Houston coworking concept expands with new location

coming soon

The Cannon is opening a new location just down the road from its headquarters. Photo courtesy of The Cannon

The Cannon has announced its latest coworking location, and it's not too far from where the company's original facility launched.

The Cannon Memorial is expected to open this spring in Two Memorial City Plaza (820 Gessner) within MetroNational's Memorial City, a 265-acre planned development in west Houston. The coworking concept will take up one floor with 21,960 square feet of space.

"We are delighted to unveil The Cannon Memorial as a pivotal addition to Houston's dynamic business landscape," Jon Lambert, CEO of The Cannon, says in a news release. "Our expansion into Two Memorial City Plaza aligns seamlessly with our mission to cultivate innovation, collaboration, and success within the business community. We eagerly anticipate welcoming entrepreneurs and professionals to experience the unparalleled environment we've created."

The new location is less than three miles from The Cannon West Houston (1334 Brittmoore Rd) and will feature:

  • 38 private office spaces
  • accomodations for over 60 flex users
  • 24/7 access for members
  • free covered parking in the attached garage
  • programmed events, workshops, and networking sessions

“MetroNational is thrilled that The Cannon Memorial is opening and is another exciting milestone in our continued commitment to constantly elevate and enhance the services and experiences at Memorial City,” Anne Marie Ratliff, vice president of Asset Management at MetroNational, says in the release. “This partnership represents not just a collaboration but a testament to our dedication to staying at the forefront of innovation.”

The Cannon — founded in 2017 by Lawson Gow, the son of David Gow, founder of InnovationMap's parent company, Gow Media — has a presence in seven of Houston's regions, including west Houston, downtown, uptown, Fish Creek, The Woodlands, Pearland, and Galveston.

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Lawson Gow, CEO and founder of The Cannon, has officially opened cut the ribbon on the West Houston startup incubation hub. Courtesy of Quy Tran/The Cannon

Photos: The Cannon Houston makes grand debut with live fundraising and immersive activities

Open for business

The coworking and acceleration hub that's been holding down the Houston innovation ecosystem's West Houston presence has officially cut the ribbon and celebrated its grand opening.

Just hours after announcing The Downtown Launch Pad on October 24, The Cannon Houston celebrated the grand opening of its 120,0000-square-foot home at 1334 Brittmoore Road. The party welcomed over 600 innovators, Cannon members, and visitors.

Founder and CEO, Lawson Gow, who is also the son of InnovationMap's parent company's CEO, cut the ribbon on the new building that houses over 250 companies and is nearly sold out for leasing opportunities.

"It's been incredible watching The Cannon come to life since it was a drawing on a whiteboard," says Gow in a news release. "There are far too many people to thank — from the first community members that joined us in The Waiting Room more than 18 months ago, the numerous partners, investors, ecosystem members and resources that have helped us get where we are today, all the way to our new members who patiently waited for the space to open."

Gow's "Waiting Room" building is still in existence adjacent to the new building — the landlord of the property is operating it, but Cannon companies have all moved in to the new facility.

The grand opening event showcased all the startups and entrepreneurs based in The Cannon, plus hosted mental breaks — with free massages and cuddles with dogs — and other activities like poker and pingpong.

One Cannon-based startup, LetsLaunch, even hosted a live pitch event for a few of the companies using its digital investment platform, including: Camppedia, Social Chains, Pill Golf, and Paylight. Since the live pitch last week, LetsLaunch has seen a $21,000 increase of investment online.

While The Cannon team is settled, the organization already has growth and expansion in the works.

"Each person had a major part in getting us where we are today," Gow says. "We knew that Houston was in desperate need of a resource like this and are thankful to be able to build this community and fulfill our mission of supporting Houston's entrepreneurs."

Off with a blast

the cannon grand opening
  

Courtesy of Quy Tran/The Cannon

The Cannon welcomed in over 600 members, staff, and guests into its new home on Thursday, October 24.

Amazon has invested over $10 billion into Texas since 2010. Photo via blog.aboutamazon.com

Amazon opens newest Tech Hub in Houston and plans to hire

It's 'zon

A year and a half after Houston was left off the list of 20 cities Amazon was pursuing for its second United States headquarters, the tech giant chose the Bayou City to house its 18th North American Tech Hub.

