Innovate Fort Worth

This local entrepreneur leveraged a career in fashion and big pharma into a startup that is tackling an unmet medical need with a big potential market – earwax impaction. Their first product, EarWax MD, is now in stores across the country and relieving the symptoms of earwax buildup for kids, adults and pets. Elyse Dickerson, co-founder and CEO, has built the company as a practitioner of Conscious Capitalism, setting out to do more for customers, investors and the environment than just maximize profits.

For companies operating in or around healthcare, compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is required. Many companies aren’t sure how to navigate this complex federal law and non-compliance can bring steep penalties. Kevin Henry, Founder and CEO of Accountable has solved that problem, providing online training for such employees. Accountable participated in the Techstars Austin accelerator program, making them the only Fort Worth-based startup with Techstars backing.

Our host, Cameron Cushman, is featured as a guest on the new 817 podcast, a show that covers local news, events and politics. This rebroadcast of their episode touches on all things innovation and entrepreneurship in Fort Worth, including early stage funding levels, job creation by startups and how Fort Worth’s entrepreneurial ecosystem ranks among other peer cities. Tune in to this bonus episode of Innovate Fort Worth and be sure to check out the 817 podcast.

Dr. Sid O’Bryant believes research on the complex disease Alzheimer's has been headed in the wrong direction for too long. Dr. O’Bryant recently received a $45M grant which will accelerate his research and allow him to move his technology into the clinic. Dr. O’Bryant also discusses his work with his collaborator and wife, Dr. Leigh Johnson, and his career as an amateur bodybuilder. Learn why his approach will revolutionize the way neurogenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s are diagnosed and treated.

This bonus episode focuses on brand new research which quantifies the number of jobs created by new companies - those less than one year old - in Tarrant County from 2012-2018. In 2018, new companies created 25,157 jobs and the study showed that this number had been pretty consistent over the last few years. This interview with the report’s author, Kate Hodel from Sourcelink in Kansas City, originally ran during Global Entrepreneurship Week Fort Worth.

Dr. Sid O’Bryant is leading the charge to use blood biomarkers to bring the first-ever primary care blood test to market for America’s seniors. His work runs counter to the areas of focus of many other researchers, but his discoveries could pave the way for significant advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. He just received a $45 million grant to continue to study the ways that Alzheimer’s Disease impacts people of different ethnicities and his work could hold the keys to understanding these complex diseases.

This is part one of a two part series featuring Dr. Sid O’Bryant and his work to address senior citizen’s biggest fear – developing dementia.

Meet EJ Carrion, the founder of The Student Success Agency, author of How to Create a Future and Stand Out When College is Not Enough, and now co-host of The 817, a podcast of all things Fort Worth. His company serves as a force multiplier for high school guidance counselors to help students increase their chances for success and get into college. Carrion explains what it means to pick a city with opportunities to build your startup and connecting with the younger crowd by sharing the pulse points of news, politics, trends, and culture in Fort Worth. 

Meet the innovative minds that are repurposing surplus materials to “fill a classroom, not a landfill.” Vanessa and Taylor are life-long best friends that started a non-profit called The Welman Project. Through creativity, they find ways to take the waste output from corporations and adapt it for use in the classroom. The Welman Project were also past winners of a the United Way’s KERNEL competition for programs fostering ideas to solve community issues.

A father and son tinkering in their garage led to an invention that will reduce global energy consumption, all based on the same principles that power the windmills that dot the Texas prairies. Brad Hunstable, co-founder of Linear Labs, wants to make Fort Worth the “Electrification Capital of the World.” His plan to build a smarter energy company is one that will change the way we power the world, all from their home base here in “Fort Worth/Dallas.” 

Growing up, Jakayla Dixon saw her aunt struggle with picking out her clothes, due to her visual impairment. So she started her own company in high school to change the way the visually impaired put fashionable outfits together. Dixon, the founder of Feel the Color, is helping those with visual impairments “see” color through innovative tags to help people feel confident and fashionable.