RED Labs

RED Labs is the University of Houston's coworking space, startup accelerator, and technology entrepreneurship program. They work with UH-affiliated founders (faculty, students, and recent alumni of the past 6 months) to turn their technology startup ideas into high growth ventures by providing free co-working space, access to mentors and resources in the startup community, and customized startup curriculum. They are non-profit and take no equity. During the summer, the accelerator accepts up to ten companies and runs them through a full-time, three-month intensive program with curriculum, mentorship, and more. Since 2013, 46 founders have launched 17 companies at RED Labs.

Summmer Accelerator

Housed in the Texas Medical Center's new 100,000 square foot Innovation Institute (TMCx), the summer accelerator is an intensive, 3 month program operated in collaboration with Rice University's startup accelerator, OwlSpark. The summer accelerator (Class 4) begins on May 23rd, 2016 and concludes with the Bayou Startup Showcase. During the summer accelerator, RED Labs works with founders full time to launch and grow their startups. RED Labs offers co-working space at TMCx and access to mentors from Houston's technology startup ecosystem. Founders are required to attend sessions on topics such as funding, legal considerations, building a team, and other material that RED Labs has developed for early-stage founders. They also bring in successful entrepreneurs to recount their experiences and helpful lessons learned.

Pre-Accelerator and Intro to Technology Entrepreneurship

The University of Houston offers credit for working with RED Labs Summer Accelerator as well as taking courses during U of H’s spring semester. This includes an Introduction to Technology Entrepreneurship that involves workshops, guest speakers and case studies focused on helping students understand how to identify problems, create solutions and then build products and companies from that. U of H also offers a Pre-Accelerator where during the Spring semester, the course helps potential founders develop initial drafts of a business model, product-market fit, and get started on customer validation.

Alumni Companies

Name	Type of Company	Cohort
Datafuel	Software Training	Class 3
Guestographer	Event Photography	Class 3
Lumen Motors	Electric Car Design	Class 3
Teomics	BioScience Lab technology	Class 3
Victory Crate	Board Game	Class 3

Management

• Hesam Penahi, Managing Director
• Kelly McCormick, Assistant Managing Director
• Interns:
  • Travis Arnold
  • Laura Mahaney