Houston software development firm Axon is planning its Texas expansion thanks to its recent acquisition. Photo courtesy of Axon

For Owen D. Goode, Houstonians have a propensity for never being satisfied — and that's been extremely advantageous for his business.

“There’s this feeling in Houston of not being finished yet that I love,” says Goode. “Nobody is every fully satisfied in the best possible way. Nobody is sitting back and saying, ‘This is the best we could have done.’”

Goode, formerly the CEO of Axon, comes from an aviation background that includes operating as both pilot and mechanic. He now uses those skillsets in a very different world—helping to lead a company that focuses on system transformation. Axon, which was founded in 2017 was a boutique software firm focused on cloud engineering and data engineering.

This January, a larger company, Zaelot, led by CEO Jeff Lombard, acquired Axon. Zaelot is a global, software firm with a presence in 14 countries, mostly focused in the United States, Uruguay, and Iceland.

“Together we have a strong suite of offerings across a wide variety of domains including full-stack development, cloud/data engineering, design, staff augmentation, project management, and software architecture. We also have experience in multiple domains, including health care, aviation, defense, finance, and startups,” says Goode.

To the layman, this sounds impressive—and complicated—but what does Zaelot, actually do? Asked to explain at a kindergarten level, Goode says, “We take old code and make it less bad.”

With the motto, “Solve Today, Build Tomorrow,” Goode has worked with companies such as a major international airline to clean up its back end. Using a real estate analogy, Goode says that he and his team transform brownfield development environments (“a half-finished building that’s messy and there’s sewage everywhere”) into greenfield ones. It’s essentially a fresh start for sites that have become muddled over years of neglect.

“Health care is notoriously bad for that,” Goode says, though he is unable to disclose specific past or present clients.

Thanks to the merger with Zaelot, Goode and his team are now poised for rapid growth. Becoming part of a 100-person multinational company has now unlocked capital that Axon had never seen before. Goode promises rapid expansion in Texas, beginning in Houston in the next six months to a year. The executive—now Zaelot’s executive vice president—is already a well-known face on the Houston scene, where he regularly attends Cup of Joey and other Houston community events, such as CodeLaunch.

That growth includes gaining office space and expanding his staff in Space City.

“Zaelot's claim to fame is an extreme focus on employee satisfaction, with a 94 percent retention rate,” he says.

It’s his goal to keep those numbers up by serving the people who work for and with the company and treating them as human beings with families, not interchangeable parts. Next on the horizon, Goode says he and his team will be hiring sales and technical account management positions.

Though Zaelot’s staff is distributed around the world, Goode says Houston will always be home base for him. “It’s a literal launchpad that we’re continuing to grow off of,” he says. “I’m a big believer in Texas in general. And I’m just excited to see what happens.”

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Houston palliative care company integrates with Epic platforms

epic scale

Patients and medical teams using MyChart and other Epic Systems' software will now be able to access Houston-based Koda Health's AI-enhanced end-of-life planning platform.

The Houston-based palliative care company, which was born out of the TMC's Biodesign Fellowship, has integrated its advance care planning platform with Epic, one of the most widely used electronic health record (EHR) systems in the U.S., according to a news release.

Epic estimates that more than 325 million patients have a current electronic record in its systems.

“This is a significant milestone for our mission to make advance care planning scalable, meaningful, and seamless,” Tatiana Fofanova, CEO and co-founder of Koda Health, said in the release. “By integrating into systems already used by care teams, we help eliminate friction and ensure that care delivery honors what patients truly want—especially during serious illness and at the end of life.”

The partnership will streamline processes for both patients and clinicians. Users will be able to drop advance care plans directly into the Epic charts, which will be accessible through MyChart for patients and proxies and through Epic Hyperspace/Hyperdrive for care teams. Doctors can also initiate and manage advance care plans through a simple Epic order for patients.

According to Koda Health, its platform saves an average of $10,000 to $15,000 per patient. Roughly 85 percent of users complete advance care plan documents when using the platform, which is four times the national average.

