Startup Events in Houston

Kick off Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week in the Ion District! Join founders, investors, corporate leaders, researchers, and innovators from across Houston and beyond as we officially launch a week dedicated to advancing the future of energy and climate innovation. The evening begins with a keynote program featuring leaders from Houston's energy and climate ecosystem who are helping shape what's next for the industry. Following the program, explore the Ion during a building-wide Open House featuring startup showcases, corporate partners, technology demonstrations, and opportunities to connect with the organizations driving innovation across the region. Then head outside for our signature Block Party on the plaza with live music, drinks, bites from Ion District restaurants, and networking with the people building Houston's innovation ecosystem. Whether you're attending Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week for the first time or returning for another year, this is the perfect way to connect, discover, and kick off an exciting week of programming. Schedule 4:30 PM | Check-in 5:00–6:00 PM | Kickoff Program 6:00–8:00 PM | Ion Open House & Block Party

Join us to celebrate the launch of Activate Houston's 2026 Cohort and discover the breakthrough technologies they're building to solve some of the world's biggest challenges. Anning Corporation: Pioneering geologic hydrogen through advanced geoscience and stimulation technologies, creating a scalable low-cost, clean energy Brint Tech: Building optical sensing systems that quantify hydrogen, giving infrastructure operators the data to scale safely and credibly Simora Core: Building rare-earth free, contact-free electric motors with wireless rotors for everything from small appliances to vehicles and heavy industry Nivera: Developing natural composite coatings and packaging materials that reduce food waste and sustainably extends the shelf life of fresh food Orbital Arc: Creating electric propulsion on a microtrip to power movement in space at an unmatched scale, speed, and cost Renesin: Developing advanced materials that enable faster, more efficient AI hardware Selerra Separations: Engineering high-performance membranes that cut the cost and energy consumption of water treatment without compromising durability or water quality SwieNitro Recovery: Transforming nitrogen-rich waste streams into valuable fertilizer through a low-energy ammonia recovery platform Also, learn more about our C25 cohort: Biosimo: Enabling the chemical industry's net-zero transition by replacing fossil-based essential chemicals with identical quality ones made from bio-ethanol Brightlight Photonics: Replacing tabletop laser systems with chip-scale titanium:sapphire lasers—bringing lab-grade performance to quantum technologies, diagnostics, and advanced manufacturing in a package that’s 100x smaller and cheaper Deep Anchor Solutions: Compact anchor making offshore energy viable in new and remote markets worldwide by enabling faster, cheaper deployment of floating renewables FlowCellutions: Chemistry-agnostic diagnostics for grid-scale batteries KIRA: Reimagining desalination expanding access t

Back by popular demand—join us for the THIRD annual New Climate Ventures Afterparty, a can't-miss evening of informal mingling during Houston Energy + Climate Startup Week. We're taking it outdoors this year for an open-air night of drinks, music, and unfiltered connection at Axelrad, a short walk from the Ion and Greentown Labs. (Don’t worry - there’s cover if it rains). No panels. Just cold drinks, food, and good vibes with the people building the future of energy + climate tech. Featured Startups: XGS Energy Nxlite Mariana Minerals Helix Earth Dimensional Energy Syzygy Plasmonics Many thanks to our sponsors, led by Stifel with special thanks to Fluor, H&C Search, Goodwin & Energytech Cypher for their continued sponsorship support. Also, thank you to our global ecosystem partner Investors 4 Climate and our Texas ecosystem partner Crowley Capital. Finally, thank you to the partners organizing HECSW: Greentown Labs, Houston Energy Transition Initiative, Rice Alliance, Activate, Halliburton Labs, The Ion, and TEX-E. Stay tuned for more exciting updates over the coming weeks!

Networking and check in are from 11:30am - 12pm Lunch and presentation are from 12pm - 1pm

The first ever AITX Community Hackathon in Houston! Work solo or in a team of up to four. You can bring your own idea, find teammates when you arrive, or choose from one of our prompts. Build an app, agent, developer tool, automation or something completely unexpected. Supabase is sponsoring the hackathon and can be used as the backend for your project, but there is no required theme or stack. Every team will submit its project online. Judges will select the top three winners, who will present their projects to the room. Schedule Saturday 19 9:00 am - Doors Open 10:00 am - Kick off & team matching 10:30 am - Hack 12:00 pm - Lunch 12:30 pm - Hacking 7:00 pm - Submissions 8:30 pm - Final announcements Thank you to our Partners for supporting this event! Supabase - Supabase is the easy-to-use, open-source managed Postgres with integrated backend services. It is an all-in-one suite with Database, Auth, Storage, Edge Functions, Realtime, and Vector search. Use one or all. Build in a weekend. Scale to millions. Media Partners Rocket Network - Connecting Houston's startup community.

