Revolutionizing Decarbonization at Venture Houston

Timecoded Guide:

[00:00] Podcast starts - Revolutionizing decarbonization at Venture Houston

[01:16] Breaking into venture capital & private equity at Weather Gauge

[08:07] Learning about fund of funds with HX Venture Fund

[13:40] The history behind Venture Houston & Capital Connect 

[21:23] How to make Houston a world-class innovation hub

[26:33] Highlighting speakers & success stories at Venture Houston 

Tell me about HX Venture Fund. What is a fund of funds and why is it important?

HX Venture Fund is in a unique place in the venture community because of the role it fills in-between corporations, venture funds, and portfolio companies. Sandy explains that a fund of funds, which is what HX Venture Fund is, allows for capital from foundations, corporations, and endowments to be invested in only the very best of venture funds and therefore, the best founders. Why this is important for Houston is that there is a heavy emphasis on HX’s part to encourage investment in Houston-based technology and innovations. 

“A fund of funds is unique because it commingles capital from corporations, endowments, and foundations, and then invests that capital in the best venture funds that fit the strategy. Those venture funds then in turn deploy the capital and invest it in startups.” - Sandy Guitar

What is Venture Houston and why did it start? 

Combining efforts with limited partners and stakeholders, HX Venture Fund created the Venture Houston event to encourage meaningful collisions in the Houston venture community. The end result is a yearly event that encourages meetings, discussions, and communication between investors, founders, service providers, and more. Aleece explains that anyone is welcome at Venture Houston as long as they have an interest in accelerating Houston’s tech ecosystem and learning more about digitalization and decarbonization. 

“[Venture Houston] is honestly open to anyone interested in participating in the tech ecosystem, so we have a number of STOs, students, and service providers attending as well. So, really, it's open to all who are interested in participating in Houston's tech ecosystem.” - Aleece Hobson

What is holding Houston back from being a world-class innovation hub? 

Although Houston is rapidly growing and constantly innovating, Sandy believes the risk of software and digitalization is a barrier for some partners and investors. Unlike previous Houston projects based in oil and gas, tech-based fundraising opens up a different set of risks and can be daunting. Even in Softeq’s case, there needs to be continued efforts in de-risking tech investments and encouraging effective conversations between founders and partners.

“I think we have to move along the risk curve towards venture capital, and we are already doing that. And then, we need to bring our founders into that conversation as well so that they can tell their story to limited partners more effectively.” - Sandy Guitar

Looking forward to this year’s Venture Houston, what can attendees look forward to?

While Venture Houston will always be jam-packed with innovators and important speakers, Aleece explains that this year’s event focuses on energy transition, decarbonization, and digitalization. There are founders and investors from a variety of industries coming together to talk about their carbon footprint and net zero goals. Even companies completely unrelated to climate technology need to have these pragmatic discussions about our environment.

“It’s about those founders that have been able to scale here in Houston to showcase why Houston is a destination for innovation. We have several networking breaks throughout the day, capping off with our happy hour to celebrate and also have meaningful conversations.” - Aleece Hobson