Amazon opened the doors of the hub on Friday, July 26, in 25,000-square-feet of space in CITYCENTRE, and the company has plans to hire to round out its team of 150 Amazon Web Services employees to work out of the hub.

"We're looking forward to becoming a bigger part of the Houston community," says Kris Satterthwaite, Gulf Coast enterprise sales leader of AWS, in a release. "Houston is a fantastic place to live and work, and has a strong local economy that we look forward to investing in and growing together."

The city of Houston, along with the Greater Houston Partnership, has worked to make Houston appealing to big business and tech giants, says Susan Davenport, senior vice president of economic development at the GHP.

"The expansion of Amazon's Houston workforce is indicative of a larger trend we are seeing of the major cloud players opting to locate their teams closer to their customers here in Houston," Davenport says in an email to InnovationMap. "Our energy, life sciences and manufacturing sectors are data-intensive, and this move makes a lot of sense. This is not the first, and I doubt it will be the last. A great portion of the digital tech industry's activity to this point has been focused on business-to-consumer, and is now shifting to business-to-business. Houston is largely a B2B city, so we stand to gain from this trend."

The Tech Hubs in North America have over 20,000 employees. Around 1,000 of those are from Amazon's Austin Tech Hub, which opened around four years ago and was recently announced to be in the process of expanding to include another 800 Austin employees, per the Wall Street Journal.

The company has invested $10 billion into Texas since 2010, according to the release, and Houston's diversity, universities, and quality of life were attractive to Amazon.

"Houston is such a culturally diverse city, with so many international companies based here," says Eddie Murray, global accounts lead, in a release. "We're excited to create great jobs and hire locally to boost the local economy while also giving back to the community through programs like Amazon Future Engineer."

The Amazon Future Engineer program is an initiative to help propel kids from under-served areas into careers in computer science. The program is in 35 Houston schools. Amazon also provided disaster relief aid after Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

"We have worked for the last couple of years to accelerate the growth of Houston's digital tech ecosystem, and we've got quite a bit of momentum with The Ion, TMC3, The Cannon, and so many others," Davenport adds. "The opening of Amazon's tech hub is another indicator of Houston's growing presence as an innovation-focused city."

The Cannon's new building is 88 percent leased and ready for move in. Courtesy of The Cannon

Photos: The Cannon unveils its 120,000-square-foot startup hub in West Houston

Homecoming

The Cannon is finally getting to move its 150 startups and partners into its 120,000-square-foot campus in West Houston.

The original plan was to open in March, but construction, which began in April 2018, faced a series of setbacks due to weather. Current grand opening celebration plans are expected to be in September.

The flagship building is just the first step developing the campus, which is dubbed the Founders District.

"Our team has worked tirelessly to build this community over the past eighteen months, and we are incredibly proud to see our vision coming to life with the completion of this building," says The Cannon's CEO Lawson Gow in a news release. "The work isn't over though, and The Cannon will continue to grow our network of resources and locations to cater to the needs of Houston's growing entrepreneurial community." (Gow is the son of David Gow, owner of InnovationMap's parent company Gow Media.)

The building is currently 88 percent leased. Cannon Ventures, the company's investor group, will operate out of the new building, as will Capital Factory's Houston outpost. Austin-based Capital Factory, a statewide startup accelerator announced it would have its Houston operations at The Cannon in May. Since then, the company hired two Houston-based employees to run the programming.

According to the release, The Cannon will continue to grow its community relations for a "full suite" of partners. Houston-based investment fund Work America Capital, which led The Cannon's initial fundraising round, will also be joining The Cannon's community in the new building.

"It has been incredible to watch The Cannon's exceptional growth from inception two years ago to the vibrant community they've built today," says Mark Toon, managing partner of Work America Capital, in the release. "We can't wait to see the progress first-hand as The Cannon continues to establish themselves as a leader in building entrepreneurial communities."

The Cannon previously operated out of a 20,000-square-foot adjacent building called "The Waiting Room," which will be torn down and the space will be used as a part of the bigger Founders District plan.

The Cannon's new space will feature:

  • A 16-TV video wall
  • Outdoor courtyard
  • Movie theater
  • Snacks, coffee, and beer
  • Office needs, such as printers, scanners, and mail services
  • Showers
  • 24/7 accessibility
  • Professional and social events are organized on an ongoing basis for the community
  • Private event hosting for both members and non-members

Spacious setting

  

Courtesy of The Cannon

The Cannon is currently 88 percent leased.

