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- 🔥What's hot in Houston's Innovation Ecosystem this week?
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🚀YC just dropped their hit list of startup ideas…here’s what they’re begging you to build:
1/ Don’t sell shovels. Start digging.
YC wants full-stack AI companies—not vendors. Build an AI-native law firm, not software for lawyers. Be the disruptor, not the assistant.
2/ Designers are the new CEOs.
Code is cheap. Taste is rare. If you’re a designer who can build, you're already halfway to building something people actually want.
3/ The phone is stuck in the '90s.
Voice AI is the trillion-dollar Trojan horse. Whoever nails human-sounding, task-completing phone agents wins the customer service gold rush.
4/ AI for science is a sleeping giant.
Scientific tools are ancient. Inject some LLM magic into chemistry, materials, or biology, and you’ve got Nobel Prize meets startup scale.
5/ Build your own Jarvis.
People don’t want a better to-do list—they want an AI that gets stuff done. The assistant that takes work off your plate wins.
6/ Healthcare's real problem? Paperwork.
$1T is burned on admin drag. AI agents that clean up this mess are like plumbing for the healthcare system—boring but billion-dollar big.
7/ Your tutor just became a transformer.
Education hasn't changed in 100 years. AI tutors can now personalize, entertain, and accelerate learning like never before. This is your Khan Academy moment.
8/ Robots are getting brains.
Hardware is here. The missing piece? Software that lets robots reason, adapt, and act. It’s the ChatGPT moment—just with arms.
9/ AI is coming for the suburbs.
Home security is stuck on motion sensors. YC wants AI that makes homes smart and safe. Think Ring, reimagined.
10/ AI for your team, not just the C-suite.
Every employee should have a custom agent that automates their grunt work. Infrastructure to build internal agents? That’s the OS of future companies.
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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 12
Tuesday, May 13
Roarcon Spring Summit 2025 - Day 1
Wednesday, May 14
Roarcon Spring Summit 2025 - Day 2
Thursday, May 15
Roarcon Spring Summit 2025 - Day 3
Friday, May 16
Saturday, May 17
⚠️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
🚨n8n is a powerful workflow automation platform that blends AI with business process automation—start building smarter workflows today - LINK
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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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