Featured Entrepreneur

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...

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...

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...

Social Entrepreneurs are Taking Over Fort Worth!

Social Enterprises are taking over Fort Worth. As more consumers decide to make conscientious purchases, entrepreneurs are creating companies with their values in mind. So what is social enterprise? Well, it is kind of hard to define. According to www.socialenterprise.us, a social enterprise is “Organizations that address a basic unmet need or solve a social or environmental problem through a market-driven approach.” Fort Worth has many  local social entrepreneurs who are building companies to solve our most pressing issues. Whether it is striving to reduce waste, providing meaningful employment, or leading a  wave of innovators and changemakers, read how local entrepreneurs...

3 Lessons from a PeopleFund Borrower

PeopleFund is a CDFI = Community Development Financial Institution and is a non-profit lender. A CDFIs’ goal is to broaden economic opportunity by providing access to financial services. CDFIs provide a range of financial products, like mortgages for low-income and first-time home buyers and commercial loans for small businesses (PeopleFund). About 1,000 CDFIs are in operation across the country. One of the amazing things about CDFIs is that they offer technical assistance and training programs to small businesses to help them get started and grow sustainably. Some offer mentoring and advisory services (That’s ME!).  We know that learning and growth requires support. To apply for financing, small-business owners...

Innovator Spotlight: Kevin Henry of Accountable

Meet Kevin Henry, the CEO and founder of Accountable, the “TurboTax” of  HIPAA compliance training, and possibly the only TechStars accelerator alum in Fort Worth. Innovate Fort Worth podcast interviewed Kevin Henry and here is what you need to know! But what is HIPAA, why is it important and how can you build a company around it? “Basically it's the law that governs protected health information. Anyone dealing in the healthcare space that might be touching protected health information has to comply with what is known as HIPAA. HIPAA stands for health insurance portability and accountability act and it's really made up...

Innovator Spotlight: EJ Carrion of 817 Podcast and Student Success Agency

Student Success Agency EJ  was a first-generation college student and got the opportunity to attend college through the Bill Gates Scholarship. He now uses his experiences to support low-income students from over two-hundred schools across the country by providing free tutoring through his organization, the Student Success Agency. “I was the oldest of two and experiencing it myself as a first gen kid really got me passionate. When kids are doing their homework, dealing with some challenges or trying to apply to a scholarship, that's oftentimes after school. This means your college advisors are no longer available, counselors no longer available,...

Innovate Fort Worth Podcast: Favorite FW Innovators, Part II

Fort Worth is full of innovation and innovators. The Innovate Fort Worth 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 thought it would be fun to compile a list of these innovators favorite local innovators. The first 10 episodes of favorite innovators can be found on a previous blog post, Innovate FW Podcast: Favorite FW Innovators. Episode 11: Sherlye Gillihan is the CEO of CauseLabs, a...