Step into the world of aesthetics while elevating your personal brand. Headshots & Happy Hour II: The Aesthetic Social is more than a networking event—it’s an immersive experience designed for healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, content creators, and students who are ready to look, learn, and level up. Hosted by @TheeNomadNurse in partnership with River Oaks Galleria Med Spa, this one-of-a-kind event blends luxury, wellness, and professional branding into an unforgettable evening. Whether you’re already in aesthetics or exploring it as your next career move, Headshots & Happy Hour II was designed with you in mind. 💉 Aesthetic Education Sessions ($1,200 Value) One of the biggest highlights of the evening is access to our aesthetic education classes. If you’ve been curious about transitioning into aesthetic nursing or expanding your clinical skill set, this is your opportunity to learn from experienced professionals in the field. Comparable aesthetic education programs can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars , and individual trainings are often $1,200 or more . Your ticket gives you access to these educational sessions as part of the event, making this an incredible opportunity to network, ask questions, and explore the aesthetics specialty before investing in more extensive training. Your ticket also includes: 📸 Professional Headshot Experience ( $500 Value ) 💉 Aesthetic Education Sessions ( $1,200 Value ) 🎁 Curated Swag Bag ( $50 Value ) 🥂 Signature Cocktails 🍴 Light Bites 📷 360 Photo Booth Experience 🤝 Networking with healthcare and aesthetic professionals 🛍️ Vendor Marketplace & Exclusive Giveaways ✨ Content Creation Opportunities 🎉 Plus, every ticket is automatically entered into our Grand Prize Raffle! We’re giving away an incredible surprise prize to one lucky attendee, and we’ll be revealing it soon. Stay tuned—you don’t want to miss this announcement! Over $1,875 in Total Value Your Investment: Only $150 (or BOGO for $200) Learn. Network. Elevate your

The Houston Hackathon is September 25. This is your head start. Join the Houston Claude Community for a hands-on ideation night. This isn't a talk about ideas — it's a working session where you take a rough idea all the way to a real, buildable MVP, using Claude as your thinking partner. Bring your own idea, or work from a civic prompt tied to the hackathon. Here's the journey we'll run together: — Idea → concept: sharpen a rough idea into something real — Concept → problem statement: get brutally clear on the problem and who has it — Problem → MVP: define the smallest thing actually worth building — MVP → visual design: watch an idea become something you can see Everyone starts on the same path using a free Claude account — nothing to install. If you have Claude Pro, you'll keep going into Claude Design and turn your MVP into a real visual design in the room. If you're on the free version, you'll walk out with a complete idea-to-MVP plan and see exactly what Design makes possible. You'll leave with a process you can use at the hackathon on the 25th — or for any idea you want to get off the ground quickly. What to bring: — Your laptop, charged — A free Claude account (claude.ai) — that's all you need to fully participate — Optional: if you have Claude Pro, you'll be able to build along in Claude Design. Not required to join. — A rough idea, if you've got one (or use ours) Doors open at 6:00 PM. Program runs 6:30–8:00 PM. This is the final event in our summer series leading into the Houston Hackathon on September 25, in partnership with Impact Hub Houston. Come ready to build.

