SCORE Houston's Podcast

 How to grow a pharmacy business from one location to four, from the pharmacist who built it. Dr. Bessem Oben opened Gold Star Pharmacy in College Station, Texas in 2013, six miles from the Walmart pharmacy she once managed.  In Episode 45 of Small Business Success Stories, SCORE Houston mentor Dr. Jeffrey Ricken talks with Dr. Oben, a board-certified geriatric pharmacist who co-founded Gold Star...

Skincare business success from a civil engineering career — Lyndsey Brantley did it without outside investors, starting with a PCOS diagnosis and ending up on Walmart shelves.   She secured over $300,000 through pitch competitions, grants, and non-equity funding — and became the first African American woman to place a natural, alcohol-free unisex shaving solution with Walmart.  In this episode, Ly...

Episodes 22–41 of the SCORE Houston Podcast distilled into one masterclass: what these Houston entrepreneurs actually did to survive early chaos, price with confidence, build closed-loop systems, and create lasting businesses — not just survive, but scale. Founders featured: Heather Lampert (Clear Hope Counseling), Brittany Vinson (Tomé Catering), Sarah Lieberman (Dandelion Cafe), Baha Elabassi (T...

 Federal contracting for small businesses: how to register on SAM.gov, qualify for set-asides, and get certified through SBA — explained by two Business Opportunity Specialists from the SBA Houston District Office.   The federal government awarded $179 billion in prime contracts to small businesses in FY 2025 — nearly 28% of all federal spending. In this episode of the SCORE Houston Podcast's...

How Estée Lauder built a global beauty business with zero marketing budget, no business degree, no formal advertising — and what small business owners can learn from her playbook today. Starting from a backyard stable in Queens, New York, she grew a $150 bath oil into a product line generating $150 million a year. Who was Estée Lauder? Born Josephine Esther Mentzer in 1908, she built The Estée Lau...

Veteran entrepreneur Jason Burleson bought an abandoned lake in rural Texas that no bank would touch and no investor would fund. Today, Mammoth Lake Dive Academy in Clute, Texas is the largest dedicated scuba park in the United States. He launched during COVID with no outside capital. Hurricane Beryl destroyed his home and much of what he'd built. He kept going — bootstrapped, debt-free, and...

Charlie Munger's 14 mental models, applied specifically to small business owners navigating real-world entrepreneurial chaos. Most businesses don't fail from bad products or lack of funding — they fail because founders are running the wrong cognitive operating system. In this episode of the SCORE Houston Podcast's Lessons from the Greats series, we unpack Munger's mental model...

Aging in place is becoming a healthcare strategy, not a home improvement project. Cameron Carter, CEO and Co-Founder of Rosarium Health, explains why health plans and hospitals are now paying to modify homes, and how that fits into value-based care. Cameron spent nearly a decade inside major healthcare organizations — including DaVita and Bright Health — before founding Rosarium Health, a company...

How to start a Mental health practice when you have no business background, no business plan, and no startup capital. Heather Lambert did it from a storage closet in a Pasadena, Texas church. Today Clearhope Counseling and Wellness Center employs more than 40 licensed mental health professionals. Starting a mental health business without a business degree — and growing it from a church closet to 4...

Dr. Beata Lerman spent nearly 20 years as a cancer research scientist with patents in cancer immunotherapy. Then a personal cancer diagnosis led her to build a sugar-free chocolate company safe for diabetics. On this episode of the SCORE Houston Podcast, host PV Bala talks with Dr. Lerman about leaving biomedical research for small-business manufacturing, the science behind sugar-free chocolate, a...

SCORE Houston Podcast: Subscribe/ Follow FREE:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYwZdflYjHJeI8oTA_fRJw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast.. . Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3DTCZlN.. . Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b4a.   Houston small business success stories don't get more inspiring than this. In this episode of SCORE Houston Podcast,...

SCORE Houston Podcast: Subscribe/ Follow FREE:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYwZdflYjHJeI8oTA_fRJw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast.. . Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3DTCZlN.. . Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b4a. In this episode of the Go Houston Podcast , host PV Bala of SCORE Houston sits down with Dr. Bryton Praslicka , Founder &amp...

SCORE Houston Podcast: Subscribe/ Follow FREE:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwYwZdflYjHJeI8oTA_fRJw Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast.. . Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3DTCZlN.. . Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b4a. What if the same engineering principles that took SpaceX to the top of the global launch industry could help your Houston sa...

