Houston Innovators Podcast

Omair Tariq is the founder and CEO of Cart.com, a fast-growing, Houston-founded commerce enablement platform that’s raised over $500 million in funding and reached unicorn status last year. Omair joins the show today to discuss the company’s rapid growth and why Houston is the perfect city for its next phase of business.

Atul Varadhachary is the managing partner of Fannin, a Houston organization that’s commercializing early stage life science innovations by optimizing capital efficiency for these promising health tech treatments and medical devices. Life science innovation takes a significant amount of time and money to accelerate, and Atul shares how the Fannin model approaches these challenges while also contrib...

Lori-Lee Elliott is the co-founder and CEO of Dauntless XR, a software company that provides extended reality solutions for aviation, aerospace, and other industries. Lori-Lee originally founded her company in 2018 to work on industrial solutions within the energy industry. Last year, she rebranded the business and pivoted to new industries, and she shares on the show today about how she navigated...

Denise Hamilton is the founder and CEO of WatchHerWork and author of Indivisible: How to Forge Our Differences into a Stronger Future. She joins the show today to discuss the book, which comes out February 6, and how she hopes it inspires current and future leaders to move beyond how they think of diversity and inclusion and to move toward a better, more indivisible world. Denise also shares how i...

Sunny Zhang is the founder of TrueLeap, an edtech platform, and founding partner of Born Global Ventures, an early-stage startup studio focused on immigrant founders. Sunny joins the show today to talk about all the various hats she wears within Houston innovation, as well as to re-introduce Houston Women in VC, a monthly meet up for female investors. 

On this episode, host Natalie Harms is looking back at some of her favorite episodes of 2023 — featuring guests from across the Houston innovation landscape. 

Moji Karimi is the CEO and co-founder of Cemvita, a biotech company with a few different climate tech applications for the energy industry. Cemvita has had a lot of wins in 2023, and Moji joins the show to discuss those, plus what his plans are for further commercialization of gold hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, and more. He also shares some of his observations from COP28 and advice for foun...

Samra Nawaz is the CEO and Co-founder of WellWorth, a financial modeling and analysis software platform for upstream oil and gas finance teams. Samra recently won the Ion’s annual startup showcase and she joins the show today to share how she plans to use the momentum to grow her bootstrapped company in the new year.

Natara Branch is the CEO of Houston Exponential, which has a goal of connecting and promoting Houston’s growing innovation ecosystem. Natara joins me today to discuss what 2023 meant for the community of startups and innovators here in Houston, as well as to give us the inside scoop on the newly revamped H-Town Roundup next spring. 

Peter Rodriguez is the dean of the Rice University Jones School of Business, which has had a lot of news to celebrate this month. The school was ranked the number one for graduate entrepreneurship programs for the fifth consecutive year. Dean Rodriguez also shares more about two impactful initiatives the school has announced this month in energy business and beyond.

Andrew Chang is the managing director of United Airlines Ventures, the investment arm of United that’s focused on deploying capital to new technologies from sustainable aviation fuel to digital technologies across the air travel spectrum. Chang, who’s based here in Houston, explains some of the challenges to innovating in the massive, global industry that is aviation — as well as tackling the airl...

Carolyn Rodz and Elizabeth Gore are the co-founders of Hello Alice, a tech platform designed to help small business owners navigate their path of entrepreneurship. Now serving 1.4 million small businesses across all 50 states, Hello Alice has reached a new milestone — one they’d likely rather live without. The company, which has helped facilitate equitable grant finding to thousands of founders of...

Wogbe Ofori is the founder and chief strategist of WRX Companies. Wogbe has helped coordinate the last few podcast interviews regarding space innovation here in Houston. Now, today on the show, we continue our discussion on Houston’s role in the developing space economy, but also dive deeper into what’s happening within Houston innovation as a whole, what value mentors bring to startups, and how i...

In this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast, InnovationMap Editor Natalie Harms gives a preview of the 2023 Houston Innovation Awards taking place on November 8 at Silver Street Studios. The program will honor over 50 startups, companies, and individuals within the Houston innovation ecosystem, as well as the growth and development of the community as a whole. Tune in to learn more ab...

Nick Skytland is the Chief Technologist at NASA Johnson Space Center. He joins the show today to talk about space innovation. In today’s conversation, we’re diving deeper into the evolution the space industry has had from NASA’s perspective, as well as the future of space exploration, development, and travel. Nick also weighs in on the important role Houston — including its innovators and entrepre...

Tim Crain is the co-founder and CTO at Intuitive Machines, a Houston space tech business that’s evolved from a think tank to a scaling space exploration, infrastructure, and services company in the 10 years of its existence. Tim shares the IM story on the show today, as well as how he has observed the evolution of the space industry and why he believes it’s only the beginning for Houston as the Sp...

Kelsey Hultberg is executive vice president of corporate communications and sustainability of Sunnova Energy International, a Houston-based solar energy company that’s grown from startup, to scale, to IPO, and Kelsey’s career has grown right alongside of it. On the podcast today, she shares how critical communications is for energy companies big and small — as well as why Sunnova is so passionate...

CS Freeland is the co-founder of the Texas Venture Alliance, a Texas-sized venture capital network and nonprofit group for investors. She joins the show today to discuss her goals in starting the organization as well as to share details about the Texas Venture Crawl, a statewide happy hour on Oct. 6 that’s hoping to connect founders, investors, and more.

Berkley Luck and Pedro Silva are the co-founders of of Milkify, a Houston-based startup that’s providing a breast milk freeze-drying service for customers across the country. Earlier this year, the company pitched its unique service on Shark Tank and secured investment from two sharks on the show. Now, a few months down the road, the company has raised additional funding, grown its customer base,...

Patrick Sullivan is the president and CEO of Oceanit, a Hawaii-based company that’s had an increasing presence in Houston as it works with energy companies to use science-backed technologies to solve their biggest problems. Patrick joins the show to discuss his company’s wide range of innovations, and why he’s built out an innovative Hydrogen-focused lab here in Houston.

Ayse McCracken is the founder of Ignite Healthcare Network, an organization that accelerates female-founded businesses within health care. Ayse is a powerful connector who started Ignite to better connect women in the health care industry. Now, she’s accelerated around a hundred startups and female founders with an ongoing cohort that concludes with a pitch event on Nov. 9. She shares more about h...

Michelle Stansbury is vice president of innovation and IT applications at Houston Methodist. She joins the show today to discuss the newly opened Houston Methodist Tech Hub in the Ion, which unveiled last week to better connect with Houston innovators in and outside of health care innovation. She also shares more about some of the many other innovation efforts coming out of Houston Methodist.

Sahir Ali is the founder and general partner of Modi Ventures, a new investment firm focused on the intersection of data and AI and health tech innovation. Sahir joins the show today to discuss how his firm operates a bit different from traditional VC entities, as well as how he raised an oversubscribed $32 million initial fund in less than a month.

Allie Danziger is the founder of Ampersand Professionals, a young professionals upskilling platform, that was recently acquired by Ascent Funding. With the acquisition, Allie joins Ascent as senior vice president and general manager of student success. On the show today, she pulls back the curtain on the acquisition process and how the combined business will help grow the platform to better help s...

Tim Boire is the president and CEO of VenoStent, a medical device startup that’s designing a unique material for hemodialysis patients. The company just closed its series A at $16 million dollars and is gearing up for a 200-patient clinical trial. Tim shares how he’s grown his company since moving it to Houston in 2018 to tap into the local innovation ecosystem. He also outlines where VenoStent is...