Your time is valuable, so are your ideas.
So when entrepreneurs are looking for resources to bring their idea to life, it needs to be worthwhile. Especially when an entrepreneurial route was never their first intention.
When Hagan Walker embarked on his internship at Tesla Motors in California the summer leading into his final semester at Mississippi State University, he had full plans to become an automotive engineer.
Walker and fellow MSU student Anna Barker had messed with the idea of Glo Cubes, liquid activated light-up ice cubes, and had teetered with conceptualizing the product around the same time.
“During the day I was out in California working on cars, then at night I was 3D printing little samples to ship back to Mississippi,” says Walker.
After the summer wrapped, Walker headed back to Starkville to finish his degree. At that time an angel investor took interest in the developing product and offered funding to get the concept off the ground. The decision to switch gears was a tough one for Walker, but ultimately, he decided to see where this journey would lead to.
It turns out, heading back to Starkville, Mississippi was a fruitful decision.
Every investor Glo encountered had some tie back to Mississippi State or the Starkville region. The support the budding company received within the state even scored them a invite to an Academy Awards party. When airfare pricing presented a roadblock, the Starkville community made a GoFundMe to send the team out.
“Had we been at any other university we probably wouldn’t have been successful,” says Walker. “The amount of effort and time that the university put into us, even though we weren’t a world changing patent or service, they still thought of us as something that was important and something that had merit for success.”
A few years after officially launching, a mother whose son’s autism made routine bath time a scary and stressful experience reached out to Walker to let him know how Glo Cubes helped calm and redirect sensory overload. This interaction provided a shift to the brand itself, as it provided a new purpose. Thus Glo Pals was born.
Eight years later Glo has grown beyond its initial brand purpose of providing an enchanting multicolored element to various festivities and concerts around the world. The decision to stay in what most would consider a rural part of Mississippi was one where the benefits trumped doubts. The company made its home in Starkville, operating from a refurbished theater and collaborating with rising MSU talent across various fields to prove anyone can find their start in the state.
Worth The Wait
Mississippi Development Authority’s (MDA) Director of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Joe Donovan knows it best. As a serial entrepreneur himself, he has become acquainted with the valuable and resourceful startup ecosystem that has solidified throughout the state.
In the past 2 years, 320 new start-ups blossomed in the Magnolia state, raising $12 million in private investment.
Donovan notes that the collaborative ecosystem has transformed in a way he never thought possible when he started at MDA seven years ago.
“We’re doing things that in the last three years that I did not think I’d see in my lifetime in Mississippi,” says Donovan. “I think it’s a combination of Mississippi was simply ready educationally. The previous governor and current governor have spent a tremendous amount of time on K-12 education which now is starting to pay off a lot of dividends.”
Innovate Mississippi, dubbed the “knight” of the state’s assets, works closely with MDA to cultivate a smooth path for innovation and entrepreneurs to take flight. In 2021, CoBuilders was launched by Innovate Mississippi, the brainchild of President and CEO Tony Jeff, as a partnership-driven accelerator.
“We’re doing things that in the last three years that I did not think I’d see in my lifetime in Mississippi. I think it’s a combination of Mississippi was simply ready educationally.”
— Joe Donovan, Director of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Mississippi Development Authority (MDA)
Seven regional partners spanning the state work to identify startup applicants through a series of events in which entrepreneurs can competitively pitch their ideas. In 2022, over 150 companies participated. From those businesses, 10 were selected for a 12-week program in which they receive help navigating business planning, marketing, financial analysis, and engineering in the accelerator. Shovel Solutions, a marketplace and logistics application led by University of Mississippi alumni AJ Davidson and Ben Street, were among those chosen to participant in the CoBuilders 2022 accelerator class.
The idea for the company was sparked in themidst of preparing for fall finals in 2018.
During a study break, Street confided in Davidson about his parent’s Jackson-based dirt business losing money due to lack of process and objective product record keeping. Without a centralized preconstruction and mineral foundation industry platform to connect builders, mineral pit and dump trucks together the loss of time, product and money was inevitable.
“We immediately stopped studying, combined his industry experience with my technical experience, and began mapping a solution to solve the problem presented. It took about two years of developing the idea and business model before we landed on our product, Shovel. It was through research and industry conversation we realized that this problem didn’t just exist in Jackson, Mississippi, but just about everywhere dirt and earth were being moved.”
While construction software is not a new concept, an easy to use application that is accessible to businesses of all sizes was the need duo set out to address. Street and Davidson shifted their focus from homework and studying to developing their business and preparing to seek capital investment. The Shovel app followed suit, planting its roots firmly in Mississippi.
“We want to help build the business community around us, and going to some hyped-up, over-saturated tech hub somewhere else is not how we will achieve that goal,” says Davidson. “The state of Mississippi has great things coming its way. We not only want to be a part of it, but we want to show other businesses the growth potential Mississippi and the greater Southeast US has is massive.”
Every level, from Governor Tate Reeves to the state’s legislature, research universities, local government, non-profit organizations and investors, have united to develop a cohesive stride toward getting innovative entrepreneurs the resources they need.
“What makes this work is its focus and leadership, “ says Donovan. “When you look at states that have done well in these areas it’s because someone is driving the bus and everyone on that bus is helping. That’s where I see a significant difference, and the only comment I get is ‘Where were you guys four years ago?’,” says Donovan.
New Beginnings To Be Found
Future focused, the state is working to expand resource access across the board. That includes securing more funding through the State Small Business Credit Initiative. Currently, the state is awaiting Treasury approval for up to $86 million in funding, $26 million in which Innovate Mississippi will distribute through SSBCI Funds Program and the SSBCI Direct Program.
“Through this new round of funding, Mississippi is expanding the Small Business Loan Guaranty Program and establishing three new programs,” says MDA Director of Business Incentives Sara Watson. “These new programs will include a Loan Participation Fund, which will provide small business loans through non-depository CDFIs and two venture capital programs, a direct investment program and a fund investment program. The venture capital programs will be administered through Innovate Mississippi.”
The different programs target specific needs seen by businesses accessing capital. With programs like CoBuilders increasing startup interest and participation year-after-year, this asset adds to the excitement of attracting and retaining new business in Mississippi.
“Each venture capital fund will have slightly different deal sizes and types in mind, but this influx of capital will likely mean selected venture capital funds will look to hear pitches from startups by sometime in August or soon after,” says Watson.
