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- 🔥What's hot in Houston's Innovation Ecosystem this week?
🔥What's hot in Houston's Innovation Ecosystem this week?
5/26/25 - 6/1/25
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🚨HTX Founders! You’re Invited.
We’re thrilled to bring Founders Live back to Houston on June 3rd – and it’s going to be electric. REGISTRATION - LINK
5 founders
99 seconds each
4 minutes of audience Q&A
Your votes decide the winner
This global pitch competition is unlike anything you’ve seen — fast-paced, founder-first, and filled with energy. Grab your friends, coworkers, or investors and come connect with the people building the next big thing… right here in HOUSTON, Texas.
Thank you to The Ion and Honeycomb Software for supporting this special night.
Hosted by Oleg Lysiak, City Leader
Featuring Nick Hughes, founder of Founders Live
🚀 The Startups Competing
Vinita (A) Gupta – AyeDu – AI-powered wedding planning
Tony Hernandez-Ferman – Omniscale – B2B leads for DTC eComm brands
Chris Mullins – AnswerPath – AI-driven RFI management
Sam Bhattacharyya – Katana.video – Zoom to podcast in minutes
Laketta Brooks – TraceWrap – GPS-powered package tracking
Agenda
5:30 PM – Networking + Happy Hour
7:00 PM – Pitches + Q&A
8:00 PM – After-party @ Second Draught
REGISTER - LINK
🎤 Want to pitch next? Apply here
🚨 Startups, Zuck and Llama wants to back you
Meta just dropped the Llama Startup Program — a no-brainer if you're building with generative AI.
What you get:
Up to $6K/month in cloud credits (for 6 months)
Hands-on support from Llama engineers
Early access + resources to help you ship faster
Who it’s for:
US-based startups with < $10M raised & at least one dev. If you're building in AI (health, fintech, retail, whatever), you're in the zone.
🔥 Appliacation close May 30 — don't sleep on it. - Apply
🚨Apply to the AI Futures Fund by Google
The AI Futures Fund is open to companies anywhere Gemini is available, and we’re looking for startups that want to build the future of AI with us. Is that you? Apply today.

🤓💻
LET'S ROCKET NETWORK!
We are using emojis to guide subscribers in our event list 📅📍
🚀 - must attend
🔥🌶️ - something hot
🤓💻 - good for developers and other technical folks
🦄💰- venture capital and investing-related
⚡- energy-related
♻️- renewable energy and sustainability-related
🏥 - health care related
🎖️🪖 - veteran or military related
🏅 - sports tech related
₿ - web3 related

HERE ARE OUR PICKS FOR THIS WEEK
Monday, May 26

Tuesday, May 27
Greater Houston Business Procurement Breakfast
AI Agents: Your Business on Autopilot - Online
Nonprofit Startup Organization Meet-up / EVERY TUESDAY & FREE TO ATTEND - Online
🚀🔥🌶️FI Houston Graduation: Meet the New Portfolio Companies (In-Person)
Wednesday, May 28
🚀Space City Bootstrappers Monthly Hang
Thursday, May 29
Friday, May 30
🌶️🦄💰Cup of Capital
Saturday, May 31
⚠️Hosting a tech meetup or startup event? Submit it via the RocketNetwork Event Submission Form to boost your visibility!
HOPEFULLY, USEFUL LINKS
🚨BANKING FOR YOUR STARTUP + Free AWS Credits - LINK
🚨Master The Art of Crafting a Pitch Deck That Gets You Funded - LINK00 Global’s Flagship Accelerat
🚨Power your growth with $25,000 -APPLY LINK
🚨PITCH at FOUNDERS LIVE - APPLY
🚨PITCH at SOFTWARE DAY AT THE ION - APPLY
🚨THE LAUNCH Accelerator - APPLY (SPRING COHORT)
🚨Apply for up to $100K equity-free funding and one year of mentoring from Unicef - LINK
🚨Snowflake startup challenge! (receive up to $1 million in investments from Snowflake, mentorship from industry leaders at NYSE-listed companies) - APPLY
🚨Invest in Houston's first community-owned food-maker hub - LINK
🚨Everything They Teach at YCombinator in just 10 Minutes
🚨Black Founders Fund by Google - Register your interest
🚨Greater Houston Support Stack Program by Impact Hub Houston - Participant Form
🚨YC Requests for Startups - LINK
🚨AI Voice Agents: 2025 Update - LINK
🚨$100,000 For Researchers, Builders and Creatives - LINK
🚨Apply to Startup Battlefield - APPLY
🚨Win up to $10,000 in cash & prizes! Will you accept The Challenge? Entries are open April 7 - June 15 - APPLY
🚨Apply to Tech Stars - APPLY
🚨Receive 500 bonus flex credits from Windsurf - LINK
🚨Develop skills to raise your first $1M for your ⚡energytech startup Application open until May 4th, 2025 Its free to apply. - APPLY
🚨Perplexity for Startups - Apply
🚨n8n is a powerful workflow automation platform that blends AI with business process automation—start building smarter workflows today - LINK
🚨Meta just dropped the Llama Startup Program — a no-brainer if you're building with generative AI. - Appliacation close May 30 - Apply
🚨Apply to the AI Futures Fund - Apply

FEATURED EVENTS
FEATURED JOBS
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That’s a wrap for now, RocketNetworkers,
Stay tuned, and keep grinding!
Disclaimer: The content in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by any sponsors. All opinions and information are those of the author and not of the sponsors or affiliated organizations.
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