Every Last Word

Dallas Innovates’ signature series capturing what leaders across North Texas are saying — in their own words — about innovation, impact, and what’s next.

The Last Word: UNT Health FW Gets $6.8M for Alzheimer’s Study on Adults With Down Syndrome

by | May 28, 2026
Studies show the lifetime incidence of Alzheimer’s disease among adults with Down syndrome is 90%. Researchers called the national ABC-DS study "especially timely" as more treatment options for Alzheimer’s disease are found and more clinical trials are launched for adults with Down syndrome.
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The Last Word: On Dallas’ New Drone as First Responder Program
by | May 27, 2026
Last week, the Dallas Police Department launched its new Drone as First Responder program with eight remotely piloted drones based at Dallas Fire-Rescue stations across the city. Operated out of the DPD's Fusion/Real Time Crime Center, the Skydio X10 drones from San Mateo, California-based Skydio are designed to respond to calls for service in a two-mile radius from their base stations.
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The Last Word: CEO Behind Blackstone-Backed Dental Venture Has a Message for Founders
by | Apr 28, 2026
The DECA Dental founder returned to his alma mater to keynote UT Dallas' record-breaking Draper Pitch Competition. He told student founders what it really takes.
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Jeb Hensarling [Photo: Grant Miller Photograhy/Venture Dallas]
The Last Word: TXSE’s Jeb Hensarling on a $300M War Chest, ARK Listings, and a ‘Transfer Portal’ Flowing to Texas
by | Apr 23, 2026
In a Bloomberg interview with Julie Fine, the former congressman laid out TXSE's timeline: trading this summer, listings in Q4, and first IPOs in Q1 2027.
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The Last Word: DLA Piper’s Danny Tobey on the Shift From Chatbot AI to Agentic AI

“The old human-in-the-loop rules really don’t work as well when you’re looking at ubiquitous, automated AI agents that are acting 24/7 as digital workers.”

Danny Tobey, M.D., J.D. Chair, AI and Data Analytics DLA Piper …speaking at Convergence AI Dallas on March 31

We’re moving “from an era of chatbot AI, where there is always a human at the receiving end of recommendations, to agentic and physical AI,” a world, Danny Tobey said, where AI “takes actions and makes decisions on behalf of humans” and “does so in ways that don’t always stop for human intervention, permission and understanding.”...

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The Last Word: USPTO Director on the Patent Backlog’s ‘Tipping Point’ Toward Applicants
Shorter patent application wait times translate to company value, according to USPTO Director John Squires.
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The Last Word: Dallas’ New Poet Laureate Kristoddie Woods—aka Black Ceasar—on Turning Readers Into Poets
Dallas' third poet laureate Kristoddie Woods steps in alongside youth poet laureate Cadence Diggs, a 17-year-old Booker T. Washington High School student, for a two-year term.
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The Last Word: Mark Cuban on AI—and 6 More Takeaways From His Dallas Talk
by | Apr 8, 2026
Cuban didn’t hold back at Convergence AI Dallas, where his onstage conversation with Alex Kantrowitz delivered blunt advice and unfiltered insights.
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The Last Word: Micron VP On Why Richardson Students Are ‘a Direct Part of Our Industry’s Future’

by | Mar 18, 2026
A $96,500 Micron Foundation grant is bringing robotics, coding and AI-ready tools to Richardson ISD elementary classrooms.
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The Last Word: AT&T on the Famous First Words That Launched an Industry 150 Years Ago
by | Mar 11, 2026
The company is celebrating with a free pop-up museum at the AT&T Discovery District in downtown Dallas — and a $250 billion bet on what comes next.
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The Last Word: SMU ‘Big Ideas’ Winner Creates Laundromat Libraries for Pint-Sized Readers
by | Mar 10, 2026
Adzich has been working with groups like students from the Hockaday School who conduct book drives and raise $150 to provide a "bookshelf" for laundromat libraries around Dallas. Adzich has used that output to set up and maintain four Dallas-area laundromat libraries.
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The Last Word: Nextdoor CEO on Neighborhoods Where People ‘Actually Show Up for Each Other’
by | Mar 5, 2026
The platform's 2026 Friendliest Neighborhoods rankings are out — and DFW's Addison ranks No. 4 in Texas. Check out your neighborhood.
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The Last Word: MagnifyAI Founder on His Company’s Evolution from ‘Execution Partner to Capital Allocator’

by | Feb 25, 2026
Andrew Sanderson launched the firms' venture arm today pairing capital with know-how for startups ready to scale.
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The Last Word: LFG Ventures’ Managing Partner on Tracking ‘Where Frontier Tech Is Really Moving’
by | Feb 24, 2026
The Dallas firm's weekly newsletter The Markup delivers insights on private markets and pre-IPO deals.
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The Last Word: Inbenta CEO Melissa Solis on AI as the Great Equalizer
by | Feb 17, 2026
Inbenta CEO Melissa Solis—who built North Texas-based GIACT Systems from $300 to a $610M exit—talks AI deployment failures, customer culture, and who gets a seat at the table on the Women Disrupting Tech Podcast.
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The Last Word: The Charles Gets a New Look in the Dallas Design District
by | Feb 12, 2026
The Charles opened in the Dallas Design District in 2018 as the first-ever concept from Dallas-based Duro Hospitality. After a brief closing recently to enable a redesign, the restaurant has reopened with a new look and new menu offerings and "is stepping confidently into its next era."
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