Ahead of Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week, we’re continuing our conversations with the people shaping Houston’s energy startup ecosystem. This time it’s Eric Rubinstein, founder of New Climate Ventures, who’s been investing in the energy and climate space for over a decade and watching Houston’s ecosystem transform from the inside. Where John Jeffers gave us the mentor’s perspective, Kathy Anderson the founder’s, Laureen Meroueh gave us an insight into the journey of becoming an industrial founder, Rubinstein brings the investor’s map of what’s here, what’s changed, and why being in energy necessitates that you attend HECSW.

You’ve been in Houston’s energy ecosystem for close to a decade. Take us back to the beginning.

It was a very different city back then. Going back to 2018, it was more angel networks and corporates. There just weren’t a lot of companies that we could find that were investable in Houston at that time. You had to arrange to see people or go to a Houston Angel Network meeting, which either you were a member of or you were invited to. It was a much more dispersed kind of interaction.

What really changed it was the physical buildings. It got a lot more concentrated starting with Greentown Labs opening up and then the Ion. All of a sudden it wasn’t just a Rice business plan competition anymore, it was random interactions in these spaces that created a more social ecosystem where we actually get things done.

What do you mean by “get things done with random interactions?”

Having a place where you know there’s going to be something relevant happening just attracts like-minded people, and then it’s not just startups with customers. It’s startups with investors and investors with investors and investors with customers. It’s law firms, accounting firms, supply chain companies. It’s the whole ecosystem.

One person tells another person to go to this event, that person tells a third, and all of a sudden you have a whole ecosystem building around it. The success of these spaces has been having maybe an event that attracts someone the first time, and then that person starts coming back because they see the value of being there.

There are companies I run into where I know the founders, and I do not anticipate investing. But I always try to introduce them to someone. People generally want to be helpful to one another whether or not it’s in their personal benefit. It’s the right thing to do. All of those interactions and serendipity is made possible because of a physical space.

So the ecosystem has clearly grown. But when people say Houston is unique for energy startups, what does that actually mean in practice?

We have got venture capital, private equity, and corporate customers headquartered here. Engineering talent that’s worked in the workforce and understands the challenges of scaling. Manufacturing capability. The university system is spinning out companies, and local companies are too.

Anywhere else you may have one or two of those elements, but having all of that right here in Houston is definitely unique. And having that energy expertise is beyond unique. Five years ago, I think 80% of the companies at Greentown Labs were companies that weren’t born here. It was because they wanted to find that customer base. Now we’re finding investable companies that actually spawned out of Houston. Houston went from importing startups to growing them.

And when you zoom in, even a single corporate relationship here can take a startup across its entire lifecycle. Shell has Game Changer, and Chevron has Catalyst, which grants money to very early-stage startups about to pilot. Both have venture arms too, so they can see you early and invest later. And eventually they can become your customer. You can hit that entire spectrum almost within two companies. Houston could open a door that leads from grant funding to venture investment to customer contract, all within one corporate relationship.

Where do you see all of this heading?

Geothermal is the clearest proof that Houston’s energy DNA translates forward. The petroleum engineering and gas engineering that’s happened here for decades is directly suitable for drilling in the geothermal space. You can point to Fervo, who just IPO’d; XGS, who is likely to IPO soon; and Quaise, who just raised more money. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all of them are based in or have a significant presence in Houston. This place is going to be a leader in geothermal, whether it’s a thought leader or an execution leader.

Nuclear is going to be a growth area too, though there are other places where nuclear has been established longer that have ecosystems Houston doesn’t naturally have yet. But ultimately, all roads lead to Houston when it comes to energy, because of Houston’s experience and significance in space historically.

Why does Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week matter specifically?

Houston actually has energy happening in Houston. New York doesn’t naturally have energy; it has finance. San Francisco has founders abundant, investors abundant, but not the energy component. When you come to Houston for HECSW, you’re getting a totally different picture of the world, very pragmatic one, built on the future infrastructure needs associated with the build-out that’s naturally going to happen from an expanding energy base. That perspective is nearly absent from the other weeks happening elsewhere. If you want to actually be involved in energy, coming to Houston’s energy is a non-negotiable

Bio: Eric Rubinstein is the founder of New Climate Ventures, launched in 2021. He has been investing in venture funds since the early 2010s, directly and on behalf of Citi. His involvement in Houston’s energy and climate ecosystem dates back to 2018, and he has been active across angel networks, corporate ventures, and the broader startup community since.

Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week runs September 14–18, 2026, bringing together energy and climate startups, investors, and industry leaders from across the region and beyond. Stay tuned on Instagram and Linkedin for event updates.

Ahead of Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week, we’re continuing our conversations with the people shaping Houston’s energy startup ecosystem. We interviewed Dr. Laureen Meroueh, founder and CEO of Hertha Metals, the company that is on track to become the first domestic producer of high-purity iron for rare earth magnets and is currently breaking ground on a commercial plant in Conroe. Where John Jeffers gave us the mentor’s view, Kathy Anderson the founder finding her footing, Meroueh brings the industrial founder’s perspective on support systems and why re-industrialisation has to be rooted in cost, not green premiums.

Take us back to what the early days of Hertha Metals look like?

I brought us here in 2023, and we needed to find a location. It was taking longer than expected, but I couldn’t wait to start testing, so I moved into TXRX. They gave me a corner in one of their buildings which had almost no AC and I got to work on the couch with two cats. It was a very humbling experience, but also a very telling one about how Houston works, because most places would require you to go through months of permitting before you could even begin testing. TXRX understood the technology, understood the hazards, and was flexible enough to let us get started, and that made all the difference. 

From a corner with cats to a pilot plant. How did that transition actually happen?

There are so many support systems you don’t realise until you look back on it. The Conroe Economic Development Council helped us navigate permitting and get the power infrastructure we needed at the site, which was critical. And then we hit what I can only describe as an insane problem: we were told the transformer at our site had a certain capacity, we move in, and come to find out it’s a lot less than what I need. Back in 2023, new transformers had an 18-month lead time, so we were very frantic trying to figure out how to solve this without losing our entire timeline. Entergy, our power company, really rallied behind us and managed to get a refurbished transformer in place, and for a power company to move that fast for a small pilot that isn’t even a major consumer yet, when they didn’t have to, that was really amazing and I’m very grateful for it. And Entergy, if you’re listening, you can give us a discount, please, because the prices are going up.

That is a very different startup support story than what we have heard in other interviews.

We’ve had a maker-space let us test in a corner, a power company rush a transformer, Congressman Luttrell advocate for us in Washington about the need for iron and steel innovation domestically, and local officials clear the path on permitting. It really takes a village. These have all been different pockets of support, and every single one was critical to keeping us on track. And beyond the direct support, just knowing that there are others here also doing the really hard things helps you keep the motivation to keep going, because I’m not the only one trying to take on Goliath.

How have Ion and the broader Rice Alliance network played into things?

First, they gave us a voice. I spent six years in Boston and Cambridge at MIT, so I had a well-established network there, but here I was starting completely fresh. Greentown Labs put us on stage even though we weren’t working out of their space, and that visibility mattered enormously when we were new and unknown in this city.

Second is how Ion is a form of market intelligence in itself.  When you notice who’s showing up and who’s not, and when they’re showing up and when they’re not. That gives you an insight into the macro of what’s happening across industry, which corporates are leaning in, which CVCs are active, where the winds are changing. I think founders underestimate how much you can learn just by paying attention to who’s in the room.

I also have to mention the value of the entrepreneurial workshops the Ion hosts. I’ll speak there and give a lesson on something, and I know that’s creating value for other founders coming up behind me, and that matters to me because this ecosystem only works if people keep investing in the next generation of builders.

What’s the defining challenge and opportunity for the next generation of energy founders?

Data centre build-out in Texas is fragmenting the grid into local markets, and heavy industry competes for those same electrons. I’m trying to get the same electrons that the data centers are trying to get, and now, with data centres moving towards natural gas-powered turbines for their own power production, I’m also competing for the same molecules. The producers who use less power or can flex around peak pricing are going to pull ahead, and what’s interesting is how fast the framing has shifted: two years ago, the conversation was about flexing around intermittency from renewables, and now it’s flexing around data centers. There’s always something you know in this industry.