Concession food to your seat? Sign InnovationMap readers up. Courtesy of sEATz

5 top trending innovation stories in Houston this week

What you're reading

Editor's note: Not entirely surprisingly, this week's views were skewed heavily toward an app that allows stadium food delivery right to your seat, wine-picking technology, a slideshow of a growing coworking space, and more.

Houston startup is making stadium food a whole new ballgame

A new app, sEATz, is the UberEats of stadium food. You order right from your phone in your seat. Getty Images

Marshall Law's wife, Melissa, surprised him and his two sons with tickets to see the Astros play at home in the 2017 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but a rush to get to the game and a packed stadium lead to him waiting in a long concessions line in the second inning.

Law watched on a TV screen next to the food counter as the fourth pitch from Yu Darvish to Yuli Gurriel hit two rows past the Laws' seats, bouncing back toward where they were supposed to be sitting. Law couldn't shake the feeling of missing out on the homer. Why couldn't someone have brought them the food, he thought. He'd have paid $50 — maybe more — to not miss that moment.

"Everything gets delivered these days. Any kind of food to your groceries, all right to you. Why isn't someone doing this?" Law says he was thought as he walked out of the game. Read the full story here.

Photos: West Houston coworking space 50 percent leased ahead of early 2019 opening

The Cannon's 120,000-square-foot space is on track to open March 1. Courtesy of The Cannon

Everything's bigger in Texas, and Houston will soon have a coworking space to reflect that. The Cannon is on track to open its West Houston 120,000-square-foot, 32-acre coworking and entrepreneurship campus by March 1.

"We're going to have, as far as I know, the biggest coworking space in the world," says Lawson Gow, founder and CEO of The Cannon. "It's a really Houston-sized solution to the problem of the challenge we set out to face." Read the full story here.

3 Houston health tech innovators to know this week

Armed with their doctorate degrees and startups, these three STEM biotech innovators are going places. Courtesy photos

Whether it's for dogs or dating, Houston is prime for innovative leaders in health science startups, and there are three in particular you need to know going into a new week. From a DNA-based dating app creator and a researcher curing cancer in dogs to cutting-edge biotech leader, here are the Houston innovators to know. Doctorate degrees and startup companies in hand, each of these entrepreneurs is going places. Read the full story here.

Houston company aims to equally equip female workers

SeeHerWork launched its line of female-gear in September. Courtesy of SeeHerWork

When Jane Henry was working on her home right after Hurricane Harvey — her house got three feet of mud in it — she went to throw a board into the dumpster, and her glove went with it.

Henry says the industry standard is to recommend small and extra-small sizes for women's workwear, but as a ladies large in athletic gloves, Henry still had a good inch or so of glove at her fingertips in her workwear gloves.

"I went upstairs to my sewing room, and I ripped that glove apart and I resewed it to fit my hand," Henry says. Read the full story here.

Houston entrepreneur makes a splash with wine-selecting technology

Houston-based VineSleuth created a custom algorithm to match you with new wines based on wines you've had in the past. Courtesy of VineSleuth

Amy Gross wants to find you the perfect wine. In fact, she wants it so much, she built her company, VineSleuth, around the concept that technology and machine learning could find the best wine to match individual palates.

VineSleuth's custom algorithm is backed by research from sensory scientists at Cornell University, and relies on both data collection and machine learning to determine specific wines that will match an individual customer's tastes. Flavor profiles from thousands of wines are incorporated into her database, and none of those are based on the typical wine scores you'll see in magazines or reviews of wines. Read the full story here.


The Cannon's 120,000-square-foot space is on track to open March 1. Courtesy of The Cannon

Photos: West Houston coworking space 50 percent leased ahead of early 2019 opening

Ready, aim, fire

Everything's bigger in Texas, and Houston will soon have a coworking space to reflect that. The Cannon is on track to open its West Houston 120,000-square-foot, 32-acre coworking and entrepreneurship campus by March 1.

"We're going to have, as far as I know, the biggest coworking space in the world," says Lawson Gow, founder and CEO of The Cannon. "It's a really Houston-sized solution to the problem of the challenge we set out to face."

The construction broke ground in April, and Gow — son of David Gow, owner of InnovationMap's parent company Gow Media — says they haven't seen any real delays so far. The new space will have 11 meeting rooms, sound-proof phone booths, 24-hour access, health and wellness room, courtyard, movie theater, a gameroom, and more to offer its coworkers.

