šŸ”„ What’s hot in Houston’s innovation scene this week?

3/9/26 - 3/15/26

In partnership with

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P.S. — If you're in Houston, join us on Wednesday for SaaStack Local Houston. The topic: "Is AI Killing SaaS?"

Free drinks. Networking before and after. And the kind of conversation that usually only happens behind closed doors.

Come learn how to get discounted tickets to the full SaaStock USA conference.

REGISTER HERE šŸ‘‰ [LINK] Use promo code "rocketnetwork" for 50% OFF

March 10th: The Panel Houston's SaaS Scene Needs Right Now

Karen Gutierrez — CIO, HCA Healthcare 22 years in HealthTech. Board member at Latinas in Tech. Advisor at the Texas Medical Center Innovation HealthTech Accelerator. This is someone who's been making enterprise technology decisions at one of the largest healthcare companies on the planet — not tweeting about it. When she talks about what AI is actually changing in SaaS buying behavior, she's pulling from real procurement decisions that affect thousands of clinicians. That's the perspective you can't get from a podcast.

Vivek Dixit — Investor, Entrepreneur, C-Suite Leader 25+ years of global tech leadership. CTO, CIO, SVP of Products — he's held the roles at Oracle, Gartner, and Cognizant. Sits on multiple boards. Works directly with startup founders. The thing that makes Vivek dangerous on a panel like this? He's seen it from every angle — building large-scale systems AND guiding investment thesis. So when the question is "Is AI killing SaaS?" — he's the guy who can tell you what's actually happening to software economics AND what the money is doing about it.

Mark Scott — Founder & CTO, Sozala.ai Co-founded multiple venture-backed startups. Helped raise over $15M from angel through Series A+. Built and scaled SaaS platforms for enterprise clients across North America, Europe, and Asia. Led products from concept to production serving thousands of users in logistics, supply chain, and financial services. Now at Sozala.ai, he's leading real-world Agentic SDLC adoption — reshaping how software products are designed, built, and delivered. This isn't theory. This is someone who's been in the code AND the cap table.

David Williamson — SVP Engineering, Quorum Software 17 years at Quorum. Let that sink in. From consultant to SVP of Engineering — leading multiple product engineering teams, scaling globally (including building new teams in India), driving SRE and DevOps initiatives, and running acquisition integrations. He founded their annual global hackathon. When you hear "scaling SaaS platforms, teams, and execution" — David's not reading that off a slide. He's lived every painful, unglamorous moment of making enterprise SaaS actually work at scale.

See you there!

GOING TO SXSW? Check this out:

1) VIP Insider's Guide by Marc Nathan : LINK

2) HOUSTON SXSW Whats’s up group: LINK

3) LUMA SXSW: LINK

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Cheers,
- oleg šŸ‘Š

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 šŸ“…šŸ“

šŸš€ - must attend

šŸ”„šŸŒ¶ļø - something hot

šŸ¤“šŸ’» - good for developers and other technical folks

šŸ¦„šŸ’°- venture capital and investing-related

⚔- energy-related

ā™»ļø- renewable energy and sustainability-related

šŸ„ - health care related

šŸŽ–ļøšŸŖ– - veteran or military related 

šŸ… - sports tech related

₿ - web3 related


HERE ARE OUR PICKS FOR HTX THIS WEEK

Tuesday, March 10


šŸš€Cup of JoeY | Puttery featuring the HRVCC

Token Talk: Houston - AI & Crypto Policy Landscape


šŸš€šŸ”„SaaStock Local Houston | Is AI killing SaaS (USE PROMOCODE - ā€œrocketnetworkā€ for 50% OFF)

Friday, March 13

šŸš€Ion Networking with Cup of Joey

Saturday, March 14

Chill! Go to the rodeo! =)🤠

šŸ‘‰šŸ“…ROCKET NETWORK HTX CALENDAR šŸ“…šŸ‘ˆ

šŸ‘‰ROCKET NETWORK DEALSšŸ‘ˆ

āš ļøHosting a tech meetup or startup event? Submit it via the RocketNetwork Event Submission Form to boost your visibility!

šŸ‘‰Entry Level Tech Jobs - LINK

šŸ‘‰Energy Community and Energy Tech Jobs - LINK

šŸ‘‰The Biggest Free Remote Job Board in North America - LINK

šŸ‘‰Soft Skills-Focused Interviews for Better Hiring Decisions - LINK

šŸ‘‰Start your targeted job search today with AI - LINK

That’s a wrap for now, RocketNetworkers,

Stay tuned, and keep grinding!

ā¤ļø - ROCKET NETWORK TEAM

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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