Podcast: How this Houston energy tech startup transforms innovation into scalable success

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Through Dsider’s techno-economic analysis platform, Sujatha Kumar is helping startups bridge the critical gap between vision and execution, ensuring they can navigate complex markets with confidence. Photo via LinkedIn

What if the future of clean energy wasn’t just about invention, but execution? For Sujatha Kumar, CEO of Dsider, success in clean tech hinges on more than groundbreaking technology—it’s about empowering founders with the tools to make their innovations viable, scalable, and economically sound.

Through Dsider’s techno-economic analysis (TEA) platform, Kumar is helping startups bridge the critical gap between vision and execution, ensuring they can navigate complex markets with confidence.

In a recent episode of the Energy Tech Startups Podcast, Kumar shared her insights on the growing importance of TEA in the hard tech space. While clean energy innovation promises transformative solutions, the challenge lies in proving both technical feasibility and economic sustainability. Kumar argues that many early-stage founders, especially in fields like carbon capture, microgrids, and renewable energy, lack the necessary financial tools to assess market fit and long-term profitability—a gap Dsider aims to fill.

What Makes Dsider Unique?

Dsider offers more than just financial modeling—it creates actionable insights, tailored to the demands of the clean energy sector. At its core, the platform integrates TEA with operational planning, equipping founders with the ability to run scenario analyses, optimize pricing strategies, and anticipate market challenges. “It’s not just about building a product—it’s about understanding how to make that product thrive in a dynamic, ever-evolving market,” Kumar explained.

In industries where data is limited and stakes are high, startups often struggle to translate early pilots into scalable solutions. Kumar emphasized how Dsider’s approach helps founders forecast regulatory shifts, project downtime risks, and identify key economic drivers—turning complex calculations into a clear strategic roadmap. This foresight enables startups to align with customer expectations and investor requirements from the outset, a step that is often overlooked in early development stages.

Why TEA is Critical for Founders

“Clean tech innovation is hard,” Kumar emphasized, “because there is no historical data to guide decisions.” Startups often operate in unfamiliar territory, where understanding market fit and pricing models is essential. Through TEA, founders can build a financial narrative, simulate real-world conditions, and show investors or customers how their solutions will perform.

Jason, an experienced founder, echoed this sentiment, reflecting on his own mistakes:

"I wish I’d done a TEA earlier—during my first pilot, we didn’t budget for enough support, and it cost us a key customer."

The takeaway? Even at the pilot stage, TEA is invaluable. As Kumar noted, failing early pilots can prevent startups from scaling—making upfront analysis essential for success.

Beyond Technology: Bridging Gaps Between Founders, Investors, and Customers

Kumar highlighted the need to align founders, investors, and customers through a shared understanding of value. TEA enables this by allowing founders to communicate in the same language as their stakeholders—from efficiency gains to regulatory compliance. Dsider's platform provides tools for scenario modeling, allowing startups to optimize for both technology performance and economic outcomes.

One challenge, she noted, is that many founders are scientists without financial backgrounds. “Our goal is to simplify that complexity, so founders can focus on their technology while we take care of the analysis,” Kumar explained. Dsider helps startups anticipate questions from investors, simulate risks, and optimize business models from the start.

A New Way to Sell: Using TEA as a Business Development Tool

Kumar described how TEA can be more than a financial tool—it can become a business development asset. Founders can use Dsider to create customized reports for potential customers, demonstrating the specific value their technology brings. With interactive models and scenario analysis, startups can quickly respond to customer needs and build trust through transparency.

Future Growth

Looking ahead, Dsider aims to scale its operations and expand its impact by continuing to support early-stage founders with affordable, high-impact tools. With growing regulatory support for clean tech and an increasing demand for sustainable solutions, Dsider is positioned to become a key player in the energy tech startup ecosystem.

By bridging the gap between innovation and economics, Dsider is helping founders navigate complex challenges and build businesses that are both profitable and impactful—setting a strong foundation for future growth in the climate tech space.

Listen to the full episode with Sujatha Kumar on the Energy Tech Startups Podcast here.

