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Hola Rocket Networkers,
I’m pleased to announce…that
BIKETOBERFEST 2026 IS ON THE CALENDAR
Bikes. Beer. Block party. A few hundred Houstonians who'd rather ride through Midtown than sit through another panel.
Thursday, October 1 @ 5:30 PM
The Ion, 4201 Main Street
We're kicking off Biketober... Houston's unofficial bike month... with an after-work ride followed by good times on the Ion Plaza. Registration is open now.
Free to attend. Every dollar raised goes straight to local nonprofits. Not overhead, not a vague "community fund." Actual organizations doing actual work!
Want to sponsor? Hit reply. We've got room for brands that want their logo in front of Houston's founders, operators, and investors while doing something that matters.
Bring your bike. Bring a friend.
If you care about building a business and creating impact (instead of picking one), clear your calendar. Lumino is launching, and they're doing it big.
Illuminate 2026 — two days at The Ion.
Day 1 — The Launch Experience | Thu, Aug 27 | 8 AM–5 PM
This isn't a conference, it's a launch. Three keynote acts — Past, Present, Future — tracing Lumino's story and where Local Conscious Commerce is headed. Live platform demos, industry breakouts, speakers across AI, payments, health, and nonprofit innovation. Closes with a happy hour with the first-floor restaurant partners.
Day 2 — Global Impact Partner Day & Breakfast | Fri morning at The Ion
The personal close to Illuminate. Coffee at 8, seated breakfast at 8:30, then a live recording of Talks with Big Z — Lumino CEO Zachry "Big Z" Godfrey and guests on how everyday commerce becomes measurable community impact. Creator and partner conversations plus nonprofit tabling until 11. Breakfast's on them.
Grab your spot here.
And… as always, don’t forget to check the 💰 MONEY ON THE TABLE section!
cheers,
- oleg 👊
P.S. Know a Texas company doing something insane? hit reply.
Got a founder friend who needs to hear this? forward them this email. let's raise Houston's tech game together.
At Rocket Network, we do the dirty work for you, curating Houston's tech scene so you spend less time scrolling and more time building. Want to be featured or sponsor? Hit reply.
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 HTX THIS WEEK
Monday, August 17
Five-day virtual crash course from the Gulf Coast Consortia on moving cancer therapeutics to market, with speakers from TMC Innovation, the Greater Houston Partnership and UTMB. Runs through Friday.
Tuesday, August 18
Sesh’s monthly morning meetup for women building businesses. Friends welcome too.
Lunchtime session on why leadership, not technology, is the real competitive advantage at high-growth companies.
Founders, funders and operators unwinding in the Heights. Strict zero-pitching policy, just real conversation.
PyHou is back. Brian Newman walks a real invoice-processing build from messy document to typed output, and shows where an LLM earns its keep versus where plain Python should stay in charge. Lightning talks after.
Ashish Tripathi on getting past copy-paste prompting and building an actual AI operating system for discovery, strategy and customer insight. For PMs, founders and analysts.
Wednesday, August 19
Morning coffee and connections for mission-driven entrepreneurs, Bay Area edition.
The west-side satellite of Houston’s favorite founder coffee.
First edition of Evening Rounds, a new monthly healthcare innovation gathering on the signals, stories and opportunities shaping healthcare.
Agile Leadership Network Houston on what actually happens when AI lands inside delivery teams. Planning, testing, knowledge management, governance, and where human judgment still wins.
Thursday, August 20
Wade Pinder runs ten back-to-back 50-minute sessions covering the whole founder journey in one day. Drop in for one or stay for all ten.
Houston AI Club and Google go deep on agentic AI and LLMs. Technical talks, Q&A and networking, food included.
Rice’s Office of Technology Transfer teams up with Baylor and Houston Methodist to launch a monthly series connecting university innovations with founders and investors. August focus: digital health.
Monthly gathering for Linux pros and the Linux-curious. Trends, training and networking.
Friday, August 21
The Friday flagship. Start your Friday with Houston’s founder community.
Free monthly peer group for entrepreneurs running 10-to-250-person companies on EOS. Training, problem solving and networking.
South Loop Ventures and investor Clarence Bethea on the psychology behind investor yes and no. $34 gets you five hours, lunch and a year of the What VCs Won’t Say course.
Wade Pinder walks a live mind map of who funds, mentors and builds in Houston. A great first stop if you’re new to the scene.
The weekly founder roundtable right after Cup of Joey. Bring your ask.
⚠️Hosting a tech meetup or startup event? Submit it via the RocketNetwork Event Submission Form to boost your visibility!
MONEY ON THE TABLE
(This section doesn't exist on the web. It's for subscribers only. Feel free to forward — your friend just has to subscribe to get it weekly.)
Startup World Cup, Tulsa Regional Pitch in Tulsa on September 24 for a shot at the global finale in San Francisco and its $1,000,000 investment prize. Any industry, any stage, based anywhere, and the regional winner gets a $5,000 travel stipend. Applications close August 20, so move fast - APPLY |
The Amber Grant Three $10,000 grants go to women-owned businesses every single month, and past winners range from bakers to scientific inventors. Heads up: there is a $15 application fee. This round closes August 31 - APPLY |
HerRise Microgrant $1,000 every month for a business that is at least 51% women-owned with under $1M in revenue, built for under-resourced women entrepreneurs. $15 fee. Closes August 31 - APPLY |
SXSW Pitch 2027 The Austin stage where alumni have gone on to raise over $22 billion. Launched after January 2024 and raised under $10 million? You qualify. Early bird entry is $105 through September 13, then the price jumps - APPLY |
Secretsos Small Business Grant $2,500 for a US-registered business run by someone 21 or older. Applications do not roll over between quarters, so get in this one. $15 fee. Closes September 30 - APPLY |
Skip $1K Instant Grants Skip hands $1,000 to US entrepreneurs in drawings that run every few days. No deadline to miss. Enter once and keep rolling into the next round - APPLY |
Claude for Startups Free Claude API credits and priority rate limits for startups under four years old with institutional backing. No equity taken and no deadline. Apply any time - APPLY |
Ganas Ventures, $100K Checks Lolita Taub writes $100K pre-seed and seed checks into community-driven startups across the US and Latin America. This one is an investment, not a grant, and the pitch form is open to everyone. No warm intro needed - PITCH |
28+ VC Funds for Early-Stage Founders Raising right now? Lucas Pols put together a free list of 28+ funds writing early-stage checks, sorted by focus from AI and deeptech to CPG and climate. Bookmark it before your next outreach sprint - VIEW THE LIST |
THIS GOT ME 🤣🤣🤣💀💀💀
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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