Nomad Global Hub brings together builders, founders, and tech professionals for a night of curated networking and high-impact startup pitches. With a track record of 235+ events across 23 global cities worldwide, we have welcomed over 5,000 attendees and featured 1,200+ startup pitches on our stages. We intentionally keep our meetups intimate because the best partnerships happen in focused, high-quality conversations, not in loud, overcrowded halls. What to Expect Live Tech Startup Pitches : Watch selected early-stage founders present AI & Tech projects followed by sharp audience Q&A. High-Quality Networking: Connect with a hand-picked audience of founders, investors, engineers, and tech leaders who value substance over small talk. Global Exposure: Join a community that bridges 23 tech hubs worldwide , providing you with a network that extends far beyond a single city. Who Should Join Founders & Co-Founders looking for peers, feedback, investors and collaborators. Tech Professionals & Builders seeking a high-quality community. Ambitious Individuals ready to dive into the AI & Startup ecosystem. For Investors Active investors and VC partners are welcome to join the event and scout for early-stage talent, meet other investors, and see what teams are building. To access the startup database, please fill out the Investor Application Form and ensure you have purchased a ticket. For Pitching Startups Selected startups gain live stage time and visibility within our global network among our database of investors. Purchase a Speaker Ticket to pitch, submit your Pitch Deck and ensure it is accessible for viewers. Nomad Global Hub | 235+ Events | 23 Cities I nomadglobalhub.com Note: To support our venue partner, we kindly encourage every guest to purchase at least one drink at the bar during the event.

Houston has capital. So what’s going on? A Problem Lab examining the journey from promising company to first meaningful check. Houston is home to significant private wealth, family offices, corporations, angel investors, venture funds, universities, accelerators, and an increasingly active startup ecosystem. So where is the disconnect? Is there actually insufficient early-stage capital? Are promising companies struggling to reach the right investors? Are investors struggling to discover credible opportunities? Are ventures reaching investors before they are sufficiently de-risked? Is there a gap in how complex companies are evaluated? Or is everyone waiting for someone else to make the first move? At the next Houston Innovation Commons Problem Lab, we’ll examine the early-stage funding journey from both sides. We’ll first hear directly from founders about what it has actually been like to raise capital in Houston: where they got stuck, what they repeatedly heard from investors, and where momentum broke down. Then we’ll bring together a small group of early-stage investors for a candid conversation about the other side of the equation: what makes them lean in, what prevents them from writing a check, where promising companies fall out of the pipeline, and what they believe is missing from Houston’s funding environment. Together, we’ll explore questions including: Is Houston short on early-stage capital—or inefficient at connecting capital with investable opportunities? Where does the journey from promising company to first check actually break? Why do founders say they can’t access investors while investors say they struggle to find investable companies? What creates—or prevents—investor conviction? Who is willing to make the first bet? What infrastructure, relationships, capabilities, or signals might be missing? The Goal This is not another conversation about how founders can “pitch better,” nor are we starting from the assumption that Houston simply needs more

The inaugural First Principles Tech Talk traces the commercial space economy along its real trajectory — from low Earth orbit to the lunar surface. Megan Ortiz (Axiom Space) opens in orbit: the commercial LEO transition, the infrastructure and workforce Houston is positioned to anchor, and where the real bottlenecks sit. Zach Paugh (Axiom Space) moves to the surface with the AxEMU lunar spacesuit — the engineering constraints of keeping a human alive and working on the Moon, and what the hardware tells you about the true pace of the return. First Principles is a technical series: short, substantive talks and moderated discussion, built for founders, engineers, and operators who reason about hard tech from the ground up rather than the headline down. 5:00–7:00 PM at The Ion, Midtown Houston, with time to connect afterward. Space is limited; RSVP required.

Ready to move beyond basic JavaScript and step into the world of backend development? Join JavaScript HTX for a hands-on workshop where we’ll dive into Node Package Manager (NPM) and build server-side applications using Express.js. Whether you're looking to solidify your understanding of Node.js ecosystem tools or build your first API, this session will give you practical experience with real-world web development patterns. What We’ll Cover: NPM Essentials: Understanding packages, managing dependencies, and working with package.json. Getting Started With Express: Setting up a server from scratch. Routing & Middleware: Handling HTTP requests (GET, POST, etc.) and leveraging Express middleware. Building Functional APIs: Creating clean, structured backend endpoints for web applications. 🛠️ Prerequisites & What to Bring: Knowledge: A basic understanding of modern JavaScript (variables, functions, async/await). Set-up: We will be using GitHub Codespaces. An account at github.com is required. Who Should Attend? Developers, students, self-taught programmers, and hobbyists looking to expand their JavaScript skills into backend web development. All experience levels are welcome, but familiarity with basic JavaScript syntax will help you get the most out of this session! Come code, learn, and connect with the Houston JS community. See you there! Don't forget to fill out our community survey to let us know what full-stack topics, tools, and challenges you want to tackle next!

Flat Fee, Advice Only, and Hourly Financial Planners (or those interested in being one) are meeting up in Houston, Texas!