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Energy Tech Startups Podcast is hosted by Jason Ethier and Nada Ahmed. It delves into Houston's pivotal role in the energy transition, spotlighting entrepreneurs and industry leaders shaping a low-carbon future.

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Houston investor leads Houston climatetech startup's $5.6M seed to transform energy-efficient HVAC challenges

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A Houston startup with clean tech originating out of NASA has secured millions in funding.

Helix Earth Technologies closed an oversubscribed $5.6 million seed funding led by Houston-based research and investment firm Veriten. Anthropocene Ventures, Semilla Capital, and others including individual investors also participated in the round.

“This investment will empower the Helix Earth team to accelerate the development and deployment of our first groundbreaking hardware technology designed to disrupt a significant portion of the commercial air conditioning market, an industry that is ready for innovation,” Rawand Rasheed, Helix Earth co-founder and CEO, says in a news release.

Helix Earth was founded based on NASA technology co-invented by Rasheed and spun out of Rice University and has been incubated at Greentown Labs in Houston since 2022. Currently being piloted, the technology is estimated to save up to half of the net energy used in commercial air conditioning, reducing both emissions and costs for operators.

“The enthusiastic response from investors reinforces our team’s confidence in our ability to transform innovation-starved sectors such as commercial air conditioning with an easy-to-install-and-maintain solution that benefits distributors, mechanical contractors, and most of all, building owners, with a positive benefit to the environment,” Rasheed says.

Prior to its raise, the company received grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Energy.

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Helix Earth team," Maynard Holt, Veriten’s founder and CEO, adds. "We were so impressed with their unique combination of a technology with broad applicability across multiple industries, a product that will have an immediate and measurable impact on our energy system, and a fantastic and well-rounded team.”

Helix Earth, per the release, reports that is also looking to provide solutions for commercial humidity control and carbon capture.

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This article originally ran on InnovationMap.

Report: Texas trails behind in cycling safety, sustainability

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In what will come as no surprise to cyclists around Houston, the state of Texas is not a good place for bicycle riding. According to a new report of the "Most Cycling-Friendly States in the U.S.," Texas comes in at No. 47 — meaning that only three other states are worse.

The report, from Philadelphia personal injury law firm KaplunMarx, examines all 50 states based on six metrics: Air quality index, the number of cyclist deaths per one million residents, bike routes per square mile, local government actions supporting cycling, federal funding for cycling projects, and bicycle laws.

Texas musters a mere 31 points out of 100 for its "cycling friendly score."

The most cycling friendly state in the U.S.: Minnesota, which earned 84 points to claim the title.

According to the report's findings, there have been 15 local government actions per capita in Texas that integrate pedestrians and cyclists in transportation projects. Texas' has a 41 air quality index value, and there are approximately 1.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles in the state.

On cyclist deaths, Texas does a little better, with three cyclist deaths per one million residents in Texas — about nine percent lower than the national average.

According to KaplunMarx founding partner Ted Kaplun, there is an average of 857 cyclist fatalities in the U.S. every year. He adds that every measure or community effort to improve cyclist-friendliness is beneficial for all Americans.

"It's crucial for all states to continually assess and enhance their cycling provisions, learning from both high-ranking peers and their own experiences," he says.

Top-ranking Minnesota has only one cyclist death per one million state residents. It also has about 27.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles.

After Minnesota, the remaining top five best states for cyclists are Massachusetts (No. 2), Rhode Island (No. 3), Washington (No. 4), and Iowa (No. 5).

At the bottom of the list are Nevada (No. 48), Arizona (No. 49), and Utah (No. 50) — all of which performed far worse than Texas to be declared the three least cycling-friendly states.

The entire country still has areas for improvement when it comes to creating a safer environment for cyclists, regardless of where each state landed on the list, according to Kaplun.

"With over 53 million Americans riding bicycles regularly, the importance of cycling-friendly infrastructure and safety measures cannot be overstated," said Kaplun in the report. "This isn't just about rankings – it's about enhancing the quality of life, promoting sustainable transportation, and most crucially, saving lives."

