Phillip Yates is the CEO of Equiliberty and chairman of Impact Hub Houston. Phillip, who also is a practicing lawyer, shares a bit on his background and how he evolved his career in law into an entrepreneur in the tech and startup space to create his fintech platform, which is expected to launch in early 2025. Phillip and I also discuss the Houston innovation ecosystem and what it meant to him to accept the award of Ecosystem Builder at the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards.

This week, Meagan Pitcher, CEO and co-founder of Bairitone Health, shares her journey into health tech entrepreneurship and the bright future for her company.

Vibhu Sharma is the CEO of InnoVent Renewables LLC, a Houston company that has the potential to revolutionize the automotive industry and make a huge impact on sustainability. InnoVent has created a proprietary technology that converts waste tires, into valuable fuels, steel and chemicals. Vibhu joins the show to share how he’s quickly turned this company from concept to near commercial operations in just around two years. Plus he shares what the future holds for his unique company.

On this episode, host Natalie Harms is looking back at some of her favorite episodes of 2024 — featuring guests from across the Houston innovation landscape. 

Anwar Sadek is the CEO and founder at CORROLYTICS, a tech company that has designed a way to better detect microbial corrosion. Anwar joins the show today to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, how he’s bootstrapped his company, and relocated to Houston to make the most of the energy and tech communities here.

In this episode, listeners get a chance to revisit an episode from last year with Ayse McCracken, the founder of Ignite Healthcare Network, an organization that accelerates female-founded businesses within health care. In November, Ignite hosted its annual Fire Pitch Competition, the main event for its accelerator that supports and connects female health tech founders with the Texas Medical Center’s vast network of experts and health care organizations. At the event, the founders pitched their health tech solutions across lung health, renal therapy, breastfeeding tech, and more. This year’s first place winner was Sarah Lee, CEO and co-founder of Relavo, a New York-based company that's making home dialysis more effective, safer, and more affordable.

Link to read about the 2024 Fire Pitch Competition winners: https://houston.innovationmap.com/ignite-health-relavo-fire-pitch-2670292174.html

Reginald DesRoches was named president of Rice University in 2021. He joins the show to discuss the unprecedented growth the university has had under his first two and a half years of leadership — from growing the student body and faculty to establishing research institutions and initiatives to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Samina Farid is the managing director of Golden Seeds and co-lead of the national angel investing group’s Houston chapter. Samina joins the show today to discuss her own entrepreneurial journey and how she got into investing with Golden Seeds, which has been growing in Houston for a few years now. She also shares advice for both startups and new angels on getting involved with Golden Seeds.

Dianna Liu is the CEO and founder at ARIX Technologies, a Houston hardtech and software startup that’s created a robot to help industrial companies enhance efficiency and safety when it comes to pipeline corrosion. Dianna joins the show today to share ARIX’s journey over the past several years as well as what the future looks like for her company.

Aileen Allen has recently joined Houston VC firm Mercury as venture partner. A native Houstonian, Aileen has spent the bulk of her career in the tech ecosystems of the Bay Area and Austin as an operator at tech companies, eventually returning to her hometown in 2020. She’s recently evolved her career to become an investor, and she shares some of these learnings on the show today — plus what she’s looking for in her new role at Mercury.