While unable to meet in person for some old-fashioned networking, hundreds of local innovators and ecosystem leaders tuned in to NTX Inno’s second annual Startups to Watch event.
At the event, which was designed to highlight the 21 North Texas startups on our 2021 Startups to watch list, attendees heard from a group of panelists including Ronnie Green, co-founder and CEO at AlgoPear, Lyndsey Harper, founder and CEO at Rosy Wellness, and Maithreya Chakravarthula, co-founder and president at Sahai Technologies.
All of the startups on the annual list were included based on our reporting and input from community leaders and are companies we anticipate to see significant growth from in the year ahead.
The conversation kicked off with a discussion about the individual company’s origin stories, and a common theme emerged: helping others through technology. For Green, his journey began by looking to help others create wealth through the stock market. For Harper, it was looking to connect women with the resources they need for sexual wellness after discovering how widespread the problem was as an OB/GYN. And for Chakravarthula, it was looking for a way to help the visually-impaired see-through computer vision technology.
Of course, in the world of startups, things can change quickly. And the pandemic has spurred several changes with the panelists’ companies. Like many other companies in the remote health industry, Rosy has seen an uptick in users and has expanded its platform offerings. Sahai made a big pivot, refocusing its tech to help retailers in the Middle East slow the virus's spread. And while the biggest news affecting AlgoPear isn’t the pandemic, it has seen growth on its platform as retail traders and Redditors continue to make stock headlines.
The founders also talked about the importance of finding the right investors to partner with and who to bring on as the right advisors. The conversation also turned a little to the informal, with founders talking about naming their companies. AlgoPear pairs people with algorithms to help trade stocks. Rosy comes from a fictional woman Harper came up with to embody female empowerment. Sahai takes its name from the Sanskrit word “to assist.”
The event was powered by silver event partner Sana Benefits and NTX Inno’s founding partners Accenture, UT Dallas and Thomson Reuters.
Be sure to check out the full 21 Startups to Watch in 2021 list here.
