In today’s dynamic business landscape, veterans bring the skills and expertise to the table that translate to any industry. Photo via Getty Images

Last week, the country celebrated Veterans Day — a time to honor the men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. This day was also a time to consider, as business owners and entrepreneurs, how we support these veterans as they enter civilian life.

With only 18.5 million veterans, which accounts for seven percent of the population over 18 years old, it is an elite group. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics latest data, veterans have a nearly one percent lower unemployment rate than their nonveteran counterparts, which points to their unique skill sets, internal grit and dogged determination.

Entrepreneurs face interesting business challenges today with a tight labor market coupled with talks of a potential recession. Hiring today doesn’t have to be a daunting task when the right people are in the trenches with you. Veterans transitioning into civilian life are an often-overlooked talent pool who bring an abundance of skills, albeit sometimes non-traditional, to the workplace. They make great employees for startups due to:

Resilience

Every new business goes through a season of trial and error. Additionally, the ever-changing business environment and legislation force many businesses to quickly adapt. Veterans have learned to thrive under pressure, keep the end-goal in mind and focus under the most difficult situations. An employee who brings a sense of calm focus to an organization in growth mode, which can be chaotic, is reassuring to the business owner and they serve as a good example to fellow employees.

Intrapersonal skills

The military helps every recruit fine tune their intrapersonal skills, especially discipline, persistence and innovation. These same skills are valuable in the workplace and paramount to the success of today’s startup.

These engrained intrapersonal skills make veterans the employees entrepreneurs will rely upon. Commitments are kept and deadlines are met, hard stop. When an entrepreneur’s attention is divided, it is a relief for them to know the work will get done. Additionally, these are employees who will naturally step up as leaders, if given the opportunity to advance, and take pride in helping foster the success of the business.

Teamwork

In its simplest form, the military is a workplace made of many smaller work groups or units. Veterans know teamwork is an essential skill to master, often aided by clear and concise communication. In a military setting, however, if a team member doesn’t follow through, the consequences can be dire. While the stakes may be different, teamwork is invaluable to meeting an organization’s goals and objectives.

Versatility

The military also prepares veterans for civilian life and business today by teaching creative problem solving. These men and women quickly surmount complex circumstances and often with limited resources. The bootstrap nature of a startup environment and a tight labor market can benefit significantly from a veteran’s ability to improvise and adapt.

The multitude of skills veterans possess and have learned through their military careers allows them to quickly adopt and master new concepts. This is an extremely valuable to any small business facing limited resources and manpower. A new hire who can troubleshoot IT systems, move boxes and supplies, and manage people or clients is the best “multi-tool” for a startup.

In today’s dynamic business landscape, veterans bring the skills and expertise to the table that translate to any industry.

Veterans are a valuable resource and, once leveraged, can help employers improve the trajectory of their business.

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Roger Nicholson is a Marine veteran and senior vice president of service operations with Insperity, a leading provider of human resources offering the most comprehensive suite of scalable HR solutions available in the marketplace.

With Houston having the fastest growing veteran population in the country, the innovation ecosystem has plenty of veterans turned entrepreneurs. Here are five to know today. Courtesy photos

5 Houston entrepreneurs to know this Veterans Day

American heroes

Over a quarter of a million United States military veterans call Houston home, and that number is growing.

"Houston has the second largest and fastest growing veteran population in the country," says Reda Hicks, a Houston entrepreneur and military spouse herself. "That's a very significant chunk of our city to share an affinity, and it's not something Houston has talked about."

For its large veteran population, Houston was selected in January 2018 as the third location to set up a chapter of Bunker Labs, an acceleration and incubation organization for military-affiliated entrepreneurs.

"Our whole goal is to help empower military-affiliated people to start and grow businesses," says Hicks, who is one of the Houston leads for the program, a lawyer, and the founder of GotSpot Inc.

The program provides resources for veterans, military spouses, or anyone whose lives were affected by a family member in the military. Bunker Labs provides a digital platform for early-stage ideas called Launch Lab that's used by hundreds annually, and also has face-to-face programming through its Veterans in Business program hosted through WeWork.

"It can be the case that veterans can feel siloed, and it's wonderful to have those people around you who can really understand you, but for businesses to grow, they have to really understand the ecosystem they live in," Hicks says.

In honor of Veterans Day, here are a few Houston veteran entrepreneurs to know.

Dyan Gibbens, founder and CEO of Trumbull Unmanned

Dyan Gibbons

Dyan Gibbons translated her Air Force experience with unmanned missiles into a drone services company. Courtesy of Alice

Dyan Gibbons found her dream career in the United States Air Force Academy. She served as engineering acquisitions officer managing stealth nuclear cruise missiles, and even went on to supported Air Force One and Global Hawk UAS engineering and logistics. After her years of service, she transitioned into the reserves, when she discovered she was ineligible to serve again. She went back to the drawing board to recreate herself — this time, as an entrepreneur.

