Startup

HGTV Drops Two Couples Into Dallas, Asks Them to Flip Homes ‘to a Million’

by | Aug 1, 2022
On "Flip to a Million"—premiering Monday at 8 central on HGTV and streaming on Discovery+—Long Island's Jon and Dani Wrobel and Chicago's Jason and EJ Williams move their families to Dallas with a daunting task. With an initial budget of just $1,000, they must race to flip as fast as they can. The first couple to sell a house for $1 million wins. They'll face competition outside the show, too. In Q1, investors set a record by flipping 2,675 homes and condos in DFW—more than double the pace from Q1 2021.
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Frisco’s POWERHANDZ Gets ‘Multimillion-Dollar Investment’ From Vanguard Holdings Group
by | Aug 1, 2022
PH Innovation Holdings, operator of fitness gear and training tech platform company POWERHANDZ, has landed a “multimillion-dollar” investment from Vanguard Holdings Group in an all-Frisco deal. In addition, Vanguard Holdings has issued a private tender offer to acquire all issued and outstanding minority shares of PHI. “This partnership will allow us to reach more athletes and shift mindsets about overall performance, physically and financially,” said POWERHANDZ CEO Danyel Surrency Jones.
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DI People: Kimberly-Clark, Sabre, Charles Schwab, and More Make Moves
by | Jul 29, 2022
In this week’s roundup of hires, promotions, and accolades in North Texas, you’ll also find news from DHD Films, Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty, M2G Ventures, UT Dallas, the Dallas Museum of Art, MOOYAH, Successive Technologies, CG Infinity, and more.
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Follow the Money: Dallas Unicorn Adds Cisco Investments as New Backer; Fort Worth Glove Maker Lands $58M for Facility, HQ Upgrades; and More
by | Jul 29, 2022
Plus: Southlake SPAC to take financial services firm public; real estate startup Nada Closes $8.1M seed round; Southlake PE firm is raising two biotech-focused funds; Jones family-backed investment firm acquires travel software company; and more North Texas deals.
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Game On: North Texas is a ‘High-Tech Entertainment’ Paradise

by | Jul 28, 2022
From Topgolf to Puttery, Electric Shuffle, TOCA Social, Two Bit Circus and more, North Texas may be America's greatest high-tech playground.

Check out this roundup of who's playing what where.
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Dallas-Based Nada Closes $8.1M Seed Round to Make Real Estate Investments More Accessible to All
by | Jul 27, 2022
Nada's Cityfunds enable people to invest in single-family rental homes and fractionally invest in owner-occupied homes in Dallas, Austin, and Miami. With the new funding, Nada plans to expand Cityfunds to six new cities, grow its Oak Lawn-based staff to around 60, and develop a home equity-accessing debit card.

“We fundamentally believe that we can make a material difference to people's lives by making real estate as an asset more accessible,” co-founder and CEO John Green told Dallas Innovates.
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See What’s in Store at Dallas Startup Week’s Corporate Startup Innovation Summit
by | Jul 27, 2022
The DEC Network’s flagship event—Dallas Startup Week—will be held August 7 through August 11 both virtually and in person at SMU's Cox School of Business.

Bringing together the local ecosystem’s “breadth and diversity” of corporations and startups, the Corporate Startup Innovation summit will feature Jim Adler, founding managing director of Toyota Ventures, and Steven Levy, editor at large at Wired—plus a deep dive in the funding landscape, an accelerator pitch competition, and more.
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The Last Word: Rings Donuts’ Bill Hennessey on Keeping It Old School
At his Rings Donuts + Coffee shop near Preston Center in Dallas, Hennessey doesn't do artisanal or get all fancy-schmancy—he's just trying to make donuts the old-fashioned way—only better. "We do classic doughnuts, not gourmet," Hennessey told CultureMap Dallas. "Our doughnuts aren't topped with bacon or candy, they're regular doughnuts, but higher-quality than what you generally find."
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Dallas Startup TestFit Lands $20M for AI-powered Building Configurator Technology

by | Jul 26, 2022
Co-Founder Clifton Harness says TestFit is the first company to connect pro forma, construction cost, and asset design through building configurator software. The technology allows companies to "de-risk decisions" and log critical time savings when they develop new real estate. The funding will help the startup expand its R&D, quadruple its product and engineering teams, and build a new HQ.

