FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021

THIS WEEK
Here are the Most Popular Stories on Dallas Innovates   

⓵ Southern Dallas’ Redbird Mall Revitalization Brings Access, Talent, and Purchasing Power to the Area

⓶  Hunt Energy Network’s New Venture Will Put 50 Batteries Across Texas, Giving ERCOT a Portfolio of Energy Generation

North Texas Executive Moves 

• Dallas entrepreneur joins Blossom Street Ventures
• Transwestern adds three experts to Dallas' Healthcare Advisory Team
• Kanarys makes a series of leadership moves
• The DEC Network announces a fiduciary board chairman
• MoneyGram selects a new chief operating officer

Need to Know

⟫ CLEAN GREEN: A Richardson clean energy startup has fresh funding to develop tech that supports decarbonization. Skyven Technologies will split a $3 million award with five companies. The startup, founded in 2013 by Arun Gupta (above), creates clean energy systems in the industrial sector. The award was announced yesterday by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as part of $6 million in awards for projects that support the state’s clean energy goals. The awards, which are non-dilutive matching investments, aim to advance innovation to fight climate change. Each company awarded has gotten twice as much or more in qualifying private capital investments. Founder Gupta, an engineer-turned-entrepreneur and thermal energy expert, built the world’s first industrial-grade solar thermal technology which led to the launch of Skyven.


⟫ EMPOWERING ENTREPRENEURS: SMU’s Cox School of Business has received a $15 million gift to create new tech-equipped collaborative spaces. The gift from Sharoll and Bryan Sheffield will give next-generation CEOs experience in the data-driven environment, along with skills that build trust with customers. “Combined, technology and public trust are critical to supporting our future energy landscapes,” said Bryan Sheffield, who is founder and managing partner of Formentera Partners, in a statement.


⟫ TOP RANKED: Comparably has released its annual rankings of the 50 best engineering and product/design teams to work for. Fort Worth-based Bell Flight lifted off at No. 11 on the engineering list, which included the likes of RingCentral, Amazon, Google, Credit Karma, and Chegg in the top five. Bell Flight was also No. 33 on the product/design list. Winners are based on anonymous employee ratings in the U.S. who rated their departments on Comparably.com between March 2020 and March 2021, reports TechRepublic.


⟫ DLT HUB: The nonprofit Texas Blockchain Council, which promotes the tech's initiatives that growth and benefit Texans, has a new member: Bonifii, a leader in privacy- and security-enhanced digital identity solutions for credit unions. The TBC released a toolkit last month to promote adoption of the technology across the state.
 

⟫ SUSTAINABILITY INVESTING: The EarthX E-Capital Summit, April 28-30, will convene hundreds of investment firms, innovators, startups, established companies, industry leaders, policymakers, incubators, and accelerators. With a new administration comes new opportunities, the group says. EarthX partnered with the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), one of the country’s leading clean technology incubators from UT Austin on the virtual summit, which is free thanks to a generous donor. Want to attend the invitation-only event? Potential participants can fill out the General Invitation Request Form, New Investor Application, or Company Application. 

QUICK HITS

⟫ Who are Robyn and Mark Jones, the Westlake couple who landed on Forbes’ annual billionaires list?  The Joneses founded Westlake-based Goosehead Insurance in 2003 and have an estimated worth of $2.5 billion, per the DMN. (For a look at all the Texans on the list, CultureMap has a rundown.)

⟫ Newly organized blank check company TPG Pace Solutions Corp. announced pricing of a $250 million initial public offering. Per a news release, it's focused on "sponsoring the public listing of a company in any industry that is well positioned to thrive in the public markets."  The TPG Pace Group, a dedicated permanent capital platform, was created in 2015 to sponsor SPACs and other permanent capital solutions for companies. Since then, it's successfully listed five SPACs, completing three transactions and announcing two others. 

⟫ The first-ever NFT digital artwork from a legendary Texas artist is up for auction, per CultureMap Dallas.

Opportunities for Innovators

Browse our curated selection of contests, nominations, pitches, and grants. From entrepreneurs to corporates, creatives to inventors, educators to social innovators, here's a roundup of goodies. Deadlines coming up include:

• Connect Commercial Real Estate’s Next Generation Awards (Today!)
• Fast Company’s Next Big Things In Tech (Today!)
• Kubota’s Hometown Proud Grant Program (April 27)
• The J.M. Kaplan Fund’s 2021 J.M.K. Innovation Prize (April 30)
• Inc. 5000 (April 30)
• The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program (May 27)
• Business Council for the Arts' Obelisk Awards (May 28)
• Texas Pride Impact Funds 2021 Grants Program (May 31)
• TiE Women’s Global Pitch Competition (May 31)
• Mouser’s Create the Future Design Contest (July 1)
• Call for Code Global Challenge (July 31)

PLUS

The editors of our sister publication, D CEO, are once again seeking to profile the most influential North Texas executives in more than 60 business categories. For the 2022 edition of The Dallas 500, which will be released in November, D CEO is searching for leaders—well known and under the radar—who make the regional economy tick. If you’d like to nominate a leader for inclusion, you can do so here by June 30.

Not-to-Miss Events

There are plenty of things to do with your socially distanced time next week. Here are a few from our curated selection for innovators:

• EarthxFilm 2021 (April 16-25)
• The DEC Network Speaker Series | Isaiah Stanback (April 12)
• Dallas Regional Chamber: Talent Attraction Talk (April 13)
• Capital Factory's Black in Tech Summit (April 13, pictured above)
• Sips & Science: The Liminal Collective (April 15)
• Trees: A Prescription for Dallas (April 15)

"It’s so important to feel validated in the work you do and recognize that you deserve your successes and your own seat at the table."

"Do you ever find yourself at work feeling like you don’t belong? Like no matter how much you achieve, you still feel like a fraud?"

You are not alone, says Hasson.

The founder of career development platform DevelopHer, poses these questions because many may be having these feelings as of late. And they could point to evidence of imposter syndrome.

The pandemic's massive workplace disruption—layoffs, furloughs, and the shift to remote—have many employees second-guessing their skills, according to the Wall Street Journal. These feelings can signal imposter syndrome, in which "self-doubts engender fears of being exposed as a fraud despite one’s accomplishments," the publication says.