensed from the University of Texas on behalf of MD Anderson, announced that it had received FDA approval earlier this month for its novel and proprietary technology that can reduce the appearance of cellulite.

"The original indication was tattoo removal," Hauser says. "The sound wave can increase in speed whenever it hits a stiffer or denser material. And tattoo ink is denser, stiffer than the surrounding dermis. That allows a shearing effect of the sound wave to disrupt that tattoo ink and help clear tattoos."

According to Hauser, the team then turned to a second application for the technology in the short-term improvement in the appearance of cellulite. With the use of the technology, patients can undergo a relatively pain-free, 40- to 60-minute non-invasive session with no recovery time. Read more.

What winter storm Uri ultimately demonstrated was the multitude of technology solutions that needs to scale up to provide us with the best energy reliability and availability. Photo by Lynn in Midtown via CultureMap

Houston expert: Winter storm Uri's devastation should be a reminder to prioritize innovative energy solutions

guest column

Texas has landed itself in the middle of a fierce debate following what's been considered one of the worst winter storm in recent history for the state.

Uri wreaked havoc as it rolled through regions that were wholly unprepared for the sudden temperature drops, single digit wind chills, and unusual precipitation (e.g. thundersnow in Galveston). Rolling power outages and water shortages affected more than 4.5 million Texans. Businesses like grocery stores and restaurants — unable to wash food or sanitize equipment or even turn on the lights, —closed throughout the ordeal, leaving many families without food, water, or power.

For most, this was an unprecedented experience. The majority of catastrophes in Texas are in the form of warm weather events like floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes, which means that even if power is lost, freezing is rarely an issue. Uri turned this upside down. ERCOT's failure to provide reliable energy for days on end led to families sleeping in devastatingly cold temperatures, further water shortage due to municipal water facilities failing, carbon monoxide deaths, disruption in vaccine rollouts, hospitals overrun with people needing to charge essential medical equipment, and much more. Uri highlighted in harrowing detail the domino effect that energy (and lack thereof) has on everything around it.

A single source of ERCOT's failure is hard to pinpoint. The cold led to production shut-ins, exacerbating the existing natural gas supply shortage and resulted in the RRC prioritizing "direct-to-consumer" natural gas delivery (i.e. to residences, hospitals, schools, etc.) over natural gas for the grid. Iced-over gas lines disrupted this flow even further. Freezing temperatures shut off some wind turbines and solar panels (if they were not already covered in snow). Coal and nuclear plants in Texas also shut down due to frozen instruments and equipment.

Thrown into sharp relief was the importance of consumer access to natural gas and other fossil fuels like propane. Most homes that had completely electrified (including my own) were ill-prepared to heat their homes without access to the grid or backup generators. Residential and community solar did little to alleviate this problem in many cases as lower technology configurations either froze, were not able to capture enough energy from a low-light environment, or were covered in snow. Having access to gas for heating or a propane stove was a lifeline for most folks.

But it's oversimplifying to say that the only solution to preventing another situation like this is continued or increased reliance on the oil and gas industry.

What last week ultimately demonstrated was the multitude of technology solutions that needs to scale up to provide us with the best energy reliability and availability.

It wasn't enough for our grid to have five potential generation sources – they all failed in different ways. But what if we incorporated more geothermal, which is more cold-weather resistant? What if we upgraded our solar panels to all have trackers or heating elements to prevent snow accumulation? What if our grid had access to larger scale energy storage? What if consumers had more access to off-grid distributed energy systems like generators, residential solar, geothermal pumps, or even just really large home batteries? What if we had predictive solutions that were able to detect when the non-winterized equipment would fail, days before they did? What if we could generate power from fossil fuels without dangerous emissions like carbon monoxide?

All of these technologies and more are being created and developed in our energy innovation ecosystem today, and many in Houston. What we're building towards is diversity of our energy system — but not just diversity of source — which is often the focus – but diversity of energy transportation, energy delivery, and energy consumption. Energy choice is about being able to, as a consumer, have a variety of options available to you such that in extenuating circumstances like winter storms or other catastrophes, there is no need to depend on any single configuration.

In a state like Texas, which is not only the largest oil and gas producer but also the largest wind energy producer and soon to be home to the largest solar project in the US, innovation should and will happen across all energy types and systems. Uri can teach us about the importance of the word all and how critical it is to encourage startups and technology development to develop stronger energy choice. Texas is the perfect home for all of this — and our state's rather embarrassing failure around Uri should be exactly the kind of reminder we need to keep encouraging this paradigm.

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Deeana Zhang is the director of energy technology at Houston-based Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Deanna Zhang of Tudor, Pickering, & Holt Co., Sarma Velamuri of Luminare, and Amy Chronis of Deloitte. Courtesy photos

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: In the week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three innovators recently making headlines — from health tech founders to the new GHP chair.

