Politics in the workplace Politics has always managed to find its way into the workplace. Casually popping up in conversation here and there. Usually reserved for the water cooler. It always managed to seep through the cracks like a gentle breeze. But, what was once just a breeze, has now become a tsunami. Politics in ...
Angel Network Sees Growth Over the summer of 2020, investors hit the emergency brake on cash flow and deals. Like most entrepreneurs, the pandemic forced their hand in putting a stop to major transactions and investments. So, it is quite counter-intuitive to hear that the Houston Angel Network (HAN) saw its membership actually, now hold ...
There is a sport where two individuals clash in front of thousands of screaming fans. A heated bout where both participants throw jabs at each other and launch haymakers hoping to land a knockout blow; and it’s all for money. A bloody display of barbarism and competition not unlike the violent exhibitions of Roman gladiators. ...
It started with prunes. Long before Silicon Valley was the innovation capital of the world, it was a giant valley of fruit trees and verdant hills. The primary crop in the then called Santa Clara Valley was the French plum, which was sun-dried to turn into the valley’s most popular export and métier: prunes. By ...
Diversity in startups Over 50 business owners in Austin have signed a diversity initiative called The Startup and Inclusion Pledge. Firstly, the pledge calls for all signees to make a commitment to diversity in startups. For example, diverse hiring standards. Secondly, to commit to unconscious bias training and a diverse workforce. The pledge also calls ...
Crisis management The great pandemic of 2020 has brought to the surface the issue of crisis management. Especially with nationwide business shut downs in the last eight months, many companies are on a rocky road of uncertainty. Entrepreneurs are unsure of what the future holds after seeing revenues slow or halt in some cases. Layoffs, ...
SEO Changes If you’re stranded on an island, it’s probably not smart to go into hiding and just hope someone finds you. You’re better off dedicating your time to making a fire, spelling HELP with logs, or sharpening your hunting skills. During this pandemic, it would best serve your company’s future to dedicate your time ...
Teamwork in healthcare Oftentimes, a crisis can fuel people’s willingness to work together. Crises create a sense of urgency. They push us to put aside petty differences and work toward a greater good. In the age of coronavirus, that greater good is perseverance. A return to normalcy. Movie theaters. Concerts. Football. Handshakes and hugs. Humanity. ...
PPP loans for startups Unless you’ve been vacationing on Mars for the past six months, you know that a $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was recently approved by Congress. Business owners are sifting through the fine print to see if they qualify for PPP loans for startups. The stimulus ...
Biotech startups stand tall At a time when the business world is reeling, biotech companies are still hanging on. Many biotech startups have successfully pivoted their entire platforms to focus on coronavirus-related work. Of course, these companies aren’t without their struggles. Clinical trials have come to a pause, finding investors has become more difficult and ...
Look around you. We have a pandemic pumping paranoia into the public. We have the longest unemployment lines we’ve seen in 90 years. Tensions with China teetering on the brink of collapse. Sports are cancelled. Concerts are a memory. Parties are forbidden. We live in a time of suffocating anxiety. A time of uncertainty. It ...
Finding funding tougher than ever Almost eight months in to the pandemic and many startups are still fighting to survive. Finding funding has become harder in an era the New York Times calls “The Great Unwinding.” But not every startup is succumbing to a bleak fate. Some have shown unique strategies for attaining funding. Here, ...
Working remotely While most of the country is still in quarantine mode, some states have started to open up. Even still, businesses have learned a lot about their operations during their shutdown. Some companies are opting to continue operations virtually; having employees working remotely. Many companies have come to the realization that remote work offers ...
Reopening during COVID As startups venture into uncharted waters, founders might tremble at the thought of unpredictability. The future for startups was clearer six months ago. Now, in post-COVID America, small businesses are left out in the cold. Confused and alone. What safety protocols do we need to implement? What’s a smart way to re-open ...
Repurposing operations Companies nationwide are repurposing operations to help America overcome the pandemic. Let’s take a look at why repurposing is important and how it helps an entire country. Sometimes in sports, a new player will join the team. Sometimes that player is so good, we consider them a superstar. Someone that can do almost ...
Startups struggling during pandemic There are startups struggling to keep their heads above the deluge of a pandemic-induced depression. Between 2016 and 2018, the global startup economy generated over $3 trillion. A far cry from today’s economic value. Today, startups struggle to keep operations running during the pandemic. Web companies throughout Europe have lost close ...
