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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.
Tomato Wine by Pizza Hut [Photo: Pizza Hut]
The Last Word: Pizza Hut’s Elyse Slayton on Her Company’s New Tomato Wine
by David Seeley | Dec 5, 2024
Think wine just comes from grapes? Plano-based Pizza Hut has poured out an innovative twist that may surprise you. Just before Thanksgiving, the company launched Tomato Wine by Pizza Hut, a limited-edition offering it says "captures the essence of your favorite slice in every sip." The splashy launch has proved so popular, you have to get on a wait list to order some.
by Quincy Preston |
Dec 4, 2024
Dallas-based innovator Michael Gorton, a 15-time entrepreneur and investor, points to a growing challenge: AI, blockchain, and cloud computing are consuming massive amounts of energy in traditional data centers. The terrestrial facilities—often spanning 6 million square feet—can use more power than medium-sized towns. Over the next decade, he notes, nearly a trillion dollars will be invested in power infrastructure improvements just to meet data center demands.
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by David Seeley |
Dec 3, 2024
Pete Schenkel—who owned Dallas-based Schepps Dairy before its sale to Suiza Foods in 2000—led a long, accomplished life of leadership in Dallas before his death Wednesday at age 89. But the former board chair of the State Fair of Texas, DFW Airport, and the Methodist Health System Foundation may be best known for preserving something truly valuable: keeping the Texas-OU game at the Cotton Bowl at least through 2036.
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by Quincy Preston |
Nov 22, 2024
“It’s destined to happen somewhere. I’d rather it happen here first.”
Giovanni Capriglione
Texas State Representative
Chair, Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services Committee
…on the potential for Texas to create a Bitcoin strategic reserve ahead of federal initiatives, speaking at the Texas Blockchain Summit in Dallas this week....
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Photo: Thrift for Good
The Last Word: Thrift for Good Co‑Founder on Leveraging AI to Transform Thrift Stores
by David Seeley | Nov 20, 2024
Founded in 2019, Thrift for Good enables people to buy and donate used goods while helping out charities, in an industry where 84% of donated clothes end up either dumped in a landfill or destroyed. Cooper and her fellow co-founder and co-owner, Taylor Watts, are building AI-based software for thrift stores to try to reduce that waste and inefficiency—while working to grow their DFW footprint.
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by David Seeley |
Nov 19, 2024
Dallas-based Chili's says its Triple Dipper—a plate loaded with cheese pulls, burger bites, and sauced Chicken Crispers—went viral on TikTok this year, snagging "over 200 million views." Now the company's following that up with an eye-opening (uh, make that closing) marketing stunt.
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by Quincy Preston |
Nov 18, 2024
McKinney-based Maverick Power tops both Dallas Business Journal's Fast 50 and SMU's Dallas 100 private company rankings with record-breaking recent growth.
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by Dallas Innovates | Staff Report |
Nov 14, 2024
It's been called "Uber with guns." Now the Atlanta-based BlackWolf rideshare service—which features armed drivers with military or security backgrounds—is expanding to Dallas, Austin, and Houston, according to the Dallas Morning News' Sarah Bahari.
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At last November's Venture Dallas Summit kickoff event at Circle T Ranch, Aaron Pierce, Ross Perot Jr., and Anurag Jain took part in a fireside chat. [Photo: Grant Miller Photography/Venture Dallas]
The Last Word: Ross Perot Jr. on the Strength of the North Texas Economy
by Dallas Innovates | Staff Report | Nov 12, 2024
Inside the sprawling, cowboy-chic Texas Barn at the Perot family’s Circle T Ranch in Westlake late last month, an elite group of investors, founders, and key stakeholders gathered for an exclusive VIP event kicking off the 2024 Venture Dallas business summit. Ross Perot Jr. sat at center stage in a fireside chat with Venture Dallas Co-Founder and Board Chair Aaron Pierce and Anurag Jain, founder and managing partner at early-stage VC firm Perot Jain.
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by David Seeley |
Nov 7, 2024
Irving-based TXU Energy and the Dallas-based Texas Trees Foundation are launching a statewide tree-planting campaign, celebrating 20 years of working together to create “greener, healthier communities” via the TXU Energy Urban Tree Farm and Education Center at Dallas College's Richland campus.
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by Dallas Innovates | Staff Report |
Nov 6, 2024
Mike Fey—co-founder and CEO of Dallas-based enterprise browser unicorn Island—launched his company in 2020 during the pandemic and has since seen its valuation rocket to $3 billion. Speaking at the Venture Dallas conference last week, he talked about why he decided to found his company in Dallas instead of in Silicon Valley.
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by Dallas Innovates | Staff Report |
Nov 5, 2024
Coffee with a British accent is politely muscling into North Texas, as anyone driving down East Mockingbird Lane in Dallas this week could tell you. Founded in London, England, in 2013 by college friends Gabriel Shohet and Eirik Holth, Black Sheep Coffee has 110 restaurant locations in the U.K., France, the United Arab Emirates, and Philippines. That total includes the newly opened 6240 E. Mockingbird location (housed in a former bank building) and one at Preston Parkway Center in Plano, which opened a few months ago.
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Strive Enterprises—a financial services firm co-founded in 2022 by former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy—has announced its headquarters relocation from Columbus, Ohio, to Dallas. Paired with its HQ move, Strive announced Friday that it’s launching its wealth management business in Dallas as well, in the wake of its recent close of a $30 million Series B financing round led by New York-based Cantor Fitzgerald.
The Last Word: On Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive Enterprises Relocating Its HQ to Dallas
by David Seeley | Nov 1, 2024
Strive Enterprises—a financial services firm co-founded in 2022 by former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy—has announced its headquarters relocation from Columbus, Ohio, to Dallas. Paired with its HQ move, Strive announced Friday that it’s launching its wealth management business in Dallas as well, in the wake of its recent close of a $30 million Series B financing round led by New York-based Cantor Fitzgerald.
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The Last Word: Dude Perfect’s Coby Cotton on Planning a New 80K‑SF Video Production Studio in Frisco
by David Seeley |
Oct 30, 2024
At the Venture Dallas summit today at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Dude Perfect CEO Andrew Yaffe unveiled plans for a new 80,000-square-foot video production studio to be located near the trick-shot YouTube stars' new $3 million Frisco HQ.
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by David Seeley |
Oct 29, 2024
The Deep Ellum Foundation is installing new streetlight pole banners on Elm Street, Main Street, and Exposition Avenue that celebrate the neighborhood by highlighting business owners, artists, musicians, and other stakeholders "who have invested their talent, sweat, and tears into the incomparable Deep Ellum Cultural District," the foundation said.
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by David Seeley |
Oct 24, 2024
Cx Precision Medicine—a diagnostics company founded on research by Dr. Sid O’Bryant at UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth—spun out from HSC to advance O’Bryant’s pioneering work on blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. The company recently gained higher visibility—and an even greater opportunity for impact—by being selected to join the prestigious StartUp Health’s Alzheimer’s Moonshot community.
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