Deeana Zhang, director of energy technology at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

Deanna Zhang of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. joined the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss 2020's effect on the energy transition — and what that meant for startups. Photo courtesy of TPH

Deanna Zhang looks closely at the energy innovation market and, well, last year was extremely enlightening about the energy industry and where tech is taking it. She joined the Houston Innovators Podcast last week to discuss some of the 2020 trends and observations she had — and what that means for 2021.

"The energy transition saw a huge uptick in 2020 — and there's a lot of implications of that from what pilots are getting commercialized and what companies are getting more funding," says Zhang. "All around it was hugely disruptive — but hugely beneficial I think to the energy transition." Click here to read more and stream the episode.

Dr. Sarma Velamuri, CEO of Luminare

A Houston health tech startup has launched a COVID-19 vaccine management tool. Image via luminaremed.com

As great as it was to be able to begin distributing the life-saving COVID-19 vaccine, the logistics of the two-dose process was a nightmare. Dr. Sarma Velamuri, CEO of Luminare, thought he could innovate a solution. His new platform, Innoculate (a mash-up of "innovate" and "inoculate"), enables organizations like public health departments, fire departments, school systems, and businesses to manage high-volume vaccination initiatives.

"Usually when you hear news of a new batch of vaccines headed your way, there is dread at the management and distribution overhead. Not anymore," Velamuri says in a release. "Innoculate will help streamline the vaccination process in the fight against COVID-19 and allow for hundreds of thousands of people to get vaccines easily." Click here to read more.

Amy Chronis, Greater Houston Partnership's 2021 chair and the Houston managing partner at Deloitte

Houston, we have a perception problem — but the Greater Houston Partnership's new chair, Amy Chronis, is here to fix it. Photo courtesy Deloitte/AlexandersPortraits.com

Hey Houston, it's time to speak up — a little louder for the people in the back. That's what Amy Chonis, 2021 chair for the Greater Houston Partnership, wants you to know, and that it's important for business leaders across the city to take the initiative about how great Houston is.

"We just don't brag enough about how much the city has changed and its trajectory," she tells InnovationMap.

While Houston has long been innovative in the health, space, and energy industries, it has a perception problem. Recently, Chronis addressed some of these concerns in her address at the GHP's 2021 Annual Meeting. She joined InnovationMap for an interview to zero in on how the business community can work to change this perception problem and continue to grow its innovation and tech community. Click here to read the Q&A.

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Meet 6 mentors guiding Houston’s next generation of startup founders

meet the finalists

Houston’s thriving startup ecosystem is supported by a network of experienced leaders who work behind the scenes, investing their time and knowledge to help the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed.

As part of the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, the Mentor of the Year category will honor an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs. They support promising startups in the medical tech, digital health, clean energy, hardware sectors and more.

Read more about these businesses, their founders and their breakthrough technologies below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Al Danto, Rice University

Al Danto is a senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Rice University. He mentors undergraduate and graduate students at Rice and through the university's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lillie). He's also involved in the Houston Entrepreneurs Organization and Rice Veterans' Business Battle.

"[Mentoring] is very rewarding and fulfilling," Danto says. "[It] helps to me to pay back full circle over the incredible mentors I have had."

Eric Rubenstein, New Climate Ventures

Eric Rubenstein is managing partner at New Climate Ventures. He mentors startups through the clean energy-focused early-stage VC firm and also through the Breakthrough Energy Fellowship, Activate, Greentown Labs and Yale Ventures. Rubenstein has worked with numerous startups and Innovation Awards finalists, including Solidec, Rheom Materials, Bairitone Health, Pattern Materials and many others.

"Being a mentor is an important part of an innovation ecosystem," Rubenstein says. "Seeing founders succeed is rewarding, particularly if what they are building will meaningfully contribute to society. It is a way to give back that also builds community, as mentorship often involves introducing founders to other mentors, to potential investors and to potential customers. Just like the adage 'it takes a village' is used in reference to raising a child, the same adage applies to building a startup. That’s why we say 'let’s build.' Let’s build is inclusive because we do it together, as a community, even if the founders need to execute on a daily basis to make their vision a reality."

Jeremy Pitts, Activate

Jeremy Pitts serves as managing director of Activate Houston, which launched in Houston in 2024. He was one of the founders of Greentown Labs in the Boston area and served in a leadership role for the organization between 2011 and 2015. Through Activate, he has mentored numerous impactful startups and Innovation Awards finalists, including Solidec, Coflux Purification, Bairitone Health, Newfound Materials, Deep Anchor Solutions and others.

