Houston Innovators Podcast

Ana Amicarella is the CEO of EthosEnergy, a Houston-based energy technology developer and provider that’s helping its customers find the right tech for the energy transition. Ana joins the show today to discuss the recent acquisition of the company, which is transitioning from being owned by a joint venture into being private equity backed. She also shares about her career from immigrating from Venezuela to leading an energy company and promoting diversity and inclusion within her organization.

Today, we are looking back a conversation I had last year with Howard Berman, co-founder and CEO of Coya Therapeutics, which has had quite the busy summer. The company expanded its collaboration with Houston Methodist Research Institute and started looking into how GLP-1 drugs  can enhance the effects of its proprietary therapeutics.

Read more about these two news stories from this summer on InnovationMap: 

Jon Nordby is the managing partner at investment firm Anthropy Partners and founder of EconWerx. With over a decade of experience in the Houston innovation community in various roles, Jon talks about the work he’s doing now as a human potential tech investor and innovation ecosystem builder and adviser. He also zooms in on what he sees as achievements and needs within Houston’s own innovation machine.

Kelly Pracht is the co-founder and CEO of nVenue, an AI- and machine learning-backed, real-time sports betting platform. Kelly joins the show today to share how she’s grown the company over the past five years and expanded into new sports and opportunities, including to the NBA and NASCAR. Based in Houston, Kelly also explains why she’s passionate about Houston and Texas stepping up to support sports tech startups.

Margarita Kelrikh, newly named counsel at Pillsbury’s Houston office, is a diligent problem solver. She has a very diverse career from working in-house at WeWork to investment banking, but now she works specifically with startups from every industry. She joins the show today to share a bit about her background and what she’s learned along the way as well as to give some very broad but free legal advice to startups based on some common challenges she sees from her clients.

Dr. William E. Cohn is a leader in cardiovascular surgery and medical device innovation here in Houston. Dr. Cohn shares a bit about his role as director of the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center as well as his experience as chief medical officer of BiVACOR, a unique medical device company that has created a total artificial heart that Dr. Cohn expects to revolutionize heart transplants.

Megan Eddings is the founder of Accel Lifestyle, a fashion company that created a patented anti-microbial material for stink-resistant clothing. Megan and I discuss her journey growing the company over the past several years all the way to its recent acquisition. She also shares a bit about her new role at a Houston oil and gas company and how she’s pivoting to positivity with a new podcast and TV show.

This week, we’re revisiting another enlightening chat with a Houston innovator. One year ago, Dr. Joseph Rogers, the president and CEO of Texas Heart Institute, shared his story and how he came to be at the helm of THI, as well as the incredible technologies the institute is working on to address heart failure, a global epidemic affecting at least 26 million people worldwide, 6.2 million adults in the U.S. This month, one of THI’s technologies reached a major milestone. BiVACOR, a Houston company successfully implanted the company's first Total Artificial Heart in a human. In addition to this breakthrough in health tech, THI is focused on addressing Cardiometabolic Syndrome at a new conference on Friday, August 23, in Houston. The full-day symposium will take place in collaboration with Arianna Huffington, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global. Dr. Rogers is co-directing the program with Dr. Stephanie Coulter, medical director for THI Center for Women’s Heart & Vascular Health. 

Episode’s original run date: July 26, 2023

Ali Mostafavi is the founder of Resilitix, a data and AI-empowered digital twin platform for disaster and resilience. The software uses data and algorithms to provide its partners with important information — such as road flooding, hospital capacity, power outages, and more — in near real time. On the show today Ali shares how he navigated Hurricane Beryl to provide critical information to emergency teams and took the opportunity to grow and improve his company’s platform.