Growing a Concept

University of Houston startups had the opportunity to demo their business concepts to potential customers, investors and industry members recently during the 11^th Annual Bayou Startup Showcase 

The event is a joint effort between UH and Rice University, showcasing new small businesses from Bauer College’s RED Labs accelerator program and its Rice counterpart, OwlSpark. Bayou Startup Showcase serves as the final element of a 12-week program for founders who have spent the summer developing their startup concepts in a coworking space within The Ion. 

“Every year it is so inspiring to see students come in at the beginning of the summer with an idea, or a business they are looking to expand, and turn it into a reality within 12 weeks,” RED Labs Managing Director Liana Gonzalez said. “Here at RED Labs, we are always happy to keep building up the startup space in Houston to help our students succeed.”   

The business concepts ranged from consumer products to B2B solutions, with teams working over the summer to develop marketing and branding plans, practice their pitches and chat one-on-one with mentors.  

Bauer students Jason Shi and Antony Leung saw their hard work over the summer sprout into a growing business called Root Planters. Initially conceived during the COVID-19 shutdown, the company is selling an automatic watering device that monitors the dryness level of plants’ dryness level and provides it with the appropriate amount of hydration.  

“During COVID, I got into plants and grew a lot of them in my home and got really invested in them,” Shi said. “When I had to go back to work and travel, I had no one to take care of them, and they ultimately died. That’s when Root Planters was born.”  

RED Labs allowed the students to build a scalable business around the idea.  

“This experience helped us in gaining confidence and making more of our product,” Leung said. “We only had several demo units and were not selling on the market, but this has given us the skills and confidence to take that next step to get it on the marketplace.”