The opportunity is re-industrialisation. Iron and steel should not have been at the bottom of a list or an afterthought for so many years, especially when we’re the largest importer of steel in the world. We do a great job recycling our scrap steel, but you cannot make all steel from scrap; you have to make some from ore. Hertha Metals is going to be the first domestic producer of the iron that goes into rare earth magnets, and here’s what a lot of people don’t know: 70% of those magnets is the iron, not the rare earths. We’re breaking ground on a commercial plant right next to our pilot in Conroe, forming what will be the country’s first modern iron and steel innovation complex.

The next generation of founders really needs to internalize that you have to root sustainability in cost reduction, not in premiums. Climate tech 2.0 was very much centered around green premiums and carbon taxes, but we all know that commodities are driven by cost. If you don’t build something that is cost competitive, it doesn’t matter how sustainable it is, because eventually the market will tell you that.

What made you choose Houston?

I had a very clear set of criteria, and I went through them methodically. One: where is there operational labour talent? I found that the oil and gas operators here were incredibly multi-skilled, particularly those who worked on offshore drilling rigs.

Two: where is energy made? Our process needs both power and natural gas, and Texas is the hub for both.

Three: where is there an entrepreneurial ecosystem for what we’re building? Silicon Valley is where they all go for software and AI because there is that village, and I see Houston as the centre for industrial startup companies.

And four: permitting speed, which turned out to be a make-or-break factor. I cannot wait three years to get permitted for a pilot plant. My startup will be dead by then.

Were you aware of Houston’s ecosystem before you came, and what do you think it takes for founders like you to find out?

It was actually my husband, Trevor, at Syzygy Plasmonics, who told me how great Houston is, and without that conversation, I wouldn’t have really known. But now that we have Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week, that’s no longer how founders have to find out. It puts Houston in the conversation on a global stage and tells the rest of the country that this is where you come to build energy and industrial hard tech.

This is the third year of HECSW for me, and I hope it reinforces the collaborative culture that makes this ecosystem work in the first place, because it is that collaboration amongst founders, investors, utilities, and government officials that attracts the talent. In an industry as challenging as ours- and it is one of the most challenging but most essential- we need everyone moving in the same direction, and a week like this is how you build that shared momentum.

Bio: Dr. Laureen Meroueh is the founder and CEO of Hertha Metals, headquartered in Conroe, Texas. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees in civil and mechanical engineering from the University of Florida and a master’s and PhD from MIT, and has spent nearly two decades innovating in industrial technology.

Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week runs September 14–18, 2026, bringing together energy and climate startups, investors, and industry leaders from across the region and beyond. Stay tuned on Instagram and Linkedin for event updates.

Ahead of Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week, we’re continuing our conversations with the people shaping Houston’s energy startup ecosystem: the founders, mentors, and investors behind both its formal programming and the informal moments where much of the real work happens. This time it’s Kathy Anderson, CEO of Brint Tech, a sensing and analytics company tackling hydrogen sensing, and a current Activate Houston fellow. What follows is a founder’s-eye view of what a single week in Houston can compress into days, why the city’s infrastructure matters as much as its talent, and what she thinks Houston’s real bet on the future of energy should be.

Brint Tech grew out of research at Colorado State University, so then why are you building the company in Houston?

Houston is key to our business on all of the big factors: our customers, channel partners, future suppliers, our pipeline for talent. It truly is the DNA of our company, the place to be in the world. There is so much experience here with hydrocarbons, moving molecules, moving energy, getting it where it needs to go. Hydrogen is already used in a big way in the Gulf area, and we’re excited to be part of that. There are highly trained, highly skilled people here who’ve been working with these things for a long time. And that’s what we need for the future of energy.

Though it’s also more than that. I try to do at least one fun thing to explore the city on every business trip. One evening I stepped off the plane and went straight to a venue to hear live music, and of course waiting in line for the food truck, there was somebody who works at an EPC. And so we got to talk shop, just waiting there, me with my suitcase. That’s the density of this place.

