Blair Garrou has spent his career building up Houston's startup scene itself, helping start Station Houston and shape Houston Exponential and the HX Venture Fund, while also teaching venture capital as an adjunct professor and serving on boards across groups like South Loop Ventures and UTHealth. Before becoming an investor he ran the software company Intermat as CEO, and at Mercury he focuses on backing tech startups in the middle of the country rather than the coasts, with recent interviews showing him thinking closely about how AI is lowering startup costs and changing how early-stage investors approach deals.