Currently, The Cannon's coworkers are functioning out of a 20,000-square-foot space at 1336 Brittmoore Road, also known as the waiting room, which is adjacent to the construction.

The Cannon has 50 percent of the new space already leased — and Gow says about 75 percent of the pre-leased companies are already companies working out of The Cannon. Gow says he's just started doing some promotion around leasing — hard hat happy hours and tours — but he's not too worried about being 100 percent leased. He just wants to make sure there are enough companies in there by opening day.

"We've painstakingly created the culture of the community in The Cannon in the space we're in now, and we have to do that all over again," Gow says. "We want to have the hustle and bustle in the space, and you can't do that if it's empty."

Two Houston-based companies are responsible for the project; Burton Construction is the general contractor and Abel Design Group is the architect.

A few years ago, Gow says he recognized a need in Houston — and The Cannon was his solution.

"The problem that we're addressing — every startup is addressing a problem — is Houston has really struggled to develop vibrant startup communities," Gow says. "Entrepreneurs and talent will leave to go to Austin and beyond, and so the mission was to create a place and an infrastructure and a density of resources to prevent them from having to do that and keep our entrepreneurs here."

Large and in charge

  

Courtesy of The Cannon

The new Cannon facility will be the largest coworking space in Houston, says Lawson Gow, founder and CEO of The Cannon.

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Trailblazing Houston entrepreneur brings big ideas to new Yahoo Finance show

tune in

Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Houston's Hello Alice, debuted the first episode of her new video podcast series with Yahoo Finance on Thursday, April 24.

The weekly series, known as "The Big Idea with Elizabeth Gore," will focus on providing information and resources to small business owners and sharing stories of entrepreneurship, according to a news release from Yahoo Finance.

“Entrepreneurs and small business owners drive our country’s economy forward. With a record number of small businesses launching in our communities, my goal is to help every citizen live the American Dream. On the Big Idea, we will break down barriers for entrepreneurs and lift up opportunities for every person wanting to be their own boss,” Gore said in the release.

“By hosting the 'Big Idea' on Yahoo Finance, I’m looking forward to elevating business owners’ stories and providing actionable insights to small business owners at a scale like never before. I am blown away to be joining the number one finance news source that is already trusted by so many.”

Gore was joined by Hello Alice co-founder and CEO Carolyn Rodz in the premiere episode, titled "Got a big idea for a small business? Here's your first step," to discuss the steps they took when launching the business.

Gore and Rodz founded Hello Alice in 2017. The fintech platform supports over 1.5 million small businesses across the nation. It has helped owners access affordable capital and credit and distributed over $57 million in grants to businesses across various industries. The company raised a series C round backed by Mastercard last year for an undisclosed amount and reported that the funding brought the company's valuation up to $130 million at the time.

According to Yahoo Finance, Gore's experience and expertise build on its "mission to be the trusted guide of financial information to all investors, and democratize access to quality content."

“Over the past year, we invested in expanding our programming lineup with the launch of new shows and podcasts, and welcomed new financial creators and influencers into our newsroom,” Anthony Galloway, head of content at Yahoo Finance, added the release. “By diversifying our programming and talent roster, Yahoo Finance is introducing unique points-of-view that make financial topics more engaging, actionable, and personalized. Small business owners are a vital part of our audience, so we’re excited to welcome Elizabeth Gore from Hello Alice, whose insights and expertise will help us serve and connect with this important cohort in meaningful ways.”

The show is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Pandora, and Amazon Music for listening. Streamers can view it on yahoofinance.com, Amazon Prime Video, Samsung TV, Fire TV, Vizio, Haystack, DirectTV and other streaming platforms. Watch the premiere here:

7 top Houston researchers join Rice innovation cohort for 2025

top of class

The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) has announced its 2025 Rice Innovation Fellows cohort, which includes students developing cutting-edge thermal management solutions for artificial intelligence, biomaterial cell therapy for treating lymphedema, and other innovative projects.

The program aims to support Rice Ph.D. students and postdocs in turning their research into real-world solutions and startups.

“Our fourth cohort of fellows spans multiple industries addressing the most pressing challenges of humanity,” Kyle Judah, Lilie’s executive director, said in a news release. “We see seven Innovation Fellows and their professors with the passion and a path to change the world.”

