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July 1By Comments OffRead more...

Innovator Spotlight: Dr. Vanessa Bouche of Savhera

Let’s start with the basics...What are essential oils?   " Essential oils are the essence of a plant. You grow a plant, fruit, or vegetable, and you can extract various things from it. You can extract the water or oil from it. It is the very highly concentrated essences of some fruit or herbs or plant that you receive. " Savhera has had a fascinating history from its inception. What started as a question challenging Dr. Bouche became a personal mission to make a difference. “I am a professor of political science at TCU, and I have been doing research on the issue of human trafficking for over a decade. I was leading a study abroad trip in India on transnational human trafficking. We were sitting in the red-light district at a medical clinic one year when a woman that happened to be...

June 21By Comments OffRead more...

Fort Worth’s First African-American Entrepreneur

What if I told you that there was an incredible entrepreneur, right here in Fort Worth, who was a trailblazer, an inspiration, and a guide to so many entrepreneurs after him? What if I told you that this man overcame incredible adversity and tragedies that we will never be able to understand or imagine? What if I told you this incredible man beat the odds and ‘made it’ in Fort Worth? No, I’m not talking about Amon Carter or some other big names you might know. I’m talking about John Pratt. Chances are you've never heard of him. Thanks to the archives of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, websites on local history, and some...

June 10By Comments OffRead more...

Innovate Fort Worth Podcast: Favorite FW Innovators, Part III

Fort Worth is full of innovation and innovators. The Innovate Fort Worth podcast was launched in 2019 to provide a platform for those local innovators to tell their stories and share their latest projects with our community. At the end of each episode the host, Cameron Cushman, asks each guest who their favorite innovator is in Fort Worth. We compiled a list of our guests’ favorite local innovators.  Be sure to check out the favorite innovators for episodes 1-21 here. Episode 22: Kevin Henry is the founder and CEO of Accountable, a company that is easing HIPAA training for employees Favorite Fort Worth Innovator: Energy and Real Estate Innovators “Fort Worth in an amazing city for business and entrepreneurship. I think you see that particularly...

June 3By Comments OffRead more...

Innovator Spotlight: Tamara Payne of Ensemble Coworking

Burleson City Councilwoman and co-founder of Ensemble Coworking, Tamara Payne, sat down with the Innovate Fort Worth team during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020 to discuss her entrepreneurial adventure and her love for the Fort Worth entrepreneurial ecosystem. Here are some highlights of that discussion. Before serving on the city council and before starting her coworking space, Tamara went to school to study communications. She worked at a few television stations and then veered into marketing when she decided she wanted to start a family and the stress of working was not making that easy. “I had a couple of years of a difficult pregnancy and had miscarried twice and I was trying to get pregnant. I knew that if I was going to do...

May 20By Comments OffRead more...

Texas Startup Indicators: 2020 Update

Early Stage Capital Slips Again Fort Worth-based startup companies raised $13 million in early stage capital in 2020. If that sounds low, it’s because it is, especially when compared to other large Texas cities and to the nation as a whole. In fact, while the United States set a 10 year high for most capital invested ($148B), Fort Worth actually slipped in its funding efforts, raising $4 million less than our previous five-year average of $17 million per year. In the past, we’ve looked at early-stage capital raised in Texas’s largest cities. This time we are taking a look at 2020’s updated...

May 5By Comments OffRead more...

Innovator Spotlight: Elyse Dickerson of Eosera

Elyse Dickerson, a guest on the Innovate Fort Worth podcast, saw a market need of ear wax impaction. On her podcast episode, Ear Space, she tells the story of Eosera came to be and how she worked on remedying this unmet medical need after a 13-year career in biotech. “When I left it was in early 2015 and I had been exploring mentoring startup companies in the years leading up to 2015. I really got inspired through the Health Wildcatters in Dallas, working with some of their companies and seeing the progress they were making and the opportunities. So, when I left, I thought, you know what? I think I should try this.” Elyse and...

April 27By Comments OffRead more...

Making the Most of Your Clubhouse Experience

In our Clubhouse 101 post we shared some of the terminology used in Clubhouse, how to set up your profile and begin getting connected and how to join a room. If you are new to Clubhouse and you didn’t see our previous blog, please check that one out first. Now that you have listened in on a few rooms...let’s get you talking!    Getting started Let’s start with just being in a room. In the hallway, you can see rooms that are actively happening when you open the map. You can jump into any room instantly. Be sure to join a topic that interests you. You are in the audience (I suggest sitting in on a few rooms before you start moderating any rooms...

April 22By Comments OffRead more...

Clubhouse 101

So... what is Clubhouse?   If you have heard of it but are not sure exactly what it is, we are here to help. Through trial and error, we compiled the “need to know” tips for you. Essentially, Clubhouse is a free audio social media application where you can converse in rooms based on interests, while other people can tune into the room and listen. In a COVID world, the app that lets you hear another person’s voice and network with people you typically would not have the opportunity to. No wonder it took off in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial communities, and eventually, piquing the interest of big-name celebrities, like Oprah, Elon Musk, and Chris Rock. But first, a warning. Currently, the app is still in beta stages,...