💪🏻1845 Venture Studio a lift for entrepreneurs; Musk's SpaceX gets $400B valuation; Community paints better picture for arts program.

A trio of entrepreneurs and investors — Ryan Brown, Trey Bowles and Wade Myers — have co-founded 1845 Venture Studio. The mission is to empower exceptional founders to build, fund and scale ventures from scratch. Brown will be the Managing Partner. 

Maroon 9’s community arts programs for students were not left marooned after losing a $10k NEA arts grant.

Lockheed Martin delivered the first shipset of four SPY-7(V)1 radar antennas, to be equipped on Japan’s Aegis System Equipped Vessels. Japan plans to acquire two warships focused on ballistic missile defense, which are planned for commissioning in 2027 and 2028.

Defense tech startup HavocAI and the venture capital arm of Lockheed Martin formed a partnership focused on rapidly developing and scaling medium unmanned surface vessels. HavocAI is a Rhode Island-based startup focused on developing  “ultra-low cost, high-rate production” autonomous surface vessels. Congress has passed its reconciliation bill that included billions of dollars in funding for the U.S. Navy to pursue a number of unmanned technology programs.

Adobe Analytics forecasts a record $23.8B in Amazon Prime Day spending from July 8- 11. That would represent 28.4% growth from last year's level. The firm noted that the projected sales total is more than two Black Fridays, which drove $10.8B in online spending during the 2024 holiday shopping season.

SpaceX is discussing plans to raise money and sell insider shares that would value Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker around $400B, Bloomberg and Seeking Alpha reported. The valuation would be $50 billion more than the $350B set during a share buyback in December. It would put the privately held firm on par with the market capitalizations of Home Depot and Palantir Technologies. 

Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban says that artificial intelligence has the potential to generate more wealth for a single person than any individual has ever accumulated before. Specifically, Cuban predicts that AI will help create the world’s first trillionaire. That person will be someone who is able to harness AI in a yet-to-be-discovered way, he added. “Not only do I think it’ll create a trillionaire, but it could be just one dude in the basement. That’s how crazy it could be.”

The Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to temporarily move ahead with plans to impose reductions in force and reorganize various government agencies. The justices made clear that their order is not about the legality of any individual agency reduction in force or reorganization plan, only the legality of Trump's executive order and an administration memo related to workforce plans.

H-E-B plans to build another Fort Worth grocery store in the Walsh area of Parker County at the corner of FM 3325 and the I-20 service road. The $18-million store is expected to be complete during December 2026, and will be approximately seven miles east from H-E-B’s Hudson Oaks store, which opened in 2019. H-E-B in Alliance opened in spring 2024.

OnMed will open a CareStation this month at the Fiesta Mart at 421 West Bolt Ave. in Fort Worth, made possible through grants from Molina Healthcare of Texas. A CareStation offers on-site, tech-enabled primary and urgent care services—at no cost to visitors. 

Southlake-based Sabre Corporation said it completed the previously announced sale of its Hospitality Solutions business to Fort Worth-based TPG for $1.1 billion, $960 million net of taxes and fees.

The “One Big Beautiful Bill” extends or makes permanent many provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that were scheduled to expire at the end of 2025 and contains new tax provisions that were priorities of the Trump administration. Key tax provisions with broad applicability are addressed here by Fort Worth firm JTaylor.

President Trump promised “no tax on tips”. Then came the fine print. The proposal, which Congress passed as part of the President’s tax-and-spending mega-bill, won’t eliminate taxes on tips entirely.

First-time home sales are tanking. America’s renter population has hit a record because fewer people can afford to get on the housing ladder.

Keller Mayor Armin Mizani will join the special election race for Texas Senate District 9, the seat recently vacated by Kelly Hancock. Mizani, an attorney, was elected Mayor in 2020, after having served as a City Councilman from 2014 to 2018.

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics will host its 2025 Football National Championship Game Dec. 20 at the Crowley ISD Multi-Purpose Stadium. The 8,000-seat stadium opened in 2022.

Fans are counting down the days until the official kickoff of the college football season on Saturday, Aug 23. The Athletic has ranked the 100 best rivalries. See which contests made the top 10.

Significant stat: $293 million = Global ticket sales for “F1: The Movie," one of the most expensive sports movies ever made, and Apple's highest-grossing theatrical release. Brad Pitt reportedly was paid $30 million for his role.

Public Improvement District 1, managed by Downtown Fort Worth Inc., posted that it has partnered with the Fort Worth Police to tackle excessive vehicle noise downtown.

📢Tell 10,000+ business owners and senior-level executives about your product or service. Connect your brand to our engaged audience of high income, hard-to-reach B2B decision-makers with our popular newsletters, dedicated marketing emails and print publication. Advertise with us.

Announcements:

• Bell Flight: Hires Aaron Sigal as Staff Attorney. 

• Tarrant County Democratic Party: Elects Allison Campolo, who previously served as chair from 2021 to 2023.

• VMG Health: Adds Kendall Schlegel as Financial Analyst. 

• Whitley Penn: Promotes Ryan Wilkins to Senior Tax Associate. 

• WPWealth: Adds Jared Archer as a Manager.

• Quorum Architects: Adds Adrianna Jordan to the animal care design team.

• TXSE: Adds David Saltiel as Senior Managing Director of firm-wide strategy.

• Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD: Hires Matthew Pejovich as teacher and coach. 

• Foundry Commercial: Names Stacy Coulter Director, Building Management.

• Paradromics: Hires Bryan Chambers as Board Observer. 

• Accuser Americas: Hires Jakin Lee as Radio Frequency Engineer intern. 

817 Biz is formatted for viewing on mobile devices. If this email doesn’t look right, click the link at top right. Some links may expire after initial posting or be paywall-protected.