In-ride entertainment

This new rideshare game could turn your next Uber into a 'cash cab'

Houston and Austin rideshare riders might soon walk away with some earnings — or at least some entertainment.

Photo via playoctopus.com

Your next Lyft or Uber ride might win you some money. An interactive advertising and entertainment platform for rideshares has announced it will expand to the Houston and Austin markets — just in time for SXSW.

Maryland-based Play Octopus has already received thousands of applications from Houston and Austin rideshare drivers wanting the device in their vehicles, according to a press release. And expanding to Texas was an obvious move.

"As the leading rideshare advertising company in the country, expanding into Texas' ride-sharing scene is a necessary first step as we expand outside of the Northeast. Houston and Austin are both tech-driven cities that rely on rideshare for convenient transportation," says Cherian Thomas, the co-founder and CEO of Play Octopus.

The way it works is the company provides free tablets to qualified drivers. Tablets come with a monthly data plan, a mount, the cables required, and up to $100 a month for the driver — not to mention the perks — like tips and ratings — that come with providing riders a new option for ride entertainment.

Riders can play games including trivia, “photo hunt” (spotting differences between photos), and “speed match” (matching moving images of sea life) and can win up to $25 at the end of a game. On the other side of the table, advertisers have access to millions of monthly riders and can use branding and geo-targeting ads.

Play Octopus launched about a year ago and also operates in New York; Boston; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; and Richmond, Virginia. Houston and Austin are just the start of 2019 growth plans for the platform that is currently featured in over 7,000 vehicles and generates almost 10 million engagements a month.

"Our national expansion is being fueled by our brand and agency partners, and further solidifies the Octopus platform as a key component to media plans," says Dillon Tedesco, the chief revenue officer of Play Octopus. "As we surpass the 10,000,000 monthly engagement milestone and introduce exciting new ways to interact with our tablets, we're looking forward to providing our clients with a deeper impact in more cities across the country."

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

texas trends transportation

Best in class

2 Houston schools lead 2025 rankings for top entrepreneurship programs

Rice University, aerial, campus, buildings

Photo courtesy of Rice University

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Rice University and the University of Houston have topped The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur’s lists of the best graduate and undergraduate schools for entrepreneurship studies for 2025.

Neither school is a stranger to the prestigious national rankings.

Rice ranks first in the graduate category for the sixth consecutive year, and UH ranks first in the undergraduate category for the sixth consecutive year.

“At Rice Business, our students learn both inside and outside the classroom, drawing on our strong industry and community connections in Houston and beyond,” says Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, in a release. “With small class sizes and tailored programs, we aim to equip our students with the skills to create new ventures and excel in a fast-changing business landscape.”

UH President Renu Khator praises the ranking as recognition for the impact of the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the C.T. Bauer College of Business.

“This program is a tremendous asset not only to the University of Houston and the Bauer College of Business, but also to the city of Houston, where entrepreneurship fuels both socioeconomic mobility and economic growth,” Khator says in a release. “We are proud to see the impact of this program reverberate throughout our community.”

Rankings for The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur’s 2025 lists were based on a survey of administrators at nearly 300 schools in the U.S., Canada, and Europe that offer entrepreneurship studies. Among the more than 40 factors used for the rankings were academic programs, faculty credentials, mentorship opportunities, and alumni entrepreneurship ventures.

The only other school in Texas that made either top-10 was the University of Texas at Austin.

The top 10 schools on the list of 50 best graduate schools for entrepreneurship studies in 2025 are:

1. Rice University
2. University of California-Los Angeles
3. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
4. Washington University in St. Louis
5. Babson College
6. University of Washington
7. University of Texas at Austin
8. University of Virginia
9. Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands
10. University of South Florida

The top 10 schools on the list of 50 best undergraduate schools for entrepreneurship studies in 2025 are:

1. University of Houston
2. University of Texas at Austin
3. Babson College
4. University of Washington
5. Washington University in St. Louis
6. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
7. University of Maryland-College Park
8. Miami University of Ohio
9. Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico
10. Northeastern University

The spirit of entrepreneurship is strong in Houston. The city recently ranked No. 7 on a list of the of the 10 best U.S. cities for entrepreneurs to live.

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The story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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