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    a leg up

    Buzzy Third Ward bar spots $50,000 for one lucky blossoming business

    Eric Sandler
    Oct 25, 2021 | 4:32 pm
    The Spot Emancipation interior
    The Spot is looking for a new business to join it on Emancipation Ave.
    Courtesy of The Spot

    One of the Third Ward’s most popular drinking destinations wants to give a leg up to a local business looking to take the next step in its development. The Spot is holding a contest that will award a $50,000 prize to a growing business through a new Community Business Investment Program.

    Adfanie Smith Gray, who co-founded The Spot with her husband Aaron in 2006, tells CultureMap that the could has reserved approximately 1,200 square feet in their new shopping center at 2003 Emancipation Ave. for the contest’s winner. The shopping center is also home to The Spot’s recently opened second location, which expands on the original with more seating and an outdoor patio. Already a hit, it’s drawing crowds from the Third Ward, EaDo, downtown, and beyond.

    “What we’ve been able to accomplish is reach not only our current demographic but reach out to a whole new demographic that may not have known about the first Spot,” Adfanie Smith Gray says. “We’re getting young professionals that live in that area.”

    As for the investment program, Gray says she’s looking for an established business that’s looking to take the next step in its grown. To apply, candidates must meet criteria such having at least $150,000 in annual revenue, one employee, and being in business for two to five years.

    “What I’m looking for is something the community wants, like a good juice bar or a sneaker store or professional services such as a tax office,” she says. “I would like that business to operate in the early hours, because the bar operates during the late hours.”

    Requirements include submitting a business plan and making a video explaining why the operators see themselves as a fit for the shopping center. A panel will pick 10 finalists who will make Shark Tank-style pitches to a panel of experts.

    Gray says the money will go towards building out the empty space into a functional storefront. Publicity from the contest could also inspire in-kind contributions from other firms that are useful to a growing business, such as architectural design and public relations.

    The deadline to apply is October 28. A winner will be revealed at The Spot’s grand opening party on November 11.

    shoppingopenings
    news/innovation

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    start me up

    Texas ranks near the top of best states for startups, study finds

    John Egan, InnovationMap
    May 12, 2025 | 1:30 pm

    Texas ranks third on a new list of the best states for investors and startups.

    Investment platform BrokerChooser weighed five factors to come up with its ranking:

    • 2024 Google search volume for terms related to investing
    • Number of investors
    • Number of businesses receiving investments in 2024
    • Total amount of capital invested in businesses in 2024
    • Percentage change in amount of investment from 2019 to 2024

    Based on those figures, provided mostly by Crunchbase, Texas sits at No. 3 on the list, behind No. 1 California and No. 2 New York.

    Especially noteworthy for Texas is its investment total for 2024: more than $164.5 billion. From 2019 to 2024, the state saw a 440 percent jump in business investments, according to BrokerChooser. The same percentages are 204 percent for California and 396 percent for New York.

    “There is definitely development and diversification in the American investment landscape, with impressive growth in areas that used to fly under the radar,” says Adam Nasli, head analyst at BrokerChooser.

    According to Crunchbase, funding for Texas startups is off to a strong start in 2025. In the first three months of this year, venture capital investors poured nearly $2.9 billion into Lone Star State companies, Crunchbase data shows. Crunchbase attributes that healthy dollar amount to “enthusiasm around cybersecurity, defense tech, robotics, and de-extincting mammoths.”

    During the first quarter of this year, roughly two-thirds of VC funding in Texas went to just five companies, says Crunchbase. Those companies are Austin-based Apptronik, Austin-based Colossal Biosciences, Dallas-based Island, Austin-based NinjaOne, and Austin-based Saronic.

    ---

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

    Houston Downtown modern business city with skyscraper city scape with park view from Buffalo Bayou center of Houston city, Texas, United States of America, US at sunset time
      
    Getty Images

    Texas remains a leading destination for startups.

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