Young and Smart

Meet the 7 impressive Dallasites on Forbes' coveted 30 Under 30 list

Amber Venz Box is one of the many Dallasites who show up on Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2017.

Perhaps Forbes took a little inspiration from last year's CultureMap Top Texans Under 30 program, because a few of our winners show up on the business site's vaunted 30 Under 30 list.

Now in its sixth year honoring "the brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators, and game-changers" — and boasting an acceptance rate of less than 4 percent, statistically making the list "harder to get into than Harvard" — 30 Under 30 actually encompasses 600 finalists in 20 categories. Twenty-two of this year's recipients are Texas-based.

And a large chunk of those remarkable youngsters hail from Dallas. From software titans to wine revolutionaries to the woman who's changing how we shop, here are the Dallas honorees who are gaining global attention.

Kendrick Worrell: Energy
Did you found a company by age 28? Worrell did, and Accelerate Resources combines his expertise in both retrieving natural resources and raising capital, drilling primarily in the Permian Basin with funding from Pine Brook Partners.

Michael Kennedy: Food and drink
If you've ever wondered what the varietals that make up a wine blend would taste like on their own, Kennedy has the answer. He founded Component Wine to "rescue" the varietals that go into some of Napa Valley's most respected blends, then ages and bottles them to sell on their own. But oenophiles be warned: Bottles can cost upward of $100.

Chase Feiger: Manufacturing and industry
When Google Ventures wants to invest in your idea, you might be on to something. The collaborative software that Feiger's company, Parsable, makes is used by industrial companies and teams, helping their businesses run more smoothly thanks to easier communication and project tracking.

Gaurab Chakrabarti and Sean Hunt: Manufacturing and industry
Not only is it possible to make hydrogen peroxide from plants (who knew?), that food-grade peroxide can then be used in pools, spas, hot tubs, and for cleaning. Chakrabarti and Hunt founded Solugen in 2016, and starting churning out PeroxyZen, the first of its kind.

Sean O'Brien: Marketing and advertising
College seniors are very into mobile messaging, but while at the University of Notre Dame, O'Brien and his Swyft co-founder, Evan Wray, were into building their own mobile messaging system (originally called TextPride). Three years later the company was acquired for $27 million by Monotype Imaging, and now Swyft runs as an independent subsidiary.

Amber Venz Box: Retail and e-commerce
First came RewardStyle, where social media "influencers" could earn money off their content, and now LikeToKnow.It, allowing Instagram users to move directly from the app to e-commerce sites where they can purchase clothes they saw on their faves' feeds. It's the only ready-to-shop consumer service on Instagram.

Movers and shakers from Houston and Austin also populate the list, including Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe, Verts Mediterranean Grill founder Dominik Stein, IntuiTap co-founder Jessica Traver, and four-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles.

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Coworking News

New coworking space to open in Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood

Office Evolution

A coworking space is opening in Dallas in a central location: Office Evolution, a Louisville-based coworking chain, will open what a release says is a "state-of-the-art coworking space" at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. #360 in Dallas at the southeast corner of Lemmon Avenue.

No details on what makes it state-of-the-art, but construction is ongoing and an opening is anticipated in mid-October.

Office Evolution was founded in 2003 as a shared workspace-coworking environment, cultivated on the principles of "Ohana," the Hawaiian tradition that references family working toward a common goal. (The founder was from Hawaii.)

The company started out in Boulder, Colorado, then relocated its headquarters to Louisville. It's an affiliated brand of United Franchise Group, and is part of The Vast Coworking Group, which specializes in franchising within the coworking industry. All of their locations are franchised.

The Dallas location is owned by franchisee Michael Pickering, a Dallas native who runs a family-owned indoor soccer facility in Dallas. (There are two other Office Evolution locations in the DFW area in McKinney and Southlake, owned by different franchisees.)

They're describing the Dallas location at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. as "Turtle Creek," although its location at Oak Lawn and Lemmon really puts it at the epicenter of Oak Lawn. (To further complicate matters, the building previously and incorrectly described its address as "Uptown.")

It's a seven-story building in which the majority of tenants are doctor and medical offices.

Office Evolution rates include a coworking day pass for $25, plus "flex" office options starting at $200 a month for 20 hours, up to $550 a month for 80 hours.

Amenities of the building that are also accessible to Office Evolution customers include a front desk; a 1,000-square-foot fitness center; covered parking; and on-site security six days a week.

According to a spokesperson, Pickering and his team put $1.2 million into the renovation to transform the space, which occupies most of the fourth floor where it will span 9,240 square feet of space with 41 total offices — one of which is earmarked as an "on-demand office" for the professional on the go.

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