“We developed Koda to give providers the time, training, and tools to guide these critical conversations," Dr. Desh Mohan, co-founder and chief medical officer at Koda Health, added in the statement. "Our integration now makes it possible to operationalize ACP at scale—aligned with value-based care goals and clinical reality.”

The company announced a partnership with Dallas-based Guidehealth, which integrates into primary care workflows and allows providers to identify high-risk patients, coordinate care and reduce administrative burden. Guidehealth works with more than 500,000 patients

Koda Health was founded in 2020 and closed an oversubscribed seed round for an undisclosed amount last year, with investments from AARP, Memorial Hermann Health System and the Texas Medical Center Venture Fund. The company also added Kidney Action Planning to its suite of services in 2024.

Xfinity goes all-in with new national internet plan

Everything's Included

Following the successful launch and positive consumer reaction to Xfinity’s new 5-year guarantee, the nation’s largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) has launched its everyday pricing (EDP) structure with four simple national Internet tiers that include unlimited data and the advanced Xfinity WiFi Gateway for one low monthly price.

This move is part of the company’s broader strategy to give consumers simple, predictable, all-in plans for the best WiFi in the market. All plans include a line of Xfinity Mobile at no additional cost for a year.

“We said we were going to go ‘all-in’ on a new pricing strategy and we are delivering with our 5-year price lock and our new everyday price plans," says Steve Croney, chief operating officer, Connectivity & Platforms at Comcast. "Now all our Xfinity Internet packages are built on simplicity and transparency — no hidden fees, no confusion — just the best, most reliable and secure WiFi that sets a new standard for the ultimate connected experience. We’re coming out swinging with a superior WiFi product that easily beats the competition at an even better price point for customers.”

 Xfinity pricing table Graphic courtesy of Xfinity

Xfinity delivers the fastest, most reliable* WiFi experience with multi-gig speeds, a low-lag connection for gaming and streaming, the capacity to connect hundreds of devices in the home, and unbeatable wall-to-wall WiFi coverage.

The Xfinity WiFi Gateway blankets the home with cybersecurity protection and provides other advanced WiFi features and parental controls, all easily accessible in the newly redesigned Xfinity app, allowing customers to optimize and manage their WiFi experience in the home.

An unlimited line of Xfinity Mobile is also included at no cost for a year with these plans.

Only Xfinity Mobile customers have access to WiFi PowerBoost, a game-changing feature which increases Xfinity Mobile speeds up to 1 gig — no matter the plan they choose — when they are connected over WiFi in the home or anywhere else on the Xfinity WiFi network, the largest and fastest in the nation.

With 90 percent of mobile traffic traveling over WiFi, Xfinity Mobile is created for how customers use their mobile devices, combining the nation’s best WiFi with the most reliable 5G network.

Consumers can sign up for Xfinity Internet and Xfinity Mobile online at www.xfinity.com or at their local Xfinity store.

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*www.opensignal.com

Houston startup funding surpasses $1B in 2025 despite national slowdown

by the numbers

Houston-area startups raised more than $1 billion in venture capital during the first half of 2025 — almost double the haul for the first half of last year.

According to the new PitchBook-NCVA Venture Monitor, Houston-area startups raised $417.2 million in the second quarter of this year, compared with $281 million during the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2025, local startups collected $607.5 million in venture capital, compared with $281 million during the same period a year earlier.

Based on those figures, Houston-area startups picked up slightly over $1 billion in VC during the first half of this year, compared with $535 million in the first half of 2024.

Nationally, startups gained almost $70 billion in VC in the second quarter, down 25 percent from the same period a year ago, the PitchBook-NCVA Venture Monitor says.

Nizar Tarhuni, executive vice president of research and market intelligence at PitchBook, explained that “the VC landscape continues to navigate a fragile recovery” and is constrained by economic uncertainty.

However, startups in certain sectors are poised to attract a great deal of attention and venture capital over the next several years, according to the report.

“Companies operating in AI, national security, defense tech, fintech, and crypto — sectors aligned with the administration’s priorities — are attracting disproportionately more investor interest, and this trend will likely continue throughout President Donald Trump’s term,” the report says.

The AI sector accounted for 64 percent of VC deal value in the first half of 2025, according to the report.