Virtual call of duty When we last covered ways to make the most of your virtual call, there were some tidbits that we didn’t go over. Here, we’ll cover these tips to give you a more comprehensive understanding of just how you can maximize your virtual experience in the age of quarantine. Is your webcam ...
COVID-19 PPE usage Although PPE usage is second nature to PIs, it’s worth reiterating some important points. Especially now that we’ve found ourselves in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we’ll take a look at some common PPE questions. We will refer to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as our source for answering ...
Face mask usage Last week, Houston Judge Lina Hidalgo announced an order that would mandate Houstonians wear face masks for the next 30 days or else face a fine of up to $1,000. While this order drew its share of criticism, it sparked interest in the effectiveness of masks and face mask usage in general. ...
The rise of virtual meetings Even in the pre-pandemic world, more employees were working remotely in America than ever before. Participating in virtual meetings is the norm, at least for now. The shift came rather abruptly. Millions of Americans had only a few days to make the transition. People are now working on laptops where ...
Fighting COVID-19 Fighting COVID-19 has become priority number one for everyone, everywhere. As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the nation’s economy, startup companies are now feeling those effects. Startup layoffs and furloughs have begun to take place en masse. Startups have reached a point where they are worried about demand for their services ...
Startup killers Startup killers destroy 90% of companies that aspire to be the next big thing in tech and science. But before we dive into that, let’s start by looking at a connection between our fascination with real life killers and those that kill startups. It’s no secret that one of the biggest “guilty pleasures” ...
Non-dilutive funding For the uninitiated, non-dilutive funding is financing where you don’t have to resort to selling a share of your startup. There are myriad benefits to using these non-dilutive resources. As James Taylor (not the folk singer of Fire and Rain fame), writer for Nature Biotechnology, put it, “Non-dilutive funds offer startup founders the ...
When to launch a startup? The reality is that there is never really a right time to launch a startup. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t indicators worth looking at to gauge a good time to launch a startup. “It might be that the right time that you are waiting for never actually presents itself. ...
Startup Hotbed Houston Cowboys use the term ‘giddyup’ to get moving. It’s a way to push horses to get going. And that’s exactly what Houston is doing when it comes to establishing itself as a startup hotbed. They’re a-movin’. Houston’s push to become one of America’s top startup destinations and an all-around startup hotbed is ...
What to know about IP theft Sure, there is a danger in sharing your ideas. There is always a risk of intellectual property theft. But that’s not what cripples entrepreneurs from moving forward. It’s the fear itself that keeps entrepreneurs from growing their company and sharing their ideas. They hear horror stories of IP theft ...
Startup budgeting for beginners According to Jean Murray, a business professor at Palmer College where she taught business startup and finance, the most important thing an entrepreneur must meet head on is budgeting. Startup budgeting is important because it allows you to make an educated guess as to what your expected income and expenses will ...
The best city isn’t always your city Choosing the best city for your startup can mean the difference between success and closing up shop prematurely. It’s important to think outside your home city for a startup launch because your home city may not have the ecosystem set up for your particular startup. If you give ...
Intro to the lean method There are few things riskier than launching a new business. You could run through a mine field and have a better chance at living than launching a successful, long-lasting business. In fact, the Harvard Business School even reported that three out of every four startups fail. Fortunately, a new process ...
Personality traits in leaders It’s no secret that every successful business leader has multiple personality traits. It seems everyone has a fantasy about starting a business. “I’d open up a record store.” “I’d sell my famous meatball sandwiches my family loves so much.” “I would totally own a comic book shop.” In fact, according to ...
Why should your startup pivot? Imagine your startup is getting ready to present its product to the world at a tech exhibit. Right before you present, another company shows off their own product. And it’s just like yours in every way. Is all lost for your company? No. Because now is the time where you ...
Startup design matters If you want a work environment conducive to a nice flow of ideas, creativity, freethinking, and finding a work groove, then your startup design and workspace matter. When it comes to a startup’s office design, you want to create spaces with a purpose. You need to be certain what you want with ...
There’s something happening on the UH campus. Just over the freeway, on the other side of the tracks, there’s a part of UH that is setting Houston’s tech and science world aflame. The Technology Bridge. A place where academia meets the market thanks to a program designed to connect both worlds: the Connectivity Program. The ...