The seven 2025 Innovation Fellows are:

Chen-Yang Lin, Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Ph.D. 2025

Professor Jun Lou’s Laboratory

Lin is a co-founder of HEXAspec, a startup that focuses on creating thermal management solutions for artificial intelligence chips and high-performance semiconductor devices. The startup won the prestigious H. Albert Napier Rice Launch Challenge (NRLC) competition last year and also won this year's Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition during CERAWeek in the TEX-E student track.

Sarah Jimenez, Bioengineering, Ph.D. 2027

Professor Camila Hochman-Mendez Laboratory

Jimenez is working to make transplantable hearts out of decellularized animal heart scaffolds in the lab and the creating an automated cell delivery system to “re-cellularize” hearts with patient-derived stem cells.

Alexander Lathem, Applied Physics and Chemistry, Ph.D. 2026

Professor James M. Tour Laboratory

Lathem’s research is focused on bringing laser-induced graphene technology from “academia into industry,” according to the university.

Dilrasbonu Vohidova is a Bioengineering, Ph.D. 2027

Professor Omid Veiseh Laboratory

Vohidova’s research focuses on engineering therapeutic cells to secrete immunomodulators, aiming to prevent the onset of autoimmunity in Type 1 diabetes.

Alexandria Carter, Bioengineering, Ph.D. 2027

Professor Michael King Laboratory

Carter is developing a device that offers personalized patient disease diagnostics by using 3D culturing and superhydrophobicity.

Alvaro Moreno Lozano, Bioengineering, Ph.D. 2027

Professor Omid Veiseh Lab

Lozano is using novel biomaterials and cell engineering to develop new technologies for patients with Type 1 Diabetes. The work aims to fabricate a bioartificial pancreas that can control blood glucose levels.

Lucas Eddy, Applied Physics and Chemistry, Ph.D. 2025

Professor James M. Tour Laboratory

Eddy specializes in building and using electrothermal reaction systems for nanomaterial synthesis, waste material upcycling and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) destruction.

This year, the Liu Lab also introduced its first cohort of five commercialization fellows. See the full list here.

The Rice Innovation Fellows program assists doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers with training and support to turn their ideas into ventures. Alumni have raised over $20 million in funding and grants, according to Lilie. Last year's group included 10 doctoral and postdoctoral students working in fields such as computer science, mechanical engineering and materials science.

“The Innovation Fellows program helps scientist-led startups accelerate growth by leveraging campus resources — from One Small Step grants to the Summer Venture Studio accelerator — before launching into hubs like Greentown Labs, Helix Park and Rice’s new Nexus at The Ion,” Yael Hochberg, head of the Rice Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Ralph S. O’Connor Professor in Entrepreneurship, said in the release. “These ventures are shaping Houston’s next generation of pillar companies, keeping our city, state and country at the forefront of innovation in mission critical industries.”

Houston startup Collide secures $5M to grow energy-focused AI platform

Fresh Funds

Houston-based Collide, a provider of generative artificial intelligence for the energy sector, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Houston’s Mercury Fund.

Other investors in the seed round include Bryan Sheffield, founder of Austin-based Parsley Energy, which was acquired by Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources in 2021; Billy Quinn, founder and managing partner of Dallas-based private equity firm Pearl Energy Investments; and David Albin, co-founder and former managing partner of Dallas-based private equity firm NGP Capital Partners.

“(Collide) co-founders Collin McLelland and Chuck Yates bring a unique understanding of the oil and gas industry,” Blair Garrou, managing partner at Mercury, said in a news release. “Their backgrounds, combined with Collide’s proprietary knowledge base, create a significant and strategic moat for the platform.”

Collide, founded in 2022, says the funding will enable the company to accelerate the development of its GenAI platform. GenAI creates digital content such as images, videos, text, and music.

Originally launched by Houston media organization Digital Wildcatters as “a professional network and digital community for technical discussions and knowledge sharing,” the company says it will now shift its focus to rolling out its enterprise-level, AI-enabled solution.

Collide explains that its platform gathers and synthesizes data from trusted sources to deliver industry insights for oil and gas professionals. Unlike platforms such as OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot, Collide’s platform “uniquely accesses a comprehensive, industry-specific knowledge base, including technical papers, internal processes, and a curated Q&A database tailored to energy professionals,” the company said.

Collide says its approximately 6,000 platform users span 122 countries.

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

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