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

US safety agency pressures Texas-based Tesla over full self-driving claims, crash concerns

The U.S. government's highway safety agency says Tesla is telling drivers in public statements that its vehicles can drive themselves, conflicting with owners manuals and briefings with the agency saying the electric vehicles need human supervision.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is asking the company to “revisit its communications” to make sure messages are consistent with user instructions.

The request came in a May email to the company from Gregory Magno, a division chief with the agency's Office of Defects Investigation. It was attached to a letter seeking information on a probe into crashes involving Tesla's “Full Self-Driving” system in low-visibility conditions. The letter was posted Friday on the agency's website.

The agency began the investigation in October after getting reports of four crashes involving “Full Self-Driving" when Teslas encountered sun glare, fog and airborne dust. An Arizona pedestrian was killed in one of the crashes.

Critics, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have long accused Tesla of using deceptive names for its partially automated driving systems, including “Full Self-Driving” and “Autopilot,” both of which have been viewed by owners as fully autonomous.

The letter and email raise further questions about whether Full Self-Driving will be ready for use without human drivers on public roads, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has predicted. Much of Tesla's stock valuation hinges on the company deploying a fleet of autonomous robotaxis.

Musk, who has promised autonomous vehicles before, said the company plans to have autonomous Models Y and 3 running without human drivers next year. Robotaxis without steering wheels would be available in 2026 starting in California and Texas, he said.

A message was sent Friday seeking comment from Tesla.

In the email, Magno writes that Tesla briefed the agency in April on an offer of a free trial of “Full Self-Driving” and emphasized that the owner's manual, user interface and a YouTube video tell humans that they have to remain vigilant and in full control of their vehicles.

But Magno cited seven posts or reposts by Tesla's account on X, the social media platform owned by Musk, that Magno said indicated that Full Self-Driving is capable of driving itself.

“Tesla's X account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Magno wrote. “We believe that Tesla's postings conflict with its stated messaging that the driver is to maintain continued control over the dynamic driving task."

The postings may encourage drivers to see Full Self-Driving, which now has the word “supervised” next to it in Tesla materials, to view the system as a “chauffeur or robotaxi rather than a partial automation/driver assist system that requires persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno wrote.

On April 11, for instance, Tesla reposted a story about a man who used Full Self-Driving to travel 13 miles (21 kilometers) from his home to an emergency room during a heart attack just after the free trial began on April 1. A version of Full Self-Driving helped the owner "get to the hospital when he needed immediate medical attention,” the post said.

In addition, Tesla says on its website that use of Full Self-Driving and Autopilot without human supervision depends on “achieving reliability" and regulatory approval, Magno wrote. But the statement is accompanied by a video of a man driving on local roads with his hands on his knees, with a statement that, “The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself,” the email said.

In the letter seeking information on driving in low-visibility conditions, Magno wrote that the investigation will focus on the system's ability to perform in low-visibility conditions caused by “relatively common traffic occurrences.”

Drivers, he wrote, may not be told by the car that they should decide where Full Self-Driving can safely operate or fully understand the capabilities of the system.

“This investigation will consider the adequacy of feedback or information the system provides to drivers to enable them to make a decision in real time when the capability of the system has been exceeded,” Magno wrote.

The letter asks Tesla to describe all visual or audio warnings that drivers get that the system “is unable to detect and respond to any reduced visibility condition.”

The agency gave Tesla until Dec. 18 to respond to the letter, but the company can ask for an extension.

That means the investigation is unlikely to be finished by the time President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, and Trump has said he would put Musk in charge of a government efficiency commission to audit agencies and eliminate fraud. Musk spent at least $119 million in a campaign to get Trump elected, and Trump has spoken against government regulations.

Auto safety advocates fear that if Musk gains some control over NHTSA, the Full Self-Driving and other investigations into Tesla could be derailed.

Musk even floated the idea of him helping to develop national safety standards for self-driving vehicles.

“Of course the fox wants to build the henhouse,” said Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit watchdog group.

He added that he can't think of anyone who would agree that a business mogul should have direct involvement in regulations that affect the mogul’s companies.

“That’s a huge problem for democracy, really,” Brooks said.

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