“With TestFit, we see a disruptor driving a paradigm shift in the real estate industry,” said Gregg Hill, co-founder and managing partner at Parkway Venture Capital, which led the funding round.
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Follow the Money: BILT Gets $1.7M Air Force Grant for 3D Instructions App, PGA of America Invests in Golf Innovation, and More
by | Jul 25, 2022
Plus, Fort Worth's Harvest Returns raises new fund; new Ryan acquisition makes 2022 its most active M&A year; OpTic Gaming acquires Dallas chatbot startup; Dallas legal education firm boosts digital content library; and Fort Worth's Novaria Group acquires firm with giant aerospace clients.
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The Last Word: Toyota’s Stacey Gee‑Miller on the Women of Innovation Summit
by | Jul 22, 2022
Of three summits to be held during Dallas Startup Week, the Women of Innovation Summit is right in Miller's wheelhouse. The summit is powered by her company, Toyota Financial Services, and will celebrate women who transform their ideas and ambitions into a reality. The goal? To set women leaders up for success, says Miller.
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DI People: Flix, Keurig Dr Pepper, StackPath, GenelQ, and More Make Leadership Moves
by | Jul 22, 2022
In this week’s roundup of hires, promotions, and accolades in North Texas, you’ll also find news from Jackson-Shaw, Perkins&Will, Aimbridge Hospitality, Molecular Testing Labs, Axxess, Education Opens Doors, Make-A-Wish North Texas, LVTRise, and more. 
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See What’s on Tap for Dallas Startup Week’s Disrupt Dallas Summit

by | Jul 20, 2022
The Disrupt Dallas summit will highlight "champions who are disrupting the entrepreneurial ecosystem and talent pipeline,” says The DEC Network. The summit on August 8—part of Dallas Startup Week's multi-day event—offers education and programming from local entrepreneurs of color on how to help support and grow a business. Dear Fathers, a media platform for Black fatherhood, was co-founded by Jesse Alex and Lamar Johnson Jr., who "turned their pain of not having real father experiences growing up" into a positive mission. [Image: Dear Fathers] Dear Fathers is a platform “dedicated to telling stories of black fathers from all angles while also empowering our community with tangible resources that inspire, heal, and strengthen the Black man.” Odell Beckham, Sr. Lamar Quinn Dessie Brown, Jr. LaDarius Campbell
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Qualia Oto Lands New Funding for Its Mission to Restore Hearing in Patients
by | Jul 20, 2022
UT Dallas-based Qualia Oto is developing the next generation of cochlear implants, and has announced closing a Series A preferred round of around $1.64 million. Unlike typical cochlear implants that use bundles of wires attached to a receiver to stimulate the auditory nerve, Qualia Oto’s implant uses thin-film electrode arrays embedded in a polymer, allowing for more contact with the inner ear. That translates to a higher quality and range of sounds that are able to be transmitted.
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Dallas Invents: 139 Patents Granted for Week of June 28
by | Jul 20, 2022
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 10 for patents out of 250 metros. Patents granted include: AMI Investments' remote monitoring of water distribution system, Avrio Genetics' transdermal patch with separated regions for delivery of immunomodulators, Cenergistic's building automation and control system modeling and reporting, Change Healthcare Holdings' augmented reality pharmacy system and method, DT Labs' apparatus for customer authentication of an item, Global E-Dentity's biometric authentication for an augmented reality or a virtual reality device, Lennox Industries' demand defrost with frost accumulation failsafe, Magic Leap's matching content to a spatial 3D environment, Salesboost's voice analysis training system, The Container Store' clothes hanger, Toyota's vehicle seat with morphing portions, and Wells Fargo Banks' complaint prioritization.
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