"Mentorship to me is all about selflessly supporting a person," Pitts says. "The person comes first--if you're not supporting the person, then their business needs don't matter. I'm there not to answer questions for people, but to help them gain the confidence and the capability to solve problems on their own. I am successful when my mentees are successful and happy, regardless of what their personal definition of success might look like."

Joe Alapat, Liongard

Joe Alapat founded and serves as chief strategy officer at Houston software company Liongard. He founded Startup Circle Houston and co-hosts Cybersecurity Circle, which both meet regularly at The Ion. He participates in Mercury Fund Day and has also mentored through Impact Hub Houston. He's worked with founders of FlowCare, Unytag, STEAM OnDemand, Lokum and many other early-stage startups.

"I compare being a mentor for startup founders to the Montessori method. ... Mentoring should not involve telling a founder what to do," Alapat says. "I see it as a founder whisperer approach that seeks to challenge the founder to think through their journey through different lenses and go on a journey of self-discovery while discovering the true market pain they are seeking to solve. The cherry on top is that the mentor gains as much as the mentee, so learning is happening for both. Ultimately, the meter of achievement with mentoring is seeing visible progress with the maturity of the founder and the degree of traction for their startup."

Kyle Judah, Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Kyle Judah is the executive director of Lilie, where he mentors pre-seed student startups. He also mentors through organizations like TEX-E, Greentown Labs, Activate and previously with MassChallenge. Some of the startups he's mentored include Helix Earth Technologies, Tierra Climate, Solidec, HexaSpec, SteerBio and many others.

"[Being a mentor] means helping to ensure that the most people possible have the best shot possible at making their company a successful reality," Judah says. "It means, at its root, opening the aperture for what is possible for people, by believing in them before anyone else even understands what their ambitions are. Because belief is the most infectious thing in the world. And before digging into the work in the trenches, most times founders need to kickstart their journey by having someone from the outside believe in them, when there's no real evidence to support that belief. So I guess, mentorship is a pure form of entrepreneurial faith."

Rachel Bickham, Bickham Services Unlimited LLC

Rachel Bickham is CEO of Bickham Services Unlimited, through which she mentors founders across a range of business stages and industries. She founded the organization in 2017. Bickham also mentors through The Affirmed Entrepreneur, a mentorship platform that she also launched. In 2024, she also began mentoring through the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business program. Some of the startups she has worked with included Elaine Transportation, Nakira's World and NP Skills Made Easy, among others.

"Being a mentor means helping someone see what is possible while being honest about what it will take to get there," Bickham says. "It is not about giving generic advice or telling entrepreneurs what they want to hear. Sometimes mentorship means offering encouragement, and sometimes it means asking difficult questions that help someone avoid an expensive mistake. In both situations, my responsibility is to listen, share what I have learned, and help the entrepreneur make an informed decision. ... Being a mentor also means opening doors when I can—making introductions, inviting entrepreneurs into rooms they may not have entered on their own, and helping them build relationships that can change the direction of their businesses. It also means holding them accountable for what they said they wanted to accomplish. I do not measure successful mentorship by how often someone returns to me for an answer. I measure it by whether they become more confident, more strategic, and better equipped to make decisions on their own."

3 Houston incubators and accelerators fueling the growth of local startups

Meet the finalists

It takes a village to launch a business. That's where Houston's network of incubators and accelerators can step in, providing the resources, mentorship and community needed to push a fledgling company forward.

As part of our 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, the Incubator/Accelerator of the Year category honors a local organization that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups.

Three incubators and accelerators have been named finalists for the 2026 award. They support startups ranging from hard-tech companies to food and youth concepts.

Read more about these organizations below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Activate

Hard tech incubator Activate supports scientists in "the outset of their entrepreneurial journey." The Houston hub was introduced in 2024, and joins others in Boston, New York, and Berkley, California—where Activate is headquartered. It named its third Houston cohort this summer.

The two-year program graduated its first class of Houston fellows in 2026 and saw its first alumni IPO from Houston-based Fervo Energy, which previously participated in a Berkley cohort. Nationally, it has supported 346 fellows and 276 companies since 2015. Those companies have raised more than $6 billion in follow-on funding, according to Activate. In Houston, it has supported Houston startups like Solidec, FlowCellutions and Orbital Arc. Activate Houston is led by managing director Jeremy Pitts, who co-founded Greentown Labs in Boston. It is based out of the Ion.

Impact Hub Houston

Impact Hub Houston supports early-stage ventures at various stages of development through innovative programs that address pressing societal issues. The nonprofit organization supports social impact startups through mentorship, connections and training opportunities.

There are more than 110 Impact Hubs globally with members spanning 72 countries. Launched in 2018, Impact Hub Houston says its membership tripled by the beginning of 2026. This year brought major milestones for the community, including the launch of its Ideas to Impact Accelerator, which supported 11 founders across the health, education, food systems, civic technology and workforce development sectors. It also received funding from more than 20 international Impact Hubs to develop SYNC, a collaboration platform that 25 Impact Hubs across five continents have committed to pilot. The organization has worked with local startups including Myoviva Health, The Change Lab and INNERVERSE Inc.

