Houston Startups Thread

[ChannelTwoNews]

Cart.com is moving its HQ back to Houston from Austin for a number of reasons - citing the former's better connections to its international offices as well as supply chain and logistical knowledge and resources.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/inno/stories/news/2023/11/20/cartcom-headquarters-returns-houston.html

"The company that we were in late 2020 and through 2021 and part of 2022 was absolutely a company that was built for revenue growth at all costs," Tonar said. "Now the mandate has turned towards looking at profitability and cash flow, and the culture of a place like Houston is attuned to that kind of operating model."

They are currently said to be looking for a location close to The Cannon near Memorial City, where they originally started. Even though they are a primarily remote-based workforce, their focus is on hiring locally.

Edited November 20 by ChannelTwoNews
Updated link

[ChannelTwoNews]

Additional comments from the co-founder of Cart.com, Remington Tonar

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/inno/stories/inno-insights/2023/11/21/cartcom-headquarters-return-houston-logistics-boom.html

"What are your thoughts on how Houston’s innovation ecosystem has grown?

This topic is very near and dear to me, and I’m very passionate on why it's important to continue to grow the ecosystem. Certainly, in the years since I’ve been in Houston, I’ve seen the ecosystem almost J-curve. When I moved down from New York City, I was unpleasantly surprised by the lack of infrastructure that the fourth-largest city in the country had for startups and entrepreneurs. Now we have multiple Cannon locations, the Ion, multiple national-level incubators. Omair and I and our founding investor, Jim Jacobsen, started this company at the Cannon West Houston, so in a lot of ways Cart.com is one of the most prominent examples of why we need to continue pushing for more startup infrastructure in Houston."