She went into a doctorate program — she already had her MBA — and was close to finishing up when her drone startup took flight. Trumbull Unmanned provides drone services to the energy sector for various purposes. With her experience as a pilot and managing unmanned missiles, she knew the demand for drones was only growing — and, being from Texas, she knew what industry to focus on.

"I wanted to start a company that uses unmanned systems or drones to improve safety and improve the environment and support energy," Gibbons tells InnovationMap in a previous interview.

Nicole Baldwin, chief visionary officer and founder of Biao Skincare

Nicole Baldwin

Photo via toryburchfoundation.org

Before founding her tech-enabled, all-natural skincare line, Biao, Nicole Baldwin served in the Army Civil Affairs Units and was deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan. In honor of Veterans Day, she shared on Facebook an image of her with young girls outside the compound she lived in.

"I often tell people not to thank me for my service, because I don't feel like I should be thanked for doing something I genuinely wanted to do," she writes in the post. "I am grateful every moment of my life knowing that I did all the things in and out of uniform that was felt from the heart."

Baldwin's company, which uses a skin-scanning technology has taken off, and she's participated in Houston's Bunker Labs programming, and she has also been a Tory Burch fellow and appeared on Shark Tank.

Brett Rosenberg, founder of Semper Fi Systems

Photo via LinkedIn.com

Brett Rosenberg spent a few years in the U.S. Air Force before he took his experience from national security to a different kind of security.

Rosenberg's startup is another one utilizing the resources of Houston's Bunker Labs. Semper Fi Systems takes information security experts' knowledge and machine learning solutions to optimize cybersecurity and avoid regulatory financial exclusion.

Nathan Wilkes, CEO of Guidon Holdings

Photo via LinkedIn.com

After four years in the U.S. Army based in Georgia, Nathan Wilkes enrolled in business school at Texas A&M University. It was during the program when he founded Guidon Holdings, a Cypress-based aggregates company that — through screening, washing, separating, clarifying, and much more — can turn a natural resource that is considered waste into something of value.

Wilkes is also a West Point Academy graduate and a member of the 2019 Bunker Labs Houston cohort.

Tim Kopra, partner at Blue Bear Capital

An U.S. Army vet, Tim Kopra spent over 244 days in space, and now he's using his tech background to invest in emerging energy companies. Courtesy of Tim Kopra

Before he spent a career total of 244 days in space, Tim Kopra first served his country in the United States Army. Nowadays, he serves the Houston innovation ecosystem as an investor and adviser to startups and entrepreneurs in the energy tech industry.

As a partner at venture fund Blue Bear Capital, Kopra uses his experience in the Army and in space to do figure out if entrepreneurs have what it takes to go the distance and if their technology is worth investing in.

"On face value, it may sound like an odd match, taking someone with a tech and operational background and putting them in venture, but quite frankly it feels very familiar to me because my career has really been focused on working on complex technology and operations with very small teams," tells InnovationMap in a previous interview. "It's not just a theoretical understanding of the technology, but understanding how to use the technology and how it works."

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Texas Space Commission doles out $5.8 million to Houston companies

On A Mission

Two Houston-area companies have landed more than $5.8 million in funding from the Texas Space Commission.

The commission granted up to $5.5 million to Houston-based Axiom Space and up to $347,196 to Conroe-based FluxWorks.

The two-year-old commission previously awarded $95.3 million to 14 projects. A little over $34 million remains in the commission-managed Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund.

Axiom Space, a commercial spaceflight company, said the new funding will go toward the development of its orbital data center capabilities. By the end of this year, Axiom plans to launch two free-flying nodes in low-Earth orbit to support its orbital data center operations. More nodes are set to go online in the coming years.

“Axiom Space is actively evaluating how our [orbital data center] architecture can enhance critical U.S. capabilities, including the proposed Golden Dome missile defense architecture,” Jason Aspiotis, global director of in-space data and security at Axiom, said in a news release. “In this context, real-time, around-the-clock availability, secure orbital processing, and AI-driven autonomy are vital for ensuring mission success.”

Founded in 2021, FluxWorks provides magnetic gear technology that was developed at Texas A&M University.

In 2024, FluxWorks was one of two startups to receive the Technology in Space Prize, funded by Boeing and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the International Space Station National Laboratory.

FluxWorks is testing the performance of magnetic gear in microgravity environments, such as the International Space Station.