MarMo Innovation

Galveston-based business incubator MarMo Innovation is focused on removing barriers to entrepreneurship. It aims to provide affordable space, education, mentorship, market access, connections and real-world opportunities that help entrepreneurs move from idea to launch to sustainable growth. The "industry-agnostic" incubator was founded in 2022 and is led by Executive Director Erica Delgadillo.

This year, the organization moved from primarily serving as a coworking and community space into a more comprehensive entrepreneurial incubator by expanding its MarMo Market, MarMo Market Jr. and Lunch LineUp programs. A major focus for MarMo is food entrepreneurship. It is developing an Incubator Kitchen, which MarMo says will support programs like its Cottage to Commercial Bootcamp and Food Biz 101. The organization also expanded its board this year and says it is diversifying its revenue through memberships, events, markets, equipment and space rentals, sponsorships, grants and new entrepreneurial programming.

Baylor College of Medicine launches VC fund to invest in biotech startups

fresh funding

Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine just unveiled a new venture capital fund that backs early-stage biotech startups—and it’s already made its first investment.

BCM Legacy Fund I, funded by philanthropies, invested an undisclosed amount in Houston biotech startup Nemea Therapeutics. Nemea, a spinout of the Baylor College of Medicine and Germany’s Lead Discovery Center, is developing an oral drug to treat metastatic triple-negative breast cancer that no longer responds to currently available therapies.

This type of aggressive cancer spreads from the breast to other areas of the body, such as the bones, liver, lungs or brain. Roughly 38,000 to 57,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. One study showed about half of patients survive past the one-year mark following diagnosis and about one-third survive two years.

“Baylor College of Medicine’s laboratories produce discoveries with the potential to change patients’ lives, and too many of them stall where academic funding ends and private investment has not yet begun,” Dr. Jakub Tolar, president, CEO and executive dean of the Baylor College of Medicine, said in a press release. “The BCM Legacy Fund fills that gap, giving our scientists a path to advance their discoveries to patients.”

The National Institutes of Health awards more than $36 billion per year for biomedical research in the U.S., Baylor said. But some biomedical discoveries “never leave the starting line because they don’t yet fit the economics of venture capital,” the college said.

“The forefront of a new model”

The BCM Legacy Fund aggregates philanthropic capital from private foundations and donor-advised funds. It then invests in startups so they can move beyond that starting line and into later-stage investment rounds. The Greater Houston Community Foundation is the fund’s philanthropic partner.

“It’s exciting to be on the forefront of a new model for philanthropic capital,” said Houston entrepreneur and investor Burton Hanson, managing partner of the fund.

“Not only do we hope to solve a real problem by advancing these therapies to the patients who need them most, but we also hope this model will inspire others in the city and beyond toward philanthropic creativity and a posture of ‘I sacrifice; we win.’”

The fund expects to invest in about 15 early-stage startups over a five-year span. Baylor declined to divulge the amount of money in the fund and the size of the investment in Nemea.

Nemea’s “world-class chemistry”

Hanson oversees the Baylor fund alongside Chicago investor Steve Lehmann, who led the University of Chicago’s Innovation Fund.

Lehmann said Nemea, the fund’s first portfolio company, “has world-class chemistry, Baylor biology, and patients with no good options. Our job is to fund the experiments that carry it to the next handoff, so that industry and later-stage investors can take it from there.”

Based at Houston’s massive Texas Medical Center, Nemea plans to start clinical trials next year in collaboration with Baylor’s Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center.

Nemea previously received $9 million from the Lead Discovery Center and a $1.6 million grant from Baylor. Last year, the startup said it was seeking $25 million to $30 million in seed and Series A funding.

Debra McCoy of Houston, a former managing director at BlackRock and former partner at Bain & Co., and Paul Thomas, co-founder and CEO of Spring-based benefits manager Luscinia Health, sit on the Baylor fund’s governing board. Dr. Paul Klotman, former president, CEO and executive dean of Baylor, is a senior strategic adviser.

How does the fund find investment targets?

The Baylor Legacy Fund relies on two tools to help unearth early-stage biotech startups:

  • High-resolution “innovation maps” of research institutions. These maps surface hidden clusters of innovation, identify rising-star researchers and tie pockets of “innovation supply” at Baylor to areas of “innovation demand” in biotech.
  • AI-enhanced due diligence. AI agents assist with due diligence of early-stage biotech startups. The fund says the platform “distills the frameworks we’ve developed over a decade of teaching and investing into a flexible … diligence environment.”
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