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    Woman Power

    Female execs are headed to Houston to bridge the entrepreneurial gender gap

    Shelby Hodge
    Mar 23, 2016 | 3:00 pm

    Research shows that if men are 50 percent sure about something, they will state it as fact. While women have to be 80 to 90 percent sure that something is accurate before they give it the gospel blessing. And that is just one of a number of differences that women in the start-up business world need to examine if they are to succeed.

     

    Just ask Houstonian Carolyn Rodz, marketing exec and founder of the Circular Board, a collaborative accelerator for women entrepreneurs. As she prepares for her company's Circular Summit, April 14 and 15 at Hotel ZaZa, Rodz talks with CultureMap about the entrepreneurial gender gap in Houston and across the state. In 2015, there were 42 rounds of seed funding in Texas and none went to women-owned businesses.

     

    To help reduce that gap, Rodz and her co-chair Elizabeth Gore have organized the two-day conference that is bringing in top tier speakers including Houston's Janet Gurwitch, founder of Laura Mercier Cosmetics; DryBar founder Alli Webb; Dermalogica co-founder Jane Wurwand; and fashion designer Rachel Roy.

     

    "We expect top-tier entrepreneurs," Rodz says. "The conference is application based so everybody who is there will be high caliber with a high-growth story. And we have investors from across the country, investors like Signia Venture Partners, the Mercury Fund and Johnson & Johnson Development Corp."

     

    While most venture capital and intellectual capital is focused on the East and West coasts, Rodz says, "Let's get this conversation going among start-ups everywhere." In fact, she adds, Houston is a logical place for such an effort as the city is ranked third in the country in terms of economic clout for women-owned businesses.

     

    The conference is an outgrowth of Rodz' Circular Board, a 12-week virtual program providing a road map to building a scalable business.

     

    "Women make certain decisions at the onset of starting a company that hinder them later on," Rodz says. Examples include bringing in partners at an earlier stage, seeking out investors early on. "Women tend to bootstrap a lot more and be a lot more risk averse in the early stages. You should be addressing those natural tendencies and how you acknowledge them and use them to your advantage."

     

    After working at JPMorgan for five years, she launched her own marketing agency in 2005 and she soon began taking on start up projects pro bono, aiding with marketing expertise. But she soon realized that there were many other problems in this area that needed to be addressed. So last year she founded Circular Board.

     

    Her view of women entrepreneurs: "I think the reality is that as many obstacles as we have, we have advantages. There are so many opportunities that are available only to women. Women have an incredible leadership skills. We have an ability to build relationships. Lots of times, we are the only one in the room which is to our advantage if we use it correctly. "

     

    Two key bits of advice: "Think bigger. So many times women limit themselves and set goals that aren't big enough. Thinking bigger opens so much. Number two is bringing in partners, I mean advisory boards, co-founders, investors, a support network and utilize them effectively."

     

    Carolyn Rodz.

     
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    news/innovation

    in this economy?

    Texas ranks as No. 1 most 'financially distressed' state in America

    Amber Heckler
    Jul 16, 2025 | 5:31 pm
    Inflation
    Photo by rc.xyz NFT gallery on Unsplash
    Texans are stretched thin financially.

    Experiencing financial strife is a nightmare of many Americans, but it appears to be a looming reality for Texans, according to a just-released WalletHub study ranking Texas the No. 1 most "financially distressed" state in America.

    To determine the states with the most financially distressed residents, WalletHub compared all 50 states across nine metrics in six major categories, such as average credit scores, the share of people with "accounts in distress" (meaning an account that's in forbearance or has deferred payments), the one-year change in bankruptcy filings from March 2024, and search interest indexes for "debt" and "loans."

    Joining Texas among the top five most distressed states are Florida (No. 2), Louisiana (No. 3), Nevada (No. 4), and South Carolina (No. 5).

    Texas' new ranking as the most financially distressed state in 2025 may be unexpected, WalletHub says, considering the state has a "bigger GDP than most countries" and still has one of the top 10 best economies in the nation (even though that ranking is also lower than it was in previous years).

    Even so, Texas residents are stretching themselves very thin financially this year. Texans had the ninth lowest average credit scores nationwide during the first quarter of 2025, the study found, and Texans had the sixth-highest increase in non-business-related bankruptcy filings over the last year, toppling 22 percent.

    "Texas also had the third-highest number of accounts in forbearance or with deferred payments per person, and the seventh-highest share of people with these distressed accounts, at 7.1 percent," the report said.

    This is where Texas ranked across the study's six key dimensions, where No. 1 means "most distressed:"

    • No. 5 – "Loans" search interest index rank
    • No. 6 – Change in bankruptcy filings from March 2024 to March 2025 rank
    • No. 7 – Average number of accounts in distress rank
    • No. 8 – People with accounts in distress rank
    • No. 13 – Credit score rank and “debt” search interest index rank
    The study also clarified that the state's high search rates for "debt" and "loans" is a key indication that Texans are "desperate to borrow, despite already owing money."
    Examining these financial factors on the state level is important for understanding how Americans are faring with economic issues like inflation, unemployment rates, or natural disasters, according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.
    "When you combine data about people delaying payments with other metrics like bankruptcy filings and credit score changes, it paints a good picture of the overall economic trends of a state," Lupo said.

    At least Houston isn't as expensive to live in as other Texas cities like Dallas or Austin.

    On the other side of the spectrum, states like Hawaii (No. 50), Vermont (No. 49), and Alaska (No. 48) are the least financially distressed states in America.

    The top 10 states with the most people in financial distress in 2025 are:

    • No. 1 – Texas
    • No. 2 – Florida
    • No. 3 – Louisiana
    • No. 4 – Nevada
    • No. 5 – South Carolina
    • No. 6 – Oklahoma
    • No. 7 – North Carolina
    • No. 8 – Mississippi
    • No. 9 – Kentucky
    • No. 10 – Alabama
    innovationtexasfinanceinflationeconomywallethub
    news/innovation
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