{"id":473754,"date":"2026-10-22T20:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T20:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473754\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T20:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T20:36:25","slug":"venture-dallas-2026-founders-investors-bet-on-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473754\/","title":{"rendered":"Venture Dallas 2026: Founders, Investors Bet on Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Justin<\/p>\n

Justin Lopas, left, co-founder of Austin-based Base Power, spoke with Salen Churi, founder and managing partner of Trust Ventures, during a morning session at the 2026 Venture Dallas conference. [Photo: Dallas Innovates]<\/p>\n

North Texas\u2019 growing venture capital community was on full display Thursday at Old Parkland, as an estimated 450 company founders, investors and other community leaders gathered for the sixth annual Venture Dallas conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas is the greatest [state] in this country, and America is going to win because of people like you who are building,\u201d said Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Miami-based software company Palantir Technologies and founder and managing partner of Austin-based 8VC.<\/p>\n

Lonsdale\u2019s VC firm was an early backer of Dallas-based life insurance startup Bestow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lonsdale was among more than 40 people who took the stage for the event, and his build-first optimism was a common theme. Other speakers included Dallas entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban; Stephen Gillett, CEO of Dallas-based Verily Health; Lane Kasselman, co-CEO of Dallas-based Blockchain.com; and Will Edwards, co-founder and CEO of Addison-based Firehawk Aerospace.<\/p>\n

Texas as a launchpad<\/p>\n

Lonsdale moved from Silicon Valley to Austin in 2020. As evidence of what Texas can offer founders that other states can\u2019t, he pointed to 8VC portfolio company Saronic. The Austin-based naval defense company broke ground in September on its next-generation shipyard, Port Alpha, in Brownsville. Lonsdale said Saronic couldn\u2019t have started in California.<\/p>\n

Austin-based energy storage company Base Power made a similar case. Base Power installs batteries at single-family homes to expand the power grid\u2019s capacity. More than half its installations are in Dallas-Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

Co-founder Justin Lopas discussed how the company was able to work with state lawmakers to standardize installation requirements, rather than navigate a patchwork of municipal rules. It was game-changing for Base Power\u2019s growth, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an engineer by training, and so it was always weird to me that physics doesn\u2019t change across the street, but somehow regulation does,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Betting on a bright future<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the state\u2019s pro-innovation approach stands out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to create something, if you want to build something, how can we make it harder?\u201d he said of the nation\u2019s capital. \u201cThe attitude in Texas is exactly the opposite. It\u2019s \u2018How can we make it easier?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Corny said he can\u2019t imagine what the next 25 years will bring.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day I wake up, it seems like some other sort of science fiction thing has happened,\u201d he said. \u201cAmerica has awakened to the opportunities for AI \u2014 or super intelligence, as President Trump likes to call it \u2014 which is exciting. But obviously there are some collateral consequences in terms of jobs and how [we are] going to adjust to this incredible innovation technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet he remains optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we have people like those in this room who are willing to take a few well-calculated risks and create something new and something useful and important,\u201d Cornyn said, \u201cI think the future is bright indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tR E A D\u00a0\u00a0 N E X T\t<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

North Texas has plenty to see, hear, and watch.\u00a0Here are our editors’ picks. Plus, you’ll find more selections to “save the date.”<\/p>\n

\t\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

The awards program spotlights visionaries, early adopters and trailblazers who are propelling innovation and shaping the future of North Texas tech.<\/p>\n

\t\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

Set for Thursday, Oct. 22, the sixth annual venture capital and technology event connects investors, founders and innovators.<\/p>\n

\t\"Mike<\/a><\/p>\n

The region\u2019s Q3 haul ranks as its fifth-best quarter since 2016, yet year-to-date funding of $1.73 billion still falls short of 2025\u2019s $1.9 billion pace.<\/p>\n

\t\"Taiwan<\/a><\/p>\n

Taiwan Expo USA 2026 brings business, government and technology leaders together to explore the partnerships driving AI, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, energy and resilient supply chains.<\/p>\n

\t\"Welcome<\/a><\/p>\n

Watter\u2019s first commercial installation offsets water-heating costs and creates a new revenue stream for the hotel.<\/p>\n

\t\"Apply<\/a><\/p>\n

You’ll find deadlines coming up for a new accelerator program; and many more opportunities.<\/p>\n

\t\"Sina<\/a><\/p>\n

The grant, awarded to UT Southwestern biotech spinoff MusiQ Bio, could pave the way for human clinical trials of the startup\u2019s proprietary cancer-fighting platform within five years.<\/p>\n

\t\"figure<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 9 among 250 U.S. metros in patent production for the week of Aug. 11, with 135 patents granted to inventors and companies across the region.<\/p>\n

\t\"Stage<\/a><\/p>\n

Four years after arriving at Pegasus Park, the Boston-based accelerator is adding health and security accelerators and founder clinics, backed by a renewed two-year grant from Lyda Hill Philanthropies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Lopas, left, co-founder of Austin-based Base Power, spoke with Salen Churi, founder and managing partner of Trust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[145854,158988,3366,3243,102,104,103,113633,3309,4975,98052,133153,10264,160400,11901,160401],"class_list":["post-473754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-8vc","tag-aerospace-defense","tag-base-power","tag-clean-energy","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-joe-lonsdale","tag-john-cornyn","tag-mark-cuban","tag-old-parkland","tag-saronic","tag-startup-ecosystem","tag-trust-ventures","tag-venture-capital","tag-venture-dallas-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}