Kardashians over the cosmos, sports over science, memes over medical breakthroughs, dragons over discoveries; the American public is the neglectful parent that can’t take their eye off the big game while their bespectacled, bright-eyed daughter is trying to show them the A+ she got on her science project. In a world where most Americans don’t ...
On the southeast corner of the University of Houston campus resides one of the most highly lauded, well-run animal facilities in the country: Animal Care Operations (ACO). Particularly renowned for how efficiently it is managed and maintained, ACO recently received continued accreditation through the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International. ...
Remote work by the numbers According to the State of Remote Work 2017 report, over 60% of engineers working in product development work remotely about once a week. That’s 20% more than average. The report also sheds light on why startup settings are particularly ideal for working remotely. The report found that small businesses are ...
Board meetings can be taxing on CEOs. Think about it. You’re standing in front of a group of suits that can fire you on the spot if they feel you’re underperforming. You’re out in the open. Naked. Vulnerable. Insecurities exposed for all to see. One wrong move and you could be back on the bread ...
Importance of the investor pitch Pitching to a venture capitalist is not only the most challenging part of building a startup, it’s also the most important. You can have the next pet rock idea, but nobody will ever experience it and you’ll never make a dime if the genius of this product cannot be expressed ...
BERT update background On October 24th, Google rolled out their Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, or BERT. To save time and lots of money, we will go with BERT. Questions immediately sprang of how this new update will affect local searches, small businesses, and startups that make their earnings at least partly due to an ...
It’s All in the Pitch During your pitch, investors will be looking to see what your startup’s value proposition is. What can you offer that your competitors cannot? Imagine if you will, your startup develops a watch that can detect when you’re about to have a heart attack, and automatically sends an alert with your ...
One of the most common questions that pops up in startup circles is, “Why did they turn me down?” There are myriad reasons why a venture capitalist might turn down pitches and decline funding. Here, I’ll present the three most common. Understanding your business. Einstein once said, “If you cannot explain it to a six-year ...
Why Watch for Investor Red Flags? Venture capitalists give you plenty of reason to be on the look out for investor red flags. In The Parable of the Scorpion and the Frog, the frog entrusts the scorpion not to sting it while it helps the scorpion cross a lake. The scorpion promises not to sting ...
Scalable Compliance Reliance The idea of scalable compliance is that an organization or department maintain efficiency as it grows in size. It is the ability to adjust to an increase in workload by adding resources, like more employees, to the system. Imagine you have a beet patch on a small farm. You’re a regular Dwight ...
What is Public Scholarship? When we talk about public scholarship, we are referring to the various modes of communicating and disseminating knowledge for the public. Science-based startups and companies are eventually going to cross this river. This stream of communication that flows from the mountains of science and tech and pours into the sea of ...
Communicating science So you’re a researcher. Communicating science to a non-scientific audience scares the chemistry out of you. You’ve spent your entire career studying fungiform papillae density. The mere thought of fungiform papillae density gives you a rush that even love cannot provide. You know everything about fungiform papillae density. One day you have an ...
Think of customer churn as a robust balloon, ready to touch the sky as soon as you let go. Every day you hold on to that balloon, air molecules will diffuse through the knot. Your balloon will become flabby. This exodus of air is known in business as a churn. Customer churn is the amount ...
Silicon Valley has been a tech startup paradise for decades. It has been described as the modern day Florence in the Renaissance. Tech gods from Apple and Google to Facebook and Twitter were born here. We can credit Silicon Valley as the birthplace for such world-changing innovations like smartphones, microprocessor chips, Tesla automation, and WIFI-enabled ...
To walk through the valley of death means that death and misery are low points (valleys) in the human experience through which we all must inevitably walk and experience. Although not as morbid, in the world of startup businesses, the valley of death is still grim. It is a low point in your startup’s life ...
There’s a thin line between madness and immorality. This idea of the “mad scientist” has taken on a charming, even glorified perception in popular culture. From the campy portrayal of Nikola Tesla in the first issue of Superman, to Dr. Frankenstein, to Dr. Emmet Brown of Back to the Future, there’s no question Hollywood has ...
Patience Pays Everyone wants to know how to build a startup. Venture capital, hiring employees, marketing, all happen once you’re in the process of actually launching your startup. But nobody ever talks about what needs to happen before you start a startup. What do you have to do to position yourself to be ready to ...