Follow SCORE Houston Podcast on your favorite platform: 🎧 Apple Podcasts: Apple Podcasts tap Follow! 🎵 Spotify: Spotify — tap Follow! 📻 Amazon Music:  Amazon Music — tap Follow! ▶️ YouTube: YouTube — Subscribe and hit the bell! How do you turn a family BBQ restaurant into an award-winning small business?  In this episode of Small Business Success Stories, SCORE Houston mentor Dr Jeffrey Ricken...

Follow SCORE Houston Podcast on your favorite platform: 🎧 Apple Podcasts: Apple Podcasts tap Follow! 🎵 Spotify: Spotify — tap Follow! 📻 Amazon Music:  Amazon Music — tap Follow! ▶️ YouTube: YouTube — Subscribe and hit the bell! In this episode of Small Business Success Stories at SCORE Houston, host and SCORE Mentor PV Bala sits down with Sarah Lieberman, founder of Dandelion Cafe — Houston&apo...

Follow SCORE Houston Podcast on your favorite platform: 🎧 Apple Podcasts: Apple Podcasts tap Follow! 🎵 Spotify: Spotify — tap Follow! 📻 Amazon Music:  Amazon Music — tap Follow! ▶️ YouTube: YouTube — Subscribe and hit the bell! In this episode, Dr. Jeff Rickon sits down with Martin Estill — serial entrepreneur, former Chief Revenue Officer, and SCORE Houston volunteer mentor — for an in-depth c...

Follow SCORE Houston Podcast on your favorite platform: 🎧 Apple Podcasts: Apple Podcasts tap Follow! 🎵 Spotify: Spotify — tap Follow! 📻 Amazon Music:  Amazon Music — tap Follow! ▶️ YouTube: YouTube — Subscribe and hit the bell! How did two passionate educators turn a love of music into a thriving Houston small business? In this episode of the SCORE Houston Podcast, host Dr. Jeffrey Ricken sits...

Follow SCORE Houston Podcast on your favorite platform: 🎧 Apple Podcasts: Apple Podcasts tap Follow! 🎵 Spotify: Spotify — tap Follow! 📻 Amazon Music:  Amazon Music — tap Follow! ▶️ YouTube: YouTube — Subscribe and hit the bell! 💬 Share your thoughts: scorehoustonpodcast.blogspot.com" Are you a local business owner struggling to get customers online? This episode is for you. Every year, th...

In this episode of the SCORE Houston Podcast, host PV Bala sits down with Phylicia Hill , Co-Founder and CEO/Managing Director of H5 Strategic Alliance — a Houston-based cybersecurity and IT professional services firm she co-founded with her husband James Hill in 2013. Phylicia shares her remarkable journey from a career in education and school administration to building a thriving cybersecurity c...

She started with a piece of paper, a vision, and a rented church kitchen. Today, Britany Vinson runs three restaurant locations, 27 refrigerated vending machines, 33 employees, and a soon-to-be national franchise — all from East Texas . In this episode of Small Business Success Stories presented by SCORE Houston , host Dr. Jeffrey Ricken sits down with Britany Vinson , founder, owner, and head che...

What does it take to build eight companies before the age of 30? In this episode of the SCORE Houston Podcast, host PV Bala sits down with Bahaa Elabbasi, SCORE Houston subject matter expert , who moved to the US from Lebanon at age 10, started washing cars at 13, and never stopped building. Bahaa shares the story behind his automotive empire — from a single tow truck to four car dealerships, mech...

Why do most new businesses fail — and how does a business plan fix that? In this episode of the SCORE Houston Podcast, our mentors walk first-time entrepreneurs through everything they need to know about building a solid business plan — from market research and competitive analysis to pricing, cash flow projections, and financing options. Whether you're just starting to think about launching...

From One Room to Rural Business Owner of the Year | Nicole York | Small Business Success Stories.  What does it take to turn a personal struggle into a thriving business? Nicole York did exactly that — and her story will inspire you to bet on yourself. In this episode of Small Business Success Stories, hosted by Dr. Jeffrey Ricken — Certified SCORE Mentor and advocate for entrepreneurs across Hous...

Samantha Snabes is the co-founder and CEO of re:3D, a bootstrapped Austin and Houston-based company that makes industrial-scale 3D printers — manufactured entirely in America. She's also an Air National Guard officer, a former NASA strategist, and the only woman CEO leading a US-based 3D printing hardware company. In this episode, Samantha shares with PV Bala, SCORE Mentor, how a group of fri...

What if you could skip the costliest mistakes in business — before you ever sign a lease or drain your savings? In this special compilation episode , we break down the best insights from 20 SCORE Houston mentorship sessions into one high-impact guide.  You'll learn the "Five Numbers Test" for validating any business idea, why most businesses die from working capital — not bad produc...