Rice reorganizes startup hub with eye to innovation
Station Houston will be absorbed into the Ion, oversee its operations
The Ion, a startup hub being developed by Rice University, is reorganizing its operation as it seeks to attract a wide range of entrepreneurs, innovators, academics and investors to the $100 million project that will anchor its planned innovation district.
The reorganization essentially entails the absorption of another startup hub, Station Houston, which Rice earlier had tapped to oversee programming at the Ion, which will be housed in the former Midtown Sears building. The staff of Station Houston will become part of a new nonprofit organization that will oversee operations at the Ion and report to Rice Management Co., which manages the university’s $6.3 billion endowment fund.
Station Houston will be pared back to a business incubator, one of many that the Ion plans to host.
The organizational
change comes to clarify the Ion’s role in the innovation ecosystem. The idea of Station Houston running programs at the Ion created some confusion about how entrepreneurs affiliated with with other startup support groups might fit in there, even though Rice had always intended for the project to be collaborative among many different organizations.
“It made more sense for the building, everything that it stands for, to really have its own organization,” said Station Houston CEO Gaby Rowe, who will become executive director of the new organization. “So that everyone in Houston was clear that it was a building, it was a hub for all of Houston.”
The 270,000-square-foot facility, which broke ground in July, is slated to open in the first quarter of 2021 as phase one of a planned 16-acre South Main Innovation District.
Rowe and her 20-person staff will continue their work, but under the Ion umbrella. Many have already spent months working on programming for the Ion or running the Ion Smart Cities Accelerator Program, which is backed by Microsoft and Intel and focuses on nurturing “internet of things” technologies that could be used in cities. These technologies provide internet connectivity to appliances, meters and other everyday devices for collecting, analyzing and sharing data. Sensytec, one of the companies in the accelerator program, for instance, uses sensors to monitor, analyze and quantify cement and concrete conditions for the energy and construction sectors.
Program mix
Rowe said Station Houston will give up its broader role trying to develop an innovation ecosystem and stay focused on startups.
It’s hoped the Ion building will have a mix of programs, which in addition to Station Houston and the Ion Smart Cities Accelerator, would include those created by organizations from across Houston and the country, such as Boston’s MassChallenge and Palo Alto’s Founder Institute, both of which recently launched business assistance programs in Houston.
“It’s the work of all of these hubs combined with the work that’s already happening with corporations that’s going to put the innovation economy on the map,” Rowe said.
Rowe was named CEO of Station Houston in August 2018. She was previously head of school at The Village School in Houston, and prior to that an education executive, investment banker and management consultant in New York City. Rowe said she was involved with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s tech ecosystem initiatives.
Her connections in Houston could be helpful in pulling together the city’s various ecosystem players, said Brett Trusko, a Sugar Land resident who is president and CEO of the International Association of Innovation Professionals, a nonprofit that certifies individuals as professional innovators or managers of innovation.
Yet he questioned why Rice Management Co. didn’t seek someone from outside the city who could bring a fresh perspective and advice on best practices from other ecosystems.
“There’s a lot of successful models out there,” said Trusko, who is also head of the U.S. delegation for ISO 279, a global innovation standard being developed for contractors working with governments or large companies. “It would have been good to have
somebody who’s operated under a more successful community.”
Rice Management Co. did not conduct a nationwide search. Managing Director Ryan LeVasseur said Rowe had “demonstrated the right qualities for a long time,” and he noted her experience in innovation, education and finance.
Different route
“We’ve been working with Gaby for a while,” LeVasseur said, “and we’ve grown to know her and really appreciate her experience and her commitment to the growth of Houston’s innovation ecosystem.”
Rowe said she has studied other innovation ecosystems and understands how Houston’s economy and tech entrepreneurs differ. She said Houston is largely an industrial tech city, and it shouldn’t chase the consumer tech models concentrated along the East and West coasts.
“I do believe that Houston’s time has come and will grow exponentially over the next five years,” she said. “I’m quite frankly honored they would have chosen me to spearhead such a big undertaking.”