Innovate Fort Worth

From veteran to entrepreneur, Dylan Jones is working to monitor animal health through technology. Animal Cloud Device Connectivity is a cloud-based technology, licensed from the US Air Force that is monitoring the health of service animals that work on in the field. Animal Cloud tracks the health of dogs, horses and cows in real time, transferring information to a database available for caregivers and veterinarians to review digitally.  

You've been served…coffee? The Legal Cafe is the brand new coworking space and cafe for lawyers just a few blocks from the Tarrant County courthouses in Downtown Fort Worth. Co-Founder Jeff Rattikin aims to provide essential legal services to attorneys who need a home base near the courthouse and a private location for lawyers and clients to meet. The Legal Cafe also provides services like marketing, web development and they even have a room for video and podcast recording! While serving the legal profession, Rattikin also wants to make law more accessible to people through his website getlegal.com and connect people to the right legal expert for their need.

After a 10 year tenure as a public leader in Fort Worth, Mayor Betsy Price is passing the torch. But before she left office, Innovate Fort Worth had the honor to sit down and discuss all things entrepreneurial in our city. Reflecting upon the great innovators throughout the years that helped make Fort Worth what it is today, Mayor Price shares why Fort Worth is still a great city for startups and small businesses. As a final goodbye, the Innovate Fort Worth team thanks Mayor Price for her dedication to Fort Worth and wishes her well as she spends time with family.

This is part 2 of the two part podcast series with Farukh Aslam, the man who has transformed the historic Sinclair Hotel to become The World’s First All-Digital Hotel. Aslam discusses working on commercial projects with household brand names, and how he envisions the future of powering everyday electrical items to be more innovative and efficient. If you haven’t listened to Part 1, you can listen to part 1 of The Hotel of the Future now wherever you get your podcasts.

From the podcast room in The Sinclair Hotel in Downtown Fort Worth, meet the engineer turned hospitality leader. Farukh Aslam is changing hotels by using low voltage power over ethernet, making The Sinclair 30% more efficient than other hotels. He is using smart sensors and dc powered LED lighting to reduce electricity usage in this century old art deco building. But The Sinclair is only the beginning, Aslam wants to take the technologies he’s developed here in Fort Worth to the world.

In today’s world of fast-paced technology, Pinatagrams is changing how we approach “snail mail.” Nathan Butorac always knew he was an entrepreneur at heart, he just needed to find his big idea. On this episode, he shares his past experiences with starting different companies, how he found success in the middle of a pandemic, and how something “Better Than A Letter” can really spice up your marketing campaigns.

A family business that inspired a trio of brothers to change how we see product return and support sustainability efforts through re-commerce in retail. Dennis Hoang is the co-founder of Patturn, a company that is creating retail sustainability for small businesses by managing returned items to prevent landfill waste. Hear the story of how these UTA grads transformed their parent’s resale computer shop into a digital platform to resell returns rather than being thrown away.

CAGEBio is developing deep eutectic ionic liquids for use in dermatology. Dr. Nitin Joshi shares his experience in the biotech industry, the impact of ionic liquids as an anti-COVID sanitizer and about moving his company from Silicon Valley to Fort Worth, Texas. 

When Dr. Vanessa Bouche was challenged to provide meaningful employment for survivors of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking in Delhi, India, she started an essential oils company to put women with few skills to work. Dr. Bouche discusses the challenges she faced in starting Savhera, the challenges she faced in applying for B Corp certification and how to “Live Well, Do Good'' for her customers and employees. 

Bringing Fort Worth’s first woman-owned coworking space was a labor of love for Tamara Payne. She’s turned her career as a newscaster and marketing expert into a creator of community for local startups in the Near Southside and beyond. Up next for Tamara is her work serving the people of Burleson on their City Council.