Houston Innovators Podcast

Sarah Hein is the co-founder and CEO of March Biosciences, a cancer-fighting cell therapy company that recently closed a $28.4 million series A round and is getting ready to launch its phase II trial. Sarah joins me today to discuss the past two and a half years of growing March and the role Houston and its biotech ecosystem has played in the company’s growth.

Chris George is the US Co-Lead at Octopus Electric Vehicles, a spinout of the UK-based energy retail provider Octopus Energy, which expanded to the US by way of Houston. Octopus EV provides customized EV leases paired with smart energy technology, and Chris joins the show today to explain the business — including their newest product launching this week — as well as his views on the EV industry as a whole and the momentum happening locally, in Texas, and across the country.

This week, InnovationMap announced the finalists for the 2024 Houston Innovation Awards, and I'd like to take this episode as an opportunity to introduce you to the incredible batch of startups, organizations, and innovators that made the cut for this year's awards.

This year's finalists include 35 startups across 8 categories, plus 14 individual finalists across 3 categories. Six Houston organizations were named finalists in the community champion organization category, which honors impactful corporates, nonprofits, academic institutions, and more.

Read more about the finalists: https://houston.innovationmap.com/2024-houston-innovation-awards-finalists-2669381682.html

Register for the awards: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2024-houston-innovation-awards-tickets-991320465197?aff=editorial

Follow more awards coverage: https://houston.innovationmap.com/houston-innovation-awards/

This week, we are revisiting a conversation I had earlier this year with Scott Gale, who passed away two weeks ago after a years-long battle with cancer. As executive director of Halliburton Labs, he was instrumental in the program’s success across the past four years, and he leaves a legacy of innovation, collaboration, and curiosity, all of which we touched on in our conversation.

In the episode, we discussed Halliburton Labs, his career, and the Inaugural Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week, which Scott has a major role in creating. Unfortunately, Scott wasn’t able to attend the week as he had already entered into hospice care.

Scott Gale's legacy: Houston energy, innovation leader dies after hard-fought battle with cancer

Join InnovationMap in celebrating Scott at the Houston Innovation Awards: Houston Innovation Awards to honor 2 trailblazers with posthumous recognition

Zimri T. Hinshaw is the CEO and founder of Rheom Materials, a bio-based materials company that’s creating sustainable materials for the fashion, automotive, and other industries. Originally founding his company as Bucha Bio, Zimri recently rebranded his business to reflect its growth and evolution into new products and technologies. He shares a bit more about what he’s been up to and where Rheom is going on the show today.

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.