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    App Delivers Almost Everything

    New innovative app service delivers just about anything you want to your front door

    Nikki Ndukwe
    Nikki Ndukwe
    Jan 31, 2015 | 1:08 pm

    Hey Houston, your life is about to get easier with a new service that will bring you just anything you want, because now, there’s an app for that.

    The Austin-based delivery app Favor and its personable runners have arrived in Houston. Favor is a service that allows users to order a host of items for delivery through a shiny, user-friendly app.

    “The app features the most popular places around you, but, unlike most services, you can request anything you need,” co-founder Zac Maurais tells CultureMap.

    While trendy foodies will love this new app, Favor is not only for the hungry Houstonians. If you need someone to pick up your dry cleaning, just enter it in and it will be delivered to you by a friendly blue tuxedo-shirted runner.

    If you're in need of something other than food delivered to you, simply tap the "Essentials" tab and options like CVS, Petco, and even the Apple store pop up. If those stores aren't to your liking, simply type in the name and Favor will bring it right to you. Sorry, though, alcohol can't be delivered at this time.

    “The app is as simple as possible. It features the most popular places around you, but, unlike most services, you can request anything you need. Your options aren't limited to just the places that we partner with,” Favor co-founder Zac Maurais tells CultureMap.

    College buddies and former pizza delivery guys Maurais and Ben Doherty launched the service in Austin in 2013 and have expanded it to three cities. “We wanted to create something where you could order, pay for the transaction, and have someone else pick it up for you, all done through an app,” Maurais says.

    Favor thrives on the unique rapport created between the runners and the app’s users. Runners are like personal assistants who keep up constant communication, making the experience a positive and memorable one, Maurais says.

    Favor boasts a cashless and simple payment method, with a $6 delivery fee plus 5 percent of the total cost of the item and tip to the runner, all done through the app. For your first time, the $6 fee will be waived with the code “CLUTCH.”

    The average delivery time is 35 minutes, but times can vary depending on demand, traffic and restaurant wait times. We always keep you posted on the status of your order, via push notifications and texts from your runner.

    For now, the service is limited to Rice Village, Midtown, Downtown, River Oaks, Galleria and Medical Center areas from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. As the app continues to grow, the owners plan to expand to more areas of Houston.

    Maurais says the vibrant millennial population is what attracted Favor to expand to cities like Austin, Boston, Dallas, and now Houston. “We’re excited to be in Houston. It's a service that people are really going to value here because nothing like this has ever existed before," he says.

    New Favor app brings innovative delivery service to Houston.

    Favor app brings new delivery service to Houston.
    Photo courtesy of Favor
    New Favor app brings innovative delivery service to Houston.
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    news/innovation

    a major award

    5 Houston-area companies named among world's most innovative for 2026

    John Egan, InnovationMap
    Apr 8, 2026 | 2:30 pm
    Hertha Metals
    Courtesy of Hertha Metals/Business Wire
    U.S. Rep. Morgan Luttrell and Hertha Metals founder and CEO Laureen Meroueh toured Hertha’s Conroe plant in August.

    Led by Conroe-based Hertha Metals, five organizations in the Houston area earned praise on Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026.

    Hertha Metals ranked No. 1 in the manufacturing category.

    Last year, Hertha unveiled a single-step process for steelmaking that it says is cheaper, more energy-efficient and just as scalable as traditional steel manufacturing. It started testing the process in 2024 at a one-metric-ton-per-day pilot plant.

    At the same time, Hertha announced more than $17 million in venture capital funding from investors such as Breakthrough Energy, Clean Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Pear VC.

    “We’re not just reinventing steelmaking; we’re redefining what’s possible in materials, manufacturing, and national resilience,” Laureen Meroueh, founder and CEO of Hertha, said at the time.

    Meroueh was also recently named to Inc. Magazine's 2026 Female Founders 500 list.

    Hertha, founded in 2022, says traditional steelmaking relies on an outdated, coal-based multistep process that is costly, and contributes up to 9 percent of industrial energy use and 10 percent of global carbon emissions.

    By contrast, Hertha’s method converts low-grade iron ore into molten steel or high-purity iron in one step. The company says its process is 30 percent more energy-efficient than traditional steelmaking and costs less than producing steel in China.

    Last year, Hertha said it planned to break ground in 2026 on a plant capable of producing more than 9,000 metric tons of steel per year. In its next phase, the company plans to operate at 500,000 metric tons of steel production per year.

    Here are

    Fast Company’s rankings for the four other Houston-area organizations:
    • Houston-based Vaulted Deep, No. 3 in catchall “other” category.
    • XGS Energy, No. 7 in the energy category. XGS’ proprietary solid-state geothermal system uses thermally conductive materials to deliver affordable energy anywhere hot rock is located. While Fast Company lists Houston as XGS’ headquarters, and the company has a major presence in the city, XGS is based in Palo Alto, California.
    • Houston-based residential real estate brokerage Epique Realty, No. 10 in the business services category. Epique, which bills itself as the industry’s first AI brokerage, provides a free AI toolkit for real estate agents to enhance marketing, streamline content creation, and improve engagement with clients and prospects.
    • Texas A&M University’s Nanostructured Materials Lab in College Station. The lab studies nano-structured materials to make materials lighter for the aerospace industry, improve energy storage, and enable the creation of “smart” textiles.

    ---

    This article first appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

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