As you mentioned density earlier, how is Brint Tech plugged into the ecosystem here?

We are proud to be a Chevron Studio company, part of Cohort Four, which we joined in 2024, and a graduate of the Rose Rock Bridge program. This year, I am starting as an Activate Houston fellow,I am looking forward to that.

I sometimes go into the weeds when people ask me how all this actually helps us. But it comes down to this: how is our job made easier, and how is innovation enabled, just by being here? 

• On the micro level, it’s the one-to-one interactions, and those have led me to so many productive places. 
• On the macro level, it’s the corporate relationships, which take longer, you have to develop trust, you have to understand your customer’s problems before they’ll let you in the room.

Being an Activate fellow, which is an Ion District Initiative, overall how has Ion and RICE Alliance facilitated conversations and connections? 

Ion is truly a lightning rod, a place that’s both physical and conceptual, where people know they can go to find innovation happening. Houston already had the richness: the people, the talent, the one-on-one connection, the customer proximity, the university resources. What Ion does is give all of that somewhere to converge. I appreciate the kind of founders and ventures that get built and attracted here. It’s a high caliber of people, very serious, lots of experienced entrepreneurs. And the Activate program specifically is going to yield huge dividends for us.

You said the founders and ventures here are high caliber. Is the capital keeping up with that?

I view holistically, one needs to properly capitalize the venture, with a couple different forms, from non-dilutive sources to dilutive sources. We’re coming out of a tough stretch for venture deals and financial markets, and that readjustment is going to mean where higher quality deals get funded first. But there needs to be enough dynamism and financial resources flowing at every stage, pre-seed through Series C. We don’t want generations of companies getting stuck at those points because of macroeconomic factors and having really great potential companies just dying on the vine. Building a company means you’re at the whim of these big macro forces, and you have to address that.

What do you think should define the next generation of energy and climate innovation?

I like this, it’s basically asking me to pull out a crystal ball. I would say having an open mind about energy is the biggest thing we could do, thinking about energy as energy abundance, and how Houston can align resources and infrastructure to have a big stake in that. There’s money to be made in how things are changing and where things are going. The future of energy is more abundant, more resilient, more decentralized, more secure. 

Zooming in on HECSW, what do you hope comes out of the week this year? 

Change happens at the speed of trust. Bringing people together to break bread, to share a drink, to convene for these events in density, yields dividends the whole year round. 

Last year I was impressed at the EVD and the Energy Tech Venture Forum, the people in the room showing up to have those conversations about building things and getting things done. People around the country, around the world, know they can plan a trip to Houston during this week and get real value out of it. For us specifically, it’s a chance to connect with the wider Chevron Studio community, entrepreneurs and company leaders who are all over the map the rest of the year but come together for that one week. It was hugely valuable last year. I expect the same this year.

Bio: Kathy Anderson is CEO of Brint Tech, a hydrogen sensing and analytics company with roots in Colorado State University research. Brint Tech is a Chevron Studio portfolio company (Cohort 4, 2024) and a graduate of Rice Alliance’s accelerator programming. Anderson is a current Activate Houston fellow.

Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week runs September 14–18, 2026, bringing together energy and climate startups, investors, and industry leaders from across the region and beyond. Stay tuned on Instagram and Linkedin for event updates.

Ahead of Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week, we are speaking with the contributors shaping Houston’s energy startup ecosystem: the founders, mentors, and investors behind both its formal programming and the informal moments where much of the real work happens. First up is John Jeffers, who is an investor, advisor, and board member. What follows is a working philosophy: why strong technical teams misjudge their companies, why a competitive industry still collaborates, and why Houston is where companies with bold ideas come to be tested. See John’s video interview on Ion District’s LinkedIn and Instagram.

You came to Houston for your master’s at Rice. From then to now, how have you been involved in the Energy and Startup Ecosystem? 

I came to Houston and it took me to Antarctica. There, I worked with a small group of researchers, each with our own project, supporting each other no matter whose project was on the line. When you’re five thousand miles from civilization, you learn to solve problems on the fly. I took that same mindset to my oil and gas career. Coming in as the new guy who didn’t know things were “impossible” meant I kept pushing at the edges of what people assumed was possible, which is what put me on the international frontier exploration side. My advice to founders today comes straight from that: don’t let someone else’s map of ‘impossible’ become yours.

What pulled you towards the startup world, and what is it that the technical founders need?  

I was pulled into the startup ecosystem through the Rice Alliance Energy Tech Venture Forum. I brought the same risk-management mindset from frontier exploration into the startup system. You don’t know very much when you start: you have an idea, and you have to test it. Much like when you run a startup. This forces a certain discipline with money because you’re not actually spending it to produce oil and gas; you’re spending it to learn as much as you can, as fast as you can, before you commit to the bigger investment.

I ended up teaching a year-long innovation course at the University of Houston. That’s when I boiled it down to the rule I give founders now: learn as much as you can, as fast and as cheaply as you can, about the things that matter most.

I specifically have zoomed in on the 2 problems that startups face where founders need most help:

1. Engaging with medium- large corporations that expect 30-page contracts and $100 million insurance policies
2. Fundraising for deep tech  

 

Having spent thirty years de-risking ideas, where did you find the founders were/ are getting it wrong?

Through my involvement with Rice Alliance, I have mentored some very talented, motivated people that needed a sounding board for strategies or connections in the industry. The pattern amongst all the founders is remarkably consistent: brilliant technical teams who keep perfecting the thing instead of finding the customer. The technology’s usually already good enough. What they don’t know is: Who’s going to buy it, at what price, and whether they can deliver it profitably 

I saw this play out with a founder who was building a methane-monitoring system. Her frame of reference was landfill gas, but the obvious market was oil and gas. Her actual starting point, as she told it, was: “I drove past an Exxon station once, so I guess that’s oil and gas, right?” Within days, she had two dozen people she could call. She built the company quickly after that and exited successfully. 

Could a founder do this somewhere else?

Houston’s got a reputation for being scrappy and pragmatic. A lot of people come here as blue-sky dreamers, and what we provide them with is some grounding. That grounding is real because the universities back it up, Rice and UH deep in engineering and natural sciences, A&M and Prairie View adding diversity to these sciences, St. Thomas and Houston Christian bringing the humanities perspective. 

Where does all of that actually come together for a founder to access it?

There has to be a place where they physically collide, and that’s Ion District. But it is the Rice Alliance’s network that ensures those collisions don’t have to happen only within those four walls. It’s this loose fabric connecting hundreds of people across the city, most of them with a long history in energy, who are always ready and willing to give their time.

A lot of those people are, technically, competitors, but they come together. That’s the part engineered by this city and its organizations. The energy systems are so large and so complex that no single company, no matter how big, can do it all alone. That’s the spirit that actually makes the Ion and Rice Alliance work so well – collaboration built right on top of competition. A rising tide lifts all. 

Capwell in Greentown Labs is the example I always come back to. They came out of a university outside Houston, and they could’ve built anywhere. But the capabilities and their customer base was here. So they got the company off the ground fast. 

What do you hope comes out of Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week this year?

It kind of ties right back to what we were just talking about with Ion and the Rice Alliance concentrated in one week. Connections are the biggest thing. Also, the exchange of perspectives between Houston and the rest of the world.

We have got some good anchor events, and the Rice Alliance Energy Technology Venture Forum is the capstone for me. But the anchor events aren’t the only thing; they are the glue in between. All the networking that looks like filler on the schedule- that’s where the magic actually happens.

You get enough people with different perspectives into one place for a week; you don’t have to engineer what comes next. It just happens.

People come first. The things come after.

Bio: John Jeffers’ connection to Rice goes back to 1985, when he came to Houston to pursue a master’s in geology. He has worked 30+ years on both sides, as a corporate insider and as a startup ally. His first involvement with Rice Alliance was in 2017-18 through Venture Forums, which became an annual commitment. In 2020, when he left his corporate job, he switched sides to become a bridge between these two worlds.

Houston Energy & Climate Startup Week runs September 14–18, 2026, bringing together energy and climate startups, investors, and industry leaders from across the region and beyond. Stay tuned on Instagram and Linkedin for event updates.