“Gearboxes aim to reduce the mass of motors required in a variety of applications; however, the lubricant needed to make them work properly is not designed for use in extreme environments like space,” according to a 2024 news release about the Technology in Space Prize. “Magnetic gears do not require lubricant, making them an appealing alternative.”

The Texas Space Commission granted $25 million to Houston aerospace companies Starlab Space and Intuitive Machines earlier this year. Read more here.

3 Houston startups named most innovative in Texas by LexisNexis

report card

Three Houston companies claimed spots on LexisNexis's 10 Most Innovative Startups in Texas report, with two working in the geothermal energy space.

Sage Geosystems claimed the No. 3 spot on the list, and Fervo Energy followed closely behind at No. 5. Fintech unicorn HighRadius rounded out the list of Houston companies at No. 8.

LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions compiled the report. It was based on each company's Patent Asset Index, a proprietary metric from LexisNexis that identifies the strength and value of each company’s patent assets based on factors such as patent quality, geographic scope and size of the portfolio.

Houston tied with Austin, each with three companies represented on the list. Caris Life Sciences, a biotechnology company based in Dallas, claimed the top spot with a Patent Asset Index more than 5 times that of its next competitor, Apptronik, an Austin-based AI-powered humanoid robotics company.

“Texas has always been fertile ground for bold entrepreneurs, and these innovative startups carry that tradition forward with strong businesses based on outstanding patent assets,” Marco Richter, senior director of IP analytics and strategy for LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions, said in a release. “These companies have proven their innovation by creating the most valuable patent portfolios in a state that’s known for game-changing inventions and cutting-edge technologies.We are pleased to recognize Texas’ most innovative startups for turning their ideas into patented innovations and look forward to watching them scale, disrupt, and thrive on the foundation they’ve laid today.”

This year's list reflects a range in location and industry. Here's the full list of LexisNexis' 10 Most Innovative Startups in Texas, ranked by patent portfolios.

  1. Caris (Dallas)
  2. Apptronik (Austin)
  3. Sage Geosystems (Houston)
  4. HiddenLayer (Austin)
  5. Fervo Energy (Houston)
  6. Plus One Robotics (San Antonio)
  7. Diligent Robotics (Austin)
  8. HighRadius (Houston)
  9. LTK (Dallas)
  10. Eagle Eye Networks (Austin)

Sage Geosystems has partnered on major geothermal projects with the United States Department of Defense's Defense Innovation Unit, the U.S. Air Force and Meta Platforms. Sage's 3-megawatt commercial EarthStore geothermal energy storage facility in Christine, Texas, was expected to be completed by the end of last year.

Fervo Energy fully contracted its flagship 500 MW geothermal development, Cape Station, this spring. Cape Station is currently one of the world’s largest enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) developments, and the station will begin to deliver electricity to the grid in 2026. The company was recently named North American Company of the Year by research and consulting firm Cleantech Group and came in at No. 6 on Time magazine and Statista’s list of America’s Top GreenTech Companies of 2025. It's now considered a unicorn, meaning its valuation as a private company has surpassed $1 billion.

Meanwhile, HighRadius announced earlier this year that it plans to release a fully autonomous finance platform for the "office of the CFO" by 2027. The company reached unicorn status in 2020.

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This article originally appeared on Energy Capital HTX.

UH student earns prestigious award for cancer vaccine research

up-and-comer

Cole Woody, a biology major in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Houston, has been awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, becoming the first sophomore in UH history to earn the prestigious prize for research in natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.

Woody was recognized for his research on developing potential cancer vaccines through chimeric RNAs. The work specifically investigates how a vaccine can more aggressively target cancers.

Woody developed the MHCole Pipeline, a bioinformatic tool that predicts peptide-HLA binding affinities with nearly 100 percent improvement in data processing efficiency. The MHCole Pipeline aims to find cancer-specific targets and develop personalized vaccines. Woody is also a junior research associate at the UH Sequencing Core and works in Dr. Steven Hsesheng Lin’s lab at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

“Cole’s work ethic and dedication are unmatched,” Preethi Gunaratne, director of the UH Sequencing Core and professor of Biology & Biochemistry at NSM, said in a news release. “He consistently worked 60 to 70 hours a week, committing himself to learning new techniques and coding the MHCole pipeline.”

Woody plans to earn his MD-PhD and has been accepted into the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Early Access to Research Training (HEART) program. According to UH, recipients of the Goldwater Scholarship often go on to win various nationally prestigious awards.

"Cole’s ability to independently design and implement such a transformative tool at such an early stage in his career demonstrates his exceptional technical acumen and creative problem-solving skills, which should go a long way towards a promising career in immuno-oncology,” Gunaratne added in the release.