order up

Clever new Houston-based food-finding app blends Yelp and Instagram for hungry users

The Gradi App's platform is like Yelp meets Instagram, and users can even receive compensation for their content.

Photo by Avery Padilla

When the Houston restaurant industry was in its biggest time of need, two Houstonians stepped up to the plate to deliver a tech tool for the community.

Amid the pandemic, restaurants increasingly rolled out QR code menus to decrease the risk of spreading of germs by eliminating touching physical menus. Houstonians Zachary Dowthitt and Eric Hairston launched Gradi App in February 2021 to help both restaurants and guests access QR Code menus with more ease.

Now, the duo has launched a new approach for its app. The Gradi App, which can be found on the Apple App Store, has branched out to deliver an updated consumer-based model to help Houstonians discover food and drink options from the city’s diverse palate of dining.

Users of the consumer Gradi App can search through photos of menu items to find the best local spots for drinks and food due to proximity and preference. Think Yelp meets Instagram. The app even has an option to book a ride share from Lyft or Uber to the destinations.

“We noticed from menus at restaurants, people are posting their food photos all the time, but menus still don’t have photos" Dowthitt tells InnovationMap. "So, we asked ourselves ‘when was the last time you bought something without seeing it?’ Most people do it at restaurants every day.”

Gradi App founders Zachary Dowthitt and Eric Hairston Houston Houstonians Zachary Dowthitt (left) and Eric Hairston launched Gradi App in February 2021.Photo by Avery Padilla

Some of Houston’s most popular spots — Frank’s Pizza, Henke & Pilot, Bovine & Barley, and others — have already been spotlighted on Gradi. Currently, the app has 32 restaurant partners and over 350,000 users.

Dowthitt says he is already thinking of future versions of the app. Users will be able to locate favorite spots, share menus with your friends, search food by items, and post their own photos from each restaurant on the app. Photos will be graded on the app by users, and users can even be compensated for their posts. The most-liked photo for each item will be chosen as the featured photo for each restaurant on the app, and users who take these photos will get compensated for their unique content.

Gradi App hopes to have its updated consumer version of the app with search and linked menu options out by December 7. Dowthitt says hee has plans to deliver an upgraded nightlife and happy hour version in the future.

“We’ve eaten with our eyes from the beginning of time,” Dowthitt said. “And we believe in the future, you will see what you order (food or drinks) before you order it…and that is where we come into play.”

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This article by author and freelance journalist Mike Damante originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.

2026 jobs forecast

Houston's health care sector will drive job growth in 2026, report predicts

Photo by simonkr/Getty Images

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Buoyed by the growing health care sector, the Houston metro area will add 30,900 jobs in 2026, according to a new forecast from the Greater Houston Partnership.

The report predicts the Houston area’s health care sector will tack on 14,000 jobs next year, which would make it the No. 1 industry for local job growth. The 14,000 health care jobs would represent 45 percent of the projected 30,900 new jobs. In the job-creation column, the health care industry is followed by:

Construction: addition of 6,100 jobs in 2026
Public education: Addition of 5,800 jobs
Public administration: Addition of 5,000 jobs

At the opposite end of the regional workforce, the administrative support services sector is expected to lose 7,500 jobs in 2026, preceded by:

Manufacturing: Loss of 3,400 jobs
Oil-and-gas extraction: Loss of 3,200 jobs
Retail: Loss of 1,800 jobs

“While current employment growth has moderated, the outlook remains robust and Houston’s broader economic foundation remains strong,” GHP president and CEO Steve Kean said in the report.

“Global companies are choosing to invest in Houston — Eli Lilly, Foxconn, Inventec, and others — because they believe in our workforce and our long-term trajectory,” Kean added. “These commitments reinforce that Houston is a place where companies can scale and where our economy continues to demonstrate its resilience as a major engine for growth and opportunity. These commitments and current prospects we are working on give us confidence in the future growth of our economy.”

The Greater Houston Partnership says that while the 30,900-job forecast falls short of the region’s recent average of roughly 50,000 new jobs per year, it’s “broadly in line with the muted national outlook” for employment gains anticipated in 2026.

“Even so, Houston’s young, skilled workforce and strong pipeline of major new projects should help offset energy sector pressures and keep regional growth on pace with the nation,” the report adds.

The report says that even though the health care sector faces rising insurance costs, which might cause some people to delay or skip medical appointments, and federal changes in Medicare and Medicaid, strong demographic trends in the region will ensure health care remains “a key pillar of Houston’s economy.”

As for the local oil-and-gas extraction industry, the report says fluctuations and uncertainty in the global oil-and-gas market will weigh on the Houston sector in 2026. Furthermore, oil-and-gas layoffs partly “reflect a longer-term trend as companies in the sector move toward greater efficiency using fewer workers to